SEO Best Practices for Modern Blogs
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for getting your content discovered. This post covers modern SEO best practices specifically for Jekyll blogs and static sites, ensuring your content ranks well while providing value to readers.
Technical SEO Foundation
Meta Tags and Open Graph
Every page should have properly configured meta tags:
<meta name="description" content="A compelling description under 160 characters">
<meta name="keywords" content="relevant, keywords, separated, by, commas">
<!-- Open Graph for social sharing -->
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Page description">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page">
<!-- Twitter Cards -->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Page description">
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg">
Structured Data
Help search engines understand your content with Schema.org markup:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"headline": "SEO Best Practices for Modern Blogs",
"image": "https://yoursite.com/image.jpg",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Theme Author"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Your Blog Name"
},
"datePublished": "2025-05-21",
"dateModified": "2025-05-22"
}
Content Optimization
Heading Structure
Use proper heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3):
# Main Title (H1) - Only one per page
## Major Section (H2)
### Subsection (H3)
#### Detail (H4)
Internal Linking
Link to related content on your site to:
- Keep users engaged longer
- Help search engines understand site structure
- Distribute page authority throughout your site
Image Optimization
<!-- Always include alt text -->
<img src="optimized-image.webp"
alt="Descriptive text for screen readers"
width="800"
height="600"
loading="lazy">
Performance and Core Web Vitals
Loading Speed
- Optimize images (use WebP format when possible)
- Minimize CSS and JavaScript
- Use CDN for static assets
- Enable compression (gzip/brotli)
Mobile Optimization
- Responsive design that works on all devices
- Touch-friendly navigation
- Readable text without zooming
Page Experience Signals
/* Reduce layout shift with aspect ratios */
.image-container {
aspect-ratio: 16/9;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Smooth interactions */
.button {
transition: all 0.2s ease;
}
Jekyll-Specific SEO
Plugins for SEO
# _config.yml
plugins:
- jekyll-seo-tag # Automatic meta tags
- jekyll-sitemap # XML sitemap generation
- jekyll-feed # RSS feed
Front Matter Optimization
---
layout: post
title: "Your SEO-Optimized Title"
description: "Custom meta description that's compelling and under 160 characters"
image: "/assets/images/post-image.jpg"
tags: [seo, jekyll, optimization]
categories: [blogging, technical]
canonical_url: "https://yoursite.com/seo-best-practices/"
---
URL Structure
Keep URLs clean and descriptive:
- ✅
/seo-best-practices-modern-blogs/ - ❌
/2025/05/21/post-123.html
Content Strategy
E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- Expertise: Write about topics you know well
- Authoritativeness: Build credibility through quality content
- Trustworthiness: Cite sources, update content, be transparent
Keyword Research
Tools for finding the right keywords:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Ubersuggest
- Answer The Public
- Search Console data
Content Freshness
Regularly update content:
- Add new information
- Update statistics and examples
- Fix broken links
- Improve readability
Technical Implementation
Robots.txt
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
XML Sitemap
Jekyll generates this automatically with the sitemap plugin:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://yoursite.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2025-05-21</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
Monitoring and Analytics
Essential Tools
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics 4
- PageSpeed Insights
- Mobile-Friendly Test
Key Metrics to Track
- Organic traffic growth
- Click-through rates
- Core Web Vitals scores
- Mobile usability issues
- Crawl errors
Local SEO (if applicable)
For location-based content:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "Your Business Name",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main St",
"addressLocality": "City",
"addressRegion": "State",
"postalCode": "12345"
}
}
Conclusion
SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-time setup. Focus on creating valuable content for your users while following technical best practices. The combination of great content and solid technical SEO will help your blog rank well and attract the right audience.
Remember: SEO techniques evolve, but the fundamentals of creating valuable, well-structured content for users remain constant.
Have you implemented any of these SEO techniques on your blog? What results have you seen from optimizing your site’s SEO?