When it comes to writing content for your website’s blog, it’s important that it actually gets seen. By having your blog ranked on page 1 of Google, you are more likely to attract readers to your site. If you are new to blog writing I would suggest you read Writing Blogs for Business Owners first. However, here are some tips on how to write blogs that rank on page 1 of Google.
Write about niche topics
When deciding on the subject of your blog post, think of a general topic first, before narrowing it down to something more specific. For example, you might decide that you want to write about how social media can help you to promote your business. You could then make this more niche by writing specifically about how the features of Instagram can help you to spread the word about your business, e.g stories and the shopping page.
By targeting specific topics that people want to learn about, you are benefitting both yourself and your readers. You can find ideal niche topics for your business by conducting a search on forums such as Quora, looking at Google’s ‘searches related to’ section or looking at keyword suggestions in SEO software.
Utilise keywords and phrases
Keywords and phrases are really important when writing blog posts, as these are essentially the terms that people will be Googling in order for your post to appear. The longer the phrase, the fewer Google results there will be. For example, when you google the term ‘digital marketing tips’, there are 674,000,000 results. However, when you google a more specific term such as ‘digital marketing tips for Instagram’, there are only 274,000,000 results.
Using longtail keywords like this means the Google search will be less competitive, meaning that your post is more likely to appear higher up the rankings. If you use your chosen keywords and phrases within the title and first 100-150 words of your post, it helps Google to decide how relevant your post is in regards to a search query.
Create longer posts
Writing longer blog posts allows Google to understand what your blog is about, as well as providing you with more SEO opportunities. HubSpot suggests that between 2,100 and 2,400 words is the most ideal length for a blog post. However, it’s important not to overwhelm your readers with too much text. To prevent this, make sure sentences are of a suitable length and keep paragraphs short and snappy. You could also include bullet points, as these are easy to read and are great at grabbing people’s attention.
Write a precise meta description
Meta descriptions are the short paragraphs underneath the title of a search result and essentially sum up what your post is about. Remember to keep it short and to the point, and use keywords relating to your business. For example, if you were a marketing company from Yorkshire, you would make sure to include the terms ‘marketing’ and ‘Yorkshire’ in your meta description.
Use an SEO plugin
SEO plugins are great for helping you to fully optimise your post. They’re really easy to use as they give you suggestions of things that you can do to improve your post’s ranking, such as including outbound and internal links, keyphrase length and image alt attributes. Once the targets have been met, they will turn green. Don’t worry if some of them remain orange, as posts can still rank on Google. Two of our favourite SEO plugins are Yoast and RankMath. All you need to do is download the plugin, activate it and start optimising your post.
Add internal links
Internal links are links to your previous blog posts. Incorporating these is a great way to have your blog post ranked high on Google, as it gives extra value to your content, as well as helping Google to understand and verify your site better. When adding internal links, make sure that the link you are using is relevant to what you are saying. Use this as an opportunity to expand or reiterate your point, rather than advertising your products or services. For example, if you had written a post about how to promote your business on social media, you could provide an internal link to a previous post about the best times to post on social media.
Final thought…
So these are some tips on how to write a blog post that will rank on page 1 of Google. Although it might take some work and it won’t happen overnight, it’s certainly worth it. By using these techniques, you are sure to increase the amount of traffic being driven to your site.
Want to learn more about how to write a successful blog post? Don’t forget to check out 17 Big Blogging Bloopers to Bypass.
Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments if you have any other tips on how to write a blog that will rank highly on Google.