Beginners Guide to Writing SEO Friendly Blog Posts

1. SEO Friendly Title

The ideal title length is up to 55 characters.

The title of your blog post is a Search Engine's and reader's first step in determining the relevancy of your content, therefore, including the main keyword here is vital.

**Do you have a long title? **

When you have a lengthy headline, it's a good idea to place your keyword in the beginning since it might be cut off in search results towards the end, which can take a toll on your post's perceived relevance.

You can preview your title and meta description with this simple tool, by Portent. Just enter your desired title and meta description and you can get a glimpse of how it will be shown in Google search results.

More resources about titles:

How to write meta title tags for SEO (with good and bad examples)

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic

2. SEO Friendly Meta Description

The ideal meta description length is up to 158 characters or 920 pixels. A good meta description will include main and secondary keywords.

The meta description has to be interesting and click-worthy. The copy matters a great deal for click rates - the more engaging it is, the better.

The meta description is meant to give the search engines and readers information about your blog post's content. Feel free to use your long-tail keywords in the meta description, so Google and your audience are clear on your post's intent.

Note: Nowadays, it's not guaranteed that your designated meta description will be displayed by Google. More and more, Google has been choosing other parts of the blog posts to appear as a meta description. It does not mean that you shouldn't invest time in creating meta descriptions, nonetheless.

Read more about meta descriptions: How to create the right meta description

3. SEO Friendly Headings

The ideal headings length is up to 55 characters, like the title tags.

Use H2 headings and H3 headings with keywords in your article.

Headings improve readability and add structure: they split your content into bite-size informational paragraphs. Readers can easily skim through the copy until they get to the ideas that interest them.

In addition, Google often picks up on listicles, bullet points, and headings to use them as featured snippets in search results (if you are lucky!)

Read more about headings and featured snippets: HubSpot’s Guide to Winning Google’s Featured Snippet

4. SEO Friendly Keywords

Focus on one to three keywords per blog post: the main keyword and a few supporting related keywords. This way, you support your goal to rank specific pages in Google.

Mention your keywords at a normal cadence throughout the body of your post and in the headers. Include your keywords in the copy, but only in a natural, reader-friendly way.

Whenever you create content, your primary focus should be on what matters to your audience and not how many times you can include a keyword in the content.

Read more about keyword research: How to do Keyword Research for Content Ideas Using KWFinder

5. SEO friendly Alt Tags

An image's alt tag tells search engine crawlers what an image is about. It improves accessibility for people with poor vision, who are using screen readers.

An alt tag is displayed inside the image container when an image can't be found. An image title tag, on the other hand, is shown when a user hovers their mouse over the element. It won't be shown to the user when an image can't be displayed.

Each image that you upload to your blog post should have a clear name, and the alt tag field should be filled with a keyword-friendly word.

Read more about alt tags: What is Alt Text?

6. Internal Linking Strategy

Try to interlink all your related content, which helps Google crawl the website better and improves your linking relevancy and structure.

Link at least once to another closely related blog post. It is good to link to other two or three high authority websites that bring added value to the article, as long as the links are not direct competitors.

In general, it is best to have one or two links tops in each paragraph. You don’t want to overwhelm the reader with extra information that will make them abandon your article.

Read more about linking strategies: Neil Patel’s Guide to Internal Linking

SEO Friendly Content-Length

When writing SEO friendly blog posts, it’s worth remembering that Google is getting more and more ‘human’ in the way of understanding user intent and high-quality content.

Many marketing studies show that investing in long articles with 750 words or more is going to drive more traffic and engagement to your blog.

In conclusion, keep calm and write in-depth SEO friendly articles, and may your long-tail keywords always rank favorably in Google!