Below are a few search engine optimization(SEO) writing tips when creating a new blog post. These are just suggested guidelines not strict rules to help increase the SEO of your blog posts and website. Click on each title below to see more details.
Blog post title
- Use the most important 1-3 keywords in title, use keywords as close to beginning of title as possible
- This blog post title becomes the main title <h1> of the post and also the default meta title on search engine results.
- Title should summarize the theme or main idea of the blog post
- More about blog post titles and heading tags
Blog post content
- Smaller paragraphs, bullet point lists are good, use other ways of organizing information such as headings, bold or italic to emphasize, lists, etc.
- Subheadings should be used at least once, and should be used with <h2> tags. These subheadings will be formatted as <h2> tags by the person adding the post to WordPress.
- Think of keyword phrases or topics your target audience will be searching for, and use those throughout blog post in a natural way (don’t “keyword stuff”, but include keyword phrases/topics when appropriate in the article)
- If using links in blog post, give link text readable and keyword optimized names rather than using full url for link text (example, use personal trainer in bellingham as link text rather than https://trailheadathletics.com/training-programs/ )
- Use internal linking (linking to other pages on your website) when appropriate
- 1 or 2 images help give visual appeal to the content.
Post/SEO Title (aka Meta Title)
- By default this uses the blog post title but we have the option to have a different Meta Title
- Limit title tag to 60 characters or less
- Use relevant keywords and phrases that describe content of blog post, put important keywords as close to beginning of title as possible
- Title tag should catch viewer’s attention and encourage them to continue reading
- Search engines use this title in their rankings.
Meta Description
- Limit meta description to 160 characters or less
- Use important keywords and concisely describe contents of blog post
- Give viewers just enough information to know what blog post is about, and description should encourage viewers to read rest of blog post
- Search engines do no use this text anymore for their rankings. Write this meta description to gain the attention of a viewer.
- More about title tags and meta descriptions.
Image Optimization
- Use keywords in image title that describe image appropriately (example “dog-playing-fetch.jpg” or “daisies-and-tulips-in-garden.png”)
- Shrink photos to smallest dimensions and resolution necessary for blog post (72 ppi is ideal resolution for web images)
- Use alt tags in images, alt tag should describe content of the image appropriately
- More information about image optimization
