0:02 Okay, I've got some good news and some
0:05 bad news. The bad news is most blog
0:07 posts out there are completely
0:10 unprepared for this new wave of AI
0:12 powered search. And if your content
0:16 isn't optimized for both Google and AI
0:18 search, it's going to get left behind.
0:20 But the good news is you can optimize
0:23 your post so that Google and AI will
0:25 show you some search love. And that's
0:26 what we're going to go over in this
0:28 video. So, I'm going to walk you through
0:30 a checklist that will help you rank high
0:33 in both, giving you the edge you need to
0:35 stay visible. I have got five tips for
0:37 you on how to structure your content,
0:39 how to use the right language, how to
0:41 build authority, and at the end, I'm
0:43 going to share a foolproof keyword
0:45 placement checklist that you're going to
0:47 want to screenshot. Hey, I'm Robin, your
0:50 B2B marketing bestie. I have over 15
0:53 years experience writing and optimizing
0:54 blog posts for my clients that have
0:57 gotten top rankings in search engines.
0:59 And I've also scored multiple mentions
1:02 in the new AI searches for my clients.
1:04 So, let's get into the checklist. So,
1:05 before we start, I do want to mention
1:06 that you're going to want to have your
1:08 target keyword already identified for
1:10 this blog post before you start
1:12 optimizing. So, if you haven't done that
1:13 and you haven't done your keyword
1:15 research, I'll link a video below that
1:17 shows you how to do that. You can hit
1:19 pause, go watch that video and come back
1:21 or hey, you can watch this now too and
1:22 watch the other one later. Doesn't
1:24 matter to me. So the number five tip
1:26 that I have is to structure your content
1:28 before you even start writing. Search
1:31 engines, both Google and AI are obsessed
1:33 with well ststructured content. And what
1:35 I mean by that is you want to provide
1:38 good organization to your content. So
1:40 you don't just want to start writing
1:42 willy-nilly and just go wherever the
1:44 stream of consciousness takes you. I
1:46 know some of my writers out there are
1:47 like, "Let it flow. I just let my
1:49 fingers go." But you don't really want
1:50 to do that if you're trying to get
1:53 ranked in search engines or in the AI
1:55 overviews or in AI engines. So instead,
1:57 you really want to outline before you
2:00 start writing. So just write down an
2:01 outline of what you want to cover in
2:03 this post. So you write your headline,
2:06 even a placeholder headline, and then
2:07 write how you're going to structure the
2:08 post out. So you're going to write an
2:10 intro, maybe maybe you're going to cover
2:12 the history of your topic. Maybe you're
2:14 going to cover the benefits of whatever
2:16 you're talking about. Maybe you want to
2:18 talk about how it's applied. It just
2:20 depends on your post. But you want to
2:21 make sure that it follows a logical
2:24 sequence and provide subheadings for
2:26 each section. Subheadings are your
2:28 friend. These sections help to break up
2:31 content. They make it scannable and it
2:33 helps the engines and people really
2:34 understand what this post is all about
2:36 and what each section is about. And a
2:38 tip here is to make sure that you're
2:41 using your H2 and H3 tags. This is going
2:43 to be found in your content management
2:45 software when you're uploading your
2:47 post. Instead of just bolding the text,
2:49 you want to use those H2 and H3 tags.
2:52 The search engines understand what these
2:53 tags mean. They know that it's a subhead
2:55 and it gives it a little more context
2:57 and gives it more of a hierarchy. If the
2:59 text is just bolded, it's not going to
3:01 give it a hierarchy in the search
3:03 engine's eyes. Also, use bullet points
3:05 and numbered lists. These are great
3:07 because they're very digestible both to
3:09 readers and search engines and it helps
3:11 the engines pull some of this
3:13 information out to use as featured
3:15 snippets in the overviews or in the
3:17 search results. And a hot tip here is to
3:18 analyze what's currently ranking at the
3:20 top of those search engines and get an
3:22 idea and an understanding of the content
3:24 length, the structure and the search
3:26 intent and so you understand what Google
3:28 is really looking for and you can match
3:30 yours accordingly. Okay. So then the
3:33 number four tip that I have is depth of
3:35 content. If you want to rank in the
3:37 search engines or the AI engines, you're
3:38 going to want your content to be
3:40 comprehensive, authoritative, and
3:43 insightful. And so here are some tips on
3:45 how to do that. So your goal is to cover
3:47 the topic better than anybody else so
3:49 that you get pushed up higher in those
3:51 rankings. So you want to dive into
3:53 subtopics, provide some real world
3:55 examples if you have them, maybe case
3:57 studies, and some relevant data and
4:00 statistics. And another great tip here
4:02 is to use visuals. So things like
4:05 images, diagrams, infographics, videos
4:09 even. And here's a little tip. The AI
4:11 engines actually can understand the
4:12 images. This is something that Google
4:14 and other search engines, the
4:16 traditional search engines cannot do.
4:17 They weren't able to really look at an
4:19 image and and read it and understand
4:22 what that image was about, but AI can.
4:24 So you do want to include visuals. And
4:26 this also helps your readers to
4:28 understand the topic even further. And
4:32 next you want to demonstrate EAT or eat
4:35 which is expertise, experience,
4:38 authoritiveness and trust. So a good
4:40 idea might be to provide a bio at the
4:42 end of your blog post to show your
4:44 expertise and your experience in the
4:46 topic. And then you want to site
4:48 credible sources and statistics. And
4:50 this helps to build up your authority
4:51 with both the search engines and your
4:53 audience. And then another tip here, and
4:55 this may not apply to every single blog
4:58 post, but if you can add some FAQ at the
5:00 bottom, and this also actually applies
5:02 to other pages as well, like your
5:04 products and services pages, it's great
5:06 to include these FAQ because the AI and
5:08 traditional search engines love them
5:11 because it gives very clear questions
5:13 and answers. It's very direct and the
5:15 answers are usually pretty concise, and
5:17 it's easy for them to pull out that
5:19 content and maybe even use it as a
5:20 featured snippet. All right. So, the
5:22 next one we're going to talk about is
5:25 readability. Readability refers to how
5:28 easy it is to read your post. So, are
5:30 you using lots of jargon and complex
5:32 language or are you making it really
5:34 simple and straightforward and
5:35 conversational? Both traditional search
5:38 engines and AI search engines really
5:40 like natural language. They have
5:42 something called NLP, which is natural
5:44 language processing. And this is what
5:46 they thrive on. So, if you ever notice,
5:48 they try to produce language that sounds
5:51 pretty human. And so, it just makes
5:52 sense that they're going to want to
5:54 source from content that sounds pretty
5:56 human, too. So, you want to use plain
5:58 simple language. Think about how your
6:01 target audience would naturally talk and
6:03 talk to them that way. And a trick is to
6:05 use the Hemingway app. And this is an
6:07 app that lets you paste in your content
6:09 and it will analyze it and tell you how
6:12 complex it is. We're shooting for about
6:14 an eighth grade reading level or so. and
6:16 it will tell you what level it's at and
6:19 it'll point out which sentences are a
6:21 little bit problematic or maybe overly
6:22 complex or hard to understand and then
6:24 you can revise accordingly. Also, you
6:26 want to keep your paragraphs and
6:29 sentences fairly short. So, paragraphs
6:30 should be maybe two to three sentences
6:33 long and then sentences you don't want
6:35 them to go on and on. So, a good idea is
6:37 to read your draft out loud and if it
6:38 doesn't sound like something that you
6:40 would naturally say in a conversation,
6:42 go back and revise. By the way, if you
6:43 are finding these tips helpful, please
6:45 take a moment to subscribe to my
6:47 channel. This really does help me
6:49 continue to create free B2B marketing
6:50 content that will help you get more
6:52 leads and help you get more business.
6:53 And I have a question for you. So, what
6:54 is your biggest struggle when it comes
6:57 to optimizing blog posts? Drop me a
6:58 comment below because I would love to
7:00 help. All right. So, then the number two
7:02 tip I want to share is linking. And I'm
7:04 talking about internal and external
7:07 links to build your authority. So, when
7:09 I talk about internal links, what I'm
7:11 talking about is links within your blog
7:14 post that link to other pages or blogs
7:16 within your site. And this kind of helps
7:19 create a network that Google or other
7:21 search engines, AI engines, too. I'm
7:23 just going to say search engines so I
7:25 don't have to keep repeating both. But
7:27 when I say search engines, I mean both
7:29 the AI and and the traditional search
7:31 engines. So, they like to follow these
7:33 links when they're crawling these
7:34 websites. And following these links
7:36 helps them understand how content is
7:38 related to one another. And then we want
7:40 to talk about external links. And these
7:42 are links that link outside of your
7:44 website. And you want to use these at a
7:45 minimum, but they are good to include
7:47 sparingly because it helps to build
7:49 authority. Just make sure that you are
7:52 linking to really credible websites and
7:55 sources. So say if you're citing some
7:58 research or some data, put a link that
8:00 cites that source. And this builds trust
8:01 with your audience and the search
8:03 engines. And then when you're linking
8:05 your text, use descriptive anchor text.
8:07 And what that means is when you put a
8:09 link on that text, don't just say click
8:11 here. Try to include a keyword or at
8:14 least a descriptive phrase about what
8:16 that link is going to. So then when that
8:18 reader goes to that link, they're going
8:20 to content that they expect to see based
8:22 on the text that was in that link. And
8:23 the next one we're going to talk about
8:25 is keyword placement. So you want to
8:27 place your keywords strategically
8:29 throughout your post. I know a lot of
8:32 people know that keywords need to be in
8:33 a blog post, but they don't really
8:35 understand where and they just kind of
8:37 put them in randomly. But I'm going to
8:38 show you exactly where to put them. So,
8:40 you want to put your keyword in the blog
8:42 title. This is really important because
8:44 this tells search engines that there's a
8:46 very high likelihood that this post is
8:48 really going to be about this keyword
8:50 and cover it comprehensively. And the
8:52 next place you want to put it is in the
8:54 first sentence of copy. So, putting your
8:56 keyword in the first sentence also gives
8:58 these search engines a clue that there's
9:00 a high likelihood that this whole blog
9:02 is going to be about this keyword topic.
9:03 And then make sure you put it in some
9:05 subheads. And we talked about subheads
9:07 earlier in this video. So, you want to
9:08 make sure that you're including a
9:10 keyword in at least one subheading.
9:12 Then, you want to include your keyword
9:14 throughout the body copy naturally. So,
9:16 you know, there's no magic number. I
9:18 usually just say include it as many
9:20 times as you can while still sounding
9:23 natural. So, back in the olden days of
9:25 search engines, people would just put
9:28 the keyword in a whole bunch and it
9:29 didn't really matter what the context
9:31 was. The search engines would just see
9:33 this keyword repeated and it could
9:35 potentially rank that way. But now,
9:37 they've gotten much smarter and much
9:39 more sophisticated. They know when
9:40 you're keyword stuffing, and this is
9:42 actually a black hat technique that you
9:44 do not want to do. You could potentially
9:46 get banned for it. And if your blog post
9:48 truly is about this topic, you will be
9:50 able to incorporate it pretty naturally
9:53 throughout. So image alt text is the
9:54 next place you want to place your
9:55 keyword. And this is also going to be
9:57 found in your content management
9:59 software or editor. So when you place an
10:00 image in your blog post, the editor is
10:02 going to give you an option to include
10:05 this image alt text. And this is
10:06 basically just a description of what
10:09 this image is. So this is really meant
10:11 for people who are vision impaired and
10:13 using screen readers and they can't see
10:16 the image. So they rely on this alt text
10:18 to tell them what this image is about.
10:20 So you want the image to describe
10:22 accurately what the image is about. You
10:23 don't just want to stuff a keyword in
10:25 there if that image is not about that
10:28 keyword, but you can incorporate it
10:29 somehow. For example, say there's an
10:32 image of somebody working at a computer.
10:33 You don't just want to put a keyword
10:35 like HR software in there because it
10:36 doesn't make sense. But you could say
10:39 something like woman working on HR
10:41 software at a computer. So, you're
10:42 including the keyword, but you're also
10:44 accurately describing what that image is
10:46 about. And then next, we've got the meta
10:48 description. And you want to include a
10:50 keyword here, too. And the meta
10:52 description is not something that you
10:55 can actually see in a blog post. So, it
10:56 is something also that is going to be
10:58 found in your editor, your editing
11:00 software, and they will give you an
11:01 opportunity to include a meta
11:04 description. So, the meta description is
11:06 just a summary of what your blog post is
11:08 about, and it should be no more than
11:10 about 160 characters. So when you look
11:12 at the search results, you see the blog
11:13 title and that's the thing that you
11:15 click on and then underneath it there's
11:17 a little description and that is
11:19 typically the meta description and that
11:21 does not directly help your search
11:24 rankings but it can help click-through
11:25 rate and that can help your search
11:27 rankings. And I personally like to
11:29 incorporate my keywords as I write so
11:31 that I can incorporate them naturally
11:33 when I'm constructing my sentences. But
11:36 if you really can't do that or if maybe
11:37 you're trying to optimize a post that
11:40 has already been written, then you can
11:42 optimize it after the fact and you can
11:46 even use AI chat GPT for example to help
11:48 you optimize that post. So, all you're
11:49 going to do is copy and paste your blog
11:52 post into chat GPT and then tell it
11:56 optimize this blog post for the keyword
11:58 blah blah blah, whatever your keyword
12:01 is, and optimize for traditional and AI
12:03 search engines, and be sure to include
12:05 it in these places. And then give it the
12:06 list of where you want to include it,
12:08 which is the list that I just gave you,
12:11 just to make sure that it's including it
12:12 in those places. And then it will give
12:15 you a fully optimized post. just make
12:16 sure to proofread it and make sure that
12:18 they got it right. Now, a big thing that
12:21 people ask is, "How long should a blog
12:23 post be?" And this is a controversial
12:26 topic in the SEO world. Some people say,
12:28 "No, word count doesn't matter." Other
12:30 people say, "Yes, it matters. Your blog
12:32 post needs to be 1500 words or so." It's
12:34 a hot topic. So, I actually created an
12:36 entire video about it that you can click
12:38 on right here that goes over whether
12:40 content length matters, how, and why,
12:42 and if you can use it to help you get
12:44 better search rankings. So, I'll see you over
