How to Write SEO-Friendly Blog Posts Your Audience Will Love

Let me guess.

You’d like Google to love you.

Because you’re not just blogging for fun.

You’re blogging for business. To drive web traffic. To show off your expertise. And to generate leads.

Google should be able to help you.

But how can you seduce the almighty algorithm to send you some extra traffic?

Sometimes you feel like ignoring this fickle robot.

Because he seems too demanding. Too difficult. Too confusing.

Why not just write for your audience and forget about the seo-friendly stuff?

Let’s have a look.

Why Google loves bloggers

Starting a blog on your website is good for SEO.

A blog increases the number of web pages on your site. Each web page can target different long tail keywords – search phrases with more than three words such as seo-friendly blog posts.

The more keywords you can target, the more traffic you’ll get.

Google also likes it when your blog posts are shared: the more shares, the higher the perceived quality of your blog posts.

Why bloggers can ignore Google

Why care so much about Google?

Google isn’t the only source of traffic for your website. You can gain web visitors via links on other websites, from social media, RSS, or email. It’s early days for Enchanting Marketing, but so far email has been the biggest source of traffic.

Focusing on Google and your SEO strategy usually means you write with keywords in mind. You try to stuff your keywords into your blog posts. Most importantly, you stop writing for your audience; and you start producing robotic texts. Dull. Corporate. Without a sign of your passion.

Isn’t that a sure-fire way to lose your enthusiasm for writing your blog?

What would happen if you’d just focus on enchanting your audience?

What if you could just ignore Google? Forget about keywords? And have fun when writing?

Let’s have a look at how to write and delight your audience first.

12 tips for writing content your audience will love

1. Research your audience. Learn as much as you can. Reach out. Each comment is an opportunity to learn more. And each email you receive can be the start of a conversation.
2. Define your ideal reader. Stop addressing a crowd. Just write for your ideal reader.
3. Empathize. The best opening paragraphs show that you understand your reader’s problems.
4. Be incredibly helpful. Answer your reader’s questions. Solve his (or her) problems. Help him to save costs; to make more money; to become more productive, healthier, or happier.
5. Energize. Don’t let your blog post fizzle out. Inspire with your concluding paragraph.
6. Use familiar words. Because it promotes readability.
Use Google Keyword Tool or Ubersuggest for keyword inspiration. But don’t confuse keyword research with understanding your audience.
7. Allow for scanning. Your content might be epic, but your readers are busy. Write fascinating sub-headlines. And include interesting bullet points.
8. Focus on one big topic. Blog posts heading in myriad directions are hopelessly boring. Focus on just one message for each post.
9. Link to useful information. Encourage your readers to read more – either on your own blog or other blogs.
10. Write click-sparking headlines. Good headlines encourage sharing. Good headlines trigger clicks. And good headlines invite to read.
11. Let your passion shine through. Write about a topic you know; and share your knowledge with enthusiasm.
12. Listen to your reader. Before hitting publish, read your post again and wonder: What would my ideal reader think of this?

Now, if you follow the twelve tips above, would your blog post be SEO-friendly? let’s have a look at the key question:

Is an audience-friendly blog post also SEO-friendly?

Yep.

Audience-friendly and SEO-friendly is almost the same:

1. If you answer your audience’s questions, then Google will reward you with traffic when potential customers search for information.

   Example 1: You’re a mobile phone seller and you write a blog post with lots of valuable tips about How to choose a mobile phone. If a potential buyer is searching for How to choose a mobile phone, then you’ll have a chance of turning up in the search results.

   Example 2: You also publish an extensive post about the differences between the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S3. Again, if someone searches for iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3, you’ll have a better chance of being found and gaining traffic.

   What questions are potential customers asking in your industry? What comparisons are your prospects making? How can you help them make their purchasing decisions? How can you become a comprehensive, go-to source of industry information?

2. Use the same words your audience uses, and you’ll have a better chance of being found in Google. You can use jargon – but only if your audience uses jargon, too. What words does your audience use when searching using Google? Use those words in your blog posts.
3. Choosing one topic for a blog post is like focusing on one keyword phrase. And that means your keyword phrase will naturally appear a few times in your post. That’s what optimizing your blog post for Google is about.

   Check whether you can sprinkle a little extra SEO magic on your posts without sounding robotic. Consider adding your keywords to:

   • Your headline and page title;
   • One or two sub-headlines;
   • Your image name, alt-text and description;
   • Your opening paragraph plus every three hundred words or so.

   Don’t overdo it. Don’t kill your post by adding keywords. Think about your ideal reader: Does he enjoy reading your blog post? Or does he think you sound a little robotic?

The truth about SEO-friendly blog posts

Stuffing bland text with a few extra keywords doesn’t work. You need to be engaging. You need to be human.

Sprinkle your keywords throughout your post. Of course that’s fine. But write for your ideal reader first. Answer his questions. Use the same words he uses.

Be incredibly helpful. Provide detailed buying advice. Share your expertise and be passionate. Become a go-to source for information.

That’s the best way to build traffic. And make your audience come back for more.