Writing an SEO-optimized blog post or an article isn’t that hard once you understand the basics. For most of your blog posts, you need to write a title tag, meta description and create content that is keyword rich.
However, it is not enough to just write a title and description. You need to make sure they are optimized so search engines will pick them up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). There are many ways to do this but I’m going to share my favorite best practices. The ones I use on all my sites and have done so for years without fail! So let’s get started…
SEO Best practices for your Blog Post or Page - Areas of Importance
- Keyword Research
- Title Tags
- Meta Descriptions
- Structured Content / Web Copy
- On-Page Optimization Tips
Let's Get Started
Keyword Research
You’ve heard it before: keyword research is important. But why? What can you do with your keywords? How do you find the right ones for your site?
As a rule of thumb, it’s always good to be as specific as possible with your keywords. If you’re selling a product, instead of using [product 1], try using [product 1 brand name]. Your audience is looking for information about that specific brand and may be more likely to click on an ad containing this phrase than one that doesn’t mention the brand name.
To get started with keyword research, go to Google Keyword Planner and enter some of your main topics or products into the search bar. You’ll see suggestions in real time based on what people are searching for right now around those topics. You can also use other tools like Ubersuggest and SEMrush if you want more advanced results and aren’t afraid of digging through data tables (but not all businesses have access).
Identify your Target Keywords and Check Competitor Ranking for those Keywords
Knowing your target keywords is a great first step, but there’s more to it than that. You also want to know how well you’re ranking for those keywords and what your competition looks like.
To do this, use Google’s Keyword Planner (https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner). You’ll be able to see how many searches are made for each phrase on average every month and whether or not the cost of advertising for the keyword would be reasonable in relation to its popularity (high volume, low CPC).
If you have a pretty good idea of what kinds of phrases people might search when they’re looking for your product or service, then this tool can help inform which ones are worth targeting as part of your optimization strategy.
Create the Title Tag and Meta Description and Keyword rich Content
Your title tags and meta descriptions are used in search engine results pages (SERPs), so they should be descriptive, keyword rich and catchy. The meta description is the snippet that is displayed below your page’s title on a SERP, while the title tag is what appears above it.
There are many different ways to optimize these two elements of an HTML document to help them appear more prominently in search engine rankings:
What is a Title Tag?
A title tag is a snippet of text that appears in the browser tab or search results when someone searches for your keyword. It’s essentially the first line of copy that prompts a user to click on your website. The title tag is one of, if not THE most important On-Page SEO elements and should always include your targeted keyword(s).
How to write SEO Optimized Title Tags
If you’ve read this far, we’re guessing that you understand the importance of meta data. If not, now’s the time to start paying attention!
Let’s dive into writing SEO optimized title tags:
<html>
<head>
<title>SEO Best Practices for Title Tags, Meta Descriptions and On-Page Optimizations</title>
</head>
- Use One Title Element Per Page
- Make sure your Main Keyword and or variations are added to the title
- Keep Them Under 50-70 Characters in Length (this includes spaces)
- Keep it short and sweet
The title tag is one of the most important on-page signals that Google uses to determine what your page is about. It should accurately describe your content in a way that will encourage people to click through and read more about it. This can be hard because if you write too much (or include too many keywords), Google will penalize you for having “keyword stuffing” or over optimization of your page’s content. Aim for somewhere between 50–70 characters (including spaces) when crafting an effective title tag that contains both user-friendly search terms as well as some strategic inclusion of relevant terms related to your business/website/content type/etc.. For example: “Dog training classes near me – learn how easy potty training really is!” or “Free online marketing course – learn everything from SEO basics all the way up through advanced tactics like link building & email marketing automation without paying anything upfront…no credit card required!”
What is a Meta Description?
A meta description is a short snippet of text that appears below the title of your blog post. It tells people what they can expect to find on your page, and it’s important to optimize this snippet so it will be used in search results.
Meta descriptions are also sometimes referred to as alt text or snippets because they’re similar to image ALT tags: they serve as an alternative source of information for screen readers and search engines alike.
Meta descriptions help Google understand what your site is about and how you want it represented in search results, which means that they play a huge role in SEO (search engine optimization).
Meta Description Best Practices:
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Learn How To Write A Title Tag, Meta Description For Your Blog Posts And Optimize Content For Search Engines">
</head>
Meta descriptions are a snippet of text that appears below the title of a search result. Unlike titles, which are limited to around 63 characters (with some exceptions), meta descriptions can be up to 155 characters long. This means you have more space to tell users what your page is about and get them interested in clicking through.
Because meta descriptions are used as snippets by search engines like Google, they’re also an important part of on-page optimization. In fact, there’s some evidence that Google may even choose certain snippets over others as its featured snippet when doing an organic search for your keywords!
Structured Content / Web Copy
Properly structuring your article or blog post is essential for both readability and search engine optimization (SEO). By using clear and concise headings and subheadings, you can help readers quickly scan your content and find the information they need. Additionally, search engines use headings to index your content, so well-organized headings can help your posts rank higher in search results.
What is an H1?
<h1>This is a H1 title</h1>
H1 is the most important header tag and it’s also the first heading tag. It should be used for the title of your page. You should be careful when using the H1 title more than once on a page. It can be done: however, your post has t o be properly structured so search engines can understand the relevance of the H1 tags to it’s sub-topics.
What is an H2, H3, H4?
You’ve probably seen H2, H3, H4 tags before, if you’ve ever used WordPress or another blog platform. They look like this:
<h2>This is a H2 title</h2>
<h3>This is a H3 title</h3>
<h4>This is a H4 title</h4>
H2 tags are used to break up large blocks of text into smaller sections. They’re also often used to create subheadings within your post, which can be especially helpful when you have a lot of information that could easily be overwhelming if not broken down into smaller chunks.
An H2 should be used to help break up your content on a page and make it easier to read. An H3 tag can also be used for this purpose, but it’s not necessary if you don’t want to use more than two levels of heading tags (that is, don’t do this: This text here).
On-Page SEO Best Practices
Let’s get into the nitty gritty of on-page optimization.
Meta Description Tags
Use of this tag is not necessary but can be used to provide a brief summary at the beginning of your page’s HTML code. This is not only helpful for search engines, but also for users as they scan through results.
Meta Keywords Tags
A lot has changed since keyword tags were first introduced and it’s now generally recommended that you don’t use them at all (Google has even removed them from its search console). The exception would be if you were optimizing for local businesses in which case you may want to include your city name in those keywords, along with any other relevant terms – but don’t go overboard! There are plenty of other ways to optimize for local searches so don’t rely solely on this method alone.
Meta Robots Tags
If you want certain pages on your website blocked from being indexed by Google’s crawler (such as password protected pages), then use these tags as follows: “Disallow” tells Google not to crawl any page with that name; “Noindex” prevents Google from indexing any page with that name; “Follow” allows Google access but does not allow it to follow links within those pages (an excellent way of protecting sensitive data). If none are specified then all content will be crawled and indexed by both bots and humans alike!
Keyword Density & Frequency
Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase is used in relation to the total number of words on a page. A good keyword density should be between 1-3%. Keyword frequency is simply how many times a keyword or phrase appears on a page. It’s important to keep your keywords spaced out so they don’t look unnatural and make sure they appear near your most relevant content if possible.
Internal & External Links
The link-building optimization process is an important component of a strong SEO strategy. Internal and external links are a key part of the process, and they can help boost your site’s search engine ranking power. However, it does take time to master this process. You’ll want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your efforts by following these best practices for internal and external links:
Image Optimization
Technical Considerations
Create a Progress Tracker to Monitor Your SEO Efforts
In addition to the above steps, you should create a progress tracker to monitor your SEO efforts. This will give you an idea of how much traffic each keyword is driving to your website and how many conversions you are getting from each keyword. A good tool for this is SEMrush. It allows you to track keyword rankings over time, as well as track competitor keywords and see which ones are performing better than others.
You can use a spreadsheet or Excel file for tracking as well but if it gets too big then it becomes hard to manage and manipulate data efficiently.
"Taking the time upfront to properly optimize your title tags, meta descriptions and on-page optimization is well worth it; compared to all the time spent trying to recover from bad SEO practices."
So, what does this all mean for you? Well, it means that it’s time to get started! Don’t wait another minute. Start by checking your keyword research and making sure that the keywords you plan on targeting are relevant. Then move on to creating content with those keywords in mind (and don’t forget about the title tags!) After that, make sure your titles and meta descriptions are set up properly so they can be crawled properly by search engines like Google or Bing – they
