When it comes to how to write a blog with SEO, many new bloggers dread the three little letters. This is because SEO can seem very confusing and overwhelming at first. When you are focused on blog writing, SEO can seem to be just another barrier to getting your content posted to your blog. The good news is that you spend a little time to learn the basics of SEO, you can use these easy SEO tips in your blog almost naturally! With a tiny bit of work for every blog post, you will be a SEO expert in no time.
Remember, SEO does not have to be hard! Read on to discover everything you need to know about SEO – the easy way!
Understanding SEO Basics
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engines, like Google can bring you a ton of traffic. Google likes to see things done a certain way in your blog posts, and when it sees things done this way, it will rank your blog more favorably. Is there much more to it than that? Of course. Brian Dean compiled a list of Google’s 200 ranking factors. Is it a good read? Absolutely, I loved learning how Google works, but then again, I am an engineer and generally a huge nerd. However, if it is still a bit overwhelming right now, do not worry, the post will still be there if you would like to go back to it later.
Every blogger wants their posts to rank at the top of the Google search results! The higher your ranking is, the more traffic Google will bring you. It is simple as that. The thing you should be most concerned about today is something called a keyword. A keyword is just a fancy term for what someone types into Google to find a web page.
When writing a blog, you should ask yourself this very important question:
What would someone type into Google if they were looking for this blog?
The answer is the keyword or keywords for your blog!
Introduction to Easy SEO Keyword Research
If you make a list of a few things someone would type into google to find your blog article, you should then do some basic research on these terms. My favorite tool to use for this is Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest. Let’s take a look at the example use case I used in the article about writing a blog post and creating the best content for some ideas on what we are going to research, then put a term into Ubersuggest:
Wow! It looks like repairing bicycles would be a good term to use! Why? Because it has a high search volume, and low competition. Ubersuggest will also give us more helpful information if we click the next button on the left navigation bar.
Neil is nice enough to tell us this keyword is easy to rank for, and there is even a 78% chance we will be able to rank for it. If we see any other keywords in the list that make sense for the blog we have in mind, we should also take note of them, and put them in when it makes sense. Sometimes when I am writing a blog I will put all these terms I want to put in on a sticky note and stick it on my computer monitor to keep them in mind. You can export this list to a CSV as well, so if you are a two monitor person just pull up that CSV!
The next step is to look at the Google SERP results on the right. SERP results are not scary! SERP means search engine results page, so it really is just what you would see if you typed that term into Google. If you did not already know one of the best tips to becoming a better blogger, it is to read example blogs, and ask ourselves the following questions each time:
After we read these, we will then have an idea of what we can do to make our blog better than the Google SERP results we just investigated.
This is a very, very basic introduction to doing keyword research. We may need to do this a couple times before we come across a keyword that has a high search volume and is easy to rank for. If we come across other keywords that have a low search volume, and are easy to rank for we should not throw those a way! There is no harm in sprinkling them throughout the blog we are going to write.
You can get much more advanced when it comes to keyword research, but the important thing is to understand the basics right now. A tool like Ubersuggest is really easy to use, and will help you get started easily.
The One SEO Task to Pay Attention to Right Now
When it comes to easy SEO there is one thing you need to pay attention to right now, the SEO for your permalink. The permalink is the URL of the blog post you are working on. While it is possible to change this later, it can get pretty complicated, especially if you are not into the technical side of blogging. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to this today, so you do not need to worry about it later.
Pick the keyword you like the best and make sure to put it in your permalink, like this:
https://your-url.com/reparing-bicycles-guide
You may want to add another word or two to reflect what your article is about, but keeping your permalink short, sweet, and relevant is a good idea. It is also worth reading Neil Patel’s Permalink SEO guide to understand more about this very important SEO task.
A Little Bit More on Links
Putting links in your blogs is very important. There are two types of links:
- Internal Links
- External Links
- Backlinks
Internal links are links to other pages on your website. It is always good to include links to other relevant articles on your site. Doing this proves to Google you really know what you are talking about! By linking articles together on your website, you are proving you are an expert in your field. For more on how important it is, be sure to read the article How to Establish Topical Authority and Relevancy for SEO on NichePursuits.com.
External links are links to different websites about your topics. This article is full of external links I have found helpful. While this does not necessarily help me, it helps my readers learn even more about the topic they are reading about. External links also help the site you are linking to.
Google also likes to see something called backlinks (Brian Dean’s site that we talked about earlier, called Backlinko has everything you ever wanted to know about this topic). Backlinks, or when someone else links to your site, also tells google you know what you are talking about.
Beyond including external links to help readers learn more, I like to think that one day this link karma will come back to me and others will link to my content.
What Else to Keep in Mind for Natural SEO
Your permalink is very important, and the good news is anything else in your blog you can change, modify, and enhance later. In fact, it is a great idea to check in with your existing content on a periodic basis.
Back to the blog you are writing now. Remember those keywords we found? Beyond your permalink, sprinkle them into the body of your article, as well as your title and headings. The most important thing to keep in mind here is that it should be natural! Let’s look at an example.
The most important thing to keep in mind when repairing bicycles is to always make sure you have the correct tools.
This is a great example of how to naturally use the keyword you decided on. Feel free to also use terms you think people may search for that you have not researched.
Here is a bad example of how to use a keyword, or even multiple keywords
Repairing bicycles, repairing bike chain, and repairing a bike with a bike repair stand are important.
That is just not good writing. When people start to read sentences stuffed with key words that do not make any sense, they will simply leave your site. Google pays attention to how long people spend reading your articles, and if your reader clicks the back button and picks something else out from their search results. These both send negative messages to Google, and your site ranking will decrease.
Natural SEO Over Time
Now, let’s take a look at one of our other websites in Google Search Console. I went ahead and selected a post that had lots of impressions, but very few clicks:
Then, I clicked Impressions to sort by terms with the most impressions. As you can see, there are two terms that have lots of impressions, but very few clicks. I am going to go back to the article, and read it again. Then I am going to take some of the terms with a high number of impressions, and a low click through rate and put more information about them in my article while using them. For example, I may add another heading with the search term, and then another paragraph about it. This is a great way to make our content longer, as well as more relevant to our readers.
These two particular search terms are listed because I can optimize for both of them at the same time, using the bottom term. These are terms I did not even think about when writing the original article, but seem to be very popular. This a a fantastic example of how some SEO happens naturally.
Over time, I will see that the number of clicks goes up for these search terms as I put them in my article. It is a good idea to keep track of what terms you have enhanced and when you enhanced them. Then, after you make changes, give Google some time to simmer before checking back. Every month I make a list of what content I optimized, on what date, then I do not go back and look at how that content is doing for a whole month! Neil Patel has a very detailed walkthrough on how to do this here. He was even kind enough to respond to the comment I made on this post, and let me know to let my content simmer in Google for 30 days after changes.
Wow, that may seem hard, but when you have more content, you will find yourself in a rolling cycle of content optimization and natural SEO.
Writing Blogs With SEO Naturally
The good news is that as you generate content and it works its way into Google, you will generate more SEO ideas naturally! We just need to do some very basic research up front to make sure we are successful:
- Pick and research at least one keyword
- Use the keyword in our blog post’s permalink
- Use the keyword naturally your article
- Include other terms you think potential readers may search for
- Check Google Search Console for more SEO suggestions over time, then add more content to your blog post
Here is a handy image to remind you of these things:
The most important thing to focus on when writing your blogs is writing great content. Write content that is interesting to your target users, solves problems, and is accurate. Over time, this will translate into a natural increase in search engine traffic, when you check in with your content for the natural SEO terms it has generated.
Bonus! Introduction to Image SEO
When it comes to our blog post, we often upload images. Did you know you can optimize your images for SEO and it willhelp your ranking in google? In fact, you can, and it is very easy to do without any additional work or any additional WordPress plugins.
There are two things you need to consider before uploading an image to your blog post or website:
- Image Name. learn-image-SEO.jpg is a better name than image00006.jpg. We want to make sure we are telling google exactly what the image is for and what it does.
- Image alt tag. The alt tag is for search engines. It helps to tell them what your image (and blog post) is about. You want to describe your image, and include some keywords that make sense. Moz has a great guide on learning how to write alt tags.
These two small things will help you get on the path to great and easy SEO for your site.
Resources in this Article
Here is a list of all of the resources I listed for you in this artcle. They are more than enough to get started learning the basics of easy SEO, and incorporating it into your blogging and writing naturally.
Brian Dean’s Google Ranking Factors Explained
Niel Patel’s Guide to Permalink SEO
NichePursuits.com How to Establish Topical Authority and Relevancy for SEO
Niel Patel’s Keyword Research Formula (For natural SEO content optimization)
When it comes to SEO, learning SEO does not have to be scary or difficult. The more you follow the simple tips in this guide, the easier SEO will become, and the more you will see your traffic increase from search engines.