Blog post optimization for SEO | StepThree™ to StepFour™
Ok, let's get back into this. You have done the hard part which is writing the article. Now you need to do the important part which is to ensure perfect blog post optimization for SEO! To write and not put some effort in here is simply crazy. The whole point of your blog post should be always to organically rank and create great reading for your existing audience. If this is not your goal then I am not sure what you are actually writing for but that's not my issue so got nuts.
Here are some simple steps to ensure that your article is going to be optimized for SEO and I'll explain some terms along the way to make it simple.
What is a H1 heading?
The H1 heading is simply the title of the article. Within WIX it is automatically going to do this for you which is great. It is amazing how many websites people forget to even add a H1 heading. The H1 heading tells google the main point of that page and is the first thing it crawls. I have included an example below of one of my websites that clearly points out the H1 heading and the intent of the page which for this page is "Real Estate Virtual Assistant"
If the H1 heading is going to be the title it is best practice to make sure the keyword is at the start of the title rather than the end. This will help slightly with your rankings also.
What are H2 Headings?
H2 Headings are simply subheadings. They are going to tell google at each point throughout the content what the article is about. they do not carry as much weight as the H1 however still very important.
Why you should always name your images?
This is probably one of the biggest things people forget. On Google, you do not just get found by your content you can be found by your images or even your videos. We are not talking about VIDEO yet and we will get there. Now let's just focus on the images.
All your images should be named with your desired keyword at the front. This will over time ensure that even when someone is looking for images that your article will be found. Super simple to do and surprising how much this one little bit of effort will contribute to your success.
Does your paragraph length affect SEO?
The answer to this is yes. If you can keep your paragraphs between 80 and 150 words this is ideal. To do this can be a bit difficult and I must say I ignore it regularly and still rank pages easily that is quite difficult. It may have some effect but not huge. So my advice is if you can keep to the rule do so, but if you go a bit over or under don't sweat it.
What should you put as your Page Title?
The page title is what you will see on the browser tab when the page is open. This is pretty simple. Make sure your page title has your Keyword in it at the beginning. This is the golden rule here. Any secondary words you may wish to rank for can come after your keyword.
You can see here what I did for this page, keyword at the front and then other things I would like to get picked up.
Your Meta description is way more important than you think!
The meta description is the most important 155 characters you will write in your life hahaha. Well maybe a little overstatement but its pretty dam important. It really serves a few purposes. the first thing you need to know is the same rule applies, which is always try to include your keyword to the front of the sentence. the second part not many people actually think about. the meta description becomes an add really in google so it should have a call to action. This is going to dramatically increase your click-through rate. It is no use being on page 1 but having no one click through.
How does Google know your new article exists?
The good thing about WIX is you just need to tick the box and that is it. However, if you are using another web platform you may need to actually manually index the page using google search console. This is super easy as you just pop in the link and submit. Google will crawl and index the URL. This is the speediest way and will help the article get there sooner rather than later. The other thing to consider here is if this page is going to be a major part of the website that you ensure that it is included in your sitemap. This is very easy to do.
Schema mark up?
I am not going to pretend I am an expert here but I will try to give you an understanding of what it is and for. I have seen in Wix that it looks fairly simple so I will give it a try. Essentially you need to highlight content within your page that answers questions in google so that you have a shot at getting a featured snippet. More to come on this!
Last but not least page speed and usability
Google wants all users to have a great experience for them to show your page to the audience. So you need to make sure that the page itself loads quickly and not only that, that it is easy to use on mobile. 89% of traffic these days comes from mobile so you will need to have two versions of your website and images. Mobile and desktop. This is very important.
I am sure there are a few things I have missed here and I do not claim to be an SEO expert however I am an expert at wading through all the bullshit in SEO to find what works and keep it simple. There is a lot of stuff that simply doesn't matter. Stick to these fundamentals and you will have yourself more success than you think with getting your articles to rank.
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