Blogging Best Practices for SEO
1 - Conduct Keyword Research:
Keyword research forms the foundation of effective SEO. Identify relevant keywords and phrases that align with your blog's content and target audience. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find keywords with a high search volume and manageable competition. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your blog posts, headings, meta tags, and URLs to increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
2- Optimise On-Page Elements:
On-page optimisation involves optimising various elements within your blog posts to make them more search engine-friendly. Pay attention to the following aspects:
Title Tags: Craft descriptive, keyword-rich titles for your blog posts. Place the most important keywords closer to the beginning of the title.
Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions that summarize the content of your blog post and entice users to click through. Include relevant keywords naturally.
Heading Tags: Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content and make it easier for search engines to understand. Incorporate keywords in your headings where appropriate.
URL Structure: Create clean and concise URLs that include relevant keywords. Avoid long, confusing URLs that offer little context.
3 - Create High-Quality and Relevant Content:
Content quality plays a significant role in SEO. Focus on producing valuable, unique, and well-researched content that resonates with your target audience. Ensure your blog posts are comprehensive and engaging, and provide solutions to users' queries. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout your content, but avoid keyword stuffing, which can harm your rankings. Aim for longer-form content as it tends to perform better in search results.
4 - Optimize Images:
Images can enhance the visual appeal of your blog and improve user experience. However, they can also impact your website's loading speed if not optimised properly. Compress your images without sacrificing quality to reduce file sizes. Additionally, use descriptive alt tags that include relevant keywords to help search engines understand the content of your images. Alt tags also assist visually impaired users who rely on screen readers.
5 - Build High-Quality Backlinks:
Backlinks are an essential element of off-page SEO. Acquire high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites to signal your blog's credibility to search engines. Reach out to other bloggers, industry influencers, or websites in your niche for guest posting opportunities or collaborations. Additionally, create valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks from other sources. Building a diverse backlink profile can significantly improve your search rankings.
Although not as meaningful to Google, backlinks from listings on online directories can help drive traffic to your website.
Check if your professional association or suppliers have directories to list you as well.
6 - Improve Website Speed and Mobile Responsiveness:
Website speed and mobile responsiveness are crucial ranking factors. Optimise your blog's loading time by minimising unnecessary plugins, compressing images, and leveraging caching techniques. Ensure your blog is mobile-friendly and displays correctly on various devices. Squarespace provides mobile-responsive templates by default, but it's essential to test your blog's appearance and functionality on different screen sizes.
7 - Monitor and Analyze Performance:
Regularly monitor your blog's performance using tools like Google Analytics or Squarespace Analytics. Track important metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, average time on page, and conversion rates. Analyse the data to identify areas for improvement, popular content topics, and user behaviour patterns. Use these insights to refine your content strategy, identify opportunities for optimisation, and stay ahead of the competition.
Checklist when posting a blog:
Use headings and bullet points throughout the blog for those that want to skim read it and also google picks up heading text before the body text
In Settings:
Add tags and categories - See the lesson below for best practices on this
Add featured image
Add Excerpt
Amend post URL and shorten if needed
Enter SEO title and description and ensure keywords and phrases are used but make it user-friendly too (not just random words)
Add a social image and check the alignment is right
Add a location (doesn't need to be where you are, just areas you are targeting to get clients)
