How to Write an SEO Friendly Article for your Blog

Some people think It's not that easy to write an SEO friendly article that has a good flow. But there are some things you can do to make it easier for you to write it. And you can make it an excellent read for the viewer too.

So might be wondering… how to you do it?

How do you write an SEO, friendly article and make it enjoyable for the reader?

Some simple rules will benefit your blog a lot in the search department while keeping the visitors-on-your-site department. Stick to the guidelines in this article, and you'll have no problem writing an SEO friendly article for your blog.

Using SEO powers will help your traffic zing!

You'll get more traffic, and your readers won't be stumbling over a keyword-stuffed article. It's as simple as that.

SEO Friendly Article Meaning
What does an SEO friendly article mean?

Well, it's simple. An article that is SEO optimized with keywords will help you rank higher on Google.

But let's make some things clear about how you can go about it.

For your article to rank higher on Google, or Bing or Yahoo, it has to satisfy some simple rules.

First, it has to be readable for the algorithm of Google to be indexed. Your blog posts need to be well structured for the search spiders to find it. Your article has to be well written, with relevant keywords in a format that is easy to read and scan.

If you find yourself stumbling over your words, rewrite the sentence.

How do I write an optimized SEO article?
Let's get down to business, shall we? The first thing you need to do is to research. It's pretty simple if you know some simple tricks and tools like Ubersuggest and the Google Keyword Planner.

Good SEO writers like to spend a lot of time on research, and it's essential to have a well-written article.

Doing research is an integral part of writing great content, so you know what you're writing about. You don't want to miss important parts of the writing.

First things first, find the right topic to write on. Does it relate to your brand or your blog? Is it helpful to the audience?

Make sure to include one longtail keyword in the headline. And make the headline offer a juicy benefit, a listed post, or a how-to.

There are other ways to write a headline. Those are some simple ideas.

Another thing you can look at is, has your topic been written about already? And if so…

Give your topic a unique twist and add your unique voice and perspective.

Next, create the structure of your blog post.
Use plenty of subheadings, short sentences, and short paragraphs. Make sure to use keywords and related keywords throughout the body copy of the article.

Don't stuff your article with your keywords that make it clunky and hard to read. Google knows what you're doing, you bad keyword stuffer, you.

Next on the to-do list is to create a working title for your article.

Then you can create the slug or URL of the blog post. The URL should be short and have your longtail keyword in the title.

Here's an example of an excellent keyword URL. And it's an excellent article to learn about Google Search Console.

How do you structure a URL the right way?
Let's say your working title is

5 Easy steps to wire wrap a pendant for Mother's Day.

You don't want to have your entire headline in your URL. You DO NOT want this URL. It's too long.

https://yourwebsitename.com/5-easy-steps-to-wire-wrap-a-pendant-for-Mothers-Day.

You do want:

https://yourwebsitename.com/wire-wrap-a-pendant.

You also do not want your URL to be too simple.

Like this example:

https://yourwebsitename.com/wire

You want the URL to be helpful but not so specific that nobody is searching for the title in search.

The chances are slim that someone is typing into the search "5 easy steps to wire wrap a pendant for Mother's Day." Make senses, right?

A person is more than likely typing in something like "how to wire wrap a pendant."

That's why it's essential to do keyword research upfront before you start to write.

I find it easier to have a working title when I start writing, then fine-tune and tweak the headline when the article is finished.

Next up...

Have outbound links in your article

Another great tip is to have links going out from your article

I cannot stress this enough but adding links to your article to sources outside of your blog. Linking to more significant sites is a good outbound linking strategy.

Add inbound links to your website from other websites.

If you can have inbound links coming in from social media posts, other websites, or even guest posts, all of these links can help your article rank higher.

Hubspot talks about Inbound links from higher ranking sites are the best if you can get some of those in your network. Guest blogging is an easy and cheap way to get links coming into your site from more significant ranking sites.

How long should your blog be, anyway?
Optimize the length of your blog for the indexing part on Google's end to be better. Neil Patel has a data-backed article explaining why long posts are good to have on your site.

The longer, the better.

If you write a measly 300-word article, Google isn't going to put as much value on that piece. Unless you already have a high-ranking site or you're Seth Godin or Jeff Bezos. Then Google might care a little more.

Have a Meta description on your blog
Here's a good meta description from Keto Keuhn Nutrition. See how she gives more detail about the recipe? Awesome, Abby! I can't wait to eat some.

Your Meta Description should be on point like the example above. It's well known that an optimized meta description will bring in more readers.

You can write your meta descriptions any length you want, but Google cuts them off at a certain point. Here are some more meta description examples.

The meta description gives a summary of your article. So if you write a clickable meta description, it can help you get a web browser to click to read more. Meta descriptions are usually are around 150-160 characters.

Have great images on your blog
Visuals help to move readers along, so they're not blasted with an intimidating wall of text on their phone or computer.

This guy has nothing to do with SEO, but he's got a fantastic looking latte. And everything at his coffee shop table is perfectly organized. OCD, anyone?

Compressed images are best too. They help increase your site speed. If you're ever waited too long for a webpage to load, you probably bounced off the site.

Here's a free tool to compress images.

Use branded graphics.
If you add in graphics, having them branded with your fonts and color schemes, it helps people learn to recognize your brand.

My favorite tool to create graphics is Canva. There's a free and paid upgraded version. I LOVE the premium features.

Keeping things consistent will help you become more well known in your niche. Notice how I use the same fonts and colors most of the time on my blog?

SEO Writing
Images, and meta descriptions, and tags, and more are essential.

Excellent writing and structure are critical if you want people to read what you've got.

And SEO helps you get the traffic.

Both are critically important because SEO drives traffic, which can increase your brand's awareness, build loyalty, and increase sales if you're promoting a product or service.

And transit means more money (as long as you have something for sale).

But to be a great SEO writer, you'll also have to practice writing.

It's like working out your muscles. The more you work out your brain's writing muscles, the better you'll get.

Write a lot.

Another thing… the SEO part of writing isn't hard to master. It just takes a little know-how. The tricks that we spoke about in the previous sections are helpful to get more traffic to your site.

SEO and good writing will help bring your site traffic.

Let's repeat it...

It's all about the reader.

And having a well-optimized article that's well-written (for the reader) is the real winning combination.

So how should we master the art of writing great content that is SEO friendly?
Do your keyword research first.
Then read it.
Edit it.
Read it out loud.
Then edit it again.
The more editing, the better.
Using this article as a guideline works wonders, and you can also download the Ultimate Blog Post Checklist.

SEO Article Structure
The structure of an article is critical for Google to help people in search find you. It's all about that—the structure, and of course, the writing.

Keep mind that having well-structured headlines is a must-have.

Writing your headlines before you write and after is a game-changer. Because writing a rough headline with a primary keyword, in the beginning, gives you a starting point to crank out a blog post.

Writing is a fluid process. Your ideas may change throughout the article. So you might need to change your headline.

Heres the SEO blog post recap.
Have an intro.
Use subheads.
Write a title, then write it again when you're done (multiple times is even better).
Have a descriptive meta tag with at least one keyword in it.
Use relevant keywords in the body copy.
Keep the reader in mind.
Write. Edit. Repeat.
Add graphics and images.
Add inbound and outbound links.

Don't forget your conclusion, either. You want to sum up your article in a tidy little summary at the end— like I just did. Sneaky, right?

And last but not least, for your article to flow, make sure you read it out loud helps you find hard-to-read sentences. And if you don't have it yet...

Grab the Ultimate Blog Post Checklist today!