How to write a blog for SEO: 9 steps the pros use
Key takeaways
With proper research and the right approach, blogs can generate consistent revenue for years.
But writing about what you want to write about isn’t the answer. Nor is producing them solely for SEO.
There are a set of steps you can follow to ensure your content works for you.
Here are two industry secrets that will change the way you think about writing blogs forever:
Blogs aren’t about you. Don’t just write about what you want to write about.
Blogs aren’t just about SEO. Don’t write a blog just for SEO.
Blogs can be strategic marketing tools that generate traffic and leads indefinitely.
But a lot goes into creating content like that.
A lot of what’s out there is super low quality.
(This is great news, by the way. Because reading this guide already gets you further than most!)
By the end, you’ll be confident in how to write a blog for SEO that actually gets results.
In this guide to how to write a blog for SEO:
A quick refresher on the point of SEO
How does blogging improve your SEO?
How to write a good blog post for SEO: 9 steps
4 bonus tips to ensure results from your blog
Jargon alert!
For a quick reference of any industry terminology we use in this guide, check out our dictionary here.
A quick reminder of what SEO is really about
Ok, listen up folks.
If you write a fantastic blog post that is useful to your audience, timely, informed, and well organised, you’ve hit most of the SEO nails on the head already.
Yes there are some techy bits to do.
But the purpose of search engines like Google is to provide their users with the best, most relevant content for their search.
When looking to optimise for search engines, what you really want to focus on is optimising for your target audience.
If you do that, more of them will click on you, engage with you, and share your stuff.
Google will see that as a sign of trust, and rank you more highly.
And that’s how you’ll increase your traffic.
The secret to a perfect SEO blog
A great user experience packed with trust signals to search engines that you know what you’re talking about.
What we’ll be doing here is showing you:
How to find out what your target audience wants
Ways to make your blog’s user experience amazing, and,
The trust signals you can show search engines
But wait, is this really worth all that time and effort?
Definitely.
You’ll see why.
How does blogging improve your SEO?
“The first organic result in Google Search has an average click-through rate of 28.5%, according to a newly published study. Beyond that, it’s well known users rarely venture into the second page of search results.”
Where you rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) can drastically impact how many clicks you get:
Source: Sistrix.
You can pay to feature at the top through Google Ads. But there’s a catch.
Your ad will have an expiration date. It’s only there for as long as you’re paying.
If you build your rankings organically, (like through a blog), you could sit up there for years bagging all that lovely, targeted traffic from your ideal audience.
Google’s 200+ ranking factors can be summarised in three core trust signals:
Expertise
Authority
Trustworthiness
Also known as EAT.
By demonstrating EAT to search engines like Google, you can increase your chances of ranking highly.
Here’s what Google’s EAT algorithm means in practice:
Blogging helps you convey these messages to search engines.
By creating fresh, insightful, and relevant content for your audience which is backed by credible sources, you’re establishing a digital footprint.
And that’s what content for SEO is all about.
The more optimised content you create, the better Google will get to know your expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. And this should lead to higher rankings.
More great content = higher rankings = more traffic = more engagement = more leads = more customers.
Cool cool, so we’ve convinced you, right?
Maybe you were already convinced. But at least now you’ve got proof that it’s worth your time.
So let’s get to the good part: how to write a blog for SEO success.
How to write a good blog post for SEO: 9 steps
As you’ve seen, SEO and user experience is all one big mashed-up banana.
It can’t really be separated.
There are several steps to creating optimised content, so we’ve created this table and separated the elements to make it easier.
You just need to do all this and be better than your competitors.
No pressure.
Define the purpose of your blog
Before spending time and resources on the next eight steps, ensure you have a clear “why” for each blog post you create.
What do you want it to achieve? And how will you measure that?
(So you know whether it was worth your time in the first place).
You might want:
A higher ranking in search engine results pages for specific keywords.
More social media followers.
More emails for your newsletter database.
More traffic to your other content.
Links and social shares.
More sales leads.
Whatever you want people to do should become your call to action (CTA) somewhere in the post (usually at the end).
E.g. “sign up here for more updates,” or “follow us on social media to see more”.
Whatever it is, get it clear on the desired outcome before you do anything else.
Need ideas? Check out Adespresso’s 15 CTA examples here.
2. Identify its target audience
Now that you know what you want your reader to do, you need to identify who they are.
By understanding them, you’ll get to know what makes them tick.
Or in this case, complete your desired action.
Keep this in mind as you plan and write so that your blog captures the imagination of your ideal customer.
Need help with this? Check out Hubspot’s guide to finding your target audience.
3. Find out what they’re searching for and what’s performing
Remember when we said that blogging isn’t about what you want to write, it’s about what users want to read?
Keyword research is how we find this out.
They are words or entire phrases we use to search for things:
For example, our main keyword for this blog post is “how to write a blog for SEO”.
We chose that keyword because:
It’s relevant to our audience.
We are experts in the topic.
There’s a decent amount of monthly search volume for the topic (lots of people are searching it).
We can create content on the topic to rival the best already out there.
It helps nurture our sales process by demonstrating to potential customers how we work.
We can provide free content to help leads who may not have the budget to engage a content marketing agency yet.
There are specialised keyword research tools which tell you about search traffic and how hard it is to rank for them (based on competition).
But you can get inspiration from forums too, or wherever your target audience hangs out and shares info. That’s where you want to be.
Topic and keyword research tools:
Once you know your target keywords, you need to find out what’s already ranking for them. That’s your competition.
So, search for them on Google (or your chosen search engine).
The top pages are successful, so take notes from those.
Look at things like:
Information included and the level of detail.
Content format (is it a blog, video, infographic, or a mix?)
Content length (word count).
(Remember those things from our table above?)
You want to create a newer, better version of what’s ranking today. Don’t just recycle what’s there. Level up and make it better.
Bonus step: Dig around your competitors sites too. Look at the keywords they rank for and the content they’re producing. The more information you have, the better.
Confused by keywords? Check out Moz’s beginners’ guide here.
Want help beating the competition? Learn about Backlinko’s skyscraper technique.
4. Plan your content structure
By this point, you should have:
A main keyword and a few other related keywords you’re targeting.
A good idea of the information you want to include and the format.
A CTA for the content.
Now it’s time to plan out your structure.
By doing this before you start writing, you can stay focused throughout the writing process.
Here are some key things to keep in mind:
Keywords should be included in your title and headings.
Keywords should also feature in your body copy (but don’t stuff them in!)
Make sure your structure follows a logical order.
Need help with structure? Check out Grammarly’s blog pro guide.
5. Write a killer title and hook
Some sources say you have around eight seconds to grab someone’s attention before they switch off.
Others say much less.
It’s all in that title and the first couple of lines.
Make them compelling, make the value in reading your content clear, and perhaps induce a little FOMO if you can…
Here’s an example from Backlinko:
Title: How I built 5,660 backlinks in 30 days
First two lines: I built 5,660 backlinks last month. (Without sending a single outreach email).
Need inspiration for catchy titles? Get some advice from Hubspot.
6. Make the content engaging and skimmable
Keep it concise. Make it actionable.
And take out what we like to call the “fluff”.
That’s pointless sentences that aren’t adding any value.
And remember that your readers will likely skim your content before they commit to reading it.
Make this easier for them by:
Avoiding chunky paragraphs (notice how ours are only one or two sentences).
Using bullet points and numbered sections.
Adding quotes, images, and interesting media to break up the copy.
Using bold and italic text to add visual interest.
Add a linked table of contents for easy skipping.
They might end up spending less time on your website, but they’re more likely to come back to you in the future.
7. Include internal and external links
In order to build your credibility, you need to demonstrate that you’re a centre for answers and reliable information.
Ideally, your blog posts should link to other relevant content you have on your own website.
If you mention your services, link to that page.
If you mention a topic that you have more content on, link to that content.
You also want to include external links, too.
Can you see how we do this below by offering you further resources? It’s helpful to you, and it helps us build our authority.
Interested in expanding your link building activities? Check out Neil Patel’s 13 tips.
8. Write compelling metas for the SERPs
What compels you to click on one search result over another?
Probably the blue meta title and description blurb underneath it.
If you want to publish metas to Google’s best practices, try this free tool.
There’s research around how long these should be for maximum impact. But really, it’s all about being engaging and driving clicks.
9. Check off some other SEO best practices while you’re at it
Keywords and links aren’t the only ways to boost your SEO.
You can also:
Use similar terminology to your keywords in your copy. Google understands synonyms.
Make sure any media (images, GIFs etc.) you use contains alt tags. These tell search engines what the media is.
Ensure that your site loads quickly and the content doesn’t shift too much on the page. (Learn more about these “core web vitals” and how to improve them).
Include your main keyword in the blog post’s URL, e.g. www.yoursite.com/blog-post-keyword
Ensure that any links you include in your copy don’t have long URL slugs. (Learn more about what this means and why it matters).
4 bonus tips to ensure your SEO blog gets results
Optimise for mobile users
More and more people are using their phones to access the internet each year.
That means the likelihood that someone reading your blog is doing so on their phone is pretty high.
(Hint: The secrets are the same for desktop users too. Engaging, easily-skimmable content for the win).
Optimise for mobile users by:
Keeping paragraphs short.
Using headings, bullets, and white space to separate sections.
Using media, lists, and quotes to break up the text.
Making the site easy to navigate.
Checking how it looks on your mobile after publishing.
It’s not rocket science, right?
Keen to learn more about mobile optimisation? Check out this guide.
2. Don’t obsess over the length
There are plenty of blogs out there claiming that X number of words is the perfect length for content.
That’s hard to measure, and no doubt changes as search behaviour evolves.
The best yardstick is what’s working.
Look at your competitors and stay roughly within their ballpark.
3. Do it all again. And again, and again.
Blogging is a slow burn.
But it can be a highly profitable one when done right.
So you’ll need to keep building your library, updating it, and evolving it to suit your audience.
Speaking of libraries…
4. Create a library of your content
One of our favourite things to do for our clients at Paste & Publish is to create content libraries.
These are internal lists of their content by topic or search intent.
They help us to plan and track our content, keep tabs on what might need updating, and maximise our internal linking opportunities.
Did you find this useful?
Check out more of our content marketing content right here.
Or click here if you’d rather we did it for you.
