the ultimate blog post seo checklist
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SEO Checklist Guide

Writing a blog post is an art, and it takes time to perfect it. However, there are many ways to write a perfect blog post. It all depends on what your goals are and how you want your audience to perceive you. One of these ways is through SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

The reason behind this is that it’s one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to grow your blog traffic. If you are new to blogging, then you can use this post as a complete guide for your next post.

We have prepared a complete list (SEO Checklist) of things that you need to do before publishing your blog post so that it can rank high on Google and other search engines.

“The most important thing is to make sure that the content is relevant and engaging. You want people to read what you have to say, so don’t waste time with filler…”

Want to start a blog? Read this guide: How To Start A WordPress Blog in 2022 (complete guide)

1. Keyword selection

The most important step in writing a perfect blog post is keyword selection. Your content needs to be relevant to the keywords you are targeting, and your writing style should make readers want more of your content.

Keywords are the words that people search for online when they want to find something. If you have a business website and want people to buy your products, then you need to use keywords that tell people what you’re selling and why they should buy it.

– What are keywords?

A keyword is a word or phrase that describes the content of your page. A good keyword can help target specific groups of people who might be interested in what you have to offer, while an irrelevant keyword will only confuse potential customers.

– How do I choose my keywords?

In order to choose the best keywords for your website, ask yourself these questions:

Who is my target audience? What types of problems do they have? What questions do they ask? How can I answer those questions with my business? What kind of words are those people using when looking for solutions on Google?

You can use free keyword research tools like Ubersuggest, Wordtracker, Google Trends, Keyword Everywhere Chrome Extension, and Answer the Public among others. Here is a list of free keyword research tools? 15 Best Free Keyword Research Tools For Blog Optimization

2. Use Compelling Titles and Meta Description

Search engine optimization (SEO) uses these two elements to inform potential website visitors of what they can expect from your website before they even click it. This is one of the simplest ways to optimize your content for search engine crawlers:

– Title

optimize title using Yoast SEO image

When you write a blog post, you need to ensure that it has a compelling title. A compelling title is one that is able to catch the attention of readers and make them want to read the entire post. You can use a number of strategies when writing compelling titles:

  • Use numbers in your titles. For example, if you are writing about 10 tips for great writing skills then use 10 Tips for Great Writing Skills as your title. This is because numbers are considered very powerful in marketing copywriting because they attract attention easily and make people want to read the post.
  • Use questions in your titles. Questions always make people curious about what they contain and encourage them to read more about them. For example, if you are writing about how to start a blog then use How Do I Start A Blog? as your title instead of just How To Start A Blog because questions tend to have more clicks as visitors want to learn more.

– Meta

optimize meta description using Yoast SEO image

Meta descriptions are short snippets of text that appear under each search result when someone searches for a particular keyword or phrase. These help searchers decide whether or not they want to click through to read more about a particular piece of content before they do so.

They also help Google understand why users might be clicking on certain links rather than others – and what they might expect from those pages once they get there. Make meta descriptions easy to read and understand.

3. Optimize Your Headings

Create an Outline For your Blog Post with H1, H2 and H3 heading
All the numbering is explained hereor Use “X” to locate and see all your headings

Headings are one of the most important elements of your blog post. They help readers understand what they’re about to read, and they help search engines understand what your post is about.

Headings are also an important way to organize your post into sections that make sense. If you’re writing a longer post, it can be difficult to keep everything in order. Headings help readers see that you’ve organized the information logically, even if they don’t read every word of the article.

– Tips for optimizing your headings:

  • Keep them short and sweet
  • Use H1s sparingly, but use H2s liberally
  • Use numbers instead of symbols if possible

4. Use easy-to-read formatting

The first step to writing a perfect SEO blog post is to make sure your post is easy to read. This means using formatting that makes it easier for readers to scan the text and find what they’re looking for.

– Use bullet points and numbered lists

how to number or use bullet points when editing a blog post

The best way to get your reader’s attention is by using bulleted or numbered lists. These formats can be used anywhere in your post, from titles to subheadings and paragraphs.

Bulleted and numbered lists are great for breaking up the flow of text and making it easier for readers to scan quickly through your text. They also help break up large blocks of text so that readers can quickly scan over them without getting distracted by the length of each paragraph.

– Use short sentences

Short sentences make reading easier because they require less effort on behalf of the reader and they also allow you more room to use formatting like bullet points and numbered lists (which we discussed above).

Using short sentences also helps keep your writing focused on one topic at a time, which will help keep readers interested in what you have to say throughout their entire visit on your site!

Readers don’t like long paragraphs. Short paragraphs make it much easier for readers to read without getting overwhelmed by information at once!

Suggested Blogs? (These guides will help you write long-form content in 10 minutes)

5. Do Internal Linking

how to add a link in gutenberg block editor in wordpress
highlight the link > use Ctrl+K or the circled element > Add the link > Enter (to put link)

Internal linking is a technique that helps search engines to crawl through your website and understand its structure.

Internal links are extremely important for SEO as it tells search engines about the relationships between pages on your site.

When you use internal links, Google will be able to see how all the pages on your site are related to one another. This helps Google determine what content is most important for users, so they can rank your site more effectively.

When you link to other pages on the same domain (i.e. http://example.com/blog/post-title), it’s known as internal linking.

– How Internal Linking Helps Your SEO:

Internal linking helps search engines understand what your content is about. It does this by creating a “hub page” for each topic that you cover on your site. Hub pages are pages with many links to other pages on the same site. Search engines use these hub pages to determine how closely related topics are connected on your site and how valuable they are to users.

For example, when you write an article about “content marketing,” you could link to other articles on your blog about content marketing from within that article. Then search engines would see that those two articles have something in common, and they would give them both more authority than if they were separate pieces of content with no connection between them.

6. Optimize Your Link Structure

Your blog link structure is as important as the title and the meta description. The reason is that it is also shown on the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). Another reason for optimizing it is to help Google index it for ranking potentials.

How To Optimize Your Page URL?

See the image below, click Settings Icon > Permalink. Expand the option. When you first create a blog, the title of the post is added automatically as the post link. You can optimize it by typing your own words on the “URL slag“. Make the link short and easy to memorize.

How to Optimize your Blog Post URL Structure using Gutenberg Block Editor
Learn more on the numbering here

Tips On How To Optimize Your URL

  • Use hyphens, not underscores
  • Keep it short, but not too short
  • Include target keywords
  • Use canonical tags
  • Avoid dynamic URLs

If a page’s URL is too long, hard to read, or not relevant to its content, it can affect your website’s ranking on search engines and slow down your website’s speed.

7. Add Relevant Images

how to add images in your blog post using gutenberg editor

Use an image as a visual guide to help readers understand what you’re trying to say in your blog post. The human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. That’s why adding relevant images to your blog posts can help make them more engaging and memorable.

– How To Get Free Images

Consider using stock photos if you’re having trouble finding an image that’s appropriate for your article. Many stock photo sites have free images that are available for personal use – just make sure to check their terms of service before you use them in your blog posts!

Suggested Blog? 3 Free Images Sites For Your Blog (Recommended)

– Tips on how to choose the right image for your blog:

  • Choose an image that supports your content. This doesn’t mean that every image has to be super relevant, but it does mean that you should use an image that helps tell your story in a compelling way.
  • Use high-quality images whenever possible. If you have access to high-quality images (such as stock photos), use them! It’s worth spending a bit of money on good images because they can improve the quality of your content immensely.
  • Make sure all of the images have a proper file name, description, and alt text so they’re accessible by screen readers or search engines if someone uses a text-only browser or searches for them in Google Images.

8. Make Your Content Sharable

There are many ways of making visitors share your content. One of the ways is to write quality content that is worth the share. The more your content adds value to your users, the higher chances of them sharing it.

Ok, how do they share your content? You can use a plugin like “Sassy Social Share” for WordPress. This will help you add a share option on all of your posts and make it easy for visitors to share them.

9. Optimal Lenght Of a Blog Post

The length of a blog post can vary depending on what kind of blog you’re writing for, but as a general rule, try to keep it under 1,500 words in length. Longer than that and readers may lose interest before they get to the end of your article – which isn’t what you want at all!

How to know your word count on your blog? There are many ways but the best is to type your content on Google docs and google on word count. The second way is to Use the Yoast SEO plugin and check the word count under SEO analysis.

Read this guide on how to use the “Yoast SEO” plugin to rank your blog?

Suggested Blogs? (These guides will help you write long-form content in 10 minutes)

10. Respond to comments

This is another great way Google and Other users on your website can learn that your content is great. Always encourage comments on your last paragraph or in the conclusion paragraph.

Conclusion

In the end, there’s only one takeaway I would like you to have from this post: if you put in a little time and effort, SEO can help your blog grow and develop over time. If you treat it as an afterthought or completely forget about it, then your blog will suffer.

SEO may seem difficult and daunting at first glance, but in reality, it is some of the easiest work that you can do to improve your blog’s visibility. And you’ll learn how to do all of these things as long as you do some reading – and hopefully implement some of the advice given here!

This is not all, I have also written a full detailed On-Page SEO guide and checklist for you. Make sure you visit the page before leaving.


Thanks for reading.

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog, please do give it a share. Do you have any questions or concerns we didn’t address above? Please let us know in the comments below! We would love to hear from you.

Have A Nice Day.


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