This is an extra blog post in the ‘how to make a blog’ post series. I hope you think it is worth your time!
Fact 1: Every blog post you write should NOT be optimized for SEO purposes.
Why?
Because sometimes you just want to share some news or write from your heart or write about something you did last week and has nothing to do with the niche of your blog
Fact 2: Some of the blog posts you publish MUST be optimized for SEO purposes.
Why?
Because you want free targeted visitors and the way to get free targeted visitors is to ensure you optimize your blog posts for the search engines. See my previous post in this ‘how to make a blog’ series:
How To Make A Blog Part Eight: Perfect Your SEO Habits
Fact 3: This blog post (i.e. the one you are reading now) is about those posts you want to optimize for the search engines
Why am I sharing this knowledge?
I see too many bloggers who THINK they are optimizing their posts for the search engines and they are not.
I also see many blog owners who don’t optimize some of their blog posts for the search engines and they should!
So…let’s start and oh…before I forget there is a free PDF document below (no opt-in required) that you can download and use.
The free PDF is a simple checklist for publishing blog posts for best SEO results. You can print it off and refer to it each time you publish a post.
Sorry…one more thing (I feel like Detective Colombo!)…I have assumed you have chosen the keyword phrase you want to target in your blog post.
This could cause a few arguments but these are the SEO steps in (my) order of importance:
SEO Boost 1:
Ensure your targeted keyword phrase is part of the blog posts URL.
SEO Boost 2:
Use your targeted keyword phrase in the title of your blog post (towards the beginning, if you can) and ensure the title is less than 70 characters.
SEO Boost 3:
Use a SEO plugin like the All-in-one-seo-pack or WordPress SEO and add your targeted keyword phrase within the “Meta Description”. Ensure your Meta Description is less than 156 characters.
SEO Boost 4:
Aim for a keyword phrase density of between 1% and 5%. If your post is 500 words in length, your keyword phrase needs to be mentioned between 5 and 25 times. If 1000 words, then between 10 and 50 times and so on.
SEO Boost 5:
Break up your text with sub headings and use the H2 and H3 tags. Use your targeted keyword phrase in the sub-headings.
SEO Boost 6:
Link from your blog posts to relevant internal (i.e. your blog posts) and external blog posts using appropriate anchor text.
SEO Boost 7:
Ensure your blog post is at least 300 words in length.
SEO Boost 8:
Use your keyword phrase in the first and last sentences.
SEO Boost 9:
Add the post to ONE category that is a keyword related to your targeted keyword.
SEO Boost 10:
Add an image and ensure the image is called ’your targeted keyword’ phrase’.
Plus add a title and ‘alt’ title of your targeted keyword phrase. The plugin SEO Friendly Images automatically does this for you.
SEO Boost 11:
Use a SEO plugin like the All-in-one-seo-pack or WordPress SEO and add your targeted keyword phrase within the “Meta Keywords”
SEO Boost 12:
Bold your keyword phrase a couple of times.
That’s it…12 steps to maximize the SEO of your posts.
You can download the free SEO checklist document here (no opt-in required).
You can print it off and refer to it each time you publish a post.
Just click on the link below (opens to a new page):
The 12-Step Checklist To Boost The SEO Of Your Blog Posts
What SEO steps would you add when publishing a blog post?
Please share your views in the comments below.
In the next post on the series, “How to make a Blog” we shall cover the topic of “Getting Backlinks”
The previous blog posts in the ‘how to make a blog’ series:
Part One: How To Make A Blog: Getting Your Niche Right Is Crucial
Part Two: How To Make A Blog: Finding The Best Keywords For Your Chosen Niche
Part Three: How To Make A Blog: Monetizing with Affiliate Products
Part Four: How To Make A Blog: Monetizing with Digital Products
Part Five: How To Make A Blog: Choosing a Domain Name and Hosting
Part Six: How To Make A Blog: The Tools I Use To Make A Full-Time Income
Part Seven: How To Make A Blog: Are you Content with Your Written Content?
Part Eight: How To Make A Blog: Perfect Your SEO Habits
Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
Hey Andrew, thanks for the pdf with checklist. Very handy list, I pritned it already and I am going to hang that table over my desk.
I agree with you that sometimes you can skip optimazing your post, because you want just to share important news. Readers are most important 🙂
Daniel
I agree…it is easy to forget.
I hope the PDF makes a difference.
Andrew
Andrew,
Spot on. I first started SEOing my posts about 5 ears ago. Before that I just posted what I thougt people would want to read about, without doing any SEO. Aother very important step is actually checking keywords for traffic first. That’s very important also.
You can post about the exact same topic, but vary your keyword phrase slightly and pick up significant traffic, just because that term gets many more searches.
If you optimize for it, chances are you’ll be well ranked for that phrase. If t gets 1500 searches daily, you’ll obviously receive much more traffic than if you ranked just as well for a phrase that only gets 150 searches daily.
Steve
You mention a great point about keyword research. I discuss that in part 2 of this ‘how to make a blog’ series.
Andrew
Great post Andrew. I’m already doing some of these optimization tips but honestly sometimes one and sometimes another. An organized list like this makes SEO easier. Thanks for the pdf!
Andrea
Great – I hope the PDF helps!
Andrew
Dear Andrew –
I too printed it out. It is pasted on my wall next to my computer.
Curious –
Why only 70 characters in the title?
Corinne
Thanks for downloading and printing.
Re: 70 characters.
Because that’s the maximum Google uses to display the title in their search pages.
If you have more than 70 characters, the title is cut off.
Andrew
Very handy list now that I’m starting to looking into optimizing my posts. I didn’t know about limiting the title 70 characters. Can it be longer than that as long as the target keywords are in the first 70 characters?
Bryan,
The title can be longer than that but see my response to Corinne above and yes the keywords have to be in the first 70 characters – towards the beginning if you can.
Andrew
Thanks Andrew for the refresher on the keywords verses SEO purposes. Guess i need to do like Corinne and print it out so you don’t have to keep refreshing me.
You have a great day tomorrow and good week end. Thanks again for sharing these tips. What would I do with out you.
Debbie
Debbie,
I hope the PDF helps. Just refer to it and remember it’s not every post you want to do this for.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,First want to tell thanks for giving this worthy PDF and i have read this i really get what i was searching from long time.These 12 step are awesome.
worthy pdf!! am i missing some thing.
For some it will be worthy…for others…not so much.
Remember we are all different!
Andrew
Great checklist. It also helps if you optimize old posts after seeing what long tail keywords are bringing in traffic. Then you optimize your post for those specific long tail keywords and it will really post your traffic to those posts.
Richard,
Good idea. Something you could outsource as well!
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
That’s a good list. I’m going to check to make sure that I include my key phrase in all the right places from now on. I’m looking forward to seeing an increase in traffic as a result. Thanks!
Cheryl,
You should see a boost in traffic – it does take a little while to ‘kick in’ but nothing no-loine happens overnight!
Andrew
A great list for those looking to optimize their sites. As I’ve said many times SEO is all about opinions and I don’t believe 11 or 12 are of any use at all. 11 may work for tiny search engines but all the major ones ignore meta keywords (in fact WordPress SEO doesn’t even have a box for it unless you tell it to in the options).
#12 I don’t think has every been proved (how could it) but then I guess it doesn’t hurt.
The other tips are gold though!
Joel,
Good points raised – I did say in priority order!
Some ‘related posts’ plugins use the words you use in the tags – so it is worth adding.
Andrew
I can see that you have put in a lot of effort in writing these series of blog posts and creating the pdf.
Your noble work is very important to those who wants to start up their online business but has no money to attend those expensive courses or don’t know where to start.
Keep it up, my friend.
Thanks, Raymond.
I hope thousands benefit from the solid advice and don’t get sucked in by the hype that is around about making a successful on-line business.
Andrew
Yes, every post should not be of seo purpose. but if we are going through it I think we should have choose our keyword before writing the post.
How can I un blacklist my name URL and email ID from the akismet plugin database? I am asking because I cant comment on any website which runnign a akismet pluign ? please help me out .
Tushar
Write to Akismet support – they will remove your url and email from their blacklist.
Andrew
Thanks for this great seo step by step guides, i will definitely follow them
Quite helping list!! All SEO tips are awesome and helpful for increasing traffic. The post shows all different points mostly they are not discussed. Hence add up knowledge a lot.
Thanks Andrew for this guide however, i use wordpress and every plugin necessary is installed. I use the “all In one seo” plugin too. The main thing to focus on now is link building.
Josephine
The plugins don’t really help in how your publish your post for SEO purposes…hence my guide.
Andrew
The most important two things about this post is engagement and consistancy. Without the two there’s no drive to keep the blog going.
Great post Andrew. I’m already doing some of these optimization tips but honestly sometimes one and sometimes another. An organized list like this makes SEO easier. Thanks for this pdf! 🙂
Great, Andre..I really hope it helps and acts as a good reminder.
Andrew