Writing an SEO blog post that leads to conversion is critical to driving traffic to your website and improving your online presence. The goal of any SEO blog post should be to get noticed by search engines and bring qualified leads to your website.
Why is quality content important for better SEO results?
The perfect SEO-friendly blog post starts with a focus on high-quality content. A post providing valuable information to the audience is much more important than any other on-page SEO measures you could take to increase search engine rankings. There are a few reasons for this.
First, if your content is valuable, your visitors are more likely to stay on the page than leave, which can lower your bounce rate. Also, Google considers the average time users spend on a page. So, keeping your audience engaged with quality content can improve your search engine rankings. Second, other websites are more likely to link to your article if it offers something of value. Backlinks are essential to SEO results, and quality content is often the best way to get them. After all, good content improves your reputation with your audience and can encourage them to visit other pages on your site.
Ask yourself what your audience needs to know to create valuable and engaging content. Provide as much information as possible in a post, along with helpful visual elements like images, infographics, or videos. For search engine optimization, it’s often better to write one detailed, long article than ten articles with only a fraction of the information.
How long should blog posts be?
There is no specific number of words that is optimal for SEO content. According to a recent study by HubSpot, the perfect length for a blog post should be between 2,100 and 2,400 words. However, many websites perform well in search engines with posts of less than 1,500 words. Focus less on word count when writing. Instead, ensure that you cover your topic appropriately and that readers are satisfied. These are much more important elements when it comes to ranking factors.
That often means writing posts with at least 1,000 words. If you have finished writing your post and it is less than 1,000 words, you should ask yourself if you can add value to it before publishing it. If not, it’s outstanding to publish something shorter.
➢ Create different types of content
When developing blog post ideas, it is crucial that you not only create relevant content but also try to create a wide range of SEO content. Creating different types of content gives you a few advantages. First, with various original content, you have a better chance of attracting more organic traffic. Instead of covering a topic only once, you can do so in different styles to rank each blog post. You can then link these articles together, which will help you rank for more competitive keywords.
Variety helps keep things interesting, which helps keep visitors on your site. Also, by choosing different post styles, you can generate fresh content. If someone always sees the same content on your site, they may lose interest. For example, only some articles should have the same format. Instead, you could use content types like:
➢ Bulleted lists
A common type of blog post is the list. These are articles like “19 Tips for Writing SEO Content: Create texts that users love” or “7 Reasons To Invest In Professional Content Creation.” If you want to create a list, research similar blog articles. Create a list that includes more items than the top-ranking results in Google. Doing so will give users a reason to choose your article over the others.
➢ How-to guides
The purpose of a how-to guide is to walk your audience or customers through the steps they need to take to complete an action. For example, you can write a guide on How To Start A Social Media Marketing Business. How-to guides provide users with valuable information that helps them appear at the top of search results.
➢ Product reviews
Many people look for product reviews online before they buy something. If you review a product in detail, you can get a lot of organic search traffic from interested customers. You can also write a round-up article listing the best products in a particular category. Creating such SEO content will allow you to build many external and internal links and use various long-tail keywords.
➢ Testimonials from customers
Testimonials from customers are reviews of your products or services. You can create content that deals exclusively with these testimonials if you get good customer reviews. That will help you rank for keywords like “reviews” or “testimonials.” Creating a post about customer testimonials will also show viewers the reliability of your product or services, which can increase your customer conversion rate.
➢ Use keywords when writing content to generate traffic
Target keywords are another critical factor that search engines consider when determining a web page’s ranking. Keywords are a word or phrases that users type into the search box. Google then scans websites to determine how well that phrase or other relevant keywords match the content on your page. If there is a close match, Google will rank you higher. Therefore, keyword strategies are an essential element of SEO content.
As a rule, you should include common and relevant keywords in your blog post content. Some critical areas to include keywords are:
- The title of the article.
- The subheadings of the article.
- The entire content of the article.
After using a keyword research tool and determining the desired target keywords for this blog post, insert the primary keyword or variations of it a few times per post. You can also include some long-tail keywords in your posts, i.e., keywords that are used less frequently but are very specific to your content.
➢ External and internal links in your content
Another helpful content creation strategy is to add internal and external links. Internal links direct users to other pages on your website. That helps your audience by providing them with additional information they may need and can also improve your SEO performance.
When scanning a page, search engines like Google consider the links. External links to reputable websites show Google that you are using reliable sources for your article. Inbound links tell Google which of your pages is the most important. For example, if many of your articles link to the same page on your website that describes your company’s services, Google knows that your services page is essential.
Links are the foundation of SEO content creation. Include at least a few internal and external links in your blog posts. The longer your content is, the more links you should include. You should also include keywords in the link text for even better results. So ensure you get the most out of your content by including them as often as possible.
➢ Structuring your articles and blog posts
The last important element for perfect SEO content is structuring. When you write a post, you want the user to see a shorter page of the exact text. Instead, you should divide your post into sections, each with a title in a larger font.
Imagine if, when you opened this article, there were no subheadings like “Blog SEO: How to optimize your blog content for search engine” and “How long does it consider for a blog to start getting traffic?” You may be more challenged reading the article because it consists of a long text wall. You also need to find out what each section is about, making it harder to understand the article.
When writing your article, keep the paragraphs to about 100 words. If a paragraph is much longer, break it into multiple paragraphs to make it easier to read. Then use subheadings to divide your entire post into sections, and use a clear hierarchy of heading sizes to make the article flow more smoothly. For example, you can have one large section with an H2 heading that contains several subsections, each with an H3 heading.
SEO tools that help you generate more traffic
Creating an SEO-friendly blog post or article is only possible with the right tools. Guessing which keywords are best and hoping they will get you more visitors is not the best way to go about things. Instead, you can use some great SEO tools to help you generate more organic traffic.
An excellent place to start is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool that provides a wealth of information about your website traffic. It can tell you which keywords your website primarily searches with and which are best for generating organic traffic. You can also analyze what types of SEO content work best for you and then focus on those types of posts.
Another great tool is Yoast. Yoast can analyze your posts, among other things. It scans your article and tells you how to optimize it better. For example, it can help you create rich snippets and tell you if you need to use a keyword more or improve the quality of the content. This tool is a must for content analysis, so you should set it up for your website.
The last tool you should take a look at is SEO Quake. That is a browser extension that gives you real-time information about search results. When you look for something in Google, the SEO Quake plugin displays information about each result, including the number of backlinks and the level of competition. You can also see the search volume for those keywords. With this tool, you can better plan your SEO content creation strategy, as you can see which articles are performing well and where opportunities can quickly appear on the first page of search results.
Here are some tips to assist you in writing SEO blog posts that convert
1. Always do detailed keyword research
Keyword research is among the most critical aspects of search engine optimization and online content creation. It is almost only possible to create meaningful content with proper keyword research.
Keyword research has two significant benefits:
- First, detailed keyword research helps you discover more search opportunities and increase organic traffic.
- Second, thorough keyword research helps you identify keywords that are more likely to lead to conversions, thus increasing conversions, sales, and revenue.
For example, you can determine which keyword variation has the highest search volume. Then you can equip your website for that exact variant. Similarly, you can opt for more long-tail keywords with a higher potential conversion rate than short-tail or head keywords that don’t convert as well.
2. Don’t forget search intent
In your keyword research, you should also pay close attention to the keywords’ search intent.
If there is a match between the search intent and the content of your website, the conversion rates will improve. That’s why it’s essential to meet search intent and create content matching searchers’ search intent.
In addition, you should also distinguish whether a keyword has an informative or commercial search intent. If your goal is to increase the conversion rate on your website, you should use commercial keywords more often. To attract more visitors, targeting informative content is often a better choice.
You can check the search intent of a keyword in the following two ways:
- By reviewing search engine results pages (SERPs) and the types of pages, Google places on the first SERP, and
- By using a tool like SEMRush that assigns a search intent to each keyword.
3. Don’t write for search engine bots
A common mistake that many content marketers make is that they write for search engine crawlers. That usually has a direct negative impact on conversion rates.
Instead of writing for search engine bots, you should always write for human readers and website visitors. Unlike humans, search engine bots cannot buy your products and services. They don’t contribute to conversions, sales, and revenue. Therefore, writing content for humans and using your content to inform, educate, and persuade them only makes sense.
4. Create engaging and keyword-rich headlines
Headlines are among the essential parts of good, engaging online content. Not only are headlines a great place to include important keywords and get more organic traffic, but good headlines also grab readers’ attention and encourage them to read the rest of the page. The more time readers spend on a web page, the more likely they will see the CTAs, convert, and become customers.
As mentioned earlier, you should also include important keywords in the headings. Turning them into questions is generally a good idea if you need clarification on subheadings.
- Keyword research tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs will display questions that contain your target keywords.
- Remember that the headings should have appropriate heading tags, i.e., H2, H3, H4, etc.
These heading tags help Google understand the structure of your website. Also, well-structured and nested subheadings make for a pleasant reading experience.
5. Use SERP snippets with unique features
In most cases, conversions and sales directly depend on the website’s total number of visitors. If your site is not getting enough visitors, it is unlikely to convert well.
However, your site should appear in the top three search engine rankings to get the most organic traffic. That is because the first three pages usually receive the most clicks.
But as you can imagine, ranking a page in the top three positions can be challenging – especially for competitive keywords. That’s why one of the easiest ways to get a lot of organic traffic is to place your page in a featured snippet. You can use schema markup to qualify your page for Featured Snippets.
6. Add relevant and compelling CTAs
To increase conversion rates, you need to add relevant and compelling CTAs (call-to-actions) on every page.
A call-to-action is usually added at the end of a blog post, but you can skip this template. Test different places to see which one works best. You can also use heatmap software to see how far visitors usually scroll on your page and choose the best place for the call-to-action.
However, the CTA you use must match the searcher’s intent – which you must have determined during keyword research. Otherwise, a mismatch between search intent and CTAs would result in a lower conversion rate.
7. Spend extra time optimizing meta content
As we mentioned earlier, you need more visitors to get more conversions and sales. That’s why meta-content optimization is so important. Meta content optimization offers two benefits and can contribute to more conversions, sales, and revenue:
First, keyword-rich meta titles and descriptions can assist you in ranking greater on search engine results pages.
Second, well-optimized titles can increase the organic click-through rate (CTR). That increases the total number of page visitors, which affects the total number of conversions and sales.
8. Add alt text to images
The well-known saying “a picture deserves a thousand words” stands for lots of people; however, regrettably, it’s a various tale for internet search engines. Google and Bing, as well as others, can not see photos the means we can. As a result, you need to add context (in the form of a message), so they can parse your photos and graphics. Adding alt text to your images aids online search engines in comprehending them better and also thus indexing them successfully.
Adding these short text descriptions also allows your images to be found in Google Image Search, which brings more visitors to your site and ultimately leads to better blog SEO.
To include alt text to images on your blog, double-click on the image you want to edit and fill out the “Describe this image” section under “Alt Text.” A good tip for writing good alt text is to imagine describing the image to a friend who can’t see it.
Alt text is also an essential part of web accessibility. It allows those accessing your content through a screen reader to understand your accompanying images better.
9. Engage in social media
While not necessarily known for their SEO power, social media can help get your name (and links) out there. You increase the likelihood that someone will share your content by sharing your essential, original, and well-written blog posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.
Search engines perceive this extra amount of traffic from social networks as a signal that others value your blog, which can do wonders for your blog’s search engine optimization.
The simplest method is to include a “share” button and a Twitter tweet button on your blog posts so readers can easily share them. Also, remember to share your published blog posts on your social channels.
The bottom line
Creating a perfect SEO-friendly blog post requires only a few key elements, but too many writers overlook them. It must provide users with quality information, use the right keywords, and be easy to read. With these essential elements in your SEO content, you could be gaining out on potential customers and significant visitor growth. However, if you include all these elements in your texts, you’ll create a solid foundation for your content marketing strategy that should lead to long-term search engine optimization success.
Get Started Today With My Blog Poster UK
If you’re looking for professional blog writers to help you improve your business’s online presence, we’d be happy to discuss our services with you. Contact us now for high-quality blog content and to see how you can get started.
Enjoyed this blog post? For more, please visit My Blog Poster UK.