If you’re writing a blog post you want people to see it – here’s 10 tips on how to make sure that happens by getting them ranked on Google and engaging people on your site.

Get your title right

There are three keys to a good blog post title:

• Keep it under 60 characters – it will usually form the Page Title, which in turn forms the first line of any Google ranking.  Any longer and it won’t fit.
• For this reason, include a key phrase you’re trying to rank for, but make it natural and don’t just ram it in there for the sake of it.
• Make sure it’s engaging and makes people want to read it – only 20% of people read beyond a title.

Using heading tags

Large amounts of text can be off-putting in a world where we’re all busy.  If there’s plenty of text then break it up with the use of heading tags – as we have done in this blog post.  You do this in an html editor by placing <h4> before and </h4> after a heading.  The number can be any number between two and six depending on the styling on your site but make sure it isn’t an H1 as there should only be one of these on your page.

Formatting your text correctly – spelling and grammar

Google is getting clever! It’s not going to like spelling mistakes or text talk so make sure someone proofreads your blog posts to ensure they’re spot on.

Use imagery

If you add an image your blog post will be one of those that benefits from a 96% increase in click throughs as a result.  Try to include a key phrase in the file name of the image and also give it a description in the Alt Tag box when you upload it.  This will increase its chances of appearing for a key phrase in Google image search.

Inline linking

This is when you link certain words within your text to another page of relevance.  So for example, if this post included the words ‘helping businesses in Devon with SEO’ we would take those words and link them to our SEO page.

This activity gives context to page linking and makes it easier for search spiders to quickly move from page to relevant page.

Have a site map on your site

If you’re not sure if you’ve got one then ask your website developer.  Site maps are essentially a roadmap for Google and tells them where all of your pages are; having one will help your blog content be found quicker and more easily.

Reference your site map in your robots.txt file

Another question for your developer; have you got a robots.txt file on your site? This is a small file that tells search engines which pages to go to and which to give a miss.  If you have one then it should reference your sitemap with a line as follows:

Sitemap: Insert your sitemap URL

If you don’t already have this make sure it is added to your site.

Original content

All of your content has to be original for Google to value it, so if you’re copying and pasting from anywhere then stop it immediately! It was frowned upon at school and it still is now!

Remember that humans read it!

Don’t stuff it full of key phrases as when us normal humans come to read it we’re going to be terribly confused! People get obsessed with key word density but in reality if you’re talking about a subject you are going to mention it.  Case in point – we’ve used the word ‘blog’ seven times in this post without giving it a second thought.

Give it a call to action

So our last point isn’t going to help your SEO, but it will help you get enquiries.  If there isn’t a call to action at the end of your post then you’re missing a trick.  So not wanting to do that, here’s ours…

If you need help or advice on your SEO then please give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us on hello@mihidigital.co.uk