Getting published on Yoair Blog is an achievement. We like to keep our content organized, objective, informative, and culturally relevant. We have outlined the guidelines that bloggers can use to publish their blog. It’s also a fun way for bloggers to practice new writing styles, learn proper writing form, and implement proper Search Engine Optimization techniques. Applying these guidelines will help your blog rank higher on search engines, stand out professionally, and publish blogs with substance. This blog guide also implements key points for proper SEO.
Content
Remember this saying. “Content is king.” Quality content is the primary driver of SEO optimization. Make sure that your topic isn’t duplicate information by searching your topic in the blog search. It’s ok if your topic is similar to an existing blog as long as it expands upon the information already present.
Title
The title is very important because it is the first thing readers look at before deciding to read any further and also helps the reader understand what the article is about in one concise sentence. It is also how search engines index your content for people to find your blog through relevant search queries. Add necessary key words such as category, topic, and location. But also add some uncommon key words to differentiate yourself from other similar articles. Here is a good example of a simple, SEO rich title that gets the point across to the reader effortlessly. “Anthropology: Evidence of Morocco’s Diverse Culture through its Innovative Food Combinations.” This is how it looks in a draft on WordPress.
A great resource you can use if you’re not sure which words to capitalize in your title is https://capitalizemytitle.com/
You can copy and paste your title there and it will automatically show you what letters should be capitalized in your title.
Word Count
Try to aim for at least 2100 words. Articles that rank at the top of Google average about 2100-2400 words. However, there is no maximum word count if the content has substance. And regardless of the word count, always remember that content is king. Quality content beats out all other SEO rules, but it just so happens that an article will probably need around 2000 words in order to have substance.
Organization
Divide each section into H2 headings and H3 subheadings so that search engine web crawlers can find important titles and key words quickly. Here’s how to do it in WordPress. Move the cursor next to the word you want to make a header and it will give you options on what size heading you want.
Images
Add one image per H2 heading section. You can add images by clicking the plus icon and then clicking image or you can click on the “Add Media” Icon in the editing menu.
Fill in the alternative text field, also known as “alt attributes”, for each image and credit the source in the caption field. You can do this by clicking on the image to edit and filling in the fields for “Alternative Text”. An Alt attribute or alternative text is basically a one-sentence description of the photo, as if you are describing the photo to someone who is blind.
Category
Add only one category, i.e. Anthropology, Travel Guide, Ancient History, Art, Current Events, or Indigenous.
Tags
Add multiple tags, i.e. Anthropology, Culture, Art, History, or Blog. Go through your article and find key words, topics, and locations and see if these can be used as tags. Many of these tags, key words, or topics can be found in your title and headings.
Conclusion
Add a conclusion and use an H2 heading for the title. Title it something interesting, i.e. “Cultural Significance in Anthropology”“. In the conclusion, you want to try to explain the anthropological and cultural significance of your blog topic.
SEO Score
Complete the Yoast SEO section at the bottom of the draft to see your SEO and Readability Scores. Make sure to add in the Focus keyword and Meta description. Don’t worry if you did not get a “Green” color score, sometimes more in-depth and complex articles have a variety of key words and it could be difficult for the Yoast SEO application to parse the material as a whole.
Internal links
An internal link is one that points to another page on the same website.
These types of links are useful for three reasons:
- They allow users to navigate a website.
- They help establish an information hierarchy for the given website.
- They help spread link equity or ranking power around websites.
You can add suggested links by Yoast SEO by going to the top right Yoast SEO section.
In the right side panel you will find the Yoast SEO section called ‘Internal linking suggestions’ where you will find suggested links that you can copy and then attach to key words or phrases called anchor texts within the article.
When internal links are completed, you should see hypertexted anchor texts in your blog post that will lead readers to other Yoair Blog articles.
References
You can add references by either linking the anchor text to the reference or you can add references at the end of the article under a Source or Reference section. Please keep in mind, however, that when you link references, the link text URL domain name is sufficient, you do not need to link the whole exact URL, just up to the .com or .org is enough. While the referenced link can direct the user to the specific page.
Share
Once your article gets published, you want to share it to your social media network to get an audience and a following to read your work. The more traffic your blog gets, the higher it will rank on search engines. This is a good way to kick start your blog’s SEO potential. Sharing your blog on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Email contacts will definitely help increase traffic to your blog.
Mission
Our mission is to advance the discovery of culture through blogging. Our focus is on anthropology, travel, and art history, geared towards helping people understand culture. Furthermore, we hope you improve and progress as a writer along the way and learn to implement a structured approach to writing.