There are sev­er­al SEO rules you need to fol­low to opti­mize a blog post for search engines. In this arti­cle, we’ve cov­ered the best prac­tices to help search engines bet­ter under­stand what is your post about to increase chances of rank­ing high in SERP.

Choose your keywords

One arti­cle should focus on only one key­word that con­tains at least two words. Three-word key­words and long-tail key­words con­tained of 4+ words are an excel­lent choice.

Do a quick key­word research. Choose the main key­word to build your con­tent on and LSI key­words (Latent Seman­tic Index­ing) to include in your text copy. You can find a list of LSI key­words by enter­ing the main key­word in a search engine and scrolling down to the bot­tom of SERP results.

Check on your competitors

Before writ­ing the arti­cle, you should always check your com­peti­tors first. Enter your key­word in a search engine and take a look at first 10 results in SERP. If the results you get are com­ing from high author­i­ty domains with long, in-depth and well-opti­mized arti­cles, it means your com­pe­ti­tion is very strong, and it might be bet­ter to choose a dif­fer­ent focus keyword/phrase.

After you choose a less com­pet­i­tive key­word with decent search vol­ume, read com­peti­tors’ arti­cles and make sure to write a bet­ter one; with unique con­tent and qual­i­ty information.

Distribute keywords throughout the post

Once you’ve cho­sen the right key­word you have to dis­trib­ute it in strate­gic places:

• wrap the key­word in your title/H1 tag (if your title isn’t an H1 tag, ask your devel­op­er to change it to H1) — keep the title between 50 and 60 char­ac­ters long because search engines will cut off longer titles
• use the key­word in the URL
• start your arti­cle with the key­word or at list use the key­word in the first sentence
• insert the key­word in some of the sub­head­ings — H2 and H3 tags
• use the key­word sev­er­al times in the text copy, but do not overuse it (it’s best to keep the key­word den­si­ty under 2%)
• sprin­kle a few LSI key­word in the article

Keyword based post tags

In Word­Press, you have the option to add tags to each of your posts. Our rec­om­men­da­tion is to add 1–3 key­word-based tags to your post. Use the exact focus key­word and some vari­a­tions of the keyword.

Tags will not help your post direct­ly to rank bet­ter in SERP but will add addi­tion­al URLs that may be dis­played in SERP. Instead of one result for the focus key­word, you might get 2 or more results and increase chances of some­one click­ing the post.

Optimize your images

Since search engines can­not read them, you have to opti­mize images for the focus key­word:

• choose a key­word-based descrip­tive file name — divide words using hyphens instead of underscores
• scale the image dimen­sions and com­press the file to reduce its size — large image files can increase the page load speed which is one of the rank­ing factors
• wrap your key­word in the alt tag
• match the image descrip­tion with the sur­round­ing content

Write a custom meta description

Meta descrip­tion is a part of the pre­view snip­pet which search engines dis­play in SERP. It is the text shown right under the snip­pet title and URL.

Based on the qual­i­ty of the title tag, URL, and most of all, meta descrip­tion, searchers decide whether or not to click your result. Take your time to write an appeal­ing read­er-friend­ly meta descrip­tion. Include your key­word in the begin­ning and fin­ish with a call-to-action.

Bear in mind the meta descrip­tion usu­al length is between 145 and 165 char­ac­ters. Some­times, Google might dis­play more, even up to 372 char­ac­ters but the best prac­tice still is to keep meta descrip­tions short­er or, if you want to write longer descrip­tions, put the most impor­tant mes­sage in the begin­ning. Oth­er­wise, search engines might cut it off.

Use internal and external links

Link inter­nal­ly when­ev­er you can. Opti­mize a blog post by using a descrip­tive key­word-based anchor link that will point to oth­er rel­e­vant pages on your website.

Use exter­nal links once or twice, to high author­i­ty, rel­e­vant pages, only when it adds val­ue to the reader.

Optimize a blog post by improving its readability

To make sure your post is easy and pleas­ant to read, use these guidelines:

• break the wall of text with head­ings and sub­head­ings, use numbered/ bul­let­ed lists, quotes
• keep sen­tences short and clear, under 20 words when­ev­er possible
• use tran­si­tion words when pos­si­ble, espe­cial­ly in long sentences
• avoid pas­sive voice
• style impor­tant parts of sen­tences in bold and/or italic

These sim­ple rules are all you need to opti­mize a blog post for search engines. After opti­miza­tion, do your best to dis­trib­ute the post to your social media chan­nels and rel­e­vant web­sites that are will­ing to share your content.