Effective search engine optimization is a crucial part of any digital marketing effort. Our Agency Lead for Organic Search, Laura Grace, shares her recommendations on how to best optimize your blog posts so that your target audience can find them. These are important practices whether you’re an individual posting on your personal blog or deploying content marketing initiatives on your company website.

1. SEO GUIDELINES
FOR BLOG POSTS
prepared by envisionit / march 2015

2. CONTENTS
prepared by envisionit / march 2015
1. General best practices
2. How to use keywords
3. Interlinking guidelines
4. Linking out guidelines
5. Image optimization

3. GENERAL
BEST PRACTICES
SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 3

4. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 4
General best practices
• Most blog posts should exceed 350 words in length.
• All posts should have a unique Title between 50 and 67 characters long with
important keywords near the beginning.
• All posts should have an engaging Meta Description between 150 and 160
characters long that is intended to entice searchers to click on the post.
• Most posts should include use of one H1 and up to two H2 tags with important
keywords included.

5. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 5
General best practices (cont.)
• Most posts should make skimming easy for users by using:
– Small paragraphs
– A font that users can read easily
– Bold / Italics to draw the reader’s attention to important points
– Headings, sections, tables, charts, lists, etc.

6. HOW TO USE
KEYWORDS
SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 6

7. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 7
How to use keywords
• Think (or do research) about the words users would type to find your post if they
aren’t already familiar with your site/brand, and make sure that your post actually
includes those words within it.
• Once you choose a focal set of keywords, mention them several times
throughout the article in various forms (synonyms, tenses, related words, etc.).

8. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 8
How to use keywords (cont.)
• Avoid focus keywords that are very similar to other pages on your website. You
may accidentally cannibalize conversion-ready traffic from the sales portion of
your website.
– Instead, use important keywords for the sales part of your website in the
anchor text when you are linking to those portions of your website.

9. INTERLINKING
GUIDELINES
SEO guidelines for blog posts / page 9

10. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
10
Interlinking guidelines
• Most blog posts should link to your website (other than blog posts) at least once.
• Most blog posts should link to several other of your blog posts.
• Links should be interspersed throughout the posts with about one link every one
hundred words.
• Advanced tip: Any time a new post is published, it is good to go back and add a
link to it in three older posts in order to help the new post get traction more
quickly.

11. LINKING OUT
GUIDELINES
SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
11

12. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
12
Linking out guidelines
• Most blog posts should link to several high-quality external sources (academic,
government, etc.).
• Avoid linking to competitors.
• Avoid long blogrolls on the sidebar, because site-wide outbound links can reduce
rankings.

13. IMAGE
OPTIMIZATION
SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
13

14. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
14
Image optimization
• Most blog posts should have at least 1 unique image.
• Image file names should include relevant keywords rather than number strings.
• Images should have alt tags and captions that also include relevant keywords.
• Highly social images layered with quotes or tips from the article have more social
sharing power than images without text.
• Use compression and properly sized images. Huge image files can slow down
your site and are harmful for SEO.

15. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
15
Printable for reference
Download our infographic at the envisionit blog to print out and keep for reference.
Hand it out to your team so everyone is aligned.
www.envisionitagency.com/blog/

16. THANK YOU ENJOY
YOUR
AGENCY
130 e. randolph st. • suite 1600 • chicago, il 60601
312.236.2000
envisionitagency.com

17. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
17
Appendix
Tools for Keyword Brainstorming:
• Google Trends
• Google Auto-Suggest
• Ubersuggest
• Google Keyword Planner

18. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
18
Appendix
Header Best Practices
• Every page should have one H1 and one H2
• Reflect the theme of the section
• Use main key phrase at the beginning

19. SEO guidelines for blog posts / page
19
Appendix
Page Title Best Practices
• 67 characters or less
• Reflect the theme of the page
• Use main key phrase at the beginning
Meta Description Best Practices
• 150-160 characters
• Use main key phrases
• Entice users to click with special offers, free shipping, exclamation points, whatever
works!