How to write a blog post for SEO results

A good blogging strategy is one of the keys to SEO success. This shows you how to write a blog post in light of SEO.

Why is blogging important for SEO?

I like to make a distinction between different kinds of pages on any website:

• Some pages are landing pages (also known as cornerstone content) for our SEO efforts. These are targeted in light of specific keywords and make a hard sell to potential customers. Think of the services you offer- each should have a page with a clear focus. We talk about optimizing pages like this in another process.
• Some pages are informational. They help inform potential customers about your company, your industry, or the services they need. These aren’t hard-selling pieces of content. They’re more educational and helpful.

Of these two kinds of content, the latter is what I mean by a “blog post.” It doesn’t have to be called a “blog” for content to function like this. It could be an “article,” “news,” “library”, whatever. The point is your website needs supplementary content that’s not just about the hard sell.

But why do you need to write blog content like this?

• If we forget about SEO for a moment, we have to remember not every web visitor is ready to buy. Some are still doing research. Helpful (blog) content can help introduce these future customers to your company and your expertise.
• When it comes to our SEO efforts, blog content helps:
  • Get long-tailed traffic from keywords we never thought might bring in customers.
  • Give us an opportunity to build internal links to our key sales landing pages. These internal links will help them perform better in Google.
  • Attract links to your website better than sales-oriented landing pages. Good links are essential but hard to get. This makes this a little easier.

Some companies have difficulty finding what to write about in a blog. If you’ve done your keyword research, however, you’ll discover many ideas about which your customers want to learn.

What type of content is Google looking for? 

Google prioritizes delivering helpful, reliable content designed to benefit users rather than just improving search engine rankings. That means that you should assess your content to make sure that it is both helpful and reliable. Google outlines some of the key things to look for as you evaluate your content, including the following:   

• It offers original reporting or analysis.
• It provides a complete and insightful discussion of the topic.
• It adds value beyond simply summarizing other sources.
• It has accurate, descriptive titles that avoid exaggeration.
• It is well-produced and free from errors.
• It is worth bookmarking or sharing.

Google also wants to see content written with readers in mind rather than search rankings. A people-focused approach means prioritizing your audience over search engine rankings. To check if you’re on the right track, consider these questions:

• Would your target audience find your content valuable if they visited directly?
• Does your content show genuine expertise and knowledge, like from personal experience or in-depth research?
• Is your site focused on a specific purpose or niche?
• After reading, will someone feel informed and closer to reaching their goal?
• Will your content leave readers satisfied with their experience?

On the other hand, if your content is mainly designed to attract search engine traffic, you may need to rethink your approach. Creating a lot of blog posts on different topics, hoping that some will rank well, using AI to generate content, or summarizing others’ ideas without adding any unique value won’t help you with Google. Additionally, if you’re publishing content just because something is trending, aiming for a specific word count just because you think it’s necessary for Google, or if your content leaves readers needing to search for more information elsewhere, you might be focusing too much on search engines. 

SEO is about making sure search engines can find and understand your content. While Google’s SEO guide can help with best practices, it’s important to remember that SEO is most effective when paired with content created for people, not just for search engines.

What should you expect from this SEO blog post checklist?

One of the SEO advantages of a blogging strategy is in the long-tail. The idea is that the number of possible phrases someone could search for to find your company and its services is really infinite. We’ll see this in more organic traffic to our website as we “rank” for phrases we never thought people would search for.

Another advantage of the long-tail for our SEO efforts is that long-tailed traffic can convert at a very high rate. This is because we might be the only article on the internet for some of these phrases- and, as such, only we can get that business from the customer who did that search. The problem is although the conversion rate on very specific phrases is high, the number of people searching for very specific terms is extremely low. The good news here: you’ll find that long-tailed traffic can bring in as many new customers from the infinite number of possible specific search queries, as a very broad keyword might – and often, more!

However, don’t be discouraged when you see that your blog has:

• A very high bounce rate. This is the nature of a blog post. A well-written blog post is helpful and not self-promotional. That means many people will visit a blog post and then leave, which is recorded as a bounce. In some ways, that means the blog successfully helped the user- which is part of the purpose.
• A low time on site. Again, if the blog is helpful, people might not stick around- you’ve already answered their question.
• Low conversion rates on blog traffic. This might seem to contradict what I said about the long-tail (above), but it all depends on how you’re looking at the data. The long-tail says that traffic converts at a high rate for some specific search queries. However, if you combine all traffic for any blog post, you might find a low conversion rate. This might be because blog posts can also generate a lot of irrelevant traffic that might not ever convert.

If you look at your blog’s data and see these trends, don’t think you’ve failed. In some ways, these metrics don’t matter. The blog benefits us even if our bounce rate is high (for example). There are ways to mitigate these problems and get even more out of your blog, too. That’s where this SEO blog post checklist can help!

The SEO Blog Post Checklist