The first links on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) get 33% of all the traffic. All the links on the first page – 92% of all traffic, whereas those on the second page, get only 5%.

The numbers don’t lie. If you want to be #1 on SERPs, engaging and well-written content alone won’t help you get there. Instead, you need to focus on writing SEO-friendly posts and include keywords to drive targeted traffic to your blog. We’ve highlighted five working techniques that you can start using immediately.

1. Choose the most valuable keywords

If you want to be noticed among the multitude of search results and outperform your competitors, you should set sights on specific phrases and words that your target audience uses.

To determine them, you will need to analyze the social networks and platforms of the target audience to understand what is currently at the peak of interest. Pay attention to the phrases people use, monitor popular queries and terms.

Google can also provide information on whether a keyword is popular or is inappropriate to use. It would be best to analyze which keywords are used by your competitors too.

Keep in mind that the most obvious keywords aren’t necessarily the best. As a rule, users search not some separate words but phrases, 3-4 word questions – “long-tail” keywords. Such keywords make up 70% of search traffic and are the gateway to successful SEO. For example, when the largest WordPress newbie resource implemented an SEO strategy of long-tail keywords, they received 20% additional organic traffic in two months.

You will always face competition for more general and short keywords. Therefore, if you use long-tail ones, you may rank higher in the SERPs. Long-tail queries give you a chance to focus on valuable and targeted visitors who know precisely what they are looking for.

Once you compiled a list of the most valuable and relevant keywords, use the services of query statistics for each word (GoogleAdwords, Keyword Tool).

Depending on the type of your industry, business, or SEO budget, there are situations when it is worth struggling for better positions on highly competitive general queries. But don’t leave low-competitive queries behind. It might turn out that it is much easier for these queries to get to the first positions.

Bear in mind that your keyword selection changes over time as terminology, trends, and service or product lifecycle change.

2. Add keywords to your posts

Now it’s time to write a blog text that focuses on one of them. First, choose a post topic using information about your visitors’ interests, problems, desires, and motives. This way, the post will provoke an emotional response from the potential customer. Should you find it challenging to write such a post, contact the professional authors at wr1ter.com. The text you receive will be not only thoughtful but also plagiarism-free. You will just have to add a keyword to it. With time you will learn to write influential texts yourself.

Keep in mind: you are writing posts for real people, not only search engines. Therefore, a natural style of writing that prioritizes the interests and needs of readers is most likely to catch their attention.

3. Add authoritative resources links

Links to authoritative sites give the readers additional information, and the search engines significantly improve your blog’s ranking. In addition, an authoritative site, as a rule, “reciprocates” – provides a link to your blog – a backlink, which also leads to an increase in the position of your blog in search results.

4. Give priority to long posts

In the age of lack of attention and time, it is believed that short articles are the way to go. But search engines promote lengthy, in-depth posts. Therefore, the longer your post is, the better your chances of getting better positions in the SERP. For example, pages ranking 10th in SERPs contain 400 fewer words than pages ranking 1st. Therefore, we advise writing at least 300 words.

5. Don’t forget internal links

When referring to external resources or site pages, use natural language. Avoid spam phrases (e.g., “most popular cheap laptops” or “click here”). Use keywords that describe what the reader will find when he/she clicks on a link, such as “Search Engine Optimization Guide.” Remember to use links to other resources or pages only relevant to the post.

If you wish the blog to rank as high as possible on the first page of the search, make it appeal to both search engines and users. When optimizing your posts for the needs of both, you get the highest search results rankings, high-quality targeted traffic, and high conversions. Isn’t it the reason you started blogging?