A Quick Guide to SEO-Friendly Blog Post Structure

Blogging is now an integral part of business. Whether you use a blog to share personal stories, use it to reach out to customers, promote your product, educate or for search optimisation purposes, you need to know how to make the most of each post.

Optimisation can be a pretty tricky tactic to master with Google's copious algorithm updates and constant changes. Nevertheless, knowing the basics of how to optimize your content would be a great way to attract more visitors. Before I go into the way a blog post needs to be structured, let's cover the basis with the following general guidelines you need to follow when writing for your blog.

1. Do your research - The content is the star of your blog. If your content is not good, no amount of optimising or marketing techniques is going to bring you visitors. Do your research and create content that is relevant, timely, all rounded and offers value. 
2. Write for your readers not for Google Bots - I've seen many bloggers spend too much time focusing on how to optimise their content to the point where it doesn't even make sense to the reader. They cram too many keywords, for the sake of SEO and create monstrosity that is not only unpleasant to read, but sometimes it doesn't even make sense!
3. Use keywords (sparingly!) - Following for the above point, use keywords with caution. Bots are getting smarter and just because you've included a certain key phrase 27 times in 100 word post, doesn't mean that. Read this to find out why Keyword Stuffing is not a good idea. Instead think about clusters of words and phrases that relate to your main keywords. So that if you are writing about eCommerce, repeating the word 15 times is going to be pointless, instead include phrases such as browsing, electronic purchasing, online shop, conversion rate, customer service, selling etc. The bigger your cluster of words relating to your main key-phrase, the better. This indicates to Google that your post is well thought out and covers a vast area of the subject matter. Here is great tool to help you get some keyword ideas. 
4. Length - Short blog posts are generally considered as spammy and less valuable, the argument being, if your content is short, it cannot possibly be in-depth. Aim for content that is 800 words at least. This will give you plenty of room to include your keyword clusters. 
5. Reference others (with links) - Linking to authority sites has been a successful SEO tactic for a while now. One of the key determinants of how reliable your content is the sources you have cited. Whenever possible and relevant, add links to outside sources that would add credibility and weight to your own content. Link to well known industry leaders whenever you need reliable sources. 

Now, that we've covered the basics, here is an easy to follow structure for you posts, that is bound to boost your SEO efforts. 

H1 Answer the question your readers are asking

As much as you want to come up with a clever and witty heading for your blog post, try to keep it simple. In its core, your heading (H1) should always focus on answering a question. Imagine that you are typing a question into a search engine, your heading should be the answer to that question.

Introduction:

Think about the sort of questions on your readers mind when searching for a keyword. E.g Are you looking for an e commerce software? Here is a blog post on the best softwares out there or the key features such an app should offer its clients. 

Brief answer:

Tell them what they are going to achieve by reading this post. Give them an idea of what you are going to cover.

Within the two paragraphs above use the main keyword a couple of times and also some other words from your keyword cluster. You can then embed a few variations of the keyword throughout the rest of the text. Your keyword placement does not have to be an exact match.

Explanation:

This is where you can explain the brief answer you have given. If you have said in your tittle the 5 best reasons to use a certain eCommerce application list the five best reasons here go into detail about the individual features. This would be where I would link out to the product or a high authority website that provides more information for your reader.

Conclusion:

Conclude linking the benefits back to your main keyword.

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SEO-friendly blog post structure is a product of careful thinking, research and careful implementation. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when optimising your blog posts for search engines, but hopefully these tips will guide you next time you are writing a piece for your blog.

What advice do you have for improving a blog's SEO performance? Let me now in the comments.