How to create a quality SEO-friendly blog post in under 15 mins!

Ever been faced with a deadline and stuck with what to write?

Can’t get those damn crickets to stop chirping as you stare at a blinking cursor?

And what in world is ‘SEO-friendly?’

Well sit back friend – soon to be best friend after you see all these amazing tips – because today you are in for an absolute treat.

I have personally used the following framework to crank out top quality posts in 15 minutes or less.

Not only do the posts read exceptionally well but if you follow this framework you will find that they are already SEO optimised. And yes, I’ve become totally obsessed with SEO in the last few weeks as I have been able to completely skyrocket my traffic with only a few simple tweaks.

If you want to be kept updated with how I handle my SEO with simple methods you can subscribe to my newsletter to know when it comes out 😉 (I’ll also give you 3 of my top-selling training’s for free as a special thankyou).

But first things first, we are going to focus on getting a quality blog post written.

Is it even possible to write quality content in under 15 minutes?

Yes.

In fact it is easier to write quality content in a shorter amount of time. Humans are wired to procrastinate and conserve energy. So if you allocate 1 hour to writing a blog post chances are you’re probably going to have some other cheeky tabs open. (Netflix and blog anyone?)

In fact most people only have a true attention span of 20 minutes. That is why TED talks are usually 20 mins maximum. Even if topics are polarising or attention grabbing it is almost impossible for someone to keep that laser focus for so long.

Make a date with yourself

This being considered, the first step is being able to set aside 15 minutes of quality writing time so that you can focus on your blog post. I like 15 minutes because it is easy to switch off everything for that amount of time without having to explain to anyone where I am or what I’ve been doing.

For those of you who have family members or work colleagues floating around when you write you know what I mean.

Make sure your surroundings are conducive to your creative flow.

If you have a favourite place to be like a coffee shop, or a park it is time to pack up your things and go. Just make sure there aren’t too many distractions.

As a general rule I love to have a tidy surroundings – as a big Marie Kondo fan I believe that my mind really focuses when everything is in order. That’s just me though, I know plenty of people who feel just at home amongst organised chaos.

Everyone’s different 🙂

Bonus points if you bring along your coffee, or a glass of wine (because why not) so you can take a sip when you need a small breather.

Remove distractions

No social media checking, no calls, nothing. This ties in well with the reason that I gave above for blocking 15 minutes of intense focus time – you can get away with it without having to offer an explanation.

Clear the space you are working in. I don’t want you to be reading the back of a packet of pens when you are supposed to be writing a masterpiece! Anything that will cause you to fidget or get sidetracked needs to go.

Do your preparation

Depending on what you are writing about make sure that you have a place where you can keep all of your notes handy. I personally like to use OneNote or Evernote to keep ideas in one place and organised.

Being prepared means that you will be able to focus on your writing rather than getting caught into the trap of the perpetual scroll. The best things to prepare in advance are:

Topic
Title
Pictures
Quotes from relevant sources with links so you can add them into your blog
Relevant links from within your site that you can post (great for getting your page ranked in search engines)

Time to get writing!

Here is the following framework that I use to get top quality content written FAST.

Target Audience

If you already have a specific niche that you specialise in then this will be simple. If you have a more generalised type of blog or content platform make sure you are speaking the language of those who are most likely to land on this particular post you are writing.

Now is also a good time to decide the style of your post. Is it informal or formal, and where will you be posting it to? An article destined for LinkedIN might be very different to an article intended to be shown to people on Instagram.

What is the end goal of your post (call to action)

Is it to inform, educate, or offer a sign-up to your email list?

Keep your goal the number one priority when writing your post. If you need to have a specific action taken you should include it at least twice in your post. Once in the middle, and another at the very end for those who get antsy and like to scroll down to the end.

Your call to actions should be very specific and dictate to the reader what they need to do in order to achieve an ‘x’ outcome. Some examples are:

‘Want more awesome ideas? Sign up to my email list!’

‘I’m offering some free discovery calls, make sure to check out this link!’ (insert link)

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is key if you want your article to come up in search engines.

While most people think that it is only necessary to be found in Google search they are missing quite a big piece of the picture. Many other sites such as Pinterest, LinkedIN and Facebook all have search engines built within them too.

Basically if it has a search bar it has the ability to be a search engine.

Within SEO there are a few sub categories that you need to consider.

Keywords

If you were searching for your article, what would you type into the search bar? Include those terms heavily in your blog post and ensure that your title contains them as well. If it is too hard to incorporate on your first draft you can always go back and try to fit them in later.

The main places for you to include your keywords include:

The title of the blog post
The URL of the post
The first paragraph

As these are the places that are targeted by the crawlers first.

Meta description

This is the short description that is present underneath your posts title in search engines. It should be no more than 150 characters.

The best way to structure them is to either give a summary of what the article is about or to provide the question and a short answer to the search query you believe your reader will be looking for.

The question I like to ask myself when I am writing a meta description is this:

“If I was looking for my keyword, would this description be good enough to entice me to click the link and keep reading?”

The reason for this is that most people will quickly gloss over the meta description to see if they are interested.

Internal links

Are there any relevant posts that you can include withing your post?

Internal links help signal to crawlers that you have other similar information available so they can go from the current page to the new page. If your posts are great but there is no way for the crawler to find them via other links in your site, it will make it very difficult for the engine to find the posts that are not connected.

Another great reason to include internal links is to keep the bounce rate low. That is why viral sites have so many internal links to other quizzes and posts. Because the longer someone stays on a page the more likely they are able to see ads or other promotions.

Which means more money for you.

You see creating a quality blog post should not just mean providing value for the viewer as equally as it should provide value to you!

Images

Images not only help to break the space up and keep the viewers engaged, they can also provide another means for you to share information.

In fact the reason why platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest are so popular is because a picture can truly tell a thousand words.

You can utilise images to provide more information. Some popular ways to do this is via infographics, graphs. Your graphics can also help provide links to other places that might be relevant to your material.

Obviously it can often take us about 15 minutes to create a great infographic.

So keep this in mind if you are doing a sprint-speed quality SEO post in under 15 minutes.

Personally, I like to pre-prep the majority of my images in advance so that I can easily upload them when the time comes. Being able to set aside a day when you create your images and social media posts makes it really easy to get organised especially if you like using automatic schedulers.

“What’s the deal with alt-text?”

I didn’t understand the big deal until I realised that you can utilise it to help web crawlers find you easier and boost your SEO rankings.

It is basically like an extra link to your post. (Without the annoyance of another link in your post)

Because web crawlers can’t ‘read’ or ‘see’ your images (yet), they rely on information from the title given to the picture. Which is something you can completely use to your advantage.

Warning: Alt-text is NOT the same as the title of your picture. In WordPress you can change both when you upload your image into the media library.

Ready, set, write!

Time to get writing that top quality SEO-friendly blog post.

Headline

Quirky, offbeat and something that will stand out in a sea of other blogs is ideal.

But don’t forget to describe what is in your blog. A catchy headline is perfect but if the reader doesn’t know what you are talking about they will skip over your post.

The best conversion headlines are ones that ask or answer a question that is already present in the readers minds.

Introduction

Introduce the topic and make sure that your keywords are at the very beginning. Provide a very short description of what you will be talking about.

If you slip up and forget to put in a meta description that we talked about earlier the into is what will fulfil that space.

Subheadings

Humans love subheadings, SEO therefore loves subheadings.

For humans, they break up large volumes of information into parts that can be read and digested easily.

For SEO, having people enjoy your text and stay on post longer means that you have written a great post. Therefore you will rank higher.

Try to come up with at least 3-5 subheadings for your article and then make yourself elaborate on them like the expert your are.

And if you are not quite the expert?

No worries, Google it!

Ta-da! Now you’re an expert. Life is a learning curve, embrace it.

Conclusion of your blog

Another place to start strategically packing your keywords in. You also have to be able to give a Reader’s Digest edition of your blog post in it. If it is a very long and complicated post then you need a neat way to tie up at the end.

The conclusion is also the perfect place to put in relevant links to other parts of your blog or a call-to-action.

Because if they absolutely loved your blog, then surely they would love to keep in touch with you by joining your email list.

Final touches

I’m not including this into the 15 minutes because getting the damn thing done (in this case, the blog post) is the hardest part. The rest is easy.

Proofreading

Okay, I’ll be the first one to admit that sometimes I rush this over. Simply because I think I’m too cool for proofreading and I come from the generation that talk ‘lyk dis.‘

The same generation that also relies a bit too heavily on spellcheck and Grammarly.

A quality blog post should be proofread at least once to ensure your flow of words.

The ironic part is that despite proofreading we can often gloss over mistakes because we already know in our head what it is meant to say. Our brains are great like that but if you really want flawless copy it needs to go through a different set of eyes.

Getting social ready

A quality blog post needs to be paired with equally great social media graphics. Like your listing in search engines, the graphics that represent your post will determine whether or not someone wants to click and read further.

I’ll be covering how to make irresistible social media images (that you just can’t help but click) in a later post.