Writing good quality and unique content is one of the first basic steps you would take towards ranking your posts in search engines. Search Engine Optimization is the art of tweaking good quality and unique content in a manner that is in line with search engine guidelines. Content that is of good quality, unique and searchable – tends to linked to and shared thereby increasing its overall popularity.
Here is a SEO Checklist for Blog Posts that we follow while writing our blog posts. It looks at basic On Page SEO factors that are critical to ensure that Search Engines can understand what your post is all about and rank them in high positions in relevant search engine result pages (SERP’s).
1) Use of Keywords
a) Use of Keywords in Title Tag – A relevant title will help your readers know what your blog post is about. The same is true for search engines as well, as they give priority to the keywords that are in title tag and treat it as one of the most important basis for ranking posts in relevant search engine result pages. Another point to be noted is that Google displays 66 characters of a title tag, cropping to complete words in SERP’s.
So, you should ideally enter the keywords you’re targeting in your title tag within 66 characters.
b) Use of keywords in Permalinks – A Permalink is the URL of your post. An effective URL is one that includes the relevant keywords & is search engine friendly. Ensure to use a clean URL which is free of common words like “as, is, a , there, for” etc and focuses mainly on your keywords. You can use the plugin Clean SEO Slugs to achieve this.
c) Use of Keywords in Meta-Description – The Meta Description tag is a brief introduction of your post / topic you’re writing on. This is the place where you will pre-sell your post to your potential readers and entice them to click on your URL. The maximum length that is displayed by search engines is 150 characters, so keep it short, crisp and make sure to include the keywords you’re targeting.
d) Use of Keywords in Images – This is one area that is overlooked by many webmasters. This can be an excellent source of traffic to your blog if you add the alt tag to your images that include the relevant keywords. You can use the SEO friendly Images WordPress Plugin to achieve this.
e) Keyword Density – Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. It is also an indicator for the relevance of a page for a specific keyword or phrase. Ensure to maintain Keyword density for your posts between 3% – 5%. You should also try and mention the targeted keywords in the introductory paragraph or within the first 50-100 words as search engines take this under consideration. You can use Keyword Density Checker WordPress Plugin to achieve this.
2) Interlink Your Old Blog Posts
Interlinking your old blog posts has overall SEO benefits for your blog. It also helps reduce bounce rate of your blog and adds value by providing more information than they originally required which helps you build a relationship with them.
Although not a comprehensive SEO Checklist for Blog Posts, we follow these steps to try and rank our blog posts high in search engines.
We’ll be glad to hear your views, thoughts on this checklist. It would be great if you could also let us know what on page SEO factors have you included in your SEO checklist for your Blog posts?
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You Should Also Check Out
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- The Importance of Backlinks for Your Blog & SEO
- Importance of Keywords in SEO
- Importance of Deep Linking in SEO
- Add Alt Tag for Images Smartly with SEO friendly Images
- Benefits of Using Two Sitemaps for your Blog
- Importance of Keywords in a Domain Name
- Visible PageRank Vs Real PageRank
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Very precise, easy and detailed post on the basics of SEO on-page optimization, Sandeep.
The only thing I would respectfully disagree with is keyword density – doesn’t matter at all. I can rank for a keyword without ever mentioning it in the body of the post.
Ana
Hey Ana – Great to see you here & Thanks for your comment.
Although not the most important factor as part of the seo checklist, it helps bots determines how useful the page is for users
I mainly spend time in interlinking to my old blog posts…..this way my old posts come to life again
@ Salman – Thats great to hear
Sandy – Good advice. I would also suggest front loading your keywords at beginning of the title if it does not diminish the value of the title. The keywords at the beginning of the title signal to the search engines the subject of the post. Don’t spike a great title just for the limited SEO benefits of front loading keywords, but it is something to keep in mind.
@ Sandy K – Thanks for your visit & comment.
Something to keep in mind while writing the titles
You have covered everything we need to check on seo before pressing the publish button. I feel you have missed out the use of heading tags and using keywords in it.
@ Mukundan – Thats a good point you’ve put across.
It’s all about great content and proper use of Keywords, isn’t it? That’s really what everyone should be doing and although I won’t abandon complete Keyword density as @Ana mentioned, I would not give it too much importance as there is always a great risk of stuffing rather than spreading it around properly. Now if you can use “sub-headings” with your main keywords, that’s something else
@ DiTesco – Yes, it’s all about great content and the proper use of keywords.. I really like your idea on using subititles as keywords, that’s an awesome idea.
Thanks for this great tip!
..Introduction to a Blog Post A blog post is the most important part of your blog. Your posts are the entries that take up at least 75 of the screen space on your blogs site.
A great and comprehensive post
I am new at SEO, but here is a tip that I know: You should use your keyword inside h1,h2 & h3 headers, and you should also make sure that it is underlined, bolded, & italiced
Don’t know if it is true or how significant it is though..
Hi Hezi – Yes, You’re right – guess i missed those points while writing the post.. thanks for mentioning about it
You welcome!
It is good to know that I am doing something right
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