Introduction
If you’re a blogger, you know that writing great content is an ongoing process. You can’t just crank out articles about every topic under the sun and expect them to rank well with Google. That’s why it’s important to have a plan for your blog posts from the very beginning—and one of the best ways to do this is by starting with your keywords.
Create a spreadsheet;
To keep track of your keywords, create a spreadsheet that contains a separate column for each keyword. For each website, you manage, create a separate spreadsheet.
Before diving into the meat of your content plan, it’s important to figure out which terms and phrases people are using to find information related to your business. You may use this as inspiration for blog posts or other types of content.
Identify one Main Keyword for Each Blog Post
Once you have a keyword in mind, it’s time to define it. Defining your keyword will help you:
- Identify the right audience for your content
- Find search volume and competition data
- Analyze keyword trends over time
- Measure click-through rates of past content pieces on the same topic
The best way to define your keyword is to think about what you want people to do when they search for it. For example, if you sell baseball bats, the keyword “buy baseball bats” isn’t going to help much. But if you use a more specific keyword like “buy wood baseball bats online” or “best wood baseball bats for kids,” you can start identifying keywords that are likely relevant to your business.
Use Variations of your Main Keyword
You can use variations of the main keyword in your blog post. For example, if you’re writing about how to get a good night’s sleep, you could also use “get a good night’s sleep, how to get a good night’s sleep, and tips for getting a great night’s rest.” You can also use synonyms (different words that mean the same thing). For example, instead of saying “How To Get A Good Night’s Sleep Tips & Tricks” – what if I said, “Tricks And Tips For A Great Night’s Sleep”?
This is called semantic search optimization which means that it helps Google understand what your page/content is about better because there are more variations of the main topic being used. It also gives people who are searching for similar topics more options when looking for articles like yours on google newsfeed results pages (which are optimized for people who don’t have time to read every single word on each page).
Incorporate keywords into your SEO titles
- Keywords should be naturally incorporated into your content. For example, if you’re writing about a new restaurant in town, you can put the name of that restaurant in your post title and then incorporate it throughout the body of the article.
- Make sure to include keywords in your first sentence and last sentence of each paragraph. This will help search engines understand what the topic is for each paragraph so they know how to categorize it when spiders crawl through your site.
- Use keywords appropriately in Meta descriptions as well, such as putting them at the beginning or end so they’re easily seen by users who are scanning them with their eyes instead of reading every word carefully before deciding on whether or not they want more information about what’s being discussed!
Integrate keywords into the URL of each blog post.
Use keywords in the URL of each blog post. The URL is the web address for your blog, and it’s typically found at the bottom of each post. You’ll want to use a keyword or phrase that relates to your blog topic, whether it be a rhetorical question or something else relevant to what you’re writing about. For example, if you’re writing a post that talks about why people should go vegan, including “why should I go vegan” in this part of the URL can help with search engine optimization (SEO) since Google and other search engines will recognize this as being related to your content and rank it higher than other articles on similar topics that don’t use those same words in their URLs.
While there is no universal rule for how long these strings should be, we recommend using four hyphens between words (such as
“why-should-i-go-vegan”) or dashes instead if possible (like “why–should—— I ——-go—-vegan”). If these options aren’t available on your platform then underscores are another option; however, they may not always work depending on what software/service provider you’ve chosen for creating content management system (CMS) friendly URLs
Write great content;
- Write useful, relevant content that is readable and easy to understand.
- Make sure your content is grammatically correct.
- Use the right keywords in your content, Meta tags, URL, and so on…
Having a Solid Content Plan;
One of the most important steps in creating a content plan is to define your target audience.
- Whom are you trying to reach?
- What do they want from your business?
- How do they want to receive information from you, and how often?
The answers to these questions can help you build a solid plan around what would appeal most to them. For example, let’s say that you own an auto repair shop in Florida and want to attract more customers. One way might be through articles or videos about DIY car maintenance tips that could appeal specifically to other Floridians who have cars but do not have much time and money for repairs. You might also consider using tools like Buzz Sumo to see what type of content has done well for similar automotive businesses in the past; maybe there are certain industry events worth attending, or thought leaders worth interviewing who could provide helpful insights on topics relevant across various sites within your industry (such as advice on buying new tires).
Conclusion
And that’s it! This is a simple plan that can help you improve or maintain your SEO rankings. But it doesn’t stop there. You should also be constantly monitoring your rankings and adjusting based on what works and what doesn’t work for them.