10 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO

You’ve written the blog post, you’re happy with it, and you’re ready to hit publish. But before you do, there are a few things you should check to give your post the best possible chance of showing up in Google.

And no, you don’t need to be an SEO expert to do them.

If you’re using WordPress, a plugin like Yoast SEO makes a lot of this pretty simple. It gives you helpful suggestions right inside your blog post editor, so you can make changes before publishing. There are several different WordPress plugins available that serve the same purpose, but Yoast SEO is always our first choice.

We’ve been working with WordPress for more than 20 years, and while SEO can get complicated, there are a few simple things we recommend starting with if you want to make the most of your blog posts.

1. Choose One Focus Keyword

Before you start writing a blog post, decide what you want someone to search for to find it. This is your focus keyword or keyphrase.

For example, if you’re a photographer writing about family photos, your keyword might be “what to wear for family photos.” If you’re a web designer writing about backups, it might be “how to backup a WordPress website.”

You can use related phrases throughout the post, but start with one main topic.

2. Add Your Keyword to Yoast

If you install and configure the Yoast SEO plugin, you’ll see a Focus keyphrase field when editing your post in WordPress.

Add your main keyword there and Yoast will analyze your post and give you suggestions for improving it. You’ll probably see a little green, orange or red indicator, with tips on how to improve.

Don’t feel like you have to make everything green, though. Yoast is a guide, not the SEO police. If forcing your keyword into a sentence makes it sound terrible, don’t do it. It’s better to have something be readable and make sense than to shove keywords where they don’t belong.

3. Put Your Keyword in Your Blog Post Title

Next, your blog post title should make it obvious what the article is about. And, when it makes sense, include your focus keyword in the title.

Instead of a title like: Website Backups try: How to Backup Your WordPress Website: A Beginner’s Guide. The second title tells Google and your potential reader exactly what they’re going to find.

4. Write a Meta Description

This is one of the easiest things to forget. Your meta description is the short description that can appear underneath your page title in Google search results.

Yoast lets you write your own instead of leaving it up to Google. Think of it as a tiny sales pitch for your blog post. Tell people what they’ll learn and give them a reason to click.

For example: Learn how to backup your WordPress website with simple, beginner-friendly steps to protect your site and content. Try to include your focus keyword if possible, but don’t force it.

5. Use Your Keyword Naturally Throughout Your Post

Your focus keyword should appear naturally in your introduction and throughout your blog post. This helps make it clear to both Google and your readers what your post is about.

You don’t need to use the exact phrase every single time. In fact, you shouldn’t. That will make your writing sound off very quickly. Instead, use your focus keyword where it makes sense and sprinkle in related words and phrases throughout your content.

For example, if your focus keyword is “how to backup a WordPress website,” you might also naturally use phrases like “WordPress backup,” “website backup,” “backup plugin” and “restore your website.”

The goal is for Google to understand the topic without making your readers feel like they’re being followed around by a keyword.

6. Break Up Your Content With Headings

Nobody wants to read one giant wall of text, so using headings to break your blog post into sections is a great way to make it easy to skim.

Your blog post title should be an H1, your main sections should be H2s, and smaller sections underneath those can be H3s.

You can also naturally include your keyword or related phrases in some of your headings, just don’t force it into every single one.

7. Add Relevant Internal Links

Before you publish, take a look at your website and see if you’ve already written something related to your topic. If you have, link to it. You can also link to relevant service pages when it makes sense.

Internal links help visitors find more of your content and help Google understand how the pages on your website relate to one another. Plus, it gives people a reason to click around your website a little longer.

8. Optimize Your Images

Images are a great way to add to a blog post, but you don’t want to upload a giant image straight from your camera or phone and call it a day. You should always resize your images before uploading them so they don’t slow down your website.

You should give your image a descriptive file name, too. Instead of: IMG_4837.jpg, try: wordpress-seo-blog-post.jpg

Then add descriptive alt text in WordPress. Alt text should explain what’s actually in the image for people using screen readers. For example: “WordPress dashboard showing SEO settings”. Don’t use alt text to stuff your keyword into every image. Describe the image accurately, and if a keyword fits, that’s great.

9. Check Your URL

Your blog post URL should be short, simple, and descriptive. If you don’t configure it yourself, WordPress might automatically generate a URL something like this: yourwebsite.com/blog/2026/08/25/?p=4837, which isn’t doing you any favours. Instead, you want a URL that gives Google and your reader valuable information about your post. Something like this: yourwebsite.com/blog/how-to-backup-wordpress-website

10. Read Your Post Before You Publish It

This might be our most important tip. Once you’ve done all of your SEO optimizations, and looked through the suggestions that Yoast SEO is making, it’s important to actually read your post. Does it make sense? Is it helpful? Does it sound like you?

If you’ve added your keyword so many times that the post sounds awkward, you’ve gone too far. You don’t need to get a perfect green score in Yoast every time. Your goal is to create something useful that answers the questions your audience is asking.

Your Quick SEO Checklist

Before you hit publish, make sure you:

1. Choose One Focus Keyword
2. Add Your Keyword to Yoast
3. Put Your Keyword in Your Blog Post Title
4. Write a Meta Description
5. Use Your Keyword Naturally Throughout Your Post
6. Break Up Your Content With Headings
7. Add Relevant Internal Links
8. Optimize Your Images
9. Check Your URL
10. Read Your Post Before You Publish It

That’s it. Though there is a lot more to SEO if you want to dive deeper, these 10 things are a great place to start.Check Your URL

And if you’re thinking, “Okay, I can handle writing the blog posts, but I really don’t want to deal with the rest of my website,” we get it. That’s what we’re here for.

We build, host and maintain WordPress websites for business owners who want their website to work for them without having to spend their evenings troubleshooting plugins, updates and broken layouts.