There are two distinctive ways to look at a blog article. One is the artistic side, where you consider the writing, language, and message of the article. The other is the technical side, where you focus on how to get your content to the top position in the digital world. Ideally, you want to balance both when writing blog posts for SEO purposes. You want quality content to go on your page because it’s integral to your site ranking and audience response. You also want your content to accommodate any links and plugins that can help your page climb higher in the search engine ranks. Clearly, the technical and creative aspects have to go hand-in-hand seamlessly, to get consistent results. But how does one strike the perfect balance between them? By maintaining a checklist, and only posting once all the boxes are ticked! We’ll also shed light on some important aspects of blogging on the way.

Why Blogs?

By now, most of you are probably thinking of how blogging could possibly benefit your site in terms of SEO. Blogging isn’t exactly a walk in the park. It’s not like posting a candid selfie for hundreds of likes; blogging requires consistent planning, good vocabulary skills and a great pulse for trending topics. Once you start a blog, you have to commit to it. So why bother with blogs for SEO when websites also play a part in getting you the rankings you want? The answer is quite simple.

Blogs are more engaging. They give you the power to write about anything and everything related to your niche and specific target audiences based on your preferences. It opens up avenues for interactions and keeps your brand relevant online, content-wise. Whichever way you look at it, there’s no denying that it’s a great addition to any professional website, and the stats are there to back it up. Blogs also add a layer of flexibility to how you think up SEO strategies for your brand online.

Precedence and Significance

Now that we’ve established the importance of blog posts for SEO, let’s get down to the next significant question: how to plan and execute SEO for blogs? Most people might think that the SEO portion of a blog is just an add-on, something that can be tweaked and modified well after a blog piece has been written. After all, it’s just optimization, right? This is a very common fallacy in the world of SEO. While it sounds like a good idea on paper, you may find that once you’ve finished writing, you may not find what you’ve written to be SEO-compatible. Keywords may be stuffed, the piece may be too lengthy, or it may not even be relevant to the title anymore! Keeping SEO practices in mind as and when you write is the ideal way to go about it. That’s exactly where our trusty checklist comes in. Let’s get straight into it!

Blog SEO Checklist: The Essentials

1. Craft a proper title

The blog title is arguably the most prominent aspect that will draw your blog readers in. If you can, try to include your primary keyword in the title, but do it organically! The point to note is that your title should hint at what a reader can expect from your blog, and including a keyword in there can work wonders for the page’s SEO.

2. Plan your links beforehand

This rings true especially for the internal links that you plan on giving within your site. Having an idea of what links you want can effectively streamline both the process of content writing as well as page optimization and create a solid SEO blog.

3. Do your research

Run similar searches and find out what the most buzzing keywords are for that particular blog topic. Ideally, you want to strike a balance between popularity and competition, to get your page an ideal ranking on the SERPs. Don’t shy away from using LSI keywords as well, they do their part in promoting a blog’s search engine performance too!

4. Consider FAQs

In the right circumstances, FAQs can give you a major edge when it comes to writing blog posts for SEO. You can use the FAQ technique for new blogs that you’re writing as well as older blogs on your site that you’re looking to optimise! Craft relevant FAQs that offer value to the reader as well as those who are looking for more info on the topic. Most importantly, don’t forget to add the associated keywords seamlessly into the FAQs!

5. Account for other blog elements

More often than not, blogs aren’t just about words! Sometimes, they contain videos embedded in them, or at the very least, a few images. Every SEO expert knows that the search engine also accounts for the image file names that are included in the blog. These offer a nifty way for you to slip in your primary keyword in a streamlined manner. Look at the big picture when constructing a blog!

 6. Optimize your URL

The URL is quite literally the address of any page online. By optimizing it with the right keywords, you make it easier for the right people to home in on your page! Putting your main keyword there is a step in the right direction as far as good SEO practices are concerned. The same goes for the page’s meta description as well. It doesn’t show up on the page itself, but it boosts your keyword density nonetheless, so make good use of it!

Once you’re done with writing and optimizing your blog, always give it a read-through before you take it live. You should check for any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, as well as semantic errors where you scan whether the content makes sense. Another essential aspect to look for is keyword stuffing. Avoid it like the plague, because your site could be penalized for it!

All these items in this SEO blog checklist will become second nature to you as you evolve as a blogger. These tips will serve you at any point in time, guaranteeing solid results for pages both big and small, so take note now! Happy blogging!