Creating the SEO Blog of Your Dreams

Gone are the days where blogging is used solely as a method of self-expression, and in are the days where it is quite easy to monetize your blog and use it for business purposes. In fact, blogging is a key tenet of a quality search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and can do wonders for boosting your online visibility.

But in order for a blog to work properly for you, there are some best practices you should follow. Here are some ways you can create an SEO-friendly business blog in no time at all.

Start with keyword research

“Keywords are important for your website’s on-page SEO”, say the pros at LinkGraph.io, so it’s important to do some thorough keyword research before you start writing. Using tools such as Google Analytics can help you pinpoint what keywords are important for you to use.

In addition, you can always look at your competitor’s websites to gain some insight into what keywords they’re using and what your audience is actually looking for.

Create an editorial calendar

It is extremely important to make a plan before you start writing. The easiest way to stay organized is to create an editorial calendar with specific messages that you want to convey to your audience. When coming up with this, you’ll want to think to yourself:

• What is the purpose of the article?
• Is there a central theme you want to stick to?
• What will your audience take away from this article?
• What do you want your audience to do after reading the article? What will your call to action be?

You’ll also want to use your editorial calendar as a way to set up a posting schedule. Consistency is key when you are creating a blog, and your audience will want to know when they can rely on your posts being published. Feel free to experiment with this, and pick a schedule where you have seen your audience engage frequently with you.

Be strategic with keyword placement

Now that you have the right keywords to use, you have to be smart and strategic about using them. It is not enough to simply place them in your blog a few times, rather they need to be put all over the page to be picked up accurately by the Google web crawlers.

So try to include the keywords in the title, the title tag, the heading, the different sub-headings, in the anchor text, and in the meta description in addition to throughout your blog for the best success.

Don’t forget about the images

We live in a visual world, so don’t forget to add pictures and videos to your blog to enhance your user experience. When you upload the media, make sure to include keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a description of the photo as well. This also helps the web crawlers identify what is on your page faster and more efficiently.

Link to other industry-relevant web pages

It’s important to build trust with your audience, and a great way to do this is to include information from other more established websites. Plus, you have a higher chance of getting a reciprocal link back from that website if you include them in your link building strategy and put them on your website for free.

At the end of the day, you’ll be on your way to building trust and gaining visibility in your industry, and what could be better? With these tips in mind, you’ll be ready to create an SEO-friendly blog of your dreams in no time at all.