by Tina Imperial

If you’re following this blog, you know there is an abundance of content being generated here for a variety of clients, products and services. So naturally as an intern, one of my first assignments at Roundpeg was to write a blog post about white beans.

It turns out getting coherent, engaging words onto the computer screen is only half the battle. The other half of the battle is making sure people actually find what I write. By incorporating SEO (Search Engine Optimization) planning into my blog posts, I increase the likelihood that someone searching for information on white beans recipes will find my blog post and maybe buy some beans. We all wish that, don’t we?

I thought I’d share with you a basic SEO routine to use with your own blog posts. Keep in mind that we use WordPress and  the Yoast plug-in for SEO.  Here is what I do to SEO a post about white bean recipes:

  • Choose a  Keyword. I was thinking about using beans or white beans or easy white bean recipes. Whichever I pick, that’s what I’ll write the post around. Think like your customer here. Pick words that your customers will use to find you online.
  • Conduct a Keyword Search. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool or some other tool to determine how often your word is used. Choose a keyword where the competition for the word is medium or low. High competition words make it harder for my post to be found on the first page of search results.  Beans were too high, there was lots of competition for the word.  I settled on white bean recipe. Yes, that was three words. More specific or long tail words work best. Here’s why: someone who is typing in three words in a search is being very specific about what they are looking for. When my bean post comes up in their search the chances are high that they will find my post relevant. Hopefully this is the person who is buying some beans today.
  • Use the Keyword in the Post. You want to keep your writing at a high quality and not repeat words unnecessarily, but attempt to use the keyword at least once or twice in the body of the post. Stuffing your post with too many keywords will actually push your Google ranking lower. It’s a balancing act.
  • Use the Keyword in the Meta Description. By doing so, the keywords will show up in bold in a Google search. People searching for that information with your keywords will see that it’s relevant to their search and hopefully click on it.
  • Categorize and Tag the Post. Put the post in the appropriate spot on the blog. My post went under recipes. Tags are like keywords and they will help people find my content.
  • Use Images Related to the Post. I’ll include a picture of white beans in the post. I’ll add a keyword phrase to the image so that it becomes searchable.

If you make the above steps a routine in your blog post writing, your blog post will more likely be found in Google searches.