Search Engine Optimization is undoubtedly an important term for marketers and bloggers. When you optimize your web pages, blog posts, you are making your website visible to a large number of people.
To help you in improving the reach and readability of your blog post, we are here with the SEO Checklist for blogs. Do not miss a single detail and don’t push the publish button without following this SEO Checklist.
Let’s have a look.
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Perform Keyword Research
SEO is a bunch of small tasks for creating engaging content. The first thing from this checklist is to know the keywords to use for optimized content. You can find these keywords with Keyword Research.
With keyword research, you can plan your content according to the targeted keywords rather than fitting the keywords into your content.
You can use tools like Keyword Planner, Google Analytics, Ubersuggest or Answer The Public.
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Optimize Blog post for Your Keywords
Optimizing your blog post for keywords does not mean incorporating too many keywords into a blog post. The ranking factor that Google now prioritizes is that your content must be with the intent of your visitors.
The most important rule is to focus on long-tail keywords. Why long-tail keywords? Long-tail keywords keep your blog post specific to your audience. It is most likely that post including long-tail keywords will get more visitors.
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Make the Perfect Title for Your Blog Post
The first impression is the last impression. So, your headline is the first thing that attracts visitors to your website. It is vitally important that your headline should be informative and catchy. People click on it to read the complete blog post.
You can pose a question; include a specific number to create a headline. Be sure that you include your main keyword in the first 60 characters of your title. If your title is lengthy enough, use the keyword at the beginning of the title. Keep the title compelling but accurate. This is the key to attract visitors to the site.
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Write a Compelling Meta description
The meta description is the short description of what your blog post content includes. So, you must include long tail keywords in the Meta description that will be visible to the search engines and your audience.
The ultimate goal of Meta description is to get users to click the title and go through the entire article.
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Make unique URL
URL also helps search engines determining what your post is about. You must include one or two main keywords in your URL. For SEO friendly URLs, your URL should be kept between 50-80 characters.
Write effectively formatted and optimized Body.
A blog post with good information is good but the one with the formatted content and search-engine friendly are highly appreciable.
Don’t write content in the form of a large block of text. Break your content into smaller paragraphs with proper headings.
Use bullet points, numbered list or italics to highlight the important points into your blog post instead of writing points in the paragraph.
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Add SEO ready and optimized Images
A picture is worth a thousand words. This goes well with your blog post too. Using images into the blog content will complement your written content.
For search engines, your post should not only contain images but the images with the alt text. Using images with the alt text will help the user understand what the image is about.
Your post must include featured image that is fascinating and draws the attention of the readers.
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Link to Internal content
Interlinking is the important key for SEO. It holds the users into your website by visiting more and more blogs. This can be done by linking other content into your blog post.
Interlinking helps search engines to find your content faster and gives an understanding about site structure. The most important thing about interlinking is to avoid linking too much to homepage or contact page of your website. Only add links where they are relevant. Use proper anchor text while interlinking.
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Link to External Content
External links are as crucial as the internal ones. Including external links means you are offering your reader the opportunity to explore the topic further.
It also helps to improve SEO ranking of your website as Search engines use external links to check the relevancy of your blog post. But do remember; do not link your content to the bad sites as it can harm your site.
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Add clear Call to action (CTA)
To draw traffic to your website or to generate leads, add a clear call-to-action to your blog post that draws the readers’ attention.
A CTA can be included in the blog post in the form of a highlighted link, a button or any signup form like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Signup for a Newsletter’ etc.
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Proofread Your Blog Post
It doesn’t matter how strong your grasp on your writing is. Mistakes can happen by anyone. So, it’s better to proofread your blog post before you finally hit the publish button.
Proofreading is an important part of writing. It helps you catch the mistakes before publishing the content.
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Finally, Hit the Publish Button
After you are done with the complete editing and proofreading of your blog, hit the publish button to make your blog post go live and reach to a large number of audience.
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Share your post on Social Networking Sites
To reach a large number of people, share your blog post on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter. You can schedule your post to get shared on these platforms.
Alternatively, you can use images to share blog posts on social sites to attract more visitors.
These are the few items on SEO Checklist which every Blogger should follow to get high search engine ranking. Identify the intent of your readers and use these SEO practices to grow your website ranking.
Aarif Habeeb is a content writer and an SEO expert in Jaipur. He is a Founder of an IT startup DigitalMarketingCrab – A Digital Marketing Company in Jaipur. He is responsible for brand-building via content and social media for his agency. His success lies within his originality and hands on experience in editing and writing. Aarif lives in Jaipur and loves his early morning filter coffee, dessert gazing and reading newspapers. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
