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Optimizing your blog posts is very important, as this ensures you get higher search engine rankings. This exercise is fairly simple, yet can prove extremely difficult for those who don’t know where they’re headed or what they should do. It’s not enough to cover a topic you’re passionate about and begin writing excitedly. When your blog posts are properly written and optimized, it makes your website more visible to anyone looking for answers on Google, using the particular keywords associated with the products and services you’re selling. So, here are seven things to have in mind before you begin writing any of your blog posts. Have all of them covered and you’ll be giving your posts (and website in general) greater visibility.

Create the structure of the blog post

Build your post into outline headings that satisfy the searcher’s questions and other related queries. To do this, you’ll need to think like a Google user. Remember, Google takes note of a searcher’s behavior from the moment they click on your content. For instance, they take into account how long site visitors spent looking at your post and if they were able to find what they needed. This will help promote your future posts if they are seen as being high quality. Do not over promote, but focus on creating accessible content by adopting a simple structure for your post. Basically, every post should include an introduction (that spells out what it’s about in simple terms) as well as the body, which carries the points of the post, and finally the conclusion, which summarises the entire post. The latter should help the reader get the gist of the body.

Choose a good title for your post

Writing a good blog title is important as far as search engine optimization is concerned because this gives Google an idea of what your post is about. This is where Google search is different from a synapse search. The former almost always throws up something, no matter what you search for. It does not require a .desktop file for example, whereby you’re searching to pull up results that contain only words. A good title should include the keyword you’re aiming to find and should accurately describe the post. Also, make the title sound interesting so that users will be tempted to click on it and don’t use topic tags that are too similar; you could actually be penalized for uploading duplicated content.

Link to previous content

If you’ve previously covered the topic you’re currently writing about, it’s important to link to it, as this shows you are an authority in this field. This is related to the way your post structure is important to the user because they might find your other posts equally helpful in understanding a singular idea. This method will also reduce your site’s bounce rate, as it will keep the user on your website for a considerable amount of time, browsing the relevant posts.

Also, it contributes in helping search engines understand what the page entails, as adding a link to the post leave no doubt as to the topic of the content. This is the reason why Wikipedia seems very satisfying to users: you can land on a page and leave, having gleaned all the information you required. So, craft your posts this way and you’ll see them ranking highly. The same applies to linking externally to other blogs and sites.

Write original content

You might think it’s okay to collate content from other blogs and slap it on to yours. However, posting content that has been published elsewhere online will get you nowhere. Rather, sit down and craft your own ideas in your own words. Generally, you’ll be providing answers to questions that haven’t been answered before online. Therefore, it’s safe to say that your post will show up on search engines and enjoy high visibility once a user Google searches the relevant keywords. However, there are conditions you have to meet in order to avoid being penalised for duplicating content if you choose to re-publish previously published blog posts.

Optimise the length of your article

Search engines (especially Google) like lengthy articles. When creating your posts, guide them around a minimum of 300 words and don’t make them too lengthy, as this will scare away searchers who are looking for answers to their questions in a short time frame. Therefore, they won’t have time to read through a post beyond 1000 words. If possible, aim for around 700 words in total. Longer posts receive more ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ on social media, since they seem to carry extra information on a given topic.

It’s almost impossible to find a topic on which no one has written about before. So, you’d be competing with many other posts. Therefore, optimise the length of your article to be a little longer.

Proofread properly

No matter how good a writer you might be, you’re bound to make some mistakes. Most are harmless in themselves, but can be quite embarrassing – especially when they appear in more than one place. Users want to know they’re reading an expert’s thoughts and can trust that the content was well researched and reliable. Simple mistakes here and there defeats all that, no matter how strong the content is. Therefore, check your post for readability. Some punctuation errors render the post unreadable and that will subsequently affect your ranking.

Install Social Sharing Plugins

If you’re using any of the popular Content Management Systems like WordPress, it’s important to install social media plugins. This will increase the chances of your post reaching a lot of people through promotion. No matter how strong your content, it’s difficult for it to go viral without the help of social media promotion.

Conclusion

The days when all kinds of tricks helped your posts and sites rank high have been and gone. Today, good content is what rules.Such content doesn’t end with what you’ve written, but how you’ve written it, as well as the measures you’ve put in place to make sure it reaches the targeted audience.