{"id":15377,"date":"2017-09-20T13:01:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T10:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/?p=15377"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:12:27","slug":"seo-friendly-blog-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitiveseo.com\/blog\/15377\/seo-friendly-blog-post\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts – The Complete Checklist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing for SEO purposes can be difficult\u00a0and time consuming. However, it’s time well spent, as SEO helps us rank better in the search engines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you write an SEO-friendly blog post, you might ask? Using a step-by-step SEO checklist, of course! By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how\u00a0to write search engine friendly blog posts. So, give it a good read!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don’t loose time! Below you can find the full checklist you should follow if you want to have SEO friendly blog posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nDownload The SEO Friendly Blog Posts Checklist<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Writing<\/a><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Setup Website\/Blog<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Perform Keyword Research<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Check Competition<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Gather Information for Writing<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Outline the Article<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Write Your Content<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Add Optimized Images<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Add Video Content<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Create the Title Tag of the Blog Post<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Create the Meta Description<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  11. Blog Post Heading H1<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  12. Write Optimized URL<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Before Publishing<\/a><\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Add a Featured Image<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    2. Categories & Tags<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    3. Social Media Optimization<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    4. Take Authorship<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    5. Proofread<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    6. Verify Links<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    7. Are Share Buttons Functional?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
    8. Publish the Blog Post<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      After Publishing<\/a><\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. Share on Social Media<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
      2. Build Base Links<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
      3. Read Comments and Reply to Them<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
      4. Upgrade Your Article<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
      5. Maximize\/Repurpose Your Content<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Writing<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

         <\/div>\n

        1. Setup Website\/Blog<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        The first step in creating a well-optimized blog post is to make sure you website is correctly set for SEO. This is something that you will do only once, but it does depend on the platform you’re website is built on.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        In the checklist, you can find this section in a separate sheet\/tab, at the bottom of the screen. Make sure you take a look before you start writing.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Mobile Friendly:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Ensure your website is mobile friendly using the Google Mobile Friendly Test Tool.<\/a>\u00a0Google tends to rank sites lower if they are not optimized for mobile platforms, so make sure you fix this issue.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        More than 50% of all web traffic has migrated to mobile<\/a> <\/strong>devices in the past couple of years. This means that most of your readers will be on mobile devices as well.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Look for a responsive theme\/template or use relative values instead of absolute ones in your code.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Site Is Indexable<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        If your site can’t be found by Google and listed into the search engine results, you’re also wasting your time.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Problems that lead to bad indexing are usually related to the NoIndex meta tag, or the robots.txt file.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Make sure the pages you want indexed are not blocked in any way. Also, ensure that extra pages you don’t really need in the search engine are blocked.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        To block a page, simply edit your robots.txt file:<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        User-agent: *\r\nDisallow: \/cgi-bin\/\r\nDisallow: \/tmp\/\r\nDisallow: \/~joe\/<\/pre>\n
         <\/p>\n
        You can also use the following tag in your HTML on specific pages:<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"><\/code><\/pre>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Check Site Speed:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        The speed at which your website loads<\/a><\/strong> is very important for your business. If your users don’t see the content fast, they will abandon the page. There are two big factors that determine speed: the server on which the website runs, and the content\u00a0that must be loaded.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Use Google PageSpeed Insights<\/a> to determine if there are any issues with your website’s server and structure. Another great tool to do this is GT Metrix<\/a>.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"page<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Try to fix those issues first. If your website loads very slowly, it won’t matter how well you write. Nobody will ever get to read it.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Install SEO Plugins:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        If you’re using a popular CMS such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, you can make your site easy to optimize by installing a plugin. These plugins will help you optimize your content’s key elements (title, meta description) a lot easier. It will also fix some SEO issues commonly found on different platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
        Some suggestions are: Yoast SEO and All in one SEO Pack for WordPress, Easy Frontend SEO for Joomla, and SEO Tools for Drupal.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"seo<\/p>\n
        \nInstall Social Sharing Plugins:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Writing a good article is nothing without promotion. Chances of writing something that will go viral on its own are very small. If you’re using one of the popular CMS mentioned above, you should also install a social sharing plugin.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Some good examples are Fast Social Share for Joomla<\/a> and WP Social Share for WordPress.<\/a>\u00a0There are many options out there, so make your pick based on design and user reviews.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        These plugins will help readers share the content and make it more popular. As you probably know, social media is one of the biggest marketing channels out there. It would be a complete waste not to take advantage of it!<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n<\/span>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Readability:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Your blog posts should be easy to read. First, make sure your text is easy to understand. Have short sentences, and try to make the paragraphs shorter in width.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Ensure your background color doesn’t conflict with the font color. Some combinations make it harder for the user to read your posts.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"content<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        The best combination for legibility<\/a> is usually black text on white or light gray background. However, you can use different combinations to express different things.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        We recommend that the paragraphs are 11-12 pixels in size. Also, keep a hierarchical structure in your headings. H1 should be the biggest, H2 smaller and so on.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Last but not least, place ads smartly, without spamming the user. Avoid random pop-ups or pop-ups that appear as soon as you access the page.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Customizable Elements and Meta-Tags:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        The post title and meta tags are two important elements that display in Google’s search results.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"google<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Make sure you can easily edit these elements. The page\/blog post should also display a H1 tag containing the title of the article. Usually it’s the same as the title tag, but this is not mandatory.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Just like the post title, it should include keywords and be captivating. There should only be one H1 tag on your page. Other important meta are rel=”canonical” and\u00a0rel=”prev\/next”.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Canonical tags<\/a> are used to solve duplicate content issues<\/a>\u00a0. If your page has comments, for example,\u00a0some platforms create separate URLs ending in “\/?replytocom=123#”. This can create conflicts between pages in the\u00a0SERPS.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        The canonical tag should point out what page you want to be displayed in Google. If the page has a self-referencing canonical tag, then all the comments’ URLs will point to the main page.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        In case you have paginated content (on a blog page for example), you should use the previous\/next meta tag. This technique can be used for guides separated in multiple pages.<\/p>\n
         <\/div>\n
        2. Perform Keyword Research<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Doing keyword research before writing a blog post can maximize the potential organic traffic you get from search engines. First of all, think of what your readers might be searching in order to find your content.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        You can use the Google Keyword Planner to get an idea of what people are searching for. Another thing you can do is start typing keywords in Google and get ideas from the suggestions shown there.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Or, you can take it a step further and use the cognitiveSEO Keyword Tool<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        It will show you search volume, keyword difficulty and top competitors ranking for specific keywords. The keyword suggestions there are the most relevant to your main keyword from an SEO perspective.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"keyword<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        You can combine some of those into a more complex\u00a0SEO title that targets multiple keywords at the same time. You can use other search queries\u00a0that don’t fit in the title in your body.<\/p>\n
         <\/div>\n
        3.\u00a0Check Competition<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        After you choose some keywords, check the top 10 results for them to make an idea on who you will competing with.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        You can use the cognitiveSEO tool to compare your site with the competition. The tool will analyze some of the most important metrics (like referring domains and anchor texts) and will make it very easy for you to decide how tough the competition is.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"analyze<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        If you feel like the competition is too high, consider targeting other keywords. Some indicators of a strong SEO competition are: keyword in title, old domain age, domain and page performance\u00a0and a big number\u00a0of backlinks pointing to the competitors’ URLs.<\/p>\n
         <\/div>\n
        4. Gather Information for Writing<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        To be able to pile up a really good piece of content, you need to gather the right resources. \u00a0You will need to find at least\u00a03 to 5 well documented and trustworthy sources. If you are writing a personal story\u00a0out of the top of your head, you can skip this step.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        However, we recommend that you read your top ranking competitors and see if you can spot any gaps. Then, gather information about those gaps and try to cover them up. You can use search operators\u00a0to find really reliable information sources\u00a0that can backup statistics, such as numbers or case studies. Examples: site:.gov + keyword, site:.edu + keyword<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Create your own footprints for finding sources by using this list of search operators.<\/a><\/p>\n
         <\/div>\n
        5.Outline the Article <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Outlining the article will make it a lot easier for you to write it. It saves you time and effort. If you have a proper outline, the structure of your article will be easier to digest by your readers. Your outline should consist of some key points you want to cover up.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        A good trick is to turn those key points into questions, which you will answer below. Consider building the outline as your H2 and H3 tags. These tags tell Google\u00a0that those phrases are a little more important.<\/p>\n
         <\/div>\n
        6. Write Your Content<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        \"writeIt’s finally time to start writing. There are many aspects to be considered in the process. I outlined them below, but they cannot be necessarily put in order.<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n
        Make sure you consider all of them! OnPage SEO is what you have full control over, so try to do your best. Make sure you use the cognitiveSEO Content Assistant<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for maximum results!<\/p>\n
         <\/p>\n