Blog Post

Best Practices for Blog Post SEO

A search box to represent blog post SEO.

Publishing regular, high quality blog posts is a crucial part of social marketing. A good blog post can draw people into your website, provide valuable information, and help convert casual visits into leads. But how do you ensure your posts are being found? That is where blog post SEO comes in. Take a look at our best practices below to learn how you can begin to make sure your blog posts are reaching the widest audience possible.

Blog Post SEO Best Practices

Provide Value

A quality blog post will provide authentic, obvious value beyond just self-promotion. That is not to say that you cannot talk about your services when relevant, but be sure to include information that your audience wants to learn – not just a sales pitch.

Be Unique

The internet is filled with blog posts on various topics. In order to really stand out you must provide information that cannot be found anywhere else. Consider including your own statistics and case studies to give readers and idea of how your ideas can work for them.

Format for Readability

Your readers have limited time, and large blocks of text can make even a short blog post seem like a tedious read. Include bullet, descriptive headers and subheaders, and links that go to relevant content.

Target a Single Keyword

With SEO, your best bet is a blog post that focuses on a single primary topic. Spreading your writing thin creates a post that offers good information for a variety of topic, but lacks weight for the topic you really want people to learn about. Pick one topic for your blog and stick to it throughout the post. Make sure to include your primary keyword in your blog’s main header and title as well.

But Don’t Stuff Keywords

Above all else, your blog post should be readable. Avoid stuffing your keyword into as many places as possible, and only use it where relevant. A good rule of thumb is: if a non-marketing person was reading your blog, would they think that a certain word or phrase was suspiciously repetitive?

Keep Your Title Brief

If possible, keep your titles to under 60 characters. Any more and your title will get cut off in search results, and potential will be less likely.

Use Descriptive Links

Your reader should never be surprised at where a link takes them. Make sure to use long-tail, descriptive text to carry your link.

Blogging is an extremely powerful marketing tool, but without the proper SEO best practices you may not see the results you are looking for – or could even be blacklisted. Develop your own guidelines based on these best practices, and stick to them for best results.

To learn more about SEO, see our blog post DIY SEO and contact the MJ2 team to find out how content marketing can work for your business.