How to do SEO for Blogging (A Blog Search Engine Optimization Guide)

Are you using SEO for blogging?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In terms of blogging, it simply means that you try to do things that will positively impact your blog on search engine rankings.

Blog SEO is a good thing, but bloggers often ignore it.

That’s a problem. Many bloggers miss many search engine ranking opportunities because of that.

If you do SEO for blogging, you have a higher chance of getting on page one of search results. More than half of internet users who search for something on Google and other search engines don’t search past page one.

SEO will get you more traffic, readers, comments, subscribers, and even paying customers.

But SEO scares most bloggers away because it seems like a difficult process. I’m here to tell you that it’s not that difficult and easy to make habitual.

In this guide, I’ll show you everything you need to know about how to do SEO for blogging.

What is SEO for Blogging, and Why is it Important?

Short Answer: As I stated above, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s important because you use it to get better rankings on search engines.

Long Answer: SEO is a technique that bloggers and other website owners have been using for decades to rank higher on search engines. Even large social media pages and influencers are using SEO on their social pages to get found on search engines faster.

The result of SEO techniques being performed is an organic click-through rate. This is when search users find your content based on a search they performed and click on your link. If they click your link first and get what they came for, it’s going to give you a better ranking on search engines.

SEO for blogging has multiple benefits of importance.

SEO will help you grow your audience. You can better establish yourself as an expert or an authority within your niche. SEO will also increase leads for actions you want performed on your blog, such as leaving a comment, subscribing to a newsletter, or buying a product or service from your blog.

There are many benefits and reasons why you should be using SEO on your blog.

There are many missed opportunities for those who choose not to use it.

The Importance of a Blog SEO Strategy

You have to be careful when you’re using SEO for blogging.

There is a right way to do it. However, there is also a wrong way to do it.

The wrong way to do SEO is often called Black Hat SEO. It’s basically when you try to cheat at SEO and attempt to manipulate the publishing guidelines.

Examples of Black Hat SEO include keyword stuffing or using your keyword too many times, link networking or running multiple websites to try to create a backlink scheme and fake traffic, or buying traffic from people who will use bots to visit your site and click links.

Buying and selling links is another form of bad SEP practices, having your link spammed using bots is not a good practice. Using AI to write all of your content is another thing that might be considered bad SEO.

If you use Black Hat SEO and you get caught (it’s easy to get caught), you face being penalized for it. Penalization could even include your blog being blacklisted from search engines like Google. That means it gets banned from Google.

You should do SEO for blogging the right way.

The right way is by having a proper blog SEO strategy.

The first goal of your blog SEO strategy should be to determine your niche. You have to have a niche. A nice is a topic you write about. You shouldn’t write about two different topics on one blog. For example, don’t write about grilling on the same blog that you write about computer repair. The blog needs to have a specific focus, which is what we call niche blogging.

You must identify your target audience. This needs to be done before you start blogging. When you know who you want to blog for, you’ll find exactly the kind of content you need to create on your blog. That’s important in SEO and blogging in general. What are your passions in the niche you have chosen? What about that niche do you like the most? Narrow it down and find an audience for that topic. Those are the people you’ll be blogging for.

You’ll need to conduct keyword research. You’ll learn about this later in the guide. Keyword research is when you select a keyword for the topic you’re writing about, and you make sure it’s feasible to use. The internet is full of blogging competition. Using keyword research is a way to overcome your competition and make it to the top.

You’ll want to ensure that your content is easy to read and has outstanding visual effects. There is a way to write your blog posts to ensure everyone can easily read them using any device. It’s important to remember that most of us read blogs on a mobile device. Words are needed in blogging, but there is such a thing as too much text. You have to be able to add visualization to your blog to make it more readable.

Your content titles are really important in your blogging SEO strategy. They need to be eye-catching to your target audience. You just have to be careful about how you word things. If you’re dishonest and use too much clickbait, you can lose your reputation in your niche.

Each blog post you create should include at least one CTA in it. CTA stands for Call-to-Action. A CTA encourages readers to act on something you want them to act on. This might be something as simple as leaving a comment or subscribing to your newsletter. You might also want them to act on something more complex, such as buying a product or service you have to offer. By adding a CTA to every post you make, you’ll be making sure that you can get something out of your content creation efforts.

The last part of your strategy on SEO for blogging should be to focus a lot of your effort on user experience. Your site visitors and readers need to have a great experience on your blog. That’s what will keep them there and keep them coming back. You need to have a simple blog where stuff is easy to find. A bad user experience is bad for your blog all the way around, especially in terms of search engine ranking.

You might find other ways to add to or improve your blogging strategy, and you should do so if you’re able to.

SEO for Blogging Requires Thorough Keyword Research

Keyword research is usually where people get anxious when it comes to SEO for blogging.

It sounds more difficult than it actually is.

You don’t have to use expensive tools and services to research your keywords, either. Sure, doing it the free way requires more work on your part, but if you don’t have the money to spend, then it will be your only real option.

If you do want to use a tool, there are many to choose from. SEM Rush and Ahrefs are two of the best. They have a lot of features and ease of use. However, they are the most expensive, but many bloggers are using them with success. Cheaper options with fewer features but still effective are also available. Some of my favorites are Uber Suggest, Keywords Everywhere, and RankIQ.

Be sure to check out YouTube and watch videos about the tools above to learn more about them. There are many helpful videos for folks in all languages on YouTube to learn with.

And then there is keyword research the free method, without tools you need to buy or download.

Step 1: You need to brainstorm topic ideas to write about. You should do this based on the needs and wants of your audience. Your content should always reflect the kind of content they need and want. That’s an important step to be able to win at SEO for blogging.

Step 2: Use Google Auto-Complete to help get a good keyword. This is when you start typing in the topic that you want to write about, and Google will show you suggestions of what people are commonly searching for. You can also use YouTube auto-complete and trending searches to help you gain keyword insights.

Step 3: Search for your topic on Google and then scroll down to the “Related Searches” section to see other topics that people are searching for. Like auto-complete, these can also make for great keywords for your content.

Step 4: Choose a long-tail keyword. This means a combination of terms rather than one. This is because one keyword is going to be so competitive (used by many bloggers) that it will nearly be impossible to rank for it. For example, the key phrase “grilling asparagus seasoned with beef broth” would be a better selection than “grilling asparagus” because of the competition. You just need to make sure that your chosen keywords are indeed being searched for. Do a simple Google search and make sure relevant recent searches are being made for it based on the results and their dates.

Step 5: You can also utilize Google’s free tools to help you research keywords and do SEO for blogging. Google Trends is a great tool for ensuring that your chosen keyword is being searched for. This tool is easy to use and free. Google Keywords Planner is another free tool. You do have to have an active Google Ads account, but you don’t have to spend any money to access the tool.

Step 6: Do a competitive analysis. Research your main competition and determine what keywords they’re using. This can help you get an idea of how you can utilize the same type of keywords in a more long-tail form without being out-competed. As you go through this guide, you’ll learn more about how to use keywords, which can explain more about how to see how other blogs are using keywords.

It’s best to learn all keyword-researching methods if possible. Learn how to use the paid tools and the free research methods.

There are a few main things to master your learning for SEO for blogging. These are the things that will matter the most.

• Search Volume
• Keyword Competition
• Search Intent

Search volume refers to the amount that a keyword or phrase has been searched for during any given time. Keywords with a higher search volume can help you rank higher on search engines with your content. Low-volume keywords mean that the content isn’t as popular.

Keyword competition is the amount of competition you’ll have in trying to rank for a keyword or phrase. Those with higher percentage rates will be harder to rank for. You’ll need a lot of backlinks for that piece of content and a lot of views. Most of the time, it is more practical to go with a keyword or phrase with a lower keyword competition rating.

Search intent is when you determine how a term is searched for. You want to make sure your title and your content fit the search intent for a keyword or phrase. If you can give the information to the search user exactly how they need it, your content will do better on search engines. Search intent is a very important factor for SEO.

When it comes to determining volume and competition factors in SEO for blogging, that’s when free and paid tools and apps come in handy the most. It gets a little more challenging determining the analytical and metrics side of it using free resources.

How to Write SEO Content

SEO for blogging is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it.

You just have to use a writing strategy that you can effectively turn into a habit. Once you make SEO for blogging a habit, it will be like second nature to you. Then, it’s one less thing you have to double-check yourself on to ensure more people will see your content.

There are steps to ensuring that you can create content for SEO, including:

1. Choose your topic. Make sure it’s worthy of the wants and needs of your target audience within your defined niche.
2. Research keywords. Make sure you use a low-competition keyword that other people in your niche are actively searching for.
3. Write Awesome Content. Make sure the content you write for your blog post is not just as good as the competition but better.
4. Optimize for user experience. Make sure you make the post readable. Ensure that the content provides the best user experience possible, especially on a mobile phone.
5. Optimize for SEO. Blend your keyword or phrase into your content. The trick is to make it make sense and not look unnatural.
6. Edit your content. Spelling and grammar matter with SEO for blogging. You need to make sure you edit and perfect your post before you publish.
7. Build links. Share your content on social media, guest blogging opportunities, and invalid link replacements, and try to get backlinks built for it.
8. Analyze the results. Always analyze your changes in SEO and your posts. Your analytics and metrics will tell a story on whether SEO tactics are working well or not.

You have to make your blog post easy to read if you want to do good with SEO for blogging.

Start with your header and move on to the rest of your headers throughout the post. Use headers in your post. It helps to organize and break up the monotony of the written word. You should use one H1 header for your title. You should use an H2 header for every main section. Use H3 headers as sub-sections for every main H2 section. Most of the time, blogs don’t commonly use any headers after H3, but it’s really up to you.

Add visual assets to your post. These are images, videos, social media stickers, and things that will get noticed by readers. This helps to make the post easier to read, too. You just need to make sure the media is visually appealing and high-quality, but it doesn’t slow down the page load.

Use short sentences. Use short paragraphs. Try to keep most paragraphs under 4 or 5 sentences. Make sure the sentences are short and to the point. Big paragraphs or blocks of text make it hard to read, especially on mobile devices, which will be the majority of your readers.

When appropriate, use bullet points and numbered lists. This will also help break up longer blog posts and make them easier to read. It’s also a great way to highlight really important parts that you want to showcase with your content.

After you get someone writing a section of the post, go back and read it out loud. It helps. It will give you an idea of whether or not the post sounds right or not. You might think it just doesn’t sound normal after reading it out loud. That’s when you need to change it to make it sound normal.

Use simple words. Don’t use big words that are commonly found in university essays. Simple wording is easier to read and understand. Bigger or uncommonly used words might require the reader to look up the meaning. Chances are, they’re not going to look it up. Instead, they’ll press back and go to the next result, and that’s BAD when it comes to SEO for blogging.

Making a post easy to read is important, but using a popular format is even more important. Use search-friendly formats. A listicle format is often the best format. These are your “Top 10s” and “100 ways to” type posts. They make up the majority of search results, if you notice. How-to posts also do well especially when you also include the word “guide” in the title. Notice that is what I’ve done with this post. Use different formats and find which brings the best results for your blog from your analytics.

An easy-to-read and popularly formatted blog post is going to go a long way in SEO for blogging.

How to Optimize Your Content for SEO with Keywords

Most people fail at SEO for blogging because they don’t know how to use their keywords.

The trick is to put the keywords where it matters and don’t overstuff them. Overstuffing keywords is when you put too many of them in your content. It’s a bad technique that can get your website penalized. The solution is to only use your keywords when they make sense in the content and look natural.

However, there are a few places where you need to make sure they’re included:

• Main Title (better at the beginning if applicable)
• URL Slug (Make sure URLs are “pretty” and user-friendly)
• H1 Header (You should only use one H1 header)
• H2 Header (It doesn’t have to be every one of them, but at least one)
• H3 Header (At least one)
• Image ALT Tag (At least your first image)
• Meta Description (Not always a big deal, but it could help)
• Mention the keyword in your introduction in the first sentence.
• Mention the keyword naturally a few times throughout your content.
• Mention the keyword in your conclusion section.

You can use popular SEO plugins if you’re blogging with WordPress. I use and recommend Yoast. The premium version is best, but the free version may be all you need to get started. Yoast will audit your post SEO before you publish so that you can make any necessary changes to it.

Every post should have a unique keyword. Never use the same keyword for different posts.

Be careful with keyword cannibalization, too.

For example, let’s say you have a post ranked for “growing tomatoes in the winter.” You don’t want to use that keyword again. But then you make a post focusing on the keyword phrase “growing tomatoes in the summer.” Search engines may effectively be confused, assuming both articles are trying to rank for “growing tomatoes,” and that would be bad for SEO.

Once you get your keyword strategy down, SEO for blogging becomes really simple.

SEO for Blogging Tips and Tricks

Use all the tips and tricks of SEO to your advantage when trying to rank your blog higher in search engine results.

Create an XML Sitemap for your blog. Most SEO plugins make this easy, such as Yoast or Rank Math SEO plugins. An XML sitemap is basically a roadmap to all of your content. We’re not always good at internal linking strategies, but the XML sitemap lets Google and other search engines find all page content (that isn’t marked for non-indexing) easily. It’s a very important SEO tool.

Compress images for speed. In most cases, you’ll need a plugin for this, such as a cache plugin or even something like Jetpack. This function will compress images to make them smaller. This ensures that the image loads faster. This will aid in your overall blog pages loading faster, which is significantly important for SEO.

Use a separate page for your blog. If you just want your website to be a blog and nothing else, you can ignore this tip. However, if you want a basic website and product pages, you should use a separate page for your blog, such as “/blog/” so that you can have a homepage and a separate blog page.

All links should have great anchors. Whether you’re putting in internal or external links, make sure the anchor text reads exactly what the user is going to. The anchor text is the text that is turned into a link. The old “click here” version is bad and shouldn’t be used. Make sure any link you add leads to a healthy website that’s related to the content you’re linking to. Linking to a shady site reflects badly on your blog.

Category and tag pages should be set to “no index.” This means that search engines should avoid indexing these pages. That’s because they can ultimately create duplicate content for your blog on search engines. Most SEO plugins like Yoast allow you to hide these sections from search engines.

Optimize posts for featured snippets. This is usually the first featured result on search results pages. You might see a list, a paragraph, or, more commonly, a video. If you analyze the competing post and mimic its format and search intent, you might be able to “steal” that feature snippet spot.

Reduce the bounce rate on your blog. Bounce rate is when a user clicks on your link in search and stays on your blog until they press back to go back to search or click off your blog. The more you can keep them on your blog, the better. A lower bounce rate percentage is effectively what you want.

Publish linkable content. You want to build backlinks for your blog content. It’s one of the most important things to do in terms of SEO for blogging.  You can do it easily by creating the kind of content that people want to link to. It needs to be better than what everyone else is providing. You want to cover all the same points but also fill in the gaps.

Use a long-tail keyword for better results. Use one to two long-tail keywords in each blog post for a better chance to rank on search engines. Single keywords are too competitive to try to use. Make sure you use a unique long-tail keyword for each post. Never use the same keyword on multiple posts.

Consider mobile use for your blog. Mobile users will be the majority of your blog visitors and readers. If your blog is too difficult to use on a mobile phone, you’ll miss out on most opportunities for your blog. You need to put mobile users before everyone else.

Try to make the most out of SEO for blogging. Learn everything you can about SEO. There are over 200 ranking factors for Google. Start learning each one of them. Try to turn yourself into an SEO master. You could hire people to do it or learn it yourself and enjoy saving money.

Make sure people can read your content. Readability is very important in blogging. If users can’t understand your blog, they aren’t going to keep reading it. This will cause your bounce rate to skyrocket, and you don’t want that. Your content should be easy to read and understand.

Limit your title characters. Keep them between 50 to 60 total characters. Search engines will typically cut off longer titles. They might even choose a different title for the listing if the title is too bad. That could impact the work you’ve done on your title for SEO.

Use user-friendly URL slugs. Your blog post URLs should be “pretty” and user-friendly. An example of a bad URL is something like “myblog.com/blog/post.php?id=2375hfysg” because you can’t really tell in the URL what it’s about. A good example is “myblog.com/this-is-my-blog-post” because it’s pretty and readable. It’s also a format preferred by search engines.

Optimize your posts for SERP. SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. It’s the page of search results that you get after performing a search on Google and other search engines. There are typically two types of listings on SERPs – organic and paid listings. You want to optimize your content to post as an organic listing. Like with snippets, you want to look at your competition and make sure your content matches search intent, which is exactly what searchers want when they perform a search on Google and others.

Publish evergreen content on your blog. Evergreen content is content that never expires. That means people can use the information in it over and over again, no matter what year it is. This should be the majority of your blog’s content. This will keep a good user flow to your posts.

Update older content. This should especially be done to older evergreen content that was titled with a date. Change the date to this year and update anything that needs to be updated. It’s important to manipulate the text and add something new to it. This will help keep evergreen content fresh for the new year.

Use on-page SEO for blogging. This means that you should conduct keyword research. Then, you should place the keywords onto your content throughout the post. Don’t include the keyword too much. Stick to the important areas such as title, H1, other headers, image ALT tags, and the first sentence in the intro and somewhere in the outro of the post.

Try to match search intent. Search intent is a term that elaborates the goal of a user when they perform a search on Google or another search engine. If your post can meet their goal, then you’ll have matched their search intent. That’s a big win for search engine optimization in blogging.

Get technical SEO right. Technical SEO aspects are very important. To master these, make sure you set up URLs to be “pretty” and easy to read. You should compress images. Make sure the blog is mobile-friendly. And most of all, make sure every page on the blog loads up completely in under 2 seconds.

Write about topics people are searching for. Try to keep your topics within the niche area of what people are searching for. The more you write topics based on search results and intent, the more readers you’ll get and the better your blog will do in terms of SEO for blogging.

Factors that can Impact SEO for Blogging

Many factors can have an impact on your SEO for blogging techniques. Google has over 200 search ranking factors. We won’t be looking at all of them in this post, but we’ll cover the important ones.

Dwell time: This is the amount of time that a searcher on Google will spend on a page that they clicked on from Google Search. If they don’t spend very much time on the page, it usually means that the searcher didn’t get what they needed from it. This will especially be the case if they go back to the original search and then click on a different listing. The longer you keep a searcher on your blog, the better it will be for your search engine optimization.

Page speed: This is an important ranking factor with Google and other search engines. Your blog needs to load up quickly. In most cases, each page should load up completely at or under two seconds. If your pages are taking longer to load, you need to figure out why. Most of the time, it’s because of large images that need to be compressed. Sometimes, it’s the web hosting server, and it should be changed or fixed. Find out the problem and fix it before it turns into a bigger SEO problem for your blog.

Mobile Responsiveness: If your blog doesn’t respond correctly to mobile devices, your SEO will suffer greatly. The majority of your traffic and readers will be on their mobile devices when using your blog. It’s important to ensure they have the best user experience possible. You should put mobile users first and desktop users last.

As I said above, there are even more ranking factors than what is above. The ones above are some of the most important factors for your SEO activities.

To improve your SEO for Blogging, Keep Learning!

It’s important to keep learning everything you can learn to better your SEO for blogging and even social media growth. The more you learn about SEO, the easier it is to get good at it. The following ways are some of the best ways to learn about SEO and topics like these.

Newsletters: Find and subscribe to good SEO and digital marketing newsletters. Read every issue they send to your inbox. These newsletters are typically the quickest to report on algorithm changes at Google and other search engines. They’re usually packed with all sorts of SEO goodness.

Blogs: Find and read SEO and digital marketing blogs with topics based around search engines. These blogs usually post a lot of tips and resources needed to get better at SEO. You should also follow the blogs of various SEO tools, too. You can usually get a lot of great information from them.

Quora: Look for questions (or even ask your own) about SEO on Quora and other question-and-answer websites. They’re usually packed with great advice about different aspects of SEO. If you have questions about specific SEO factors and technical aspects, Quora is one of the better websites to find out this sort of information.

Google Blogs: Make sure you read blogs run by Google (and other search engines) that are about the search engines, changes to the search engine, and related topics. You can usually get a lot of great information about changes and what Google expects from website owners and their SEO methods.

Algorithm Changes: Pay close attention to algorithm changes on Google and other search engines. These changes often impact your SEO methods. Some changes are bad for bloggers while others are good and can be exploited to further help you rank your blog better.

These resources are great for learning more about SEO for blogging and to help you keep your blog posts on page one of Google and other search engines.

Final Thoughts on Blogging for SEO

Blogging for SEO is an important skill to learn and use for all your blog content. You can totally ignore SEO and still have a chance to rank on search engines. However, you will likely miss many opportunities to do better on search engines, and your competition might pass you by because of their SEO practices. You can use the advice above to better your blog on Google and other search engines with ease if you’d rather do better on search.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please share it to show support for my writing and provide it at no cost. You can also make a one-time donation to me if you’d like to.

Thanks for reading my latest blog post, and I hope you have a great day.

About the Author

Shawn Gossman has created content, blogged, ran online communities, and shared a passion for digital marketing for over twenty years. Shawn believes the best way to help content creators, businesses, brands, and marketers is to give away more than you sell. The same advice is recommended for the readers that follow this blog. Shawn also offers a variety of services for extra help in the area of content creation, blogging, forums, and digital marketing. Learn more about Shawn Gossman by clicking here.