How To Create Blog Content That Ranks In Google- Quick Tutorial
In order to get your blog posts noticed by the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo you must follow a specific formula to make this happen.
You wouldn’t believe how many people get this wrong, which is why they generate little to zero organic traffic.
In this post we will go over exactly how to create blog content that ranks in Google so you can put yourself well ahead of the competition.
If you haven’t started a blog yet, you may want to check this post out.
Now let’s get into it!
1.) Keyword Research- Look For Long-Tail Keywords
The starting point to any successful piece of blog content begins with keyword research. Using tools like Ubersuggest (free), Google Keyword Planner (free) or MOZ Keyword Explorer (paid), you’ll want to start generating a list of a few keywords per blog post. Remember to try and focus on long-tail keyword phrases as they are less competitive and easier to rank for. Long-tail keyword phrases are generally 3-5 word terms, sometimes longer. See example below:
- This post you’re reading right now is targeting the keyword “How To Create Blog Content“…but it’s also targeting “Create Blog Content That Ranks In Google“. So with one long-tail keyword phrase, I’m actually targeting two different keywords. These will be less competitive compared to for example, “Blog Content” which is incredibly general…Does this make sense?
Just like anything, the more you practice the art and skill of keyword research, the better you get at it. When starting out just get used to compiling some keywords together based around the specific topic you’d like to write about. Don’t try to find the “winner”, instead grab around 2-4 that may be good candidates to target.
2.) Make Blog Posts 500+ Words Long
Now that you have your keyword(s) mapped out, it’s time to start writing your blog post. It’s essential that you do not take shortcuts here. You always want to publish the highest quality content possible. So with that being said, make sure your blog posts are at the very least 500 words long. I personally have seen the best results when I write my blog posts over 1,000 words long. Long-form style content tends to rank much better in Google from my experience.
Google favors websites/blogs that have a sufficient amount of content published. If Google sees two websites competing for the same keyword (say 350 words vs. 1,000 words) and both are blog posts, Google will pick the one that has more quality content to rank higher. Get into the habit of ensuring your blog posts are over 500 words but eliminating any fluff as well. You want your blog posts to be in-depth and valuable content for your readers.
3.) Copy Optimization/Internal Linking
Once your blog is written, you’ll want to make sure it’s optimized properly with your target keywords sprinkled in throughout the content. This gives Google a better idea of what your blog post is about and gives it more authority from an on-site SEO perspective. Do not just stuff your keywords in here though, make sure they ready naturally and are placed strategically in your post. Remember that creating blog content that ranks in Google is just as much for real humans as is it for the search engines.
You will also want to add a handful of internal links to other relevant blog posts or pages on your website. Google encourages webmasters to guide visitors to other helpful content on their site. It helps people get around better and also spreads some ranking power (link juice) from page to page. Try to add 2-3 internal links per 500 words or so.
4.) Write Proper SEO Tags (Yoast)
A crucially important step is ensuring that you write proper SEO tags for each and every blog post. This really lets Google know what your article is about and which keywords you are targeting. To learn more about the specific SEO tags check out my post here: How To Do Simple Search Engine Optimization. These tags will contain your most important keywords and will create a strong SEO foundation for that page. Listed below are the main keywords you should focus on (remember to check out my post above for more details on each SEO tag).
- Title Tags (60-70 characters long)
- Meta Descriptions (155-160 characters long)
- Header Tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.)
- Image ALT Tags
A great SEO plugin if you use WordPress is Yoast. They make it incredibly easy to implement SEO tags for each and every blog post you write. It’s important to take your time on this part of the blog creation process as writing properly optimized SEO tags could mean all the difference in getting floods of organic traffic to your content or none at all. See screenshot below of how Yoast looks when optimizing your tags (this is showing your Title Tag, URL slug and Meta Description).
5.) Link Building to That Specific Post
A more advanced but incredibly powerful strategy to really set yourself apart from the competition is to build quality backlinks to your specific blog post(s). The best way to do this is through guest posting, where you would reach out to other relevant websites in your niche and find out if they’re interested in a guest blog post from you. You would then write a quality article for their website and embed your blog post link (using specific anchor text) and send it off for publishing. This is how you build natural and quality backlinks to your website/blog posts.
This strategy can give you a huge boost in terms of search engine rankings and many times is just what you need to cement yourself at the top of the search results!
6.) Consistency
Last but not least it’s important to be consistent in your overall blogging strategy. You need to realize that not every blog post is going to rank super highly in the search engines. Some will do great and others not so great, which is why you need to continue to publish quality, fresh and unique content. At the very least you should be blogging once per week. That’s four blog posts per month. Can you handle that? If you can do more that’s even better, just make sure you’re not sacrificing quality. Stay patient, remain persistent and results are sure to follow.
That about wraps it up and to be quite frank this blog post that you’re reading is a good example of what you should strive for. It’s targeting a specific keyword(s), it’s over 1000 words long, it’s properly optimized with internal links, SEO tags etc., and eventually I will build natural backlinks to it through guest posting.
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Are you already using this formula? Let me know in the comments section!