Want more people from your audience to land on your blog posts? You can’t ignore on-page SEO (search engine optimization). If you do it right, SEO can be a gold mine for blog post traffic. And it can give you much better results than social media.
Why are you better off prioritizing SEO over social media promotion (or at least treating them equally)? Because when people use search engines, like Google and Bing, they’re actively looking for information. And when someone is actively looking for information related to your niche, they’re going to be more motivated to click on your content, read it, and convert (cha-ching!).
In comparison, when someone sees your content in their social media feed, they probably weren’t actively looking for it. As a result, they may not be as motivated to check it out. And if they don’t even land on your blog post, they definitely won’t be converting.
Because SEO capitalizes on active online searches by motivated searchers, it’s typically the best way to generate a steady stream of targeted traffic to your blog posts.
Have you ignored SEO up until now because you don’t think you have the tech skills to implement it? I’ve totally got you covered here. You see, most elements of on-page SEO are pretty simple to implement once you’re familiar with them.
Here’s how to easily implement on-page SEO for your blog posts even if you don’t have a techie bone in your body:
Ready to implement on-page SEO and get more eyeballs on your blog posts?
Download my free blog post SEO ebook.
Keep your keyword density low
When it comes to crushing on-page SEO, it’s important to get your keyword density just right.
But before we get to that, let’s talk about what a keyword actually is.
A keyword is a word or phrase your audience would use to search for the information on your post or page. For example, if I’m writing a post for photographers about the best drones for taking photos, my keyword phrase might be “best photography drone.” If I do a good job of implementing on-page SEO in my post, my audience will see my post when they search for “best photography drone” in Google.
To help Google understand that the topic of my post matches the keyword phrase “best photography drone,” I need to include it in my post. Back in the old days, people used to do this by inserting their keyword everywhere they possibly could in a post or page. This is known as keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing generally lowers the value and quality of your content. (After all, if you’re just repeating your keyword over and over again, how helpful could your post possibly be?) That’s why Google now penalizes websites and blogs that stuff their pages and posts with keywords.
So what should you do? You should still incorporate your keyword phrase into your blog post, but stick to a 1-2% keyword density. This means that for every 100 words in your blog post, your keyword phrase appears only 1-2 times. And although it can be tough sometimes, be sure to integrate your keyword phrase into your sentences naturally.
Related: How to do keyword research for blog posts in 5 simple steps + free SEO for Blog Posts ebook
Example: In my post on how to write copy for different social media platforms, the density of my keyword phrase “social media copy” is 1.5%.
Use your keyword at the beginning of your post
One of the best ways to tell Google what your blog post is about (so it can rank your post better) is to include your keyword phrase at the beginning of your blog post. What do I mean by the “beginning”? Include your keyword phrase in the first 100-150 words of your post. This will make the topic of your blog post clear not only to Google but also to your audience.
Example: In my social media copy post, the keyword phrase appears in the first line.
Include your keyword in your title
When you’re implementing on-page SEO, it’s great to include your keyword phrase in the body of your blog post. But there’s another place you want to include it too: in your blog post title.
Search engines look at your title to identify the topic of your blog post. When you include your keyword phrase in your title, it helps search engines identify the topic of your post correctly.
And one more thing: place your keyword as close to the beginning of your title as possible. It’ll give it more weight in search engine algorithms.
Related: 9 blog title generator tools to help you craft the perfect headline + 72 title templates
Example: The title of my social media copy post contains the keyword phrase.
Ready to implement on-page SEO and get more eyeballs on your blog posts?
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Give your title an H1 tag
An H1 tag is a title tag. When you place your blog post title in an H1 tag, it tells Google that those words form the title of your post.
This element of on-page SEO may seem scary, especially if you’ve never heard of tags before. But the good news is that most blog platforms (like WordPress and Squarespace) will automatically place your title in an H1 tag if you insert it into the title field of a post or page template.
Note that some themes may override this default. So you may want to check the code of your blog post to ensure your H1 tag is there.
Example: When I place a blog post title in the title field of a WordPress post, WordPress adds the H1 tag.
Include your keyword in at least one subheading
This element of on-page SEO helps you make the topic of your post even more obvious to search engines. It involves placing the keyword phrase for your blog post in at least one subheading.
Note that you ideally want to place your keyword phrase in an H2 heading. An H2 heading is the highest level of heading after the title heading (H1). In WordPress, you can make a heading an H2 heading by highlighting the heading text and selecting “Heading 2” from the heading dropdown menu.
Example: My keyword phrase appears in this H2 subheading.
Make your URL short and simple
Data shows that short and simple URLs outrank long, complex URL in search results. In addition, Google uses the words in your URL to determine how to rank your page. So when you’re creating the URL for your blog post to crush on-page SEO, keep it short and make sure it includes your keyword phrase.
In other words, choose a URL like this: www.myblog.com/best-lipsticks-2019
Stay away from URLS that look like this: www.myblog.com/the-best-lipsticks-you-can-buy-in-2019
And ones that look like this: www.myblog.com/pg3=9
Use keyword synonyms
The keyword phrase you choose for a blog post will be the main keyword you use in the post. But if you want to give your on-page SEO an extra boost, include synonyms of your keyword too. These are called latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords.
For example, I could use “best drone camera” and “best camera drone” as LSI keywords for my post on the best photography drones.
LSI keywords give search engines extra info about what your blog post is about so they can rank it properly.
Ready to implement on-page SEO and get more eyeballs on your blog posts?
Download my free blog post SEO ebook.
Write comprehensive blog posts
Data from Backlinko shows that longer content tends to rank better than shorter content. Why do Google and other search engines favour longer content? Longer content is more likely to contain enough info to be useful to people.
Think about: If you’re trying to learn how to bake a gluten-free cake, what’s going to be more useful? A 200-word post that barely skims the surface of what you need to do or an in-depth, 2000-word guide?
How long is long enough? Aim for at least 1000-2000 words, and don’t be scared to aim higher.
Example: My social media copy post contains 1424 words of detailed info.
Add external links
External links are links to other relevant and credible blogs or websites. They’re a critical element of on-page SEO. Why? They give search engines more information about what your post is about. But that’s not all. They also tell search engines that your post contains high-quality info. Lastly, external links boost the value of your posts by directing your audience to additional relevant info.
Example: I included external links in my social media copy blog post to direct my readers to more information about writing copy for Twitter.
Add internal links
When you think about adding links to blog posts, you may think primarily about external links. But internal links are just as important for on-page SEO and user experience.
Whereas external links direct your audience to other websites and blogs, internal links direct them to other posts or pages on your own blog or website. Internal links boost your on-page SEO by telling search engines that your blog contains a rich collection of related content. Like external links, they also boost the value of your posts by directing people to additional relevant info (on your blog or website).
Related: How to properly add links to your blog posts + free worksheet
Example: In the social media copy blog post, I included relevant internal links to direct my readers to related posts on my blog.
Incorporate images and videos
When you add images and videos to your blog posts, they don’t just make for great eye candy. They also help you crush on-page SEO by encouraging visitors to stay on your blog or website longer and explore it further. When people stay on your blog or website longer and explore multiple posts or pages, it tells Google that your content is top notch. And because Google loves high-quality content, it ranks it higher in search engine results.
Related: The 10 best stock photo sites for your blog or website + 15 bonus sites
Example: In the social media copy blog post, I included images to illustrate examples of effective social media copy for different social platforms.
Optimize your images
When implementing on-page SEO, don’t forget to optimize your images. You can do this by including your keyword phrase in the file name and alt text of at least one image. This gives Google yet another clue about what your blog post is about.
Example: The feature image for my social media copy blog post includes the keyword phrase in the file name and alt text.
Include social sharing buttons
Social shares don’t directly boost your on-page SEO. But they do generate more traffic to your blog posts. And when you have more traffic on your posts, there’s a higher likelihood that someone will link to your posts. (Having other sites and blogs link to your posts does directly boost your search rankings.)
Make it easy for people to share your blog posts by adding social sharing buttons to every post you publish. After all, data shows that social sharing buttons can increase social shares by a whopping 700%!
Related: The 5 best social media platforms for promoting your blog + free cheat sheet
Example: I use the free Social Warfare WordPress plugin to automatically add social sharing buttons to every blog post.
Start crushing on-page SEO today
It’s true that SEO is a long-term strategy. It does take some time for Google and other search engines to understand what your posts are about and just how epic they are.
But once you build up enough SEO credibility, you’ll get a steady stream of traffic to your blog. And the people who read your posts won’t be just any Tom, Dick, and Harry. They’ll be people who are actively searching for the content, products, or services you have to offer.
And that’s when you’ll ask yourself why you didn’t tackle on-page SEO sooner.
Ready to implement on-page SEO and get more eyeballs on your blog posts?
Download my free blog post SEO ebook.
Love this post. Never read any clearer post about SEO. Thank you! Love it!
Glad you enjoyed it, Masa!