You are able to distinguish good writing from bad. You can read content as it pertains to your business and your brand and you can understand very quickly if the right messages are in the content. The question is whether you can tell if the content is optimized for the search engines, which is also very important to your professional success.
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How To Create an Optimized Blog Post[/caption]The importance of optimizing your blog posts
First and foremost, if you have been paying any attention at all since the dawn of social media and the success of the Internet, you must understand the importance of blogging for your business. If you are just beginning to blog and to get your online efforts in order, you may be a little confused about where to start. It would be wonderful if you had someone to walk you through it. However, if that is not an option, you will have to manage it on your own. It is very important to remember that optimizing your blog posts begins with keywords or key phrases. The next step that you will need to take on your journey to writing optimized blog posts is choosing an exciting and appropriate topic. You will be motivated by a few reasons to choose the most exciting topic possible. The first reason is that you are trying to reach your target audience on an emotional (or human) level. If you can connect with them in that way, you will successfully start to build a relationship. Building a relationship with the other person is the only way that you will be able to eventually sell your products and/or services. The other important reason for choosing the most appropriate, compelling topic is for the purposes of the search engines. The bottom line is that if you don't rank high on the search engine pages, nobody will find you. If nobody finds you, you will not have the opportunity to build relationships with the members of your target audience.
You have chosen your keywords or key phrases
Once you have identified your keywords and/or key phrases, it is time for you to write a kick-ass title. Your title really needs to grab your target audience and it needs to entice them into continuing to read on. It is very important to keep in mind that every blog title that you create must have at least one keyword or key phrase in it. On the other hand, it is critical to remember that you should never stuff your titles with too many keywords or key phrases. You must do it in a sensible, appropriate manner. Your title should convey what your blog post is about and it will help you to write an effective, successful blog post that other people will want to read and want to share. You should include two or three keywords or key phrases (and not more than that).
The body of your blog post
There are certain guidelines that will help you to keep your blog post appropriate. As far as the length of the blog post is concerned, you should try to keep the blog at between 500 and 1,000 words. That may seem like a lot of words but once you start to develop a writing pace, it will be easier than you think to come up with a blog post of that length. Hopefully, you won't experience writer's block but if you do, there are many different places from which you can draw inspiration. If you choose topics that excite you, your excitement will come through and excite other people as well.
Make sure to use anchor text
Anchor text is text that has been hyperlinked to your website. The link should lead your readers to a specific page (and section) on your website. It is important to remember that your hyperlinks should be few in number and it is most appropriate to put them in the second half of your blog post.
Include graphics in your blog post whenever possible
If you can, whenever you can, you should include some sort of graphic element in your blog post. It is important to remember that many people are visual and your blog post will have a much more positive effect on them if they have a graphic image on which to focus. There are many free images from which to choose online. However, it is very important to make sure that whatever you are using is truly free. Otherwise, you may run into copyright issues and it may end up costing your money.
Offer an incentive in your blog post
It goes without saying that the quality of your content must be top-shelf. However, it can also be very effective if you offer some sort of incentive to your readers. People love that and they will respond positively to whatever you are offering them. People generally love to feel that they are getting something for free.
Use tags
Tags in a blog post are very important. Your tags will allow your article to be found by other people. It will also make searches easy and efficient. There is no limit to the number of tags that you can include in your blog post. The more, the better.
Include a call-to-action
A call-to-action is extremely important in your blog post. It is picked up by the search engines and it is the only way that your target audience members are able to interact with you. Without that, you will never see or hear from them, which doesn't make any sense.
Conclusion
Optimizing your blog post is critical to the success of your business. What makes a successful blog post is not just one thing. It is all of the components that work together as a well-oiled machine and the results can be extraordinary. Remember to do keyword research before you do any of the writing and you can't go wrong.
Guest Post By Carolyn Cohn
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