Advanced SEO Writing Tips for Bloggers and Other Non-Robot Folks
Every blogger and copywriter should know at least the basics of SEO writing. Search is still how most people find new content online, and if you want your message to be heard, it's important to learn some of these tips. But here are some more advanced tec
This is part of The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) series, written for humans, not robots.
Today, we’re talking about advanced SEO writing tips.
For the past month or so, I've been writing a blog series on search engine optimization for beginners.
Keep in mind that when I say "advanced," that's relative. What's advanced for one group may be basic knowledge for another.
As I've said before, I'm not an expert; I'm just a writer. And I'm sharing this to help other writers who don't speak robot language.
An SEO Refresher
I believe that every blogger and copywriter should know at least the basics of SEO writing.
Search is still how most people find new content online, and if you want your message to be heard, it's important to learn some of these tips.
Once you've learned the basics, you can move to more advanced search engine optimization techniques. (If you want to skip all the technical mumbo-jumbo, just jump to the end of this post.)
Advanced SEO Writing Tips
You can raise the visibility of your website or blog on search engines by doing the following:
Making sure you're using an SEO-friendly blogging software. I recommend Wordpress, but there are others, too.
Writing consistently. 3-4 times per week is a minimum. Search engines rank your site based on the frequency of how often it's updated. That's why blogs are so SEO-friendly in the first place -- they tend to be updated more often than more static sites.
Planning your posts ahead of time. Think about what you're going to write. Strategize and focus on keywords that are relevant to the rest of your content. Be intentional.
Keeping your articles interesting enough that people will stay on your page to read them. Bounce rates and time on site affect SEO.
Using headers and subheaders (e.g. H1, H2, H3 tags in HTML). This varies, depending on the blogging theme or style sheet you're using, but the basic idea is that you should use headers and subheaders to organize your content.
Linking to "deep content" in your website or blog, using anchor text. If you have articles on your website that represent your core message, link to them often.
Using blog post series and site categories. Increase your page rank for a particular term or set of terms by writing a blog post series or organizing articles in categories. Make sure you have a landing page that links to all of the pages for that topic.
Creating great content that people will want to link to. I find that the longer I spend on a post, the better it is (usually a couple hours per post).
Guest-blogging for other sites. I recommend doing this at least a few times per month, if possible. My friend Mike the SEO Expert says that guest-blogging for other sites and having them link back to you is five times as valuable as writing another post on your own site. Inbound links are essential.
Writing really good titles that people would want to retweet on Twitter or share on other social media sites.
Linking to highly-ranked sites. It may seem counter-intuitive to send people to other websites, but using outbound links is a great way to increase your page rank. When you link to other sites, search engines see your blog as a high-quality resource. But make sure you're linking to quality stuff.
Using photos with keywords in the titles, alt tags, and descriptions.
The Most Advanced SEO Writing Tip
If all of this is just way too technical for you, do the following:
Write like a human
Use interesting and descriptive titles
Link to other people
Have others link to you
That'll take care of 90% of your SEO. Promise.
For more of these tips, check out: The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization.
What other SEO tips did I miss that would fit into the "advanced" category?
Join the conversation by adding a comment.
*Photo credit: Steven Lilley