Writing SEO blogs: 3 Tips From a Full-time Writer

5 min readSep 6, 2021

Want to write SEO blogs? Here are 3 tips to help you out from a full-time writer — aka. me!

This is how I started blogging.

I started writing blogs a few years ago when I took a “study break” from my corporate job in order to pursue my MBA degree. During that time, I spent a lot of time researching and eventually I started writing my thoughts down. Eventually, my blog posts on leadership struggles started getting views, I got more job enquiries — and now I am a full time writer (3 years and counting! Yay 😁)

Is starting a blog for your business hard?

No. It’s easier than you may think. The internet has made it easier for anyone to share their thoughts, tips and educate others through posts on social media. The good news is that you can start a blog, write and earn money — from the comfort of your home.

How to write blog articles that rank high on Google search?

Two words: Learn SEO.

S — search

E — engine

O — optimisation

Writing SEO-friendly blog posts that get a lot of traffic and people actually enjoy reading is a skill. SEO-friendly blogs require you to be smart about your topics, keywords, and the language you use to keep your readers engaged from the first sentence to the last.

The most challenging part is knowing how to balance “valuable content” for the reader and “keyword optimization”. If your content is not valuable enough and it’s stuffed with keywords, your readers won’t read it. Poor keywords-optimization, and your blog post won’t rank.

Here’s a quick glance to one of my recent blog posts traffic:

So what I’m trying to say is if you want to write SEO-friendly blogs you need to do it in a manner that feels natural and not forced.

Want to improve your blog writing & SEO skills? In this post, I’m sharing my top tips for writing SEO-friendly blog posts.

Here are 10 Tips for Writing SEO-friendly blog posts:

How to do keyword research
Solve real problems for your readers
Have a clear structure for your post
How to optimize a headline
Using H1,H2, H3 … headings
Optimize blog post length
Add internal and external links
Best SEO plug-ins for WordPress
Optimize posting frequency
Should you update old posts?

Guide to writing SEO-friendly blog posts

1. Start with keyword research

A question I get asked on Instagram a lot is this:

“Do you start with a keyword or a topic?”

My answer is a bit of both. I have a notebook where I draft ideas for blog posts topics based on things I read online.

Then, every once a month, I will look back at those ideas and do keyword research just to see whether there’s enough search volume.

If the topic is popular, I will go and read the top 3 or 4 articles that show on Google for that search term.

Next, I’ll think about whether I can add my own spin to the topic?

How can I improve these articles?
Can I include an inforgraphic?
Can I write a longer, more valuable post?
Is there new information worth including?

Most of the time, you can find ways to improve even the best articles!

Tools I use to research blog post topics:

SEMrush
AnswerThePublic
Ubersuggest

2. Solve real problems for your readers

One of the main things that many new writers forget about is creating value for the reader. I know it’s easy to think that SEO has nothing to do with sharing valuable content — but you’re wrong!

Writing blog posts has EVERYTHING to do with helping people!

Just to prove this point, let’s search on Google: “business ideas”.

The first link that comes up is a blog post.

Next, you’ll see a list of other things people search that are related to “business ideas”.

That shows that Google prioritizes content that is valuable and helps people find answers to their questions.

Make sure your title matches your content, and your content is written in a way that helps people solve a real problem. This will increase your chances to show up on Google search.

3. Have a clear structure for your blog post

A simple structure can help you optimize your blog posts for search engines.

Each blog post should have an:

Introduction (a few sentences to tell the reader what this post is about)
Body (your main points, numbered)
Conclusion (a summary of key learnings and a call-to-action)

I usually start writing the main points (body) in a notebook, then I draft a few lines for introduction and finally I write the conclusion. Then, I rewrite the points into WordPress, elaborating each paragraph as I go.

Tip: Make sure you keep your paragraphs short (3–5 sentences) so they’re easier to read.

Templates:

You can learn more about the Perfect Structure for a Blog Post in this article. Download a FREE copy of my blog post template and use it to write your next article.

Mistakes I made writing blog posts — that you can avoid!

The biggest mistake I made as a new blogger is that I didn’t research topics before writing — huge mistake! I got so excited writing about things that were important to “ME” not realising that my experience was not relevant to others. And you guessed it — nobody read them. Instead, I’d avice you to research the most common problems people face and write about that!
My first blogs were using language with an high readability score. That restricted the target audience to MBA-level and academic readers. Instead, keep your sentences short, and use simple vocabulary for grade 6–7 so more people can access the information.