How to Write Search-Engine Friendly Blog Posts

You can find a ton of information online and off about how to “search engine optimize” (SEO) your blog posts. Yet, Google constantly changes its algorithms and rules making it difficult to know if you are turning out search-engine friendly content or not. If you aren’t a techie or simply want to blog or to blog your book, this whole aspect of writing for and on the internet can feel quite distracting and intimidating.

I’m really not a techie although people think of me as a blogging expert. (I know a lot and can do a lot when it comes to blogging, but daily I’m reminded of how little I know and actually can do.) I try to apply as well as to teach what I learn or am learning.

Recently, some “tips” others taught me and some basic things I know should drive traffic to my site backfired when Google changed their algorithms yet again. I hadn’t done anything “wrong,” but it took someone—actually several people—who knew much more than I do about SEO to explain why what I had done caused my traffic to drop drastically on one of my blogs.

This experience reaffirmed what I did know: Content remains the key to SEO.

Write Posts Google Will Love

Here’s the thing: Knowing a ton about keywords and links, indeed, is hugely helpful for optimizing your site. I will not deny this fact. However, if you don’t know anything about it, and you don’t want to know anything about it, you can write posts that Google will love by doing these three things:

1. Focus your blog on one topic.
2. Write posts that revolve around that one topic.
3. Write great content on your topic.

In other words, don’t stray too far or too often from your topic once you’ve chosen it. Always write on about your topic in some manner. Do a good writing job.

3 Keyword “Tricks”

You don’t need to know anything about keywords to put three keyword tricks to use that help you write search-engine friendly posts.

• Put a keyword or keyword phrase in your title.
• Put the same keyword or keyword phrase in your first paragraph.
• Put the same keyword or keyword phrase in the description of your post.

To do this, consider your keyword the topic you are writing about that day. What is your blog about? Answer that question with 1-4 words (a keyword or a keyword phrase).

For help with this type of really simply SEO, use WP SEO by Yoast. It’s a free plugin that will help you do those three things with each post you write.

Write Great Content Often

Beyond this, it all comes down to writing great content, blog posts that provide your readers with what they want or need. It doesn’t matter if you write fiction or nonfiction; this is key when it comes to writing search-engine friendly content. If you want to learn more about this, go on over to Copyblogger.com.

My simple suggestion: Stay on topic, don’t try any spammy techniques and write great, authentic content often that serves your readers. The more often you write, the more often Google can catalog that content. That means you have more chances of rising up in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

If you are on topic, your writing will be filled with the search terms people who want to find you are using in the search engines. And your site should optimize itself. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t use some help from an SEO expert. (I just got some help.)

How a Blog Plan Helps SEO Your Blog and Blogged Book

One way to ensure your blog and your blogged book are focused on a topic and produce SEO-friendly content is to produce a business plan before you begin blogging. By honing your idea using the “proposal process” I outline in How to Blog a Book (and on this blog), you increase your likelihood of creating content targeted to your subject (and to your desired reader). This process works for both creating a blog plan and a book blogging plan.

If you want to learn more about building a business plan for your blogged book, consider registering for my Author Training 101 course. Learn more by clicking on the graphic below.