Nurse Blog SEO & Style Guide

Last Revised - July 19, 2021 - Faith Bakewell

Nurse Blog SEO & Style Guide

Keyword Research

You should perform keyword research and analysis for every blog post. This ensures that the post will receive relevant organic traffic.This process involves doing research, analysis, and determination of a target keyword(s) to optimize a page’s content.

Pay attention to the keyword’s monthly volume, difficulty/competition, and organic CTR.

○ Monthly Volume: the average amount of searches with your keyword.

○ Difficulty: Score of how difficult it would be to rank higher than results currently on the first page of your keyword’s search results.

○ Organic CTR: The click-through rate for organic search results (results that are not ads or features (questions, definitions, etc.) for your keyword. Aim for a strong score here. Even if a keyword has a high monthly volume, a low organic CTR may make it more difficult to capture visitors.

You can use tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer (free account offers 10 free queries a month) which will give insight into the value of a possible keyword and alternative options. There are many other free tools that can be utilized to help you find what people search for.

URLs

Keep URLs for posts as simple, relevant, compelling, and accurate as possible. This is key to getting both our readers and search engines to understand them (a prerequisite to ranking well). Include the target keyword if possible. URLs should be definitive but concise. A user (and search engine) should be able to get a good idea of what to expect on the page just from seeing the URL. For long URLs, remove articles like “the” and “a”, as well as filler words that are not essential to the title. Use hyphens to separate words. URLs should not use underscores, spaces, or any other characters to separate words (with the exception of hyphens). Use lowercase letters only.

Nurse Style: The Nurse blog does use a trailing slash at the end of URLs. Example: https://www.nurse.com/blog/2021/05/01/care-for-women-families-nurse-midwife/

Editing and Updating URLs

Once you have entered text and saved the blog as a draft, you are able to edit the URL that is autogenerated. Click in the box and type in (or paste in) the desired URL.

URL Redirects

Go to Yoast SEO and then click on Redirects. The Old URL needs to be a relative URL. This means that you do not need to include the first part of the URL such as https://www.nurse.com/blog in the Old URL field. The New URL needs to be an absolute URL. An absolute URL is the full URL link.

Ex: I want to redirect https://www.nurse.com/blog/2020/10/16/nurses-demonstrate-resilience-during-a-challenging-year/ to https://www.nurse.com/blog/ . See below for what to include in the fields to properly redirect this blog post to the main blog page.

● Old URL: /2020/10/16/nurses-demonstrate-resilience-during-a-challenging-year/

● New URL: https://www.nurse.com/blog/

QA

URL changes will reflect in some minutes or hours because of the cache. It is important to QA redirect changes to double-check that they are working as intended.

301 Redirects

301 Redirects are used for pages that have permanently moved to a new location. When you use a 301, Google removes the old page from their index and most SEO value (link equity) from that page is transferred to the new page.

302 Redirects

302 Redirects are used for pages that are only temporarily moved to a new location. You should only use a 302 if you’re planning on eventually bringing the old page back. The original page remains indexed in Google as Google knows this move is only temporary.

Metadata Recommendations

http://Nurse.com utilizes the Yoast SEO plugin for controlling meta-data on the website. Follow the plugin suggestions for ensuring your meta description and post title are not cut off by search engines due to length. Finally, titles should be written in the title case.

Meta Title

When creating a meta title for your blog, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Ask yourself: What title would entice you to click through to the post? Will people be able to get a good idea of what the post is about from your title? The Meta Title is still considered one of the strong off-page content signals to Google about the contents of any given page.

Length of title tags are determined by pixel width, not character count, so 55-60 characters is a best practice to minimize chances of it getting cut off in the SERPs. Valuable and descriptive keywords should be used closest to the start of a title tag.

Using an ampersand (&) is permissible when trying to shorten a title tag.

Contrary to using spelled out numbers in body copy, it is permissible to use figures in your title tag.

● When using a number in your title, (i.e. 5 ways to, 7 tips to), use the number in lieu of spelling it out.

Put brand mentions at the end of the title separated by a pipe.

● Ex: 3 Steps to Improve Patient Experience |

Meta Description

Should be written in a way that encourages the user to click on that specific search result (call to action), impacting click-thru rate (CTR). Include target keywords and phrases.

Similar to Title Tags, the length of title tags are determined by pixel width, not character count, so 160 characters is a best practice to minimize the chances of it getting cut off in the SERPs.

Meta Descriptions

Some examples of meta descriptions:

Looking to learn more about becoming a wound care nurse? Check out ’s blog post to learn more about wound care certifications.

With the pandemic forcing healthcare providers to implement telehealth services. How can you effectively collaborate with colleagues remotely?

Canonical URL

A canonical URL is a technical solution for duplicate content. Canonicals also enable you to point search engines to the original version of an article. Let’s say, you’ve written a post for another party that is published on their website. If you’d like to post it on your site too, you could agree on posting it with a canonical to the original version.

Though not very common, if a post has been published elsewhere, make sure to set the canonical URL under the Advanced tab in Yoast. For example, this post was originally published on reliasmedia.com and republished on . In this case, you would set the canonical of the post to the post to avoid duplicate content concerns.

Banner Images

Banner images should be 1200 pixels (w) x 467 pixels (h) and saved as a JPEG that is optimized for the Web. Save at 60% quality.

Adding Banner Image to a Post

On WordPress, we utilize the “featured image” in the right sidebar for the blog banner images.

Stock Photo Guidelines

Images should never look fake or staged. The background provides vital context to a photo.

Images that show the people we serve giving care to others are highly encouraged. Be sure to use images of diverse people throughout a piece. Include a variety of ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, etc. as appropriate.

Unacceptable Image Subjects

Part of our visual identity strategy is to maintain a professional, expert-level, high-quality tone. Pictures and graphics should not include overly composited images, metaphoric representations or unnaturally posed people. The background of the image should look realistic and lived-in, rather than overly white and generic. Always license an image before using it. Never use anything copyrighted or watermarked on a final client-facing piece.

In-Post Imagery

The body container for blog posts is 770px wide. Since the container is relatively small, images that are added in a post

Full-Width Image

770px

Half-Width Image

385px

Formatting

Formatting is an important part of SEO optimization, and proper formatting can result in a better ranking for rich or featured snippets in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Headers/Subheads

Use headers/subheads as you would for any written page, to provide structure and context for the reader. In SEO they are particularly important as they inform the search engines about the content of the page, as such they should be optimized with targeted keywords. Each header should give the reader an idea of the information they can expect to find from the paragraph text that follows below.

The web uses a number of different Header Tags to help you structure your page (H1 through H6). A helpful way to think of Header Tags is comparing them to a table of contents of a book:

● Your H1 introduces the topic your post is all about, just as a title tells a reader what a book is all about.

● The H2s are akin to book chapters, describing the main topics you’ll cover in sections of the article.

H1 (Main Heading or Title)

The H1 gives people a taste of what they’re about to read.

Style: We only use one H1 per blog post and this is reserved for the blog title. Use title case for all H1s.

H2 (Subheading)

Using H2s in a blog post is critical to both user experience and search purposes. Body text should be written in manageable sections that are easily scannable, and H2s can help you do this.

Style: We use as many H2s as needed to organize an article. Use title case for all H2s.

H3 (Subheadings)

H3s are used as subsections of H2 subheadings.

Style: We use H3s instead of numbered or bulleted lists where each bullet has a few sentences of copy accompanying it. The format should be: number followed by a period (1., 2., 3., etc) and use sentence case.

H4 (Subheadings)

H4 subheadings are subsections of H3 subheadings.

Style: Use sentence case

Punctuation and Grammar

Italics

Use italics to show emphasis. Ex: I knew you were tired. I didn’t know you were that tired.

Use italics for titles of full bodies of work, like books, journals, periodicals, magazines, television series, and movies. Ex: Her dissertation is titled Questionable Cocoa Content in Chocolate.

Don’t use italics for shorter works, including articles, blog posts, courses, podcasts, product names, or webinars. Ex: The clinical director assigned the Communicating Across Cultures course to all the supervisors on her team.

Use italics for words that can be misread and introduce technical or key terms.

Commas

It is the writer’s preference whether to use a serial, or Oxford, comma. Either preference must be used consistently throughout the piece of content and the intended message must be clear to the reader. There are times when a sentence is clear regardless of comma style, and there are times when a sentence requires one style over another for clarity.

Numbers and Symbols

In general, spell out one through nine. Use figures for 10 or above and whenever preceding a unit of measure or referring to ages of people, animals, events or things. Also use figures in tables, and in statistical and sequential forms.

Links

Internal

Internal Links are hyperlinks that point to another page on the same website.

All blog posts should have 1-2 internal links at a minimum. This number does not include the end of post-CTA.

Blog posts should link to other relevant pages whether that’s course pages, certification reviews, course categories, state requirements, schools, jobs board, UCE, etc.

We also encourage linking to relevant blog posts or resources when possible.

Do not link off to resources and blog posts that do not closely match the subject of the article. Linking for the sake of linking is not the goal. Aim to include internal links that would aid in the user experience.

External

External Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) any domain other than the domain the link exists on (source) – in this case, that would mean anything that isn’t on .

When linking to external websites, make your links as informative as possible. Instead of linking to a website’s homepage, link to a study or page that is closely related to the blog post that is being created.

Style: Set all external links to open in a new window.

Digital Advertising Links for Sponsored Content

If a digital advertising client is asking to include links within a blog post, you should set search engines to not follow links on the blog post. But search engines can show the post in search results and it can be indexed.

Link Text

We do not include full URLs in copy, instead, the links should be embedded in the body text of the blog using anchor words.

Where possible use descriptive keywords in anchor text that give a sense of the topic or keywords the source page is trying to target.

For example, in the sentence following sentence, the blue text link to the target URL, in this case, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality: “According to the WHO, 86% of the roughly 295,000 global maternal deaths in 2017 occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. By contrast, many developed countries like Iceland, Italy, and Poland typically report extremely low maternal mortality rates (between 2% and 4%), indicating that maternal mortality can be prevented with a robust and well-funded maternal healthcare strategy.”

Avoid using general non-descriptive text like “click here” and “learn more”.

Calls to Action (CTAs)

For each blog post, you have the option to add an “end of post CTA”. When possible use an existing resource for your CTA.

Adding New Authors

If no author profile exists, a new WordPress user will need to be added. Below are the standard guidelines for adding an author to the system.

● Username: first initial and last name

● Email: Regardless of their email address, enter a Relias email. Ex: John Smith would be jsmith@relias.com.

● First Name:

● Last Name:

● Role: Select “Author”

● Image: Author images should be uploaded as 400x400px JPEGs. An image should be mid-chest and up. Leave a bit of space up top between the top of the image and head.

After uploading the basic info you will need to go into the author profile to add additional information. The fields below control how an author’s profile looks at the end of a blog post.

● Biographical Info: No character limit, but keep to a paragraph max.

● Meta Description: Follow meta description section guidelines.

● Professional Suffix: Enter author’s professional suffix (eg: R.N.)

● Title: Author’s job title.

● Company

Editorial Process

Once the final copy has been approved, blog posts can be added to WordPress. When you have finished entering your blog make sure that the post has been saved as a draft. This is done in the Publish box on the right of the screen.

Next, click the View Post button below the main blog title. This will display how your blog will look on the site.

Setting Publishing Date

Only set the final publish date once your blog post has been approved.

Adding Post Content

When adding content to the blog, select Add new from under the Posts section of the WordPress menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

Copy can be cut and pasted directly from the word doc into the main box in WordPress editor. Note that all formatting will be copied into WordPress when you do this. Ensure that all headers have been copied in at the correct size and that all formatting looks correct.

By clicking on the “Text” at the top right of the content body edit window, you will be able to check and edit the HTML code behind the page.

If you are not familiar with HTML you can set header sizes using WordPress and change other formatting using the Toolbar. If you cannot see this click the Toolbar Toggle button.

You will need to manually insert “target=_blank” to ensure URLs open in a new window. This can be done by clicking on the URL in the Edit Window, then clicking on the pencil icon to edit the URL.

This will display the URL and two other Icons, click on the “Wheel” icon on the right.

From the menu that is then displayed, ensure that the “Open in new window” box is checked.

Additional Resources

Title case converter

Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post - Hubspot