Creating an SEO-friendly blog is a crucial task for any blogger wishing to attract significant and constant traffic of readers to their blog. This requires a certain amount of know-how and the use of relevant strategies to structure your blog correctly. Designed to be captured by search engines, a blog that is properly structured for SEO can increase your visibility and help you achieve your digital marketing goals.
What is an SEO-friendly blog?
An SEO-friendly blog is one that is designed and optimised to appeal not only to readers, but also to search engines. Blog writers use a variety of SEO tactics, including the use of keywords, optimised meta descriptions, appropriate HTML mark-up and the creation of quality links to make their blog favourable to search algorithms. The aim is for the blog's content to appear higher up the search results, attracting more visitors to the site.
The importance of structuring your blog correctly
The structure of your blog plays a crucial role in its SEO. A well-structured blog will help search engines understand what your content is about and how relevant it is to users. This in turn can improve your ranking in search results, generating more visibility and traffic for your site. Good structuring for SEO includes the coherent organisation of your publications, the effective use of headings, internal linking, and the appropriate tagging of your content.
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The importance of understanding search intent before any line of code is written
Even before choosing a WordPress theme or drawing a wireframe on Figma, the cornerstone of an SEO-friendly blog is user intent. Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, attributes 70 % of his site's organic growth to "keyword ↔ intent ↔ content". He has never published aarticle on "apple pie recipe" even though he's an amateur pastry chef, because his audience wants SEO case studies, not a dessert! This example shows that a keyword alone is not enough; you need to analyse the why and the context. Use the "Discover" reports in Google Search Console, cross-reference them with the "Jobs To Be Done" of your personas and you'll have a list of topics to structure your blog around.
Choosing a CMS and hosting optimised for speed and indexing
WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Hugo... all can run, but not all with the same ease. Take the example of Smashing Magazine The site moved from WordPress to Jamstack (Hugo + Netlify). The result: Core Web Vitals in the black and +40 % in mobile traffic in six months. If you opt for WordPress, choose a host with NVMe disks, an integrated CDN and a server cache plugin (Nginx FastCGI, Varnish). OVHcloud or Kinsta have proved their worth. For Ghost, opt for DigitalOcean App Platform. Never underestimate the first five seconds of loading time; according to Google, each additional second reduces the conversion rate by 20 %.
Adopting a silo or semantic cocoon architecture
The French agency Korleon Biz has been popularising the concept of the "semantic cocoon" since 2014: grouping related articles under virtual folders and a strong thematic mesh. A food blog could have /recipes/pastries/
then /recipes/pastries/pies/
. What's in it for SEO? Google's robots understand the depth of subject matter and the relevance of internal links. In 2022, the Papilles & Pupilles reorganised 3,000 recipes into silos, resulting in an 18 % increase in Top 3 positions. To get started, map your keywords into clusters, then create a mind-map (XMind, Miro). Each clusterter will become a category, and each branch an article, tutorial or FAQ.
Illustration on a photography blog
Let's assume three clusters: "shooting techniques", "Lightroom retouching" and "photo equipment". The root URLs (/technical/
, /retouche/
, /materiel/
) radiate to sub-articles (/material/objectives-macro
). Cross-cutting links remain intra-cluster; we avoid a cross-link to Lightroom for an article on lenses, unless editorial relevance warrants it.
Optimising URL structure: simplicity and semantics
Matt Cutts, former head of Google Webspam, reminded us that a good URL is "readable blindfolded . Avoid /post.php?id=123
. Prefer /blog/guide-on-yourt-home
. Short structures (/yaourt-house
) are acceptable if your CMS allows this without duplicating the internal ID. Keep the depth to a minimum: three segments maximum. Dated figures help to keep things fresh, but beware of maintenance: "guide-seo-2023" should become "guide-seo-2024". Some blogs solve the problem by using a generic slug and a variable date in the
Write captivating Title and Meta Description tags
Title tags influence ranking; Meta Description influences CTR. The HubSpot blog carried out an A/B test on 50 articles: Title ≤ 55 characters vs. Title ≤ 65 characters. Result: +10 % clicks for the shorter version, which is faster to read on mobile. Insert the main keyword at the beginning (SEO Guide: 50 Quick Wins ...
). Use the concepts of SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer). Example "Slow website? 7 tips to save 3 seconds .
Using titles correctly <h2>
and <h3>
Title tags form the backbone of content. An internal test at Search Engine Journal showed that moving from unstructured lists to
has increased the number of featured snippet passages by 14 %. Place your secondary keywords in the sub-headings. Vary synonyms: "flat price" can become "how much does a 2-bedroom apartment cost? Use only one by thematic block and possible cascade of. This makes it easier to navigate via screen readers (accessibility) and Google synthesis for People-Also-Ask.Strengthen internal links to distribute PageRank
. This makes it easier to navigate via screen readers (accessibility) and Google synthesis for People-Also-Ask.Strengthen internal links to distribute PageRank
Wikipedia dominates the SERP thanks to dense internal linking; each page receives an average of 50 internal links. On your blog, aim for a ratio of 3-5 internal links per 500 words. Use descriptive anchors; banish "click here". If you're talking about "image optimisation", the anchor must contain this expression. The Ahrefs Site Audit tool flags up "orphan pages": reinsert them in high-traffic articles. At Buffer, reactivating old posts via 10 new internal links generated +12 % of organic traffic in four weeks.
Produce in-depth, up-to-date content demonstrating E-E-A-T
Since the Helpful Content update (August 2022), Google values Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. Show your references, add an author bio, quote studies (Statista, INSEE). A 2,500-word article with data, infographics and FAQs receives 3 times more backlinks than a 1,000-word post, according to a Backlinko study of 912 million pages. Integrate "Updated" chapters; the Moz blog adds the mention "Last updated" and changes the date in the sitemap, improving perceived freshness.
Optimising images, videos and downloadable files
PageSpeed Insights penalises uncompressed images. Use WebP or AVIF: IKEA gained 2 MB per page after migration, finally falling below LCP's 2.5 s mark. Name your files (strategy-seo-tariffs.webp
) and fill in the ALT attributes in a descriptive way. For videos, opt for YouTube embeds pre-loaded in "lazy load" mode, or better: <link rel="preconnect" href="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com">
. Propose a transcript for accessibility; Google will draw semantic context from it.
Reducing loading times: Core Web Vitals and best practice
Le Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) must be < 2,5 s. Turn to the WP-Rocket plugin or the LiteSpeed Cache + QUIC.cloud stack. Native lazy-load (loading= "lazy "
) saves 35 % of bandwidth. Avoid blocking Google Fonts; host them locally or choose a system font. In 2021, the official GOV.UK blog removed its web-fonts, gaining 300 ms and a Lighthouse performance score from 85 to 95.
Ensuring mobile-first and responsive design
More than 60 % of queries come from a mobile phone. Google is now indexing in "Mobile-First . Test your templates using Chrome DevTools and the Search Console Mobile-Friendly Test. Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap 5 make fluid grids easier. Don't hide content on mobile with display:none
This practice can be interpreted as cloaking. Instead, use ARIA accordions or content folding; the SEO value is now preserved in folded content if the user can unfold it.
Implementing Schema.org structured data
The rich snippets increase CTR by 30 % (Searchmetrics 2022). A food blog can apply @type=Recipe
a tech blog, @type=HowTo
. The website Serious Eats added "Recipe and got recipe carousels in Google Discover, doubling its traffic from the feed. Use the Schema Markup test tool or Search Console " Rich Results Test . Implementing JSON-LD (recommended) is easy in WordPress using RankMath or Yoast.
Taking accessibility into account (a11y): good for people and SEO
Screen readers depend on the logical order of titles, ALT attributes and explicit links. The Harvard blog (Harvard.edu) earned a WCAG AA score and reported longer engagement (time on page +22 %). Engagement signals, although not confirmed, often correlate with better positions. Ensure colour contrast > 4.5:1, subtitle your videos and provide keyboard navigation.
Securing the blog via HTTPS and good trust practices
Since 2017, Chrome has marked HTTP sites as "not secure". Let's Encrypt makes the certificate free; installation is a one-line command (certbot --apache
). Activate HSTS to force HTTPS. Add a footer with a legal notice, privacy policy and full About page: Google Quality Raters attach great importance to this when assessing a blog's reliability.
Developing an ethical backlinks strategy
Inbound links remain a major criterion. The French blog MyLittleReflex proposed exclusive studies and obtained press citations (Les Numériques, 01net). Strategy: publish original data (surveys, polls). The Journal du Geek practise "Robin Hood Outreach": identify broken pages in .edu/.gov and propose a corrective link pointing to their content. Avoid link farms; Google Penguin has not gone away.
Set up KPI monitoring and the continuous improvement loop
Install Google Analytics 4, Matomo or Plausible. Define three KPIs: Search Console impressions, CTR, conversions (newsletter, sales). Set up Looker Studio to cross-reference these data. Buffer has introduced the RICE model (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to prioritise article updates. Any new feature (FAQ, video, comparator) is scored, then integrated if the score > 30. Result: +15 % of YOY growth without increasing the publication rate.
Common mistakes to avoid
1. thin content: publish 200 words to target a specific keyword. Potential penalty.
2. Duplicate categories/tags: on WordPress, a single tag per page results in empty URLs.
3. Use intrusive pop-ups on mobile: risk of interstitial penalty.
4. Forgetting to close the staging index: entire sites ended up being duplicated (Asos 2019 case).
5. Renaming slugs without 301 redirection: loss of PageRank. Use the Redirection extension or a .htaccess
.
Inspiring case studies
Backlinko: the Skyscraper method applied to blogs
In 2015, Brian Dean observed that most SEO articles list "10 tips . It produces "200 ranking factors . Result: 6,943 unique backlinks. It optimises internal linking: each new article points to the Skyscraper. The moral is: pillar content naturally attracts links, but you need to keep it up to date (it has gone from 200 to 220 factors in 2023).
La Redoute: fashion blog overhaul and successful SEO migration
During the 2020 redesign, La Redoute's "Mag" migrated 5,000 URLs under /magazine/
. They created a 301 redirect plan and reorganised the content into six silos: "Decorating advice", "Trends", etc. Over 3 months, they recovered 98 % of the initial traffic and gained 8 % of positions thanks to internal meshing between new collections and advice articles. Lesson: migration is not a tragedy if the structure is well thought out.
Buffer: from 0 to 1 million monthly visits via structural consistency
Buffer initially published on Medium, then internalised its blog to control the data. They adopted a simple URL structure (/library/
) and FAQs /library/what-is-social-proof
. The use of HowTo structured data on their Twitter guides has propelled them to position 0, bringing in +20,000 sessions/month.
30-day action plan to take your blog to the next level
Day 1-3: Speed audit (PageSpeed), install a cache plugin.
Day 4-6: Map your personas, list 30 topics clusters.
Day 7-10: Rewrite the titles and meta descriptions of the 20 most visited pages.
Day 11-15: Implement internal linking (3 links/500 words).
Day 16-20: Add Schema.org to the "HowTo" and "Recipe" guides.
Day 21-24: Compress images in WebP, activate lazy-load.
Day 25-28: Create pillar content > 3,000 words, Skyscraper method.
Day 29-30: GA4 analysis + Search Console, adjust what is stagnating (CTR < 2 %).
By repeating this cycle every month, you'll have a resilient blog that can absorb the ups and downs of Algorithemes.
Operational conclusion
Structure is the invisible backbone that turns your blog into an organic traffic magnet. Look for intent, segment into silos, link intelligently, optimise performance and renew your content. The examples of Backlinko, La Redoute and Buffer prove that a coherent architecture, combined with regular execution, generates measurable and lasting results, far beyond simple "on-page" adjustments. It's up to you.