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Mackenzie Yelvington

SEO and Blogging Tips: How to create successful blog posts + landing pages

Updated: Nov 28, 2023

Ranking Page Creation Best Practice

When you create a page for your website; be it a blog or landing page, that page begins competing for the [topic of the page] page keyword(s). Doing the following will help you create content that is easy to read both by your website visitors and Google indexers.


This is great for readers and great for you! Google indexers being able to understand your content quickly and see that the reader will be able to do the same, will encourage Google to send more visitors to website when they search for the topics of your pages.


A great blog has the following components

  1. Strong introductory paragraph: gives reader perfect idea of content to come

  2. Headings: clearly line out content for “quick scan” reading

  3. Bulleted lists: make content easy to take in quickly

  4. Graphics: add value and context to the text

  5. Products: linked and easy to access for readers

  6. Strong conclusion paragraph: wraps up piece nicely


Title and Hyperlink Handle

  • Title of blog must contain the keyword(s) that piece is ranking for

  • Handle must contain the keyword(s) that piece is ranking for

    • Example: Top Product Category Products for 2024

      • Title: Top Product Category Products for 20244

      • Handle: /top-product-category-products-for-2024

Headings and Heading tags

  • Some web platforms automatically add H1 heading formatting to the title of the blog, if that's the case, don’t use any other H1 headings anywhere in the blog because it is the TITLE heading and there should only be one per page.

  • Use H2, and then H3, and so forth, for headings and subheadings, respectively

  • Use H6 for labels and product names when products are featured



How to use headings

Headings help readers scan information and understand what they are about to read. Most readers will scan headings if the text is more than 300 words. Use headings to help readers know what they are in for.


As mentioned before Google will also use them to crawl and understand the content - as well as determine which searchers to send to your content. Because the content is well organized, Google will rank it higher than text that is not easy to scan and read.


Body Copy

  • Body copy should be in active sentence structure [Noun, Verb].

  • Put the most important items toward the top of the content (inverted pyramid structure).

  • The first paragraph should contain the topic in a clearly stated, succinct sentence.

    • That sentence should also contain the keyword the page is raking for.

    • If it is natural the first couple of paragraphs can also contain supporting keywords.

  • Headings and subheadings should be organized so the content is easy to understand at a glance.

  • The first sentence under headings + subheadings should clearly and succinctly state the heading topic.

When readers are deciding to read a piece they will often scan the piece for headings and scan the first sentence under each heading (if they read past the first sentence.)



Graphics and images

The feature photo will generally be the photo displayed at the top of the page above the title in H1 and the author. I suggest creating a template for your feature photo creation, so you can ensure


1. The display on the Blog Homepage is uniform and looks great.

2. The focal point and action of the photo doesn't get cropped out, no matter what screen the photo is displayed on.


Subsequent photos should be inserted and may need to be centered or put into a table next to text. Be sure to break up text logically and don't insert an image in the middle of one sentence or thought or break up two sentences that make most sense when read together.

  • I would suggest using a template for these as well. From this you get

    • Uniform size, expected graphics are easier for readers' eyes

    • You can make sure the size is right for your blog (higher quality v lower quality images)


Use bulleted lists as much as possible

Lists consisting of more than 2 items should probably be broken out into a bulleted list.

Set up the bulleted list by

  • Putting the sentence with the list on its own line

  • Hitting enter between each entry on the list (the text between the commas)

  • Capitalizing the first word of each entry (and making sure the structure is congruent)

  • Indenting and bulletting the list

  • No need for punctuation - don’t use a colon before a bulleted list, it is redundant because the structure of the list denotes the same thing as the colon.

Breaking the text up like this is easier to read both for website users and Google crawlers [bonus!].


Use the congruent phrase structure in your bulleted lists.


Good Form

Shoppers’ steps to purchasing a product

  • Consider the product

  • Research

  • Ask their friends’ opinion

  • Purchase

Bad Form Shoppers’ steps to purchasing a product

  • Consider a product

  • Researching the product

  • Asked your friends

  • Buy the product


I hope you have enjoyed this blog, I created it using my Best Practices for Blogging and SEO, so you can take the information in here and create some great blog posts, landing pages and more for yourself. If you don't have time for this work, now you know what is needed to get it done!


Feel free to send me your information, and I am happy to put it together in a dazzling webpage that will help you drive traffic, sales, and whatever your bottom line and business goals necessitate.



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