Almost every ‘expert’ online is wrong about how to get your blog post ranked well on google. I hear all sorts of ‘black hat ‘ tricks and ‘backlink’ tricks from people and I ignore it all. Put simply I get a vast majority of the blogs I write on my site ranked because I do one simple thing.

I give Google exactly what they want.

This in depth guide will give you everything you need to help get your blogs to rank on page one of google. It also gives you step by step instructions and videos on how to use WordPress, Insert HTML adverts and produce informative and useful monetized blogs that you can be proud of.

If you think about what YOU would have as a set of rules to create a way of assessing what ranks on page one of google you would probably be quality driven. You would look for informative, original human written content, with exciting text that answers the questions you need asking. The content would probably have useful videos embedded in so that various types of ‘learners’ all have their needs met and you would have a large number of outward bounds links to other topics related to your content.

So this is it.. The most ‘meta’ thing I’ve ever done. I’m writing this blog as a way to teach you what you need to do to get ranked highly on google every single time, and I’m going to do it by writing a blog that hopefully gets ranked! To make things even more amusing I’m going to write this ‘how to’ in a format that I think has the most impact for ranking and you’ll notice I’ve already started teaching you already because my first rule is that your opening sentence and paragraph needs to be exciting and compelling and make the reader want to read more.

Now that we’ve already got started I’m going to break down the overall general structure of a typical great blog using specific examples so that you can come back to this ‘living document’ as it expands over time.

So now that weve got the intro started lets take a look at the main body of the blog and break down step by step what makes a blog rank…..and it all starts with the title.

So What is Your Expertise Content Area ?

The fact that you are reading this blog means that you want to get a blog ranking on google and are likely to want to monetize it. The fact that you have started a blog means you probably already know what your blogs niche will be.

Think hard about the little ‘expert corner’ you want to carve out because the world is a big place and there is room for everyone. I actually think that the more specific you are the more likely you are to rank well for your niche.

The area you blog about will be much much easier for you to write if its an area you know a lot about already.

How The Title of Your Blog Can Boost your Google Ranking

The title of your blog is hugely important. You need to keep it short and to the point. In many ways your title is actually a giant waving flag to let google know what on earth you are talking about. I have many friends who blog online and some of them have superb blogs that don’t rank well because their titles are a ‘hot mess’ . When a blog post is called ‘ Petes Hot Mess on the Trail and why Sharting isn’t any good for Ultras’ you’ll find Google has no idea what you are talking about so off you go to search result purgatory.

You will mainly be doing one of two things with your blogging. A kit review with a call to action or an informative article that the reader wants to read.

Let me give you a great example. If I’m going to do a review for some new running shoes called MT3 by Topo Athletic my title should be utterly self evident. You’ll see that the review I wrote was called ……….. ‘ Topo Athletic MT3 Review’. Not a big surprise huh? As a result I gave google a huge hint as to what the content was about and as a result I now rank on page one position one ABOVE the actual brand itself for ‘Topo Athletic MT3 Review‘ as a key word search.

Lets look at an Article or review of a Race. With my review of the Love Trails Festival you’ll see I called the blog ‘Love Trails Festival Review’ and when I wrote an article that I wanted to rank for Stealth or Wild Camping I called it ‘Stealth/Wild Camping review’.

I think you get the point ! I could give you ‘bad example’ of messy confused titles from actual blogs but I don’t want to single any person out. Needless to say if you review a Trail Race on the South Downs Way called the Centurion 100 , but title it ‘Shit Show at Ditchling! – How an Ultra gave me ‘megablisters and lolz’ I promise you that you might as well write on post it notes and stick them to lampposts to find readers.

Here is a quick video showing you how to start a new blog post in WordPress, Add a title, Sub Heading and Paragraphs.

Super Speedy Summary Review

This is not my original idea. I stole this from the wonderful ‘Trail Chick‘ but its a brilliant move. This is your one paragraph pitch to convince a person with little or no attention span why they should buy the product you think is great. The old sales adage here is important ‘ Focus on Benefits NOT Features’. Don’t tell them a shoe is zero drop, tell them WHY zero drop is good. You’ll notice I support this speedy review with a YouTube video directly after and an invitation to buy beneath as well. The invitation to buy or ‘Call to Action’ is covered in more detail later in this blog.

How YouTube Video Reviews in Your Blog Post Boost Your Google Ranking

I embed a short 2 to 3 minute YouTube video review of the item in every blog I now do. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly YouTube will have you ranking almost immediately online if you use the ‘Blog Title Rules’ I already told you about. Secondly you can put a link to your blog post in the description as well as an affiliate link to the product too. Take a look at my YouTube Channel to get lots of ideas for how I go about doing my video reviews. If you subscribe to my YouTube Channel you will also get a notification every time I post a new video which should be helpful for you to see what I’m up to.

How to Insert a YouTube Video into a WordPress Blog

Content and Your Personal Style

Before we delve deeper into content and structure I want to cover your personal style. Your style of writing and your inner voice on a page is a wonderful thing. You will bring a personal take on events and products that a souless review on ‘GearPatrol‘ cannot do . You will review gear in your subject specialist area so it will shine through in your reviews. Do not let this process curtail your flair, I just ask that you use my words here as guidance but not ‘the law’.

What I do ask is that you keep your text in short concise paragraphs ( so….exactly as you see here !!!) and make sure that you don’t go for more than about 3 paragraphs without a great photo to support the visual story you are telling in the readers head. Ill come back to pictures later on here in more depth.

I also remind you to keep in mind that not every reader is at ‘your level’ of expertise so If you are reviewing running trainers you should expect to have to explain what zero drop is or why a wide toe box is an advantage. When I write a review I always try to imagine that my reader is Homer Simpson. If what you are explaining is too basic they can skim past because of the joys of your excellent sub headings so they can ‘get to the good stuff’ quickly, if they aren’t sure you can use outbound links to take them to areas that cover this better ( ideally links to your own site !) or you can take the time to explain there and then what they may need to know.

There are two areas where I would recommend some consideration to your ‘style’ of writing though (there is ALWAYS an exception to rules!). Firstly when reviewing gear I suggest you refer to yourself in the blog, so for example you might write ‘ I found these shoes to be…’ or ‘ It wasn’t until 18 miles until this race that I realised….’. If you use a passive tense such as ‘ You’ll find the DoDah Shoes use an in depth special MEGAFOAM system to alleviate shredded feet on trail’ you’ll find the overall tone of your blog will feel ‘salesy’ to a reader rather than individually informative.

I would also avoid talking about the course, trail, views and route too much in race reviews and articles. A long winding blog about every…single… path…..and ……hill….you went over reads like a school field trip report. I’m afraid this may come a as shock to you but most people really don’t care about the in depth analysis of your race nutrition or what stones the trail was made from.

When people read a great blog about a race or an adventure stick to a similar format to the reviews. Get a punchy first paragraph in early to entice them to read on , embed good videos of a 30s snippet of what you saw on trail and talk about the emotions, excitement or feelings that you or others had at the race. Try if possible to have a ‘story arc’ in the blog and some new idea or concept you took away from the event that changed you. Ill try and cover this aspect when I live write a blog about an Appalachian Trail Adventure Weekend I just had,in the next few weeks.

The Importance of Subheadings in your blog to rank on page one of Google

So I have a rough rule of about 1 subheading every 3 paragraphs or so. Its not a hard and fast rule. Your subheadings should aim to answer a specific question within a blog post topic. So for example if its a review on running shoes you might have sub headings for Grip, Upper Materials, Laces, Unique Features, Fit and Comfort etc.

You’ll also see that when you write articles ( such as this one) ill try to make as many sub headings as questions that I think a person on google wants answered. That way as well as your main title you may find that your sub headings get you ranked well on google for your subheading topics. You’ll see that my Trail Runner Blister Guide does this.

Othet than google I find my ‘Subheading rule’ means my reader doesn’t get bored or swamped with a sea of word content and instead sees it set out for them in bite sized chunks to digest or skim over depending on the topic covered.

How to Get Free Stuff as an Online Blog Reviewer

Other than affiliate commission I actual think the single biggest benefit I get from reviewing gear is that I get thousands of pounds / dollars worth of free gear every year. This means with a bit of flexibility you should never buy running gear again.

If you are going to review stuff online you are going to need stuff to review !

If you take a scattergun approach to asking you wont be disappointed. Expect maybe 1 in 5 brands to respond with something. I only ask for stuff I think I’ll like that’s relevant to what I do and what I blog about online. So emailing Adidas about a new pair of trail trainers is a great idea, but emailing Rolex for the latest Submariner with diamonds on the bezel might be stretching it.

Always start with the brands that are signed up to an affiliate network you are with. An affiliate network is simply a company that pairs brands with online reviewers and websites to work together. Through a simple personalized custom link the brand can see all the sales made with them that came from your site and blog and you usually make 5% to 10% commission on the value of the item ( and it doesn’t change the price for the buyer !). At the moment I have an account with Avantlink, CJ and an Amazon Associates Account.

So what does my email look like ? Here is my typical email that you can use as a template. I wouldn’t suggest using it word for word, but you get the idea!

Hi PERSON!
I’m an affiliate blogger with CJ, Avantlink and Amazon and just saw you joined the Avantlink network.

I own a high ranking review blog USA website called www.theairlandandsea.com that reviews gear for runners and hikers as well as bring in traffic through informative articles and race reviews. 

My demographic is unsurprisingly people like me, usually age 25 to 50 with a large disposable income. I get between 5 and 10,000 organic visits per month and another 5000 watches on my youtube channel for my vlog reviews of clothing. Almost everything I write is on page one of google. 

Here is an example of a recent review of a Jacket for Vollebak I did this week.  It wont rank yet on google but will in 2 to 4 weeks. 

Vollebak Black Squid Jacket Review

I’m a Brit in the USA and I have page one of google  for almost 100 reviews I’ve written .  I have high ranking reviews for the following brands – Vollebak, Ultimate Direction, On Running, Naked Runner Sunglasses, Sunski Sunglasses, Topo Designs, My Trail Co to name a few. Vollebak have clothing items from $100 to $1000 dollars and I rank on page one of google for almost every item of clothing they’ve made. 

I’m slap bang in your target demographic and so are my readers. 

I’m keen to write a review of one of your THINGS , and in fact if you can get one out to me fairly quickly I’m out on the Appalachian Trail next weekend and would use this backdrop for the photos ( I’ve got various other reviews to do at the same time for stoves etc).

I can then write a high ranking google review with a strong call to action to your site, this usually takes me 2 weeks, and then it usually takes me 2 to 4 weeks to rank highly on google.

I put strong call to actions in for sales direct to your site but also to Amazon if you sell there as well. I also then rework this content into evergreen blogs and articles I’ve written that also rank on page one of google for wild/stealth camping and multi day ultra trail running adventure kit lists and other relevant content.

If there are other products you are looking to promote this season I’m more than happy to take a look as well.

I would be happy to chat on the phone too on 203 *** ****

Thanks in advance 

My address is ****

Lee-Stuart Evans

I always follow up with an email when the gear arrives and then follow up again with an email when the blog is published with a thankyou and a polite request to share my post on their social media account to help boost sales and rankings.

How to Take Quality Original Images that Rank Well on Google

So lets talk about images on google. There are two ‘crimes’ I see on online review blogs. Crime one is simply cutting and pasting an existing stock image from the brands site and putting it in your blog. If you do this you almost guarantee SEO obscurity. Secondly a bad photo is just as powerful at killing your Google Ranking as no photo.

So what do I mean by a bad photo? Its hard to explain so I’ve put it in a video here.

At any stage when writing a review if you are not sure what to do for photos or videos I strongly suggest you go to the review part of my site and find the closest items to the one you are reviewing and look at how I took the photos. Look at how I positioned the shoes or clothing, what the light was like, what exciting location I used and what angles I took the photo at. An exciting striking photo will rank highly on google when everyone else is using the same stock image. My LARQ Water Bottle Review is a good example where I’ve taken unusual pictures that stand out from everyone else. There was FIERCE paid competition from very high ranking sites for page one for this product and I still got on page one.

All art is theft. Steal ideas from my site. If you are reviewing shoes go steal ideas from my shoe reviews. If its clothing go see how I’ve done clothing. You’ll notice where possible I’ve placed pictures throughout this blog that rank well and look striking compared to the competition.

How to Insert a Photo into your WordPress Blog that will Rank On Google

I see lots of great photos online with no tagging or titles added. Again the rules for this are exactly the same as the rules for your title for your blog. In fact most of the time your tags for the photos should be EXACTLY the same as the title for your blog.

Here is a video on how to insert a picture on your blog.

Affiliate Disclosure in Review Blogs

I get this in right at the top. Honesty is the best policy and in the post Fyre Influencer world no one trusts anything people put online. I find that making it clear whether I have bought the product or not and if I get commission on sales or not is really important for gaining trust.

You can create a stock ‘WordPress’ HTML insert to do this so you dotn have to keep typing it manually each time.

Always Find Something Wrong

No product is perfect so its important to have a ‘Gripes’ or similar section to point out the things you think could possibly be improved.

Be Honest

I have strong views on this. If I hate something I say so. I can go on 30 minute rants without taking a breath about how shit WAA Bags are or how much Hokas are the Devils shoe. This is fine but avoid being too ranty as one day these brands might suit you. I’ve hated Injinji socks for years but recently reviewed them expecting to hate them and found I loved them. What had changed was I had associated the bad shoes I wore at the time with the Injinji socks. What was important was that I was still open minded and hadn’t burnt my bridges with some brands.

The site you write on will be looking for long term collective credibility. I do the same on my site. I’ve seen a number of ‘high profile’ runners smile and do thumbs up in any old kit if it means they get a free ticket to the Marathon des Sables. One year they are wearing their own chosen gear and Ultimate Direction Bag in a race then the next year totally kitted out in WAA gear and failing to finish the race. The ‘Thumbs up for Anything’ Instagram brigade have no long term credibility and no long term plan to build a reliable regular affiliate income from their deserved reputation for honesty.

I warn you that the best brands may never give you free gear because they don’t need to. I’ve also been offered money to write positive reviews for gear I don’t like. In each case I’ve firmly said no and explained why. If they don’t get it they have no business being associated with you.

Some Guidelines to Affiliate Rules for Affiliate Bloggers

The rules between the USA and UK are subtly different regarding the law and ‘selling’ online. Overall If you follow my ethos you will not come unstuck. Be honest and disclose at the top of your review if you got the item for free or if you bought it. Disclose at the top of the blog if you get a commission or not from sales and if it affects the buyers price in a negative way.

Also avoid anything ‘fishy’. What I mean by this is a brand that might ask you to actually buy the product from Amazon and then leave a positive review on Amazon before they then refund your cost. This will be in breach of Amazon rules and may get you as an affiliate and them in trouble or banned. Be upfront. Ask yourself what standards you would expect to see if you were reading online blogs and you will be fine. If in doubt check the rules for your countryand guidelines on the websites of the affiliate companies.

The importance of a Strong Verdict or Summary Sub Heading in a Review Blog

This is your final summing up. I suggest two paragraphs or less and it should probably be about 80% or more identical to your ‘Super Speedy Summary Review’. Directly after your Verdict paragraph should be a strong ‘Call to Action’ as either a Max Buttons ‘Purchase’ Button or an Amazon Picture advert of your product.

Overview of a Blog Structure

So now you’ve had a bit by bit walk through of the typical structure so these two YouTube videos will show you what a blog looks like when you’ve put all this together.

Informative Article Layout

Product Review Layout Blog

What To Do to boost the existing ranked position on an existing blog

Google love sit when you come back to old content and give it a spruce up. I’m often amazed at how pleased I am with a blog when I first publish it, then a year later I’m horrified at how ‘bad’ it is and how much I can improve it.

About the brand

I cut and paste ( literally) some blurb about the company and change ‘I’ to ‘They’ in the text. I put this right at the end of the blog. It adds quality ‘padding’ to the blog which I think helps boost your ranking.

Where should I position adverts in my blog for the Best Results ?

Some people have adverts plastered all over their blogs, embedded in the text and all the way down the sides too.

I’ve been testing various set ups and locations for 9 months and my conclusion will come as something of a surprise. I make literally no click throughs or sales from affiliate adverts. Nothing. I used to get thousands of impressions for these ads and no click throughs, and worse still these garish flashy ads for running gear distract a reader from your actual message and also set off their ‘I’m being sold to paranoia’ so now they are on the defensive with you. What I do get is great conversion rates from the links and small individual ‘Call to Actions’ that I create. Ill show you later in this blog exactly how to do that.

These days I have a stripped down blog post with almost no adverts at all. As a result my sales increased 10 fold. All I have now are Amazon Product adverts for the product I’m talking about, embedded text links and I also create a Max Buttons PURCHASE button for the product that works well. Its black and subtle and is effortlessly not trying hard.

An uncluttered blog sets the right professional ‘tone’ for your genuine review of an item and leaves the reader open minded to a decision. Basically unless you are Lings Cars the more your site looks like Fox News the less you will convert to sales and the lower your google rankings might be. Remember google wants easy to read quality content so anything that looks or feels like a click bait page from hell will work against you in every way.

How Do I create an Affiliate Link for my Blog with Avantlink?

Here is a Video to Show you exactly how to create a custom affiliate link for your blog with Avantlink.

How to create a Max Buttons ‘Purchase’ Button for your review Blog

Here is a quick video on how to create and insert a custom ‘Purchase’ button as a call to action on your blog.

How do I create an Amazon Advert for the Product in My Review Blog ?

I’ve created this simple quick video to show you how to insert all the different types of advert for Amazon into your blog.

Key Word Rankings for Blog Posts

content coming soon

Sitemaps and How Google finds and Ranks Your Blog Post

I am not going to bore you with webcrawlers and SEO stuff here. For the purposes of this blog you should expect the little robots that scan the web for new content to have found your latest post within a week or two and if you are going to rank you’ll find yourself on the top few pages of google within the first 2 to 4 weeks. If you don’t find your blog there after 4 to 6 weeks you may be in total obscurity and will need to go back to the rules here and check you did everything right.

Do Not Publish a Blog Early and Work in it Live

coming soon.

How to Share Blogs on Social Media to Boost Google Rankings

I am terrible at this because I’m lazy and my blogs rank anyway. My ‘demographic’ (old men in their 40s) don’t buy from Instagram etc we go on google and find articles like mine. Where possible I would suggest sharing your blog on your own Facebook, Insta and Twitter accounts and better still get into the habit of sharing each others blogs too.

Be each Others Editors

I want you guys to pair up with other online blog reviewers and ‘edit’ any blog just after its published. Read it over with a critical editors role and keep the rules of this blog in mind. Offer suggestions on improvement in wording, where the blog may need clarifying or more depth and if any photos are a bit …..boring. Be polite and respectful and you’ll find the editing process between the two of you will benefit both of your blogs.

When you get established you Can Break the Rules

When you are regularly getting blogs on page one of Google you can mix things up occasionally by breaking almost all the rules and get a very striking result. I did this recently with a Vollebak Black Squid Jacket Review blog that breaks almost all my rules, is basically an ‘anti-sell’ and doesn’t even mention price or make it easy to click through and buy the product. You’ll notice that despite this I still had striking images and a good fun video which made the impact needed.

Creating Evergreen ‘Top 5’ Type Blogs from your Existing Quality Content

After a while you will have a number of blogs all under a similar theme. A great example of this is a series of outdoor clothing and outdoor kit reviews I did for tarps, tents, torches and Top Quilts which lead to me having enough blogs to create what is known as ‘evergreen‘ content. In this case I combined my knowledge of wild camping and outdoor gear and amalgamated all my reviews into one blog called ‘ Wild/Stealth Camping Guide’.

What My Wild Camping Blog does is actually create another way for all my gear review to be on page one of google and because all the individual bits of kit mentioned have links out to the other blogs google loves that you are creating a ‘link map’ of your site and content and how it all relates to each other. I often find that creating evergreen content from existing blogs actually boosts the ranking of all the blogs involved.

Let me give you another example. I took all the reviews I had done on trail running race vests and trail running bags and amalgamated that with the trail clothing and shoe reviews I had done to create one blog that was my ultimate trail running multi day kit guide. Both that blog in its own right and all the gear mentioned in it rank on page one of google and they cross reference each other so a reading landing on one blog is more likely to stick around and read other blogs because of all the links in those blogs.

It doesn’t just have to be gear. You could create a ‘Top 7 Trail races that are 100 Miles’ or a list of ‘Best Waterproof Jackets under $150’. I’m sure you get the idea. I prefer the content style article that’s informative with tips and hints that also has gear review blog links in rather than a flat out list of ‘things’ because I think a reader senses they are being sold to if they aren’t reading genuine informative content. If I wouldn’t want to read it I don’t write it.

My other top piece of advice is that your evergreen content should be set as ‘cornerstone content’ on the settings on your blog with the YOAST widget. This means you are flagging up to google that this kind of content is your absolute most in depth and best work and well worth scrutiny.

Your Evergreen content should follow all the usual blog layout rules including bringing in lots and lots of YouTube videos you’ve already done.

Guide to The Structure for a Trail Guide Article

The rules for wrting a trail guide are exactly the same as the rules for a product review. The video below will give you a much better idea of what I mean.

10x Content

So when I first published this blog it took a few days and then turned up on page 4 of google. I’m sure that seems pretty ironic given the title of the blog! Well it may come as no surprise that if you are looking to rank well against some stiff competition you may not end up on page one first time. You will then need to do some work to move your blog up the ranks over the next few weeks and months.

So how do I do that ? Well again actually the process is pretty simple and a week later at time of writing this I’ve already moved on to page 3 of google. The key here is to think about the websites that are ranking in front of you and ‘take them out’ one at a time. Read each one and ask yourself what content, sub heading or idea does that site have that you might not have included in your own site. I find that even skimming through a site and its sub headings for a blog or page that ranks above my blog gives me new content ideas to add to my blog. What I’m doing is moving towards having content that is ten times better than anyone elses. Hence the term 10x content.

Do not cut and paste! instead steal the sub heading and create your own original content with video for this concept and add it in to your blog. What you are doing is creating a one stop shop to answer all the queries a google search user has and thus google move your blog up the rankings as you become the definitive one stop answer.

Here is a video to give you more information.

Boosting Google Rankings Using Meta Descriptions

So what is a Meta Description? To put it simply when you google something online you’ll find that the Meta Description is the little bit of blurb summary giving a bit more information about your web page.

Think of it like a 155 character long ‘advert’ or ‘trailer’ for your blog so you have to make it as punchy as possible to compel a searcher to want to click on your blog and not another option instead. I try to use as many of the words in the title as possible as well as I believe that this helps the rankings because Google shows the person searching that this result meets lots of criteria for the words/question the person is searching for.

If you have a look at any of the hundred or so blogs that I have on page one of google you will see that the Meta Description in the search results does a good job of helping to get the blog to rank and also compelling the searcher to click on it.

If you have the YOAST Plug In installed on your WordPress site its simple to manually write in your Meta Description in the box provided at the end of you blog post. Here is a useful video explaining more and showing you how to manually write it in WordPress using the YOAST plugin.

Using the ‘People Also Ask’ from Google to Create Sub Headings

Coming Soon

Posts you Might Also Be Interested In

Coming soon

How to Create an Email list

coming soon

Posting Original Content to Google +

Coming Soon – How to Post a link to your blog to Google +

I am Human

Something to keep in mind is I’m human. I can be tired, lazy or sometimes rushed with the reviews I do for a promotional deadline or sensible date for release. There will be plenty of places where you see I haven’t followed my own rules, skipped bits or even bulldozed over my ethos. The further back in time the more you will find my blogs deviate from my current winning format, and this makes sense because the google criteria subtly changes each year and I would like to think I get a year wiser at what works. I also moved content from a very restrictive blogger site at the beginning of this year so I could expand the scope of my blogging and have it generate at least some money to go towards all the outdoor adventures I do. Content you see written before January 2019 will most likely have been created in Blogger format which gave me no freedom with layout and options. Using WordPress is almost the universal way to create effective blogs these days.