Here at The DMA we train people in SEO for WordPress. Lots of techniques and things to remember when you’re writing on you blog. Sometimes it can all be a little too hypothetical. Today I’m going to share a very simple and practical method to ensure that your On Page SEO and ideas around Semantic Keyword Research are taken care of for every blog post as you write it.
Sometimes I write directly in WordPress or I write in a Word Processor or Note Taking app and then transfer it to WordPress later. It does not matter how you work you can implement these ideas.
How to structure a blog post for SEO
What I like to do is create a simple outline of the blog post that is to be written. Here’s the format that I use.
The outline should cover these 4 items:
- the draft title of the blog post
- one or more themes (subjects) to be covered
- keywords that relate to each of the themes
- questions that will be answered
It doesn’t have to be complex, perhaps you simply write it out on paper or type the ideas at the top of blog post as you create it. Either way works, I think the import thing is to have it with you to refer to as you write. This process makes you stop and think a little about what you’re creating. In doing so you can get much of your blog post’s SEO ideas pulled together quickly, as you write it.
While each of these items may be obvious, let’s dive into them in a little more detail.
Blog post title
I deliberately put the word draft in that point. Reason being that I find that sometimes as I write more I may change direction a little. Meaning that the original blog post title needs a tweak to ensure it’s reflective of the content.
While I’m advocating simplicity here you might at this stage look at some tools that help you write titles. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser is a great tool to help you craft better titles for your posts.
Semantic Keyword Research – setting your themes
Modern SEO is not just a matter of lucking on the keywords that Google likes. Google understands the meaning your content, the context that those keyword find themselves in.
Taking a couple of moments on this allows you consider your options, perhaps conduct a little research on related topics / themes that would work well with you subject matter.
If you’re not that familiar with this concept in an SEO context check our WordPress SEO training course, we cover this in detail.
Here’s a quick example for a fictitious blog post, titled “How to avoid buying a lemon car”.
Covering all of these topics in the blog post would really set the scene for Google to understand what the blog post is about.
SEO keywords
Now, for each of the themes that you have, you’ll create a list of keywords. These might be from previous research that you’ve done for your site as a whole. There might be some new ones in there specifically for this blog post. Perhaps a quick Google search can reveal some ideas that are specific for this particular post.
Again, you’ll then have this list to refer to as you write, keeping you on target as you go.
Questions that will be answered in your content
A lot of searches conducted on Google are questions.
- Why is the sky blue?
- What is on page SEO?
- How to structure a blog post for SEO?
Google wants to solve problems for its users. Understanding this is how search works in the real world is important. Then working on your WordPress blogs so that they answer questions, solve problems for users, this will benefit you site’s rankings.
A real world example
I am writing this on the way back from WordCamp Europe, words from 35,000 feet! Even so, I followed my technique, the same one that I have documented here for you. Take a look at my blog post outline below, check it against the content of this post, you’ll see how it relates.
Use this method for you writing, over time you might tweak it little to fine tune a system that works for you.
Good luck!