6 Ways to Improve Your Blog Strategy (with SEO)
See what I did there?
When it comes to blogging, you want to start with an intriguing, personable first few lines of text.
You also want to keep your paragraphs short.
Like, really short.
Why?
In our modern world, 80% of people are reading blog posts on their phone. And, the majority are not looking for a long and beautiful story, but rather, they want answers–– stat.
So how do you write a blog post that not only ranks in Google’s Top 10 for a keyword you want to rank for, but also, allows you to express your creativity and share wisdom?
Below are the top 6 ways to craft a lean, optimized blog strategy.
SEO BLOG STRATEGY SHOULD BE 50% STRATEGY, 50% INSPIRATION
When it comes to blogging, best practices are often informed by SEO strategy.
After all, why put all that effort into writing beautiful blog posts if there isn’t a good chance they’ll be “found” or “read” by anyone other than a small circle of followers?
This doesn’t mean you have to write blog posts that are 100% based on keyword opportunities. I recommend a ratio of 50% inspiration, and 50% strategy. Inspiration-based blog posts can be optimized for relevant keywords, and even keyword-based blog posts can be optimized for inspiration!
Google rewards blog posts that are interesting, and offer something a little different than what other blog posts are offering.
Also, people who are in niche “markets” (like food sovereignty, land justice, food as medicine, etc.) are most likely way ahead of the curve, and people aren’t “Googling” that yet. So if there’s a topic that’s interesting to you, but not yet ranking on google, there’s a good chance it will be a more popular question down the road. So get it in, now!
2. THE POWER OF KEYWORDS
Let’s say you have an idea for a blog post. Let’s say it’s about regenerative farming vs traditional farming.
Your next step would be to visit a free keyword search tool ( Uber Suggest is excellent).
After you type in your keyword, regenerative farming, the tool will tell you:
How many people search for this phrase per month
How difficult it is to “rank” for it in Google (on a scale of 1 - 100, 100 being the hardest)
Similar but different keyword combinations that might be less difficult to rank for.
It will also tell you other things, like CPC (Cost per Click) and PD (Paid difficulty), which are for paid advertising, which is less relevant to you for now. The numbers you want to focus on are Vol (search volume per month) and SD (search difficulty).
**See what I mean below. (VOL means search volume per month, CPC means cost per click (don’t worry about that for now), PD means paid advertisement (don’t worry about that for now), and SD, in green means search difficulty.
So based on these results, “Regenerative Farming” is a great keyword to try to rank for, and therefore a great article to write.
**Why?
Because it gets 1600 searches per month (in the US)
And, it has a search difficulty of 21 (out of 100–– meaning, it is not that difficult–– 100 being the most difficult)
Using Keywords In Your Blog Post
Now that you’ve got your keywords, you’re ready to start writing!
First of all, think about what you want to say through the post.
What question(s) are you trying to answer?
Brainstorm a list of all the important points to communicate, and think about some common questions people might have when it comes to this topic.
Ideally, your blog post is as comprehensive as possible. This doesn’t have to mean it has to be super dense and long. Just comprehensive.
So, for instance:
What is regenerative farming?
What are regenerative farming practices?
Who invented regenerative farming?
How does regenerative farming differ from traditional farming?
Does regenerative farming produce stronger results than traditional farming?
Is regenerative farming effective?
After you have your blog outline, now it’s time to write! After writing your blog post, optimize it for your chosen keyword(s) by:
Using the keyword as often as it organically makes sense, as possible
Use keyword variations, too
Use your keyword in the title and title tag of your blog post
Use your keyword in the blog post URL
Use your keyword in your headings (more on that below)
Use your keyword in your image metadata
Use your keyword in the meta-description for your blog post. (This is the text you see below, under the title (or Title tag) and URL…. A few more guidelines to make sure your meta description is SEO friendly:
Be short, about 135-160 characters
Include the focus keyword
Be clear and descriptive
Stay truthful and convince the reader to check out the page
3. READABILITY IS KEY
What makes something “readable?”
Well, it’s all about not thinking too much about how you want to say something.
It’s just about making your point as clear, direct, and short as possible.
Remember, when it comes to blogging—you don’t have to use a bunch of fancy, scientific words, or write poetically. If that naturally flows out of you, great! But either way, the best-read blog posts will be as “simply put” as possible. Especially when considering your audience/target demographic.
Here are a few important things to keep in mind about readability:
80% of modern day web traffic comes from mobile phones. When we type something into Google, usually, we’re looking for a quick, thorough answer. Not an essay, or a beautiful piece of writing. So by making our blog posts as READABLE as possible (avoiding big, scientific words and lengthy sentences), speaking “laymen,” dumbing it down, we do everyone a favor, and rank higher in google.
Break up the text. Gone are the days of long paragraphs. Break up your points into short sentences, and each point could be it’s own paragraph–– even if it’s just 1 sentence long. Again, this is for readability purposes.
Break up your blog post into different key points with Headings (more on that below).
Whenever possible, turn it into a listicle. This means turning a blog post into a numbered “list.” For instance: 7 reasons why you should turn your blog post into a listicle… or How to become a holistic health coach in 5 easy steps...
Include images. People like pictures, and again, they break up the text.
Avoid using colored text, backgrounds, or hard-to-read fonts.
Use your keyword(s) as much as naturally possible, especially in your headings.
4. THE POWER OF HEADINGS
In the spirit of readability, when you’re drafting your blog post in Google Drive, Word, or Wordpress, to the left of the Font options (at the top of the screen), you’ll see something that says “Normal Text.” If you click on that, you’ll see:
Each time you start a new key point, accentuate it by turning it into a Heading. Throughout your blog post, it can be good to use your key points as Heading 1 or Heading 2, and sub-points using Heading 3 or Heading 4.
Not only does this make your blog post easier to read, it also helps communicate your key points to Google, which helps Google determine whether or not your blog post is a good fit for the person performing the search.
For this reason, placing keywords (and keyword variations) in headings as much as possible is a good idea.
5. OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE, OPTIMIZE
Now that you’ve put in all that hard work, let’s make sure it doesn’t go to waste.
So before you hit “publish,” check for the following:
Did you use your keyword in the title?
Is your title catchy? See what currently comes up when you google your keyword, and make sure your blog post will stand out from that crowd.
Is the keyword in the URL?
Is it in the meta description?
Did you spell check your article?
Did you break up the text, and make it as readable as possible?
Did you put images throughout the blog post?
Does it look ok on a mobile phone?
Is it thorough, without being confusing?
If you answer “yes” to the questions above, you’re ready to hit “publish!”
6. SHARING IS EVERYTHING (40% CONTENT, 60% DISTRIBUTION)
Okay, so now that you created a gorgeous, optimized blog post, you should know one thing:
You’re only about 20% of the way there.
I know, I know, I’m sorry!
But the truth is, writing a beautiful blog post is great, but if nobody reads it, it’s like writing a beautiful poem that stays in your journal forever.
The other half (or more) of the battle, is SHARING it with your audience.
So be sure to spend some time SHARING every blog post you write.
Here are a few ways you should consider sharing each and every blog post:
Share on your social media
Share via your email list
Upload to Medium
Send it to people you think would enjoy it! Wrote an article about seed saving? Google who else is interested in seed saving, and send them the article with a little, “thought you might like….” message. Or, if you feature a person or organization in your article, you should share directly with them, and also HYPERLINK to them in the blog post. Ask that they share the blog post on their blog too! This builds up your backlinks and SEO, and increases visibility.
YOU GOT THIS
You did it!
I know that’s A LOT.
So don’t think you need to get it all down right away.
I recommend giving yourself ample time to go through this process with a blog post (regardless of how long it takes). After writing a blog post more intentionally 2-3 times, it will eventually become second-nature.
Plus, it’s SO rewarding to see actual traffic coming to your site because of your beautiful blog posts. It can feel great to get engagement, comments, and people sharing your beautiful blog posts.
Not only can this all help you stay inspired, it will also help you feel like all that work you’re putting into writing blog posts is actually making a difference.
And with the type of amazing knowledge you’re sharing, you can trust that when the right people finally find your blog posts, they’re going to be so grateful!
