Key SEO items are the ingredients for an awesome, easy to find website. In the beginning of my blogging and website copy writing journey, I knew little about how to get search engines to pick up my website. There were so many things I was missing in my writing that some might not even consider. After many months spent reading articles on Pinterest or seeing information on Instagram, I have been able to combine my knowledge of key SEO items with my Bachelors of Arts in English Rhetoric. Here is that list!
Disclosure: There are affiliate links within this post. This means that if you purchase a product using the links in this post, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Key SEO Items You Might be Missing
A Standout Headline
Your title is the very first thing anyone will ever see on Google with a meta description following the title. Headlines need to be relevant and eye catching with thoughtful conclusions. Meta descriptions need to be tight, dense summaries/teasers within a 160 character limit. With a business WordPress plan, you can use Yoast SEO and a Headline Analyzer to check to analyze and adjust your headline to improve it. So far, what I have learned is that action words are best (as always) and phrases that the evoke emotion are strong as well.
A Standout and Specific Keyword and Key Phrase
A key phrase or keyword is going to be that special word or phrase that people are going to be typing up to find articles like yours. It’s also best to blend or create a standout headline that is compatible with your keyword/phrase. One of the challenges to making the standout phrase is that you have to spend time imagining or figuring out what your audience is going to ask. Try to take some time to think about what question are you answering in your blog post, what are the simple versions of what you might be typing up on Pinterest or Google/other search engine if you had a question.
The Minimum Word Count & Keyword Density
For any blog post or webpage, you need to write at least 300 words and you need to choose a key phrase that will make it easy for the search engine to find your content. Your key phrase ALSO needs to be written exactly or similarly two times per 130-150 words. It’s really important to use the key phrase in paragraph and Heading blocks- especially H2 and H3. Some text formats do not apply to the overall word count: characters such as & and emojis, and text within tables, which is why you will tend to see a lot of narration in recipe blog posts. You also need to start your blog post or web page with the key phrase or word – I do that sometimes but it gets wearing to me sometimes.
Images and Alt Text
Visual content is extremely important to online writing. It breaks up your verbiage- plus some people are visual learners. Images allow you to show charts, screenshot examples of your work, and promote products. If you are writing a recipe blog post, you can use images in the instructions section to show the step by step. If you are writing a travel blog post, you can include images of your travels or packing tips and products that you use.
Alt Text is a short description of an image for visually impaired readers to understand the purpose of the image. For search results, I believe that it also bolsters the content because you need to use your keyword/phrase in at least one image. I tend to use my keyword/phrase in the featured image.
Additional Images to Include in Pages and Posts
Not only do you want images to showcase your content with very specific purposes, but you need to create images that entice people to share your content. What easier way to do that than to use Pinterest graphics!? Ask readers to share or save the content, and the images in your post/page are automatically generated and presented as options to someone saving the URL. Make it easier for them to save your valuable information with an already made, Pinterest friendly graphic. You can also use tools like Tailwind Create and Vista Create to make your Pinterest graphics.
Internal and External Links
Internal Links
Internal links are URL links that connect back to your website. The reader will then stay inside to your website. My favorite links to include as internal links are to link to similar and relevant posts, or promote information on my website such as my About page or Services page,
External Links
External links are URL links that direct your website visitors to other places on the internet. You can use these to either help other bloggers/social media account holders, or you can use external links to benefit your website business. You can use your external links to embed Pinterest boards or Instagram, affiliate links to your favorite products and earn income on products that you have created. Example: Check out my Etsy Shop.
Key SEO Items that Call to Action
Have your readers engage with your blog even after they read your great content. Here is a short list of CTA options.
- Coupons or freebies- I know of bloggers who have special discount codes for apparel or other products that their Followers can only get if they grab it off the blogger’s social media account or blog.
FOR EXAMPLE: Until August 18, 2023, get Figure Out Content Writing 25% off FOCW25 - Mailing List Opt-ins- encourage your readers to come back by joining mailing lists.
- WPForm block so people can join your mailing list (affiliate link)
- Pinterest or other social media account links
Other Visual Content Options
Ad Blocks
In order to make an income for yourself, you can also place ad blocks in strategic locations within your blog posts. I try to refrain from posting ads in my pages like Services and keep it to the blog. I have a Premium plan for this website, and a Business plan for my other blog. The Business plans allows for plugins like Google Ads to place ads where it is best according to their analyzing information. With WordPress ads, you have to add the blocks yourself- which I sometimes prefer so that you can control the presentation of the ads. You can even use HTML codes as affiliate advertising (read more below!).
Since visual content allows a website visitor to compartmentalize the information for them, it’s also great to use other blocks that isn’t the paragraph to show other blog posts. I like the Buttons block! You can also use embedded links to bread up the text- I like using Pinterest board, Instagram profiles or individual Instagram posts.
HTML Codes
Insert HTML codes to make content stand out or give accurate representations of your favorite products. Sometimes I don’t want my blog post text to just be hyperlinks leading to my favorite Amazon or Thrive Market products, so I use pre-written HTML codes. Then the codes show up as a usual advertisement (therefore a visual) or they look like graphics like the Tailwind code below. If you become a little more tech-savvy, you can even adjust certain parts of the HTML code such as dimensions and alignment of the block. For example- the below affiliate HTML code was originally twice as large.
Sample portion of the HTML block in case some of you readers are unfamilliar: “c=”https://imp.pxf.io/i“
Final Thoughts on Key SEO Items
That was quite the list of the key SEO items needed for any webpage or blog post. I hope you found that useful. It can get overwhelming at first to constantly look through the checklist but eventually it becomes second nature. Every SEO item that you add to your website only strengthens its abiltiy to be found on the internet.
Katherine MC Johnson 