Over the last decade, search engine algorithms have become more and more sophisticated, leading to constant changes in SEO practices. Ham-fisted practices like keyword stuffing and prolific hyperlinks are no longer the way to make it to the top of results listings and can actually do more harm than good. Today’s sophisticated search engine algorithms are finally starting to reward quality over quantity.
Whitney Blodgett shares 5 key factors that help create blog posts that search engines will send users looking for.
Organizational Structure: Begin With an Outline
Outlining your article in advance helps to ensure your thoughts and ideas are clearly introduced and sensibly organized for the reader. Your basic structure should include the following components:
- Introductory paragraph (in which you will present your thesis or central concept)
- Body paragraphs (in which you will offer support or analysis for the central concept)
- Concluding paragraph (in which you will summarize the validity of your thesis with support or analysis)
Constructing an outline in this way will not only enhance the readability of the finished article; it will also simplify the writing process so you are able to include SEO principles in the most organic and seamless way possible.
Headers, Sub-Headers, and Bullet Points
The inclusion of headers, sub-headers, and bullet points breaks up the text in a way that is more appealing to readers and enables search engines to determine the key subjects addressed in the article. When creating your outline, you can break up the body paragraphs into 3-5 key points you want to communicate. You can then create either a numbered list or sub-head each paragraph with a key point from the paragraph. Paragraphs should be no more than 5 sentences long.
Include Keywords in Titles, Meta Descriptions, and URLs
While keyword stuffing should be avoided, your blog post should still contain 1-5 organically placed keywords throughout the body of the article as well as in the title and meta description. For instance, if you are a plumber in Daytona Beach, you want the keywords “plumber” and “Daytona Beach, FL” to appear 1-2 times in the article and the word “plumber” to appear in the title and meta description. The title will generally be contained in the URL, so using the keyword in the title, will also generally ensure it makes it into the URL.
Social Media and In-Text Links
Using social media to promote your article is important, since search engine rankings improve drastically when articles becomes highly shared across social media platforms. You should also consider linking to previous blog posts so readers are exposed to any previously published work that may be of interest to them.
Article Length and Readability
The length of your article is an important consideration, as both readers and search engines are influenced by the volume of words in the post. An ideal range falls somewhere between 250 to 750 words, as search engines prefer at least 250 to 300 words per post while readers begin to experience fatigue when a post reaches 650 to 750 words. If an article is well written and broken up properly, however, 1,000 – 1,250 words is not excessively long for blogs that communicate a genuine wealth of information on a particular topic.
Creating an SEO-friendly blog post does not have to be overly complicated, but today’s search engines are getting better at being able to sniff out quality over quantity. When your article is well crafted, clearly organized and offers real, concrete information (rather than just being “click-bait”) it makes it more likely to be shared, which makes it more likely to be listed high on search engine returns.