How to Optimise a Blog Post for SEO (and AI Search)

To optimise a blog post for SEO and AI search, pick one question your clients actually ask, structure the post with question-style headings and direct answers, and get the technical basics right: title, meta description, clean URL, image alt text, speed and internal links. Then show real expertise from your own work.

You sat down, wrote a genuinely useful blog post, hit publish, and then... nothing. No traffic, no enquiries, not even your mum reading it. It's one of the most common frustrations I hear from service business owners, and it's usually not because the writing was bad. It's because the post wasn't set up to be found.

Here is how I optimise a blog post for SEO in 2026, so it has a real chance of showing up in Google and in AI answers, and of turning a reader into an enquiry.

What does it mean to optimise a blog post for SEO?

Optimising a blog post means making it easy for search engines and AI tools to understand what it answers, and easy for a real person to read and act on. It covers the topic you choose, how you structure the post, the technical bits like titles and images, and how it links to the rest of your site.

None of it is complicated. It's just a set of habits, and once you've done it a few times it takes ten extra minutes per post. If you're still deciding whether blogging is worth it at all, start with should you still blog in 2026.

How do I choose the right topic and keyword?

Start with the questions your clients actually ask you. The ones that come up on discovery calls, in emails, in the first ten minutes of every project. Those questions are what people type into Google and ask ChatGPT.

• Write down the real wording. "How much does a bookkeeper cost for a small business" is a better target than "bookkeeping services".
• Check what's already out there. Search the question yourself. If the top results are giant national sites, add something they can't: your location, your niche, your experience.
• Use your own data. Google Search Console shows the searches you already appear for. Those are often the easiest wins. (If it isn't set up yet, here's how to set up Google Search Console.)

One post, one main question. If you're trying to answer five things, that's five posts.

How should a blog post be structured for Google and AI answers?

This is where most service business blogs fall over. They read like a wall of thoughts. Search engines, and the AI Overviews and answer engines that now sit on top of them, pull out clear, well-labelled answers. So give them some.

• Use headings that sound like questions. "How long does it take?" beats "Timeframes".
• Answer directly underneath. Two or three sentences that fully answer the heading, then expand. Think of it as the bit someone could quote.
• Keep paragraphs short. Two to four sentences. Most of your readers are on a phone.
• Use lists for steps and options. They're easy to scan and easy for AI tools to lift.

I go deeper on this in what AEO is and why service businesses should care.

What are the technical basics every post needs?

Title and meta description

Keep your title around 60 characters so it doesn't get cut off in results, and put the main question or phrase near the start. Your meta description (around 150 to 160 characters) is your pitch for the click. Google sometimes rewrites it, but a good one still gets used more often than not. In Webflow, set these up as CMS fields so every post has its own.

A clean URL

Short and readable: /blog/how-much-does-a-bookkeeper-cost, not /blog/post-47-final-v2. Once it's live, don't change it without setting up a 301 redirect.

Images and alt text

Compress images before you upload them (WebP is a good format) so the page loads fast. Then write alt text that describes what's in the image, for someone who can't see it. That's what alt text is for. Stuffing keywords into it doesn't help your rankings and makes your site worse for screen reader users. There's more on this in optimising website images for SEO.

Speed and mobile

Google indexes the mobile version of your site, so check every post on your phone before you share it. Run the page through PageSpeed Insights now and then. If it's slow, oversized images are usually the culprit.

Internal links

Link each new post to two or three related posts and to the service page it supports, using descriptive anchor text (not "click here"). It helps Google understand how your content fits together, and it keeps readers moving towards an enquiry. This is a big part of how blogging helps your SEO.

How do I show real expertise in a blog post?

Google's quality guidelines talk about E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. In plain English, it wants to see that a real person who knows the subject wrote this. AI tools lean the same way.

• Put your name and a short bio on every post.
• Share what you've actually seen with clients. "In my experience" is more useful than a stat you can't source.
• Link out to trustworthy sources when you do use facts or figures.
• Update older posts when things change, rather than leaving them to go stale.

That's the stuff a generic AI-written post can't fake, and it's what makes a reader trust you enough to get in touch.

How do I know if my blog is working?

Give each post a few months, then check. In Search Console, look at impressions and clicks for the post, and which searches it's showing up for. In GA4, check whether blog readers go on to visit your services or contact page. Here's how to check your website health with Google Analytics if you want a starting point.

And don't forget the ending. Every post should finish with one clear next step for the reader, whether that's reading a related post, booking a call or checking out a service. A great post with no next step is a dead end.