One of the core foundations of getting organic traffic from search engines to websites is great content.
Since great content brings in traffic, in this article, I will show you a step-by-step SEO blog post writing process and how important it is to understand the reader’s buying journey in every blog post writing process.
Key takeaways
- SEO blog post writing starts with researching top-ranking pages on Google to understand what your reader expects to find and the content gap to fill, making your blog post better.
- Every blog post you write should match your target reader’s buying journey, top, middle, or bottom of the funnel.
- A fully optimized blog post includes necessary keywords, title tag, meta description, internal links, and a conclusion with a clear call to action.
- Avoiding keyword stuffing, complex words, and low-quality content is what separates blog posts that bring in traffic from those that don’t.
Step-by-step process on how to write SEO optimized blog posts for a Nigerian business
Here is the step-by-step SEO blog post writing for Nigerian businesses:
1. STEP 1: Research – The first step in your seo blog writing should be a Google search, whereby you study the top 5 ranking pages on your article topic, study their structure, what is written in those articles, and take note of what was omitted (content gap).
2. STEP 2: Write a brief – This is where you figure out who your potential reader is, what need they have (their why), what they already know (buyer’s journey stage: top, middle, or bottom), what they expect (search intent), and what type of blog post they would love.
3. STEP 3: Write an outline – This stage in your seo blog writing process is where you should write the structure of how your article will be, and what the article should contain, expected internal links, expected external links, keywords, and how they should be used.
4. STEP 4: Create a URL link – At this stage, you should create your URL slug, just pick an SEO optimized link that relates to the blog post, is short, and readable. E.g: /seo-blog-post-writing. Preferably, use your primary keyword.
5. STEP 5: Write a title tag – Next, write a good title tag with the primary keyword at the beginning to help crawlers understand the page topic, and keep it between 50-60 characters to avoid truncation in SERPs.
6. STEP 6: Write a meta description – Now, write a unique meta description that matches search intent in a compelling voice, telling the user why they should click. I keep it between 150 and 160 characters and also include a call to action.
7. STEP 7: Write an H1 – This is where you write a descriptive title for the blog post, with the primary keyword close to the beginning, while keeping it between 50 – 70 characters.
8. STEP 8: Write an attractive introduction under your title – At this stage of the SEO blog post writing process, you craft an introduction. A formula you can use is the (PSC), start by emphasizing the need of the reader, then state the solution in the blog post, and then state all that the reader will learn from the blog post.
9. STEP 9: Writing the body of the blog post – Use the outline you created to write the main body of the blog post. Every section should start with an H2, and if a section has a subsection, it should be under an H3. In the body of the article, answer every question the reader has for each section and insert your keywords naturally.
10. STEP 10: Write short summaries for each section – I write a brief 1-sentence summary of the full section in just a single paragraph or a few sentences before doing a detailed breakdown.
11. STEP 11: Internal linking – Include links to other related blog posts and service/product pages from this blog post.
12. STEP 12: External linking – Link to webpages on other websites that are sources to data, facts, and content on this blog post.
13. STEP 13: Write Frequently Asked Questions – Get frequently asked questions from the “what people also ask” section on Google, and also keywords, then drop a 1-sentence answer to each of the questions.
14. STEP 14: Write a good conclusion – Write a conclusion that is a tight wrap-up of what the entire article is about, and end it with a call to action.
15. STEP 15: Write good Key takeaways – After you are done with the entire article, scan through it and pick out 4 major points as key takeaways. Keep each of them brief and focus on my article topic.
16. STEP 16: Add images – Create images and infographics that further explain the article to an impatient reader.
17. STEP 17: Proofreading – After the entire seo blog post writing process, read through each section and make sure everything is written in 9th grade without errors. I also use Grammarly to correct typographical errors.
Struggling to rank on Google? Let our SEO team write content that does
What I avoid when writing SEO blog posts for Nigerian businesses
When writing seo blog posts, avoid certain mistakes that can hurt the blog post, like:
- Keywords stuffing: One of the major principles is to avoid keyword stuffing, because it does more harm to the website than good. Keyword stuffing increases bounce rates, destroys brand credibility, and triggers search engine penalties.
- Use of complex words: Write all blog posts using simple and easy-to-understand words to ensure all your readers easily understand the information.
- Copy and paste: Avoid copying and pasting from other websites. Use your own experience and the information you could get from extensive research to provide firsthand information.
- Unnecessary writing: Do not include what does not benefit your audience go straight to the point so that readers can easily pick it.
- Low-quality content: Search engines always favour content with topical authority, so you should always cover a topic in depth when writing blog posts.
- Missing search intent: Every seo blog post writing should follow a content format and angle that matches the user search intent. It can be informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational search intent.
Why is understanding a reader’s position in the buyer journey important when writing seo blog post?
The first question you should ask yourself before you start seo blog post writing is who is my potential reader? And what do they know?
Some are just discovering that they have a problem(top of the funnel), others are looking for and comparing solutions(middle of the funnel), and a few are ready to make a purchase(bottom of the funnel).
This understanding will help you draft the ideal blog post that will speak to your reader in the way they will understand and prefer.
This information helps figure out the right tone to use, how much detail to include, what call to action to use, and what the reader needs to walk away with.
This step is not just for ranking, but also to move the reader closer to becoming a customer. This is the major difference between content that generates leads and content that just gets traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most important part of writing an SEO optimized blog post is research, to ensure you only write correct content.
Depending on the type of article you are writing, it should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words.
It takes just one day to write an optimized SEO blog post.
Conclusion
SEO blog post writing is a process, and if you follow the process consistently, you get a blog post that not only generates traffic but also converts website visitors to customers.
As a Nigerian business, you should prioritize quality blog posts for your website. Reach out to Awele SEO writing experts to use quality blog posts to boost your business sales.
Get SEO blog content written for your Nigerian business.
