How to Write the Perfect Blog Post in 2023
Publishing superior content on regular basis is one of the easiest ways to dominate the Google rankings for your industry/niche.
In this guide, you'll learn a researched and battle-proven formula for writing SEO-friendly content that consistently ranks on the first page of Google.
Follow it keenly.
1. Choose the right topic
Your topic should:
a. be related to your niche
b. have a decent search volume
c. be one where you have a chance to rank
Pro tip: Use WordStream's free keyword research tool to identify keywords with high potential (low competition, high search volume).
2. Nail the search intent
Ask yourself "What do users expect to see when they search for this topic?" and ensure that you blog answers this.
3. Create an outline of your article
Pro-tip: Use the Chrome Extension "Detailed SEO Extension" to see the outline structure of the top 5 results on Google for this topic.?
Model your outline so it covers all possible angles of your topic.
4. Add an FAQ section.?
Use the "People also ask" section to generate FAQ ideas.
5. Create a great title
The title serves 2 purposes:
a. Keyword optimization -- ensure the focus keyphrase is present in the title so that the article can rank better on Google.
b. Get people to click on your article and read your content.
Headline tweaks to increase your Click-Through Rate (CTR):
6. Intro paragraph
The goal of this paragraph is to entice your reader to read the rest of the article.
Don't fluff.
People engage when their emotions are engaged: Entertain, Educate, or Scare the reader into reading the rest of the article.
7. Subheading optimization (H2, H3, etc.)
The goal for each heading is to answer the question posed by the heading.
Pro tip: write within Surfer's content editor. Surfer compares your content to articles on page 1 and suggests better words/phrases for you to use to increase your odds of landing on position 1.
8.?Link to authoritative websites
Cite your sources, especially for data or any other claims that require supporting evidence.
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9. Write in a NLP-friendly tone
Echo back the question within your answer, and use a word such as "is" to indicate that you're addressing the question.
E.g. for the search query "What is the best time to move house?", your content should say, "the best time to move house is mid-month because of..."
10. Readability hacks
a. Write your content in simple 1-2-sentence paragraphs.
b. Break the monotony of text by using images and graphics.
c. Size headings appropriately to anchor the eyes as they scroll
d. Use custom graphics to illustrate your points.
e. Use call-outs to draw attention to key content.
f. Embed videos that will keep people on the page longer once they're played.
g. Resize your images before uploading
h. Keep your content simple to read: minimize jargon, avoid complex sentences. If you're writing for a technically sound audience, adjust your writing to fit them.
Pro tip: Use a Flesh-Kincaid difficulty tool to analyze the difficulty of reading your content.
11. Conclusion
Your conclusion should do either of 2 things:
a. Summarize the main points of the article: A lot of readers often skim an article until the conclusion for the key takeaways
b. Make the reader take the action that you want them to: Take this opportunity to include a low-cost (in terms of time or money) Call-To-Action.
12. How long should your blog post be?
Compare the word counts of other blog articles in the same niche and tailor your word count appropriately.
13. Proof-read your work.
Error-prone work looks sloppy. Use a tool like Grammarly.
14. Upload your blog post
15. Add structured data (schema) to the article
Use Schema to quickly tell Google what your article is about.
Use a schema markup generator (plenty of free ones online) to generate the schema code.
Once ready, paste the code into the HTML editor of your blog page.
16. Interlink existing pages to the newly published blog article
This increases the website's topical authority for the topic being linked about.
17. Set the Meta Title and Meta Description
Use the same title created in point 5.
Use a short descriptive meta description and ensure that it contains relevant keywords so they can get highlighted in search results.
18. Refer to this guide every time you write a new blog post
?? Matt Diggity