Most entrepreneurs know that to boost their SEO ranking and maximize their online potential, they need to keep a blog for their business. Writing regular online content will help increase your network, give your brand a voice and improve your online presence. However, there’s no point writing a killer blog post if it can’t be found, which is where SEO comes in.

Optimizing your content will help it appear high up in search engine results and guarantee more visits to your site. There are several ways to maximize your blog’s SEO, none of which are as complicated as you might think. Here are five steps to a fully optimized blog post.

Determine Your Keywords

First things first, you need to come up with a great idea for your post. Perhaps you already have a topic in mind, in which case you need to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases that people search for most often within your niche.

So if you are a vacuum cleaner manufacturer, you might find that Internet users search most often for phrases like, “cheap cordless vacuums” or “stick vacuums.” If necessary, you should adapt your post to fit the appropriate keywords, then incorporate them naturally into your content. Be careful of keyword stuffing, as this makes the post unnatural and difficult to read; you’ll also be penalized by Google.

Write Click-Worthy Content

Once you’ve done your keyword research, you need to create a piece of content that people can’t help but read. The first step is to write a captivating title that incorporates your keyword, preferably in the first three words of the headline. Aim to pique the curiosity of your reader by asking a question, arousing interest or making a bold statement. Something like “Here’s the Cordless Vacuum Your Home Is Missing” will do the trick.

Again, be careful to make your title seem natural. You should also include sub-headings (ideally ones that contain your keywords) and a good-quality image to make your post more attractive. Keep your content between 400-700 words so it takes around five minutes for readers to absorb – any longer than that and you risk losing their interest.

Add Inbound Links

Inbound links (also known as internal links) are vital for SEO, so you should try to include them as much as possible on your blog. For instance, your keyword “cordless vacuum” should link to the cordless vacuum products on your site, and “contact us” should link to your contact form or customer service helpline. The place where the link goes is called “anchor text,” and you should always make sure it appears naturally in your posts.

Embrace Email Marketing

Once you’ve created your blog post, it’s time to get people to read it. One of the most effective methods to promote your blog is to collect email addresses from your subscribers (with their permission, of course – no one likes being spammed) and alert them to new content. One way to increase your subscriber list is to offer readers a freebie or voucher for signing up. You can do this using an opt-in system on your website.

You can draft your own emails or automate the process to save time, but either way, you will increase traffic to your blog. If you’re new to email marketing, then make sure you research how to write effective emails and outreach to customers and clients, limiting your risk of being sent to the ‘junk’ box.

Encourage Social Media Sharing

Again, once you’ve put in the hard work and optimized your post for search engines, you won’t want to spend lots of time promoting it. Luckily, social media sharing takes some of the weight off and lets your readers help you out. Make sure you enable social sharing by adding social sharing icons to each post and encouraging readers to share.

Enabling comments on your posts is another way to boost SEO behind the scenes, and it will also help readers engage with your content. Be aware that an increasing number of people read articles and blogs on their mobile phones, so make sure your blog is mobile friendly.

At first glance, SEO can seem like a complicated code to crack. In reality, it’s all about getting your content found, and there are plenty of ways to do that without technical skills or coding expertise. Get started optimizing your content today and see if you can boost your rankings.