How to Write High-Ranking Blog Posts
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If you’ve been blogging for a while, you might be wondering how to get your posts to rank higher on Google. High-ranking blog posts will not only boost your authority but they will also make it easier for potential clients and customers to find you online.
The truth is that writing high-ranking blog posts might seem hard but in reality, it’s not that difficult. It’s all about following best blogging practices and making sure to implement them for each blog post you publish.
How to Write High-Ranking Blog Posts
In this post, I’ll share my best tips for writing high-ranking blog posts that will work for any industry so you can use them to improve your search engine rank.
Start With Topic And Keyword Research
Before you sit down to write your blog post, you need to figure out what you want to talk about. It’s all too easy to get overwhelmed and go off topic. Knowing what you want to talk about, allows you to stay focused on your topic.
A few ideas to come up with topics for your blog posts include:
- Using Google Trends to find out what people are searching for or what’s currently trending
- Searching websites like Quora to see what questions people are asking related to your topic
- Paying attention to People also ask and Related search terms on the Search Engine Results Pages
For example, let’s say you want to promote cooking utensils to make affiliate commissions. A few terms you might consider include cooking, baking, and microwaving. After researching those topics, you might find out that cooking and baking are more popular while microwaving doesn’t generate as much interest.
Generally, you should go for less competitive keywords like baking because it would be easier to rank. Start small and target one or two keywords at a time before trying to add more keywords to your blog posts. However, keep a list of relevant keywords to add later on as it’s always good to have a variety of keywords.
Decide on Reader’s Intent
Once you have your list of topics and keywords, you need to decide on your reader’s intent. This will help you structure and write your blog post in the most appropriate way.
There are 4 main types of reader intent:
- Informational intent — in this case, readers want more information about a particular topic. They want to know more about it or they have a specific question in mind and are looking for answers. Their search term could be “benefits of using cast iron skillet”.
- Navigational intent — people browsing the Internet with navigational intent are looking for a person, business or brand. They just need a little help getting to their website but they know what or who they’re looking for ie. “Lodge Cast Iron”
- Transactional intent — users with this intent are typically ready to make a purchase. They are probably searching for the best deal on the product they want to buy. Their search term could be “12-inch Lodge cast iron skillet”
- Commercial/investigating intent — people with this intent are typically not yet ready to buy but they are thinking about making a purchase in the near future. They’re using the Internet to research their options and they need more convincing before making a purchase. For example, their search term could be “what is the best cast iron skillet?”
With that in mind, your content needs to satisfy the user intent so this is another question that should be at the top of your mind when you sit down to write your blog posts.
Decide on Content Type
In most cases, people will read your blog post because it benefits them. In other words, your blog posts need to share valuable information, answer their questions, or teach them something. There are a few content types you can use to meet their needs:
- How-to posts that show them how to do something
- List posts that share useful resources or products
- Reviews that share an honest opinion about a certain product, service or brand
- Video content that takes them behind the scenes or shows them how to achieve something
- Infographics that present information in a manner that’s easy to understand
- Interviews with experts in the industry
Whichever content type or format you choose, be sure to cite relevant sources to backup your claim and research your topic carefully. People are looking for useful and relevant information with substance. In addition to that, search engines also love content that’s authoritative and satisfies the needs of your readers.
