Last Updated on October 18, 2017 by
Did you ever stop to think about the best way to formulate and write a blog for content marketing? Sure, we make it look easy here at Multiverse Media Group, and that mostly comes from the fact that we truly love what we do and to share our insights. However, knowing how to write a correctly optimized blog takes some skill and know-how.
Un-optimized blogs can actually harm the ranking of an entire site, so it’s important to keep in mind keyword research as it pertains to your particular industry, the minimum length your blog should be, adding all necessary tags to images via using your targeted keyword(s), utilizing title and metadata descriptions and more. Here, we’ll go into what it takes to write a ” Google-friendly” blog – i.e. one that’s OPTIMIZED for YOUR needs and industry.
Google’s Mission
Let’s begin by explaining how everyone wants to achieve better search rankings – and organic search traffic is a proven driver of business growth. The only problem is that SEO is a moving target that keeps changing and adapting, and no one wants to endure a penalty for doing the wrong thing.
In case you weren’t aware, Google keeps rolling out updates, running the gamut from Panda and Penguin to Google EMDs (exact match domain names) and just recently the PBN (Private Blog Network deindexing updates). It’s important to know that the most recent Google updates are based on Google’s mission statement, which reads:
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
To ensure your site ranks well, all content on your site needs to align with that mission…and a big chunk of that content should be well-optimized blogs.
How to Write Search Engine-Optimized Blog Articles
First, ask yourself this question: Do you know how to write a search engine-friendly blog post? If you’re reading OUR blog, here and now, you probably are looking for some more insight with regard to doing this. We can tell you from our vast experience that blogging is a great way to get the attention of Google and other search engines – indeed, if implemented correctly, you will realize that in order to rank on specific keyword phrases you should write at least one blog post per keyword phrase.
I. Use an SEO-Friendly Blog Application
When you begin your foray into Google-friendly blogging, you can start by using a blogging “platform” or “application” that is known to be search engine-friendly, such as WordPress or Blogger—which is owned by Google, so you know you’re in good hands. If you have a blog that is integrated into your website, that’s ideal because it keeps the search engine rankings on your website domain. Some key features to look for in a blogging application are:
- Having the title or keywords in the blog post URL
- Being able to edit your meta tags for your post
- An automatic submission protocol to an RSS feed
If you are not using an “AI” (Alternate Image) website, Blogger or WordPress is ideal – and, you can always turn to a professional online marketing company to handle your optimized blogging needs.
II. Learn How to Write Blog Post Content
When it comes time to actually write your blog, pick a topic that is interesting and, more importantly, related to your industry. This can be a simple announcement regarding something new your company is offering, an interview with an expert or professional in the field or your opinion or response to recent changes in your market – i.e. anything that goes against the status quo. Don’t put a piece together just for the sake of writing about something; make it interesting and useful.
Ensure before you post that you have something newsworthy or interesting to talk about. Such topics can include, once more, an interview with an expert in your industry, commenting on a news topic that other bloggers or journalists have covered, a “How To” or tutorial-esque piece that instructs others on something, new happenings at your company (expansions, new clients, new features, new products, new services etc.) and anything else that may be considered interesting and/or informative to readers.
It is important for us to note that for a while now, Google penalizes and buries pages that are written with keywords stuffed into them as well as pages that contain little or no real quality content; if you find that users are not visiting your blog posts and reading them, Google won’t want to either. Perhaps to your dismay, there is no secret to quick and easy blog writing…it all has to be comprised of QUALITY CONTENT that is OPTIMIZED for search engines.
III. Optimize for Search Engines
Now we’ll get into the proverbial beating heart of this blog topic – optimizing your blogs for search engines such as Google. To begin with, each of your blog posts should encompass at least 400 words, with an ideal length falling between the 400 and 1200-word mark with multiple headings to break up the content. In the realm of content marketing basics, it is imperative that you include your keyword phrase at the beginning and end of a blog post or article, and you should use it at least one other time somewhere within the body of the piece. Also, ensure at least one occurrence of your keyword link to your website – for example, this blog you’re reading now covers the basics of blog writing for the purpose of content marketing.
Using variations of your keyword a few times within the blog post or article is also a good idea, as this will help search engines index the piece for related keywords.
MVMG Power Example: Let’s say you’re optimizing for a chain of Daytona-based hotels…you should be sure to use keywords like “Hotels in Daytona” and “Daytona Beach Hotels” within your article.
Generally, Bing and Yahoo will index articles that are about 400 words in length, while Google looks for about 800 keywords in order to label something as “quality.”
IV. Create Your Blog Post Title
What’s important to remember here is to keep title length to about 65 characters, and while other search engines may display up to 120 characters, Google will only exhibit the first 65. As such, be concise and include your keyword phrase – if you are unsure of how long your title is, copy and paste it into a character counter to find out.
V. Write Your Blog’s Meta Tags
Using an application that enables you to “tag” your content or add meta tags is a good option here. This helps tell search engines what your article is about, with generally three types of meta tags to choose from: Title, Description and Keywords. Let’s take a quick look at each of these now…
- Meta Keywords – You’ll want to add at least five meta keywords to your blog post/article and more depending on the length, and remember: Keywords are really keyword phrases separated by commas.
- Meta Description – This is important to add because it provides the search engines a short summary of the content found on your page, appearing normally within the first few sentences on search engine results.
- Meta Title – As the most important meta tag to use, this helps search engines establish what the most important information on a certain page is. The meta title also appears on the title bar of your browser, which is visible to all of your website visitors.
A Quick List of What NOT to Do:
In your quest for creating Google-friendly blog posts, we can tell you a couple of things NOT to do: Do not overstuff with keywords, do not use any type of “rank on the first page of Google overnight” scam, and do not try to use any type of “cloaking” methods that Google will sandbox your website for.
Google is one of the most powerful companies in the world, and as such is focused first and foremost on providing quality search results that are not altered by paid “ranking schemes.” In the end, if you’re enthusiastic and informative with your original content writing, people will be enthusiastic to read and share your blogs.
