Project: Optimize Blog Content

As our readings have discussed, on-page SEO can help increase your content’s chances of ranking well in Google’s search results. This project provides a quick overview of how to optimize blog posts for your site.

There are two phases in this project:

• Setup: The instructions in this phase revolve around installing plugins for future use, so you only need to run through this phase once.
• Optimization: Run through the processes in this phase every time you publish content on your blog.

Since it’s the world’s most popular CMS software, we’ve designed this project for companies using WordPress. However, platforms like Medium and Squarespace generally offer the same functionalities for content optimization. Even if you don’t use WordPress, you can still follow the instructions described in our Optimization phase.

Phase 1: Setup

Step 1: Install Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the gold standard for WordPress plugins. You can use it to edit your content’s title tags and meta descriptions, and the best part is that it’s free. (A premium version is available, but the free version is all you need.)

To download Yoast SEO:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. In the left navigation menu, click Plugins.
3. Then click on the Add New button next to the Plugins title.
4. Search for Yoast SEO.
5. The Yoast SEO plugin should appear as a top result. Click the Install Now button.
6. Once the installation is complete, click the Activate button.

Once Yoast SEO is installed and activated, you can find it working at the bottom of any page or blog post on your site.

Step 2: Install EWWW Image Optimizer

The EWWW Image Optimizer plugin takes care of image optimization by compressing files to make your site run faster.

To download it:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. In the left navigation menu, click Plugins.
3. Then click on the Add New button next to the Plugins title.
4. Search for EWWW Image Optimizer.
5. The EWWW Image Optimizer plugin should appear as a top result. Click the Install Now button.
6. Once the installation is complete, click the Activate button.

EWWW Image Optimizer automatically optimizes any new images uploaded to your site’s Media Library. You can find out the optimization details for each image by viewing your Media library in list mode and checking the Image Optimizer column.

But if you already have a lot of images uploaded to your site, you can use EWWW Image Optimizer to compress those existing files all at once.

To do this, hover your cursor over Media in the left navigation menu. Then click Bulk Optimize. You can then scan for unoptimized images and optimize them.

Step 3: Update your URL structure

SEO-friendly URLs are short but descriptive. They generally include your primary keyword and follow an “evergreen” structure, i.e., they don’t include the time of their publication.

To set up your blog posts’ URL structure:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. Hover your cursor over Settings in the left navigation menu. Then click Permalinks.
3. You’ll see a few options for customizing your blog posts’ URL structure. Select the Post name option—it’s the most SEO-friendly option
4. Click Save Changes.

Important note: Selecting a different permalink option at a later time will affect all of your existing blog posts’ URL. This will negatively impact your SEO, as any existing links from other sites or your own will break. So avoid changing your permalink settings after this.

Phase 2: Optimization

Once you’ve taken care of the setup processes, follow these steps to optimize any new blog posts on your site.

Step 1: Write an SEO-friendly URL

Whenever you write a post, you can modify its URL directly in WordPress’s editor.

This option appears in the right sidebar if you’re using WordPress’s Gutenberg editor.

If you’re using the Classic editor, it’s directly below the page’s title field.

Remember to:

• Include your primary keyword.
• Use hyphens to separate words.
• Use lowercase letters.
• Minimize or avoid using stop words like the, and, or, of, a, etc.
• Make it short.

A few examples of SEO-friendly URLs:

• www.seoblog.com/how-to-fix-slow-website/
• www.markettap.com/instagram-food-photography/
• www.ecommerceceo.com/product-description-writing/

Step 2: Write an interesting title tag and meta description

Scroll to the bottom of your new blog post in your WordPress admin to find the Yoast SEO plugin.

Click the Edit snippet button edit your post’s title tag and meta description. Yoast SEO will let you know if either are beyond the recommended character count.

Remember that you should make your title tag and meta description compelling so that users would rather click on your page than others listed in Google’s search results. For some inspiration, Google your primary keyword to see what the current top results use.

Step 3: Add alt text to images

With EWWW Image Optimizer, any new image you upload to your site’s Media Library will automatically be optimized. But you’ll still need to add descriptive alt text for each image.

Using WordPress’s Gutenberg editor, the alt text field appears in the right sidebar after you’ve clicked on an image in your post.

Using the Classic WordPress editor, clicking on an image in your post will open up a popup with image details. The alt text field is at the top.

The best alt text is concise, descriptive, and grammatically correct. It doesn’t need to be a complete sentence. For example, write “butterflies flying over a meadow of flowers” instead of “butterflies flower meadow.”

Step 4: Add internal links to posts

Since internal links benefit both SEO and user experience, it’s important that each of your blog posts is linked to from another page on your site. So whenever you upload a new post to your site, make it a point to link to it from at least 2-3 other pages on your site.

WordPress makes it easy to identify the number of internal links directed to and from a post. In your WordPress admin dashboard, hover your cursor over Posts in the left navigation menu. Then click All Posts to navigate to your post library.

There are two icons on the right side of the table listing your blog posts. One represents the number of outgoing internal links in a given post (left); the other represents the number of incoming internal links that link to a given post (right).

If you already have existing blog content, it’s worth looking at these columns to find orphan pages that don’t have any incoming internal links.

Sort your blog post library by the number of incoming internal links. Use Ahrefs’ Link opportunities feature for link suggestions. Alternatively, do a quick site search of relevant keywords that appear in other posts. Then add internal links that direct to your orphan posts.