Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Blog [Blog Writing Series #6]
Part 1: Ideas & Research for blogs. Part 2: Frameworks. Part 3: Actually writing. Part 4: Bonus Blog Elements. Part 5: Editing Your Writing.
Alright, my friends. By now you’ve come up with an idea, picked a framework, done the writing, added bonus content, edited it, and you’re ready to optimize it before publishing. Killer stuff.
If you’re just blogging for fun and have absolutely no desire for anyone on the internet to organically stumble across your writing, then you can ignore this step. But I’d argue that you’re silly and missing a key part of the fun.
More than ever before, this is where we really get into the part of blogging that is intended to help your blog perform as well as possible on Google and other search engines. This process is called SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is exactly what we’re about to do, but much of it can be thought of us Human Optimization (although calling it a Ho isn’t quite as appealing…).
Google is so complex that even its engineers don’t fully understand the algorithms it runs (at least no single engineer could). What this means is that, for the better of everyone who uses the internet, there’s no way to cheat the system. This is a common thread in all marketing that I hammer home.
As we work on optimizing our content, it is best to think of people first.
How would a human react to this title, description, etc.? If we can make something that appeals to them, Google will be able to pick up on it in so many subtle ways, and it will reward you by helping you rank higher.
At a glance, here are the things we’re about to cover in optimizing your sparkly blog:
How to write a catchy title
How to write a compelling snippet
Proper image protocol
Keywords & search intent
Cross-linking to other posts
Having a strong URL
Optimizing also for mobile
Including a CTA (Call to Action)
We’ve got a lot to cover! Let’s get started.
How to Write a Catchy Blog Title
This could be an entire post in itself! Instead I’ll aim to cover the basics and leave you to use your judgment on the rest.
We never want to veer into the territory of clickbait, but the thing we can learn from clickbait is how it drums up an emotional response in the reader’s head.
Our goal is to write something so interesting, so compelling to our target market, that they would be idiots not to click and see what you have to say.
Easier said than done, of course. And it’s important that this is the goal for our target audience: it might not necessarily blow our minds, but it should blow the minds of our readers. Lastly:
It’s just vital that, to avoid being labelled clickbait, we actually deliver on the promise we make in our title.
If we can do that, then writing mildly exaggerated headlines or bold statements is less of a sin. Ok? Ok.
Here are my favourite, practical tips (in order):
1. Say it in as few words as possible
Re-write your title like 6 different times to find the best way to say what you need to say. Try rearranging the main words you want to utilize a few different ways and seeing if there’s a way to eliminate some of the small connector words like and, to, the, for, of, etc. These can eat up unnecessary characters (#6).
2. Be specific
What I mean by this is: don’t use a title that could be describing 10 different things. The actual topic of your article: make it clear in the title. If you’re being strategic, you can work around this, but I’ve found a lot of benefit in having a title that is directly related to the content I’m writing about, and not beating around the bush or being too general.
3. Create intrigue / mystery
Somewhat contradictory to the last one (but only somewhat), you don’t wanna give a'way the whole farm in the title of your article. Again, the goal is to create something people have to click on to be fulfilled. This is a “Why buy the cow when you get the milk free?” kind of scenario. Why click the link when you spoil the article in the title?
4. Be counter-intuitive
If you can write a title that makes someone go, “…Huh? Really?” then you’re probably on the right track to a catchy, must-click title. This can often be done by saying something that goes against what is considered common knowledge in your industry or about your topic. If you can contradict this knowledge without contradicting your article itself, go for it.
5. Make a bold statement
No one likes reading wimpy writing by an insecure writer. Even if you are insecure and not totally sure: fake it til you make it. Be bold about what you’re saying. If you don’t really believe what you’re saying, why are you saying it? If you do believe what you’re saying, you shouldn’t have hesitation about arguing it.
6. 60 characters or less
There’s varying opinions on the length of your title, but in general, shorter is better. This goes back to #1 a little, but the general advice is to keep your title to under 60 characters total. If you can do this, it’ll be hard for anyone to argue you wrote something too long.
7. Include keywords
There are entire schools of thought about keywords in the SEO world, but I’m going to summarize it with my basic understanding: you want to include keywords about your topic (often topical, sometimes geographic) in ways that are organic to your writing. Common sense says to keep these especially visible near the top of your article, but if you can include them in the title itself, even better. That being said, if you abuse this too many times in a row, Google will notice. Again, above all: write for humans. Google will reward you according to how well you do that.
8. Use numbers
Numbered blog titles can be appealing to people so they know it won’t be too short and just a fluff piece. There are statistics (ha) that prove using numbers in blog titles can help increase the traffic. Don’t do it for every title, but you’ll find that sometimes, numbers just make things easier. (To poke fun at myself: 9/10 blogs I write have numbered lists of some kind)
9. Adjectives are helpful
Using big words like Incredible, Genuine, Fantastic, Unconventional, Immediate, Extensive are all ways to help increase your traffic. Like I’ve said previously, don’t let your mouth write cheques your body can’t cash, but if you could argue that your blog could be described by one of those words, you might juice it up by throwing one into the title.
10. Parenthesis can boost clicks
I don’t use this tactic much, but it’s been shown that an extra little bit of information thrown in parenthesis at the end of a title can sometimes boost traffic as well. This can be especially useful if trying to communicate 2 different things in your title that don’t have a natural linguistic mesh.
…Those are my tips!
For more, check out Hubspot’s blog. They’re always sharing new stuff about blog titles. I won’t link any specific article because I’m sure there are a handful. Their tests are always rather extensive, but like with all marketing, I advise you take everything with a grain of salt, and find out what’s true for you.
How to Write a Compelling Snippet
Don’t worry: not all of my tips on optimizing a blog are going to be as extensive as the last one.
A snippet is a 200-300 character summary of your blog that often accompanies the title on Google searches and social shares. This little blurb is meant to be an expanded, compelling invitation that entices your readers to learn more.
First, scroll through my blog page to see a bunch of the articles I’ve written, and the snippets underneath them. This will give you a better idea of what we’re actually talking about.
Snippet writing is the most fluid, least rule-bound component of optimizing a blog.
What this really means is, you kind of can’t go wrong with whatever you write.
If you can write 2 or 3 sentences that follow a lot of the same principles as writing a catchy blog title, you are going to be well on your way to writing a compelling snippet.
Here are a few other things that might help:
Make this more personal. Feel free to use second or first person language in this portion.
Set the stage. Usually the person who will benefit most from your article is at a really specific place in life or business. Appeal to that here.
Be quirky or funny. If you can slip in a joke, a pun, or any other reference or meme, this is the time to do it.
Write to humans. I’ll say it again: don’t talk like a robot. Write like you’re writing a friend, and it’ll probably be the most compelling version of whatever you want to say.
Proper Image Protocol
It’s always a good idea to include at least 1 graphic with your blog. In certain instances (like many of my blogs!), the image doesn’t even have to be directly related to what you’re writing.
An image will make writing feel less daunting.
Remember picture books from when you were a kid? Less intimidating than if someone handed you a Thesaurus, right? Same principle here.
When it comes to actually using images, here are some of my thoughts:
Dimensions:
Opinion varies widely on exact numbers, but you want any images you include in your blog to be appropriately sized for web viewing (so definitely less than 2000px on the longest side; I aim for 1600 most days, but sometimes as small as 1200) and as small a file size as possible so that they will load quickly. Slow page loading times can be the death of an otherwise good site, and Google will definitely notice and punish you if your site takes too long to load.
File size:
I always try to keep those images under 1Mb total in size. I save in jpeg format when I don’t need transparency (otherwise I use a png, of course) because the file sizes are smaller.
Format:
I’m partial to JPEGs because I’m a photographer, but PNGs are the other common file type you’ll see bouncing around the internet. PNGs support transparency, so if you’re using a logo that you need to overlay on another image or something, that’s when this is most useful.
I don’t know why, but my experience has been JPEGs compress better into a smaller file size as explained above. Even though PNG literally stands for Portable Network Graphic, I don’t get it. Your mileage may vary though, so don’t take my word for it.
File name:
Naming your file to something that relates to you, your keywords, and your article is always a good practice. Some debate the essential nature of it, but the bottom line is: it doesn’t hurt.
Alt Tags:
After uploading your image to the blog natively, you need to make sure that there are proper Alt tags attached to the image so that both Google and anyone who uses assistance to navigate the web can know what’s in the image. Certain websites will pull the alt tags automatically from the file name, so that’s another reason to name your files properly. But don’t rely on this: find out how to add alt tags, and ensure they’re being attached every time you use an image.
Alt tags should describe the photo in plain terms but not be excessive or list details that are irrelevant. Aim for between 5 and 30 words; anything more and you’re giving waaaay too much detail.
Keywords & Search Intent
I briefly touched on this under the catchy headline section, but there’s a ton of debate among SEO-ers. I don’t want to bore you with the history, so (for once in my life) I’ll just skip to the end:
Yes, use keywords related to what you hope someone will find you for on Google, but do not abuse them.
“Keyword stuffing” is when you use stupid tactics to try to cheat the system and make your article rank higher than it ought to.
If you write good quality content, and you’re at least semi-mindful of using keywords, you shouldn’t have much to fear about ranking appropriately. Beyond that, you can dump a bunch of money into it, or move on with your life.
If your intent is to rank really high for certain search terms, there are entire guides dedicated to the subject, and I’m hardly gonna scratch the surface here.
Ask yourself: “What would my ideal reader search on Google to find my article?”
And then make sure your article has the appropriate keywords where necessary, and that your catchy title appeals to this search.
Jump down the rabbit hole of SEO keywords if this is too brief of a tutorial.
Cross-Linking to Other Posts
I’m going to wager you have other blogs you’ve written, or other blogs you intend to write. For 99.9% of bloggers, no single blog post is going to change your life.
In order to keep people engaged on your site and with you, cross-link to other articles and pages.
This means have clickable URLs in your post like this to other, relevant articles as they are mentioned in your blog. Didn’t reference any outside material? Quickly read through your article and pencil something in.
A few quick tips:
Keep the linked-text as close as possible to the title of the article. Sometimes you’ll literally copy it and reference it outright as something the reader should check out, and other times it’ll just naturally appear in a sentence in your new blog. Utilize both methods of cross-linking.
Aim for a minimum of 3 links throughout your article. Include more when you can. Don’t overdo it though: you want these to be actually worthwhile. No more than 10 if your blog is really, really long.
Include cross-links close to the top of the article. I don’t know why, but studies have shown the first 3 paragraphs with cross-links get the most clicks. Try to work one in early.
Between paragraphs, you can outright link the title of another blog. If you can’t fit it in organically, you’d be surprised to learn that sometimes it just makes sense to drop the associated blog title in between random paragraphs and link it out.
Open links in new tab. When you’re putting in those links, you can select an option to open them in a new tab. You want to do this because you want them to consume all your content: not just leave this article for the other one.
Your CTA should probably be a link to something: another blog, a contact form, a download, a product page; whatever. Read the CTA section below for more info.
Having a Strong URL
When we’re optimizing our blog, another minor but important step (Can something be both minor and important?) is to customize our URL to accurately reflect what our article is about. Often times, this looks a lot like the title of our blog, but sometimes it will vary depending on the circumstances.
URLs need attention because, from time to time, they are the first indicator of what a link might be about to th eperson who clicked on it. Ever have a bad internet connection while trying to browse the web? That URL becomes more important because, if it’s worded well or accurately portrays what the content is about, it might be the thing that keeps a reader just a little more patient not to X out of the tab and move on with their lives.
Similarly, sharing links across social media platforms specifically (the dream of any blogger) can cause your URL to become a more prominent aspect of trying to earn clicks. Again - this makes it important.
What makes a good URL?
1. Having the appropriate folder structure on your site
Backing up a little: Most websites that have blogs might have their URL look something like this: www.website.com/blog/post-title-goes-here . In general, I’d say this is a pretty ideal URL. It indicates that the article that the reader has clicked on is a blog, and then the title of the blog is right there after.
Once in a while, you’ll see URLs that look something like this: www.website.com/2021/09/06/category/bog-title-gets-cut-off . For some obvious and some not-so-obvious reasons, this is bad!
What the extra date in there is indicating is that your website segments your posts in its root folder structure by the day the blog was created (or the day it was published). To a lot of people, this is not a super important feature, and if you can (from the beginning of your blogging journey), I’d explore your website’s back end to see if there’s any way to get rid of all of those extra sub-folders that elongate your URL fairly needlessly.
This issue isn’t always easily solved, so don’t panic if it isn’t. This is not the biggest deal in the world, but if you can start off on the right foot, you might have an easier time in the future.
2. Indicate authority
Compare these two URLs below:
www.website.com/blog/SEO-tricks-tips
www.website.com/2019/04/28/marketing/10-SEO-tips-and-tricks-all-marketers-should-kno
Now, let me ask you two questions:
Which one of those is easier to remember?
Which one seems more authoritative on the subject?
First question is easy and objective to answer. Second question might be more subjective, but pay a little more attention to URLs as you’re browsing the web over the next week and you’ll see a general pattern:
Shorter URLs tend to indicate more authoritative content on the page.
Another way to illustrate that point: if a website is a tree, pages with shorter URLs tend to feel more like the trunk than a branch. Shorter URLs indicate that that page is the place to start, that there is more links that might stem off of the page, and that they are likely full of good, reliable information.
This isn’t always the case, of course: anyone can shorten a URL. But come back in a week and tell me if this is true in your experience!
3. Ideal number of words
Hand in hand with the last one, my general approach to URLs is that you want your link to be as short as possible while conveying the appropriate amount of information that summarizes the subject (unlike this sentence).
Less is more, but too little is not enough.
There is no real number that gets tossed around with URLs in the marketing world in respect to their length. I think of them more in length of words (though, of course, those can vary greatly) rather than specific characters.
For blogs, I personally aim for between 3 and 7 words. Anything longer really feels like it’s pushing it.
Also, I separate these words with hyphens - instead of underscores or just smashing them all together. Hey-how-are-ya is easier to read than heyhowareya.
4. Answers what the page is about quickly and easily
Again, your title should probably do a pretty good job of this (if you followed my How to Write a Catchy Title steps), but sometimes the URL should be different than the title if it just makes sense.
There’s no rule I can give you here about when you should stray from the actual title. It’s a gut-thing. But what I’d tell you is this:
If your blog title has too many little connecting words you can’t get rid of, the URL might want to change
If you’ve used a slightly more clickbait-y title that entices the reader, the URL might need to change
If the article itself is more involved (or less involved) than the title might indicate, the URL might need to change
If the title of the blog doesn’t include one of the more prominent keywords you’re wanting to rank for (which you should have a really good reason for doing), the URL might need to change (even if it gives away the mystery or intrigue)
5. Involves a keyword that you’re hoping to rank for
Remember that we don’t want to go overboard with stuffing keywords into everything, or else we’ll anger the Google gods and they’ll punish our blog for eternity (or, just as long as that article lives). That being said, it would be foolish not to include a few of the keywords we’re hoping our article is going to rank for.
Choose your keywords carefully. We can’t hope 1 article will rank for 10 different keywords (you probably should’ve broken your article up into multiple blogs if it covers that much content). But at max, you should only have 3 keywords in your URL. Maybe only 2.
6. Is unique enough not to give you trouble later
The more you blog, the more URLs you’re going to create. Generally speaking, you’re going to eventually write blogs on similar topics that have opportunities to have similar URLs or ones that could be confused for each other.
There’s nothing specific you need to do to keep your URLs straight between blogs, other than aiming to keep them somewhat unique (or just with a unique angle on the article and thus the title / URL). That’s really it.
Optimizing for Mobile
This one is near the bottom of our Blog Optimization checklist, not because it’s unimportant, but because it’s hopefully not something you should be doing a whole lot of from blog to blog.
If you write (or just copy and paste) your article natively into the website, your article should be pretty good to go from the outset. Assuming you aren’t using any uncommon characters, chances are everything will format correctly on its own.
If you’re using the right header tags, alt tags, etc., again: this isn’t something we need to worry about on a blog-to-blog basis.
All of this being said, after you’ve published your article, I really recommend giving it a quick browse on your phone to ensure that it has come across properly. If something is wrong or glitchy, or an image isn’t resizing properly, you now know you have something to look into!
Google claims 50% of all web traffic is mobile nowadays.
That’s a lot. If your article doesn’t look good on mobile, you’re (on average) losing half of your readers to it. That’s monumental.
Mobile is a top priority for any marketer. Don’t forget about it after you’ve hit publish!
Including a Call to Action
In the rare instance a reader actually follows your blog all the way through to the end (amazing!), you want to give them an opportunity to continue exploring your site or reading more of your articles.
A CTA (Call To Action) is any sort of action that you are actively asking (or calling) your reader to make.
“Download our eBook here!” “Read more about X topic here” “Get in touch with us by clicking here”
Any of these count. There’s no hard and fast rule. The bottom line is that, in most circumstances, you want to have some sort of thing for readers of your site to continue doing instead of just hitting X and leaving your site altogether.
CTAs can be used across all marketing, not just blogging. You’ll find CTAs at the end of TV commercials! “Call now to redeem this limited time offer!” When people sort of shut off their brain to consume your content, they can forget to continue doing stuff unless you ask them to. This is where a CTA really comes in handy at continuing to entertain or educate people after you’ve earned their attention.
While most CTAs are found at the bottom of a blog, sometimes it makes sense to put them in the middle or even near the top. Experiment and track your results for what gets the most clicks.
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