How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts in 5 Easy Steps

When I first moved from free wordpress.com to a self-hosted website, I felt like a toddler sitting in on a college physics lecture. (Or like I was just sitting in on a college physics lecture in general. To me, science = incomprehensible magic voodoo. Send help.)⁠ There was (and still is) so much I didn’t know! 😫💦 But I’ve been educating myself on ways to up my blogging game since then and optimizing SEO is one of the best ways to do it. ⁠But how in the wide-waffle-loving world do I create SEO friendly content? And which appendage do I need to sacrifice to the internet gods so that I can understand it? If you’ve ever found yourself asking either of these questions (I know I have), then *in a horrifyingly terrible impersonation of Yoda* come to the right place you have, young padawan. Because today I’m going to share how to write SEO friendly blog posts in 5 easy steps (without any more bad Yoda impressions…probably).

What is SEO?

Have you ever gotten separated from your mom in a large crowd? How did you find her again? Did you take the more logical approach and call her cell phone? Or did you wave your arms around like a lunatic and hope that she somehow saw you? No matter what you chose to do, it was probably difficult for your mom to notice you amid all those unfamiliar faces.

Your blog is the same way – it’s lost in a crowd of millions and billions and trillions of other websites and SEO is the way that Google (and by extension, your potential readers) will find it.

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” and simply put, it’s a set of helpful techniques that will enable search engines to locate your site more easily. Good SEO is like telling Google your phone number and efficiently setting up a meeting spot. But bad SEO is like the aforementioned haphazard arm-waving; it’s a desperate and ineffective way to catch the eye of a new visitor.

🖋️ PRO TIP: If you learn how to utilize SEO properly, then your blog will appear higher on the list of results returned by a search engine. It will also stand out among the endless internet crowd.

How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts

1. Think Backwards

So, you’ve got this awesome-as-apple-sauce idea for a blog post…now what? Well, the first thing I would recommend is this: before you start writing, take some time to think about the purpose of life how somebody might find your potential new post.

“Despite the acronym, SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines themselves. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. — Moz.com

For example, let’s say you want to write an article about your grandmother’s top secret waffle recipe (because it is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody must be in want of delicious waffles). What might somebody search for on Google that would lead them to this content? What search queries might they make? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to better connect with online readers who are searching for what you’re offering.

2. Choose Your Keywords

As Gandalf discovered outside the Doors of Durin, using the right keywords can really make a big difference. If you use the wrong ones, your post will figuratively be locked out of Moria, and left to the mercy of the Watcher in the Water. (Too much? I’m just really in the mood to watch LOTR right now, alright???!)

SEO Keywords are the words or phrases that people enter into search engines when they want to find something. So continuing on with the waffle example from before, if you want to write about dear old Granny’s waffle recipe, then some appropriate keywords might be “simple waffle recipe,” “old-fashioned waffles,” or even just “waffle recipe.”

“If you boil everything on your page — all the images, video, copy, etc. — down to simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords.” — Moz.com

Brainstorm a few different contenders, and then choose the most appropriate ones from the batch. But whatever keywords you decide on, make sure to write them down because we’re going to be referring back to them. A LOT.

3. Utilize Headings Correctly

I am of the firm opinion that any article about how to write SEO friendly blog posts should talk about headings, because they’re something that took me forever to understand. When I first started blogging back in the day, I thought that they were just different ways to stylize your text and make everything look ✨pretty. ✨SPOILER ALERT: THEY’RE NOT.

Back then, I liked the way that H1 headings looked on my blog, so I used them all the time. I ignored H2 and H3 headings like they were Cinderella and I was the Evil Stepmother.

In one post, I would have anywhere from five to eight H1 headings, which I later came to learn was like eating five to eight main courses in one sitting. Please don’t punish your stomach, or your blog post, like that.

Think of headings like a restaurant dinner: H1 headings are the main dish, and you should only have one of them in your entire post. If you’re unsure of where this H1 heading should go, then here’s a hint: it should be the title of your post.⁠ Next, comes the H2 and H3 headers. These are like the free breadsticks that you end up eating way too many of; they should be used liberally throughout the post.

🖋️ PRO TIP: Before you start writing, it’s helpful to create a post outline where you list out all of your H1, H2, and H3 headers. Here’s an example of what that might look like:

4. Use Your Keywords

Pull out your handy dandy wand (let’s face it, we’re all diehard HP fans here and probably have one stuffed into our back pockets as we speak) because this step is where the real magic happens. This is when you actually get to start writing that butt-slaying blog post! (Oh my gosh, Kat, FINALLY!)

As you write, make sure to include those keywords you picked out back in Step Two. Some important places to incorporate them are:

• Your post’s URL
• The title of your post
• The first paragraph of your post
• At least one of your post’s subheadings (refer back to Step 3)
• Once or twice more in the post’s body content
  

🖋️ PRO TIP: A word of caution to this tale…although it’s important to utilize your SEO keywords, avoid shoving as many of them into a single post as is physically possible. This practice is called “keyword stuffing,” and is generally frowned upon by polite society. Not only will it annoy your readers, but it’ll actually end up hurting your SEO rating rather than helping it.

5. Link To Another One of Your Posts

It’s important that you create content as sticky as my three-year-old son after a syrup-loaded waffle dinner (ahhhh the joys of motherhood). Or in other words, your posts should make readers want to stick around. And the best way to achieve this is through something called internal linking.

🖋️ PRO TIP: Internal linking is the practice of hyperlinking to another post or page on your own website. When done effectively, it should lure your viewers down the bottomless internet rabbit hole and encourage them to read more of your content.

Shane Snow from Mashable.com explains it this way: “Have you ever gone to Wikipedia to look up something mundane, ended up clicking on an interesting link within the page, then another, and all of the sudden realized half an hour has gone by and you’re somehow reading about black holes and time travel?” That’s the kind of sticking power you want to create with your own blog posts. SO START INTERNAL LINKING LIKE CRAZY, FOLKS.

The TL;DR + The SEO Post Planner

⁠It can be difficult to know how to write SEO friendly blog posts, but it doesn’t need to be! All you have to do is remember these five simple steps:

1. Think backwards
2. Choose relevant keywords
3. Utilize headers correctly
4. Effectively use your keywords
5. Include internal links

For more helpful tips and tricks, be sure to sign up below to access my exclusive SEO Post Planner! This worksheet offers additional instructions on how to create SEO optimized content, as well as a step-by-step checklist that you can fill out when drafting up new blog posts.

[popup_anything id=”8551″]

How do you plan to write more SEO friendly blog posts in the future?

What did you learn about SEO from this tutorial?

Do you know any other SEO tips or tricks?