How to optimize blog posts for SEO in 2019 (5 best practices)

Do you want to write SEO friendly posts? Learning to do SEO services is absolutely critical for any serious blogger. In this publication, we will share how to optimize blog posts for SEO in 2019 (with the 5 best practices).

Search engine optimization: the soul of any successful blog. However, a marketing term so confusing and intimidating for many bloggers and business owners.

Most of us know that SEO is something important to do to get blog traffic. But we may not know exactly what it implies, or the appropriate steps to follow to begin with.

Then, there is an added challenge ...

Keep abreast of the latest algorithm changes.

The good news is that anyone can control the SEO of their blog with only a few recommended practices. Even the implementation of one or two of these fundamentals will place you many kilometers ahead of your competition, since most bloggers interpret them badly.

Also, once you understand the basics, learning how SEO is changing will be much easier to digest.

(Spoiler alert: it has not changed as much as you might think).

Ready to learn how to optimize blog posts for SEO in 2019?

Cool. Let's get into this!

Best SEO Practices for 2019

Over the years, we have seen that what most concerns search engines is the delivery of high-quality information, useful and relevant to its users.

To do that, they need to understand some things about your blog ...

Quality: is your blog an authority in your niche?

Utility: is your blog post useful, easy to read, in depth?

Relevance: Does your blog post solve a specific problem for a specific user?

The best practices we are about to share are proven and true techniques to help search engines understand the answers to these questions ... and classify your blog post on page 1.

Although we cannot predict exactly how the algorithms will change within 2 years, or even within 5 years, these methods are still relevant today and will probably be relevant for some time.

And the best part? This is not rocket science! Keep reading to see how easy it is to start implementing SEO on your blog ...

1. Optimize your meta tags

Let's start with the literal "bones" and "skeleton" of the SEO process: optimize your meta tags.

Meta tags tell search engines what your blog posts are about. That is why this is the beginning of any strong SEO campaign.

In this section, we will review the 4 main meta tags on which you should focus, which are: title tags, header tags (ice, H1 tags), meta descriptions, and ALT image tags.

Do not worry, let's break down each type of SEO tag and make this as easy as possible to understand. After reading this, you can start making adjustments on your own blog (or perhaps someone else's) to improve the indexing and exposure capabilities of the major search engines!

Title tags

The king of all labels, and the one with the most weight, is the title tag.

The title tag is generally seen in two places: first in the search results as the top hyperlink (see screenshot below), and second, it is seen in certain browser tabs.

It is important that you develop your title tag so that it has a length as close as possible to 70 characters (without going over it), and that the most important keyword terms are in place (at the same time you make sure it is read naturally).

So, how to add a title tag to your blog posts? Simple. If you are a WordPress user, just install and activate the Yoast SEO add-on. Then, you will see a new widget below the text editor on the publication edit screen of your blog. Click on the preview of the fragment, and then type your title tag in the SEO Title field.

Descriptions of Goal

A meta description is a short snippet of content that appears in the search results below the title tag of your blog post.

Meta descriptions do not provide SEO value; however, they are incredibly important when it comes to click rates ... that indirectly benefit your overall SEO.

Think of it this way: your meta description tells people what your blog post is about. If it looks like what you were looking for, then more people will click to read it. When many people click, Google believes that your publication should be highly relevant (and you may find it in the search results).

Strive to write an attractive and appealing description for each blog post and page of your website in 300 characters or less. (Before December 2017, the meta descriptions were truncated in 165 characters or less, but since then the limit has increased).

To add your meta description to a blog post, simply type it in the Yoast SEO field just below the SEO title and the Slug fields.

Header tags

Header tags (H1, H2, etc.) give a good hit just like the title tags, so it's important to use them wisely

These are the only visible labels on the front of your blog, so it is important that they not only contain your most important keywords, but that they are read naturally for visitors.

There is no character limit set with header tags. However, make sure they are neither too long nor too short. Remember: these must be descriptive and readable for the user!

ALT Image Tags

Last but certainly not least, there are ALT image tags (which are often undervalued).

ALT image tags help explain to the search engines what the images on your website are about. After all, apart from the file name, your images do not have any text attached in any other way!

Always add keyword-rich ALT tags to your images, descriptive of what your blog post is about. To add an alt tag to an image in WordPress, click the Add media button on the editing screen and then select the image you want to use. Then, fill in the Alt field on the right side (it is also a good idea to fill in the Title field).

2. Put content constantly

Make sure you are incredibly consistent with content generation. Google favors websites that update them frequently with unique, fresh and quality content.

Try to target 1-2 blog posts per week at the beginning. If that seems too early, try posting at least 1 blog post every 2 weeks. (Learn how to create a 90-day content calendar).

Another strategy would be to accept guest posts on your website. In this way, you can simplify the process a bit by having other people create your content for you.

Not only can generating consistent content increase your traffic, it also allows you to address several keyword phrases that each new publication publishes. This gives you an incredible opportunity to expand and expand your readers.

3. Optimize your body copy

Next, you'll want to review your content and make sure it's optimized to its full potential.

Analyze what the blog post is about and choose a handful of keywords to guide. Make a list of those keywords to refer to as you begin to edit the copy.

Without keyword stuffing, strategically place additional buzz terms in the content for the search engines to detect.

Remember: SEO is as much about serving your readers as it is about search engines, or even more. Always focus your work with real humans in mind.

Try to develop a modest keyword density to be sufficient for search engines to detect it. The combination of copy optimization, optimized title tags, H1 tags and ALT image tags will really help strengthen every page of your website.

4. Sprinkle in some internal links

In addition to copy optimization, you will also want to incorporate

a handful of internal links (3-4) per blog post or page.

Internal links are links to other blog posts or pages on your own site. Internal linking helps readers jump from one page to another on their site (reducing bounce rates), spreads the authority of links through your site and helps search engines index their blog posts.

Do not overload your pages with internal links, but, of course, select some keywords or phrases that can be linked to another article or resource useful to your readers.

5. Complete everything with quality backlinks

With all the SEO on the site solved, now is the time to focus on offsite SEO that helps unite everything. That is, it's time to focus on building links.

The quality of the building and the natural backlinks to your website can really produce significant results (assuming the previous steps have been made). Backlinks help increase general domain authority, rankings in search engines and organic traffic.

A simple, but incredibly effective, link building strategy is the publication of guests.

Guest publishing is as simple as contacting relevant websites in your blog niche to see if they are accepting articles on your website. If you get approval, you must write an article for them and place a link to your blog in the copy or in the biography section of the author.

Boom! Once the article is published, you have just generated a natural backlink that Google loves.

The reason why they do not consider this approach as garbage is because it takes a real effort to go through this process. As long as you're not cutting corners when writing terrible content, this is a natural and ethical way to produce powerful links for your website.

There are other link building methods that may be worth considering, depending on your website, but guest publishing is a good place to start. Once you're good at approaching guest publishing, you'll be surprised at how many quality links you can create. More importantly, you'll be surprised when you see the rankings of your search engine and the organic traffic that shoots through the roof!

Let me make one last point with link building: this should be a continuous monthly focus to see the best results. To gain an advantage in your competition, it is vital that you put a great focus on this strategy. Most of the blogs that you see at the top of the search results are those that have the highest domain authority and most quality links. Keep this in mind to motivate you to continue with this.

Conclusion

SEO is a strategy in constant change and evolution that requires dedication to keep up. However, these tried and true methods will probably always be important in the eyes of Google and other major search engines.

By implementing the techniques described above, you can begin to make significant progress in search results, organic traffic, growing your business, readers, etc. Mark this publication, write it and save it to consult it if necessary. . This has the potential to really change your website to improve this 2019.

If you have any questions along the way, do not hesitate to contact the comments below. These same tips mentioned above are exactly what allow my blog to see a noticeable growth every month, and if they work for me, I know they will work for you too!