The Beginner's Guide to Finding Killer Keywords for Great Blog SEO.
Do you feel put off by writing blog posts because the perfectionist in you wants it to be SEO-friendly, but you have no idea where to start?
Maybe you have the Yoast plugin for WordPress—or a similar SEO tool—that you use, but feel like you’re making things up as you go to make it turn green?
Wanting your blog to be discoverable is natural, especially if you’re blogging as a small business to promote your products or services. But finding the right combination of keywords for your blog posts is actually easier than you think! Once you get into a good routine, writing posts that come to the top of search engines will be easy as pie!
By the end of this blog post, you’ll no longer be tearing your hair out at the prospect of optimising your blog posts for search.
(Note: I’ve focused this post specially on keywords for blog writing, but it can easily be transferred to finding and applying keywords to your general website too!)
Let’s dive straight in with my first tip:
Write like a human
Hear me out—using trending keywords is great and all, but if you're just adding them in arbitrarily at every opportunity in hopes to rank on Google, it's not going to look or sound good.
While it’s important to use keywords and terms that people are actually searching, you want to make sure that your posts sound natural and like you. Don’t bend over backwards to add words that don’t make sense in your blog post. General rule: if it doesn’t sound natural when you read it out loud, axe it.
The basics of keywords in blog posts
To rank well in search engines, it’s important to use both short and long keywords that match terms that people will be searching for when they are seeking education, entertainment, inspiration, or something to buy.
Using keywords strategically in your blog posts helps search engines prioritise your posts and flag them as relevant to the people using those search terms.
You should aim to include two types of keywords in your blog posts:
Head keywords: Shorter keywords with a large search volume (eg. ‘blogging’). These keywords target a wide audience and help search engines identify what your content is about, but are usually more difficult to rank on.
Long-tail keywords: More descriptive search terms with multiple words (eg. ‘How to write a good blog post’). These keywords target more niched-down search queries, so will be a lot easier to rank on.
Start by brainstorming a list of keywords depending on the subject of your blog post
Write out a list of words and terms people may search for to find your content. The more you can think of the better—factor in your target audience, your niche, terms your competitors might use, and synonym/related words.
I like to look for head keywords on Google itself by randomly searching my keywords and seeing what else comes up. For long-tail keywords, websites like Moz Keyword Finder and Answer the Public (my personal fav) are also great to see what people are searching for (which, in turn, is great for adding to your subheadings—more on that later).
Here are some things to consider:
Target audience: who do you want to attract to your blog post? What do they do? What are they looking for? It might help to ask other people, like friends or coworkers, what they would search if they were looking for a blog post like yours.
Your brand: List words that describe what your website and brand are about, like your products or services , your industry/niche, and anything else that you want to associate with your brand.
Competitors: Take a look at your competitors' websites. What words do they use? What words do they avoid? What words do you search for when looking for their sites?
Synonyms and related words: Think of alternative ways of saying describe the keywords on your list. You can also type the words you've come up with into Google and see what related searches it suggests.
Then you want to narrow down your list of keywords so that you have a mix that is:
Broad enough that people will actually search for them.
Specific enough that you could potentially rank on the first page of search results.
Relevant to not only your blog post but also your general website, so that you can create a cohesive visitor experience.
As you draft your blog post, structure it with headings and subheadings for easy skimming
Though we all hope that people will hang onto every word of our blog posts, the reality is that our attention spans are getting shorter. People who stumble upon your blog post will likely skim it to find the information they're looking for, so it’s important to organise your blog post in a way that easily separates out different sections of text. This is also helpful for search engines as they scan your content to analyse how relevant it is for certain search terms.
As a general rule:
Structure your pages so that Heading 1 (H1) headers are at the top and other heading sizes (ie H2, H3, H4 etc) descend as you scroll down the page.
Headings and subheadings should be unique—don’t use the exact same text for multiple headings.
Keep headings as short and to the point as possible.
For body text (aka the paragraphs):
Try to include your target keyword as early on in the sentence as possible.
Repeat keywords throughout the body text a few times (if it makes sense to do so).
You can mix up the order of the keywords, as well as use related words and synonyms.
Add links to your other content (ie. other pages on your site or related blog posts) but only when relevant. When adding links to your own content, make sure the text you're linking from is relevant. For example, linking the words "contemporary fiction books" is better than "click here."
Beware of keyword stuffing
In the past, search engines' emphasis on keywords led people to overload their blog posts with them—this is softened referred to as "keyword stuffing." This is not only off-putting to readers, but can also work to your detriment as search engines have become more sophisticated, and can penalize you for this. Focus on a few essential keywords and integrate them into clear, human-readable text.
As a general rule of thumb, you want your keyword density (the number of times it appears on a page) to be around 2-3%.
So for example, if your blog post is 1000 words long, you should aim to use your keywords 20 - 30 times. You wanna prioritise sounding like a human first and foremost, though, so don’t worry if you don’t hit this exact ratio.
When will I see results on my keywords?
Remember that SEO is a long game, so you won’t see results overnight. Keyword optimization is a long-term, ongoing process, and ranking depends on many factors, including current trends and how visitors interact with your site.
For best results:
Focus on providing good content and using keywords strategically.
Track your keyword performance by using analytics tools on your website or Google Analytics to help fine-tune your strategy over time.
Know that it's normal to see peaks and valleys in rankings after making changes to your site.
Remember to write for humans, not robots
The goal of a search engine is to connect people with blogs and websites they find relevant and compelling, which is why they are always being optimised to mimic human behavior. By writing clear, coherent posts that readers find useful and easy to navigate, you're also optimizing your blog posts for search engine algorithms. Before you hit publish, read your blog post out loud to see if it sounds natural, or better yet, have a friend or peer read it for you and relay their feedback.
Key takeaways:
Focus on providing good content that people want to read.
Use SEO tools like Moz Keyword Finder and Answer the Public to help you find what people are searching for.
Separate your post into easy-to-read sections using headings and subheadings.
Aim for a keyword density of around 2-3% your total word count.
Track your keyword performance by using analytics tools on your website or Google Analytics to see what’s performing well and fine-tune your keyword strategy over time.
As you write more blog posts, you’ll get the hang of the process of finding keywords and integrating them into your posts much easier with time. As long as your primary focus is providing A+ content that educates, inspires, or entertains your target audience, you cannot go wrong.
Happy blog writing! I hope this post makes finding targeted keywords that bit easier. For more exclusive copywriting tips that makes writing for your business that much easier, consider signing up to my super cool newsletter for super cool people. Rest assured, it’s not just marketing 24/7 over there—we learn AND we have fun here!
