How To Optimize A Blog Post In 9 Easy Steps

So, you’ve written a blog? Pumped out those 600 words and feeling very proud of yourself? Good on you. Crack the champagne. Let’s celebrate.

But before we go all Frat party and get the keg in, let’s make sure that when you post that blog on your website and start enjoying all that extra Google juice, that you’ve actually done it properly. So here is my list of things to check before you pat yourself on the back.

How to optimise a blog.

1. Optimise it for a keyword phrase: There are totally awesome tools out there that allow you to find all the cool things people are asking on Google. Like this one for example. You should be using that to make sure the question you’re answering in your blog, is something that people are actually asking.
2. Get the title right: Okay, like my first point, you should have done this before you started but still, it’s worth looking at whether you should adjust it to make it more attractive to the average reader. Clickbait the shit out of it? Maybe. But at least give it a bit of ‘wow’ to make people want to read it.
3. Pick a keyword-friendly URL: Making sure that your URL contains the keyword phrase or, at the very least, helps the viewer understand what the page is about. Check out this page’s URL for example. It’s all about how to optimize a blog post so the URL contains how-to-optimize-a-blog-post. Remember, a – is the same as a space to Google
4. Own search with a good meta title: So the meta title isn’t something anyone will see when they visit the blog page but it’s very important for your search engine optimisation strategy and it’s also important to anyone who sees your result in Google. A good page title is the difference between someone clicking on your result or not clicking on it. And the keyword needs to go in there too.
5. Conjure up a snappy meta description: The meta description is almost as important as a meta title. It sits underneath the title in the search result and gives the viewer more information about what’s on your page. It’s too easy to pack this full of buzzwords but in reality, a simple, elegant sentence or two is all that’s needed.
6. Get your spelling right……and your grammar and your sentence structure. Google hates clunky sentences that go on too long and don’t really tell the reader much about what’s in it or fail to get to a point quickly. Much like that one. So keep your sentences short and snappy. Sloppy spelling makes it look like you don’t care. And if you don’t care about getting a single word right, then you’re hardly going to care about your customer’s business.
7. Learn about the importance of H1, H2, H3 and so on: Google likes structure and it likes blogs to offer that structure in the formatting. The picture below sums it up. If you ignore this structure, or do something crazy instead, Google isn’t going to like it and your blog will get less love.
   
8. Submit it to Blogarama: Blogarama sends you a lot of traffic. A LOT. And it’s cheap to subscribe. Is any of that traffic likely to convert? Welllllllll, maybe not, especially if you’re a more niche B2B brand. But if you’re a more versatile B2C brand with broader appeal, it could be a great move for you to expose your brand to a lot of new people.
9. Share the shit out of it. Then share the shit out of it again three months later. Blogs are for sharing. If you write it and just leave it there, will anyone read it? Maybe. But probably not. So share it wherever you can. On your social media. In your enewsletter. And then, assuming it’s not a time-sensitive blog, share it again three months later. And then the following year. Get your work colleagues to share it. Ask your next-door neighbour. Approach random strangers in the street. Find another business owner and share each other’s blogs.