1) Make Lists
People are not reading full paragraphs anymore, they are scanning. Create lists or bullet points to share your information. This way people can quickly scan for the information they desire instead of leaving your blog as soon as they see you’ve written a novel.
2) Include Images
Images are great for drawing a reader’s attention, depicting an idea or topic in a visual way, and helping out your SEO. Always include an image and be sure to add alt text to it. As you’ll recall, alt text is a tag that communicates to search engines and people with older browsers what the image is of if it will not load.
3) Do Your Research
Research your topic, your audience, and your facts! The first thing you’ll want to do is research your audience to understand who they are and what they want from your blog. Next, you’ll obviously want to provide the best information, so see what others are saying about the topic. Finally, fact-check to make sure that the information you are providing is accurate.
4) Employ Links
Give credit where credit is due. When using other bloggers’ information and statistics, link back to their site so that they get the credit they deserve and your readers will be able to see your credible sources. Of course you will also want to link to other pages within your site to encourage movement and help with your overall SEO.
5) Create Categories
Categorizing your blogs based on their focus is a great way to help visitors find what they are looking for. This will also help you take a look at what blogs you have written in the past and which categories you would like to give more coverage to.
6) Develop a Calendar
Creating an editorial calendar will help you to determine topics weeks in advance and prevent writer’s block. Make a schedule for how often you will be posting, what topics you will be writing about, and additional information you may need. Plan as far out as you can and continue adding topics so as not to hit a dead end.
7) Focus on SEO
As we have said before, blogging is great for search engine optimization. Blogging adds fresh new content to your website, letting search engines know that you are relevant and should therefore turn up in search results. To best optimize your blog content for search engines, outline the keywords that the blog will focus on and be sure to use them several times within the blog. Remember that your use of your targeted keywords should be appropriate and relevant so as not to raise any red flags or produce low-quality content that your readers will not be interested in.
8) Stay Consistent
Develop a schedule that encourages regular posting. This could be a schedule promising two posts per week or even more specifically, a new post every Wednesday at noon. This will encourage you to keep on top of your blog and let your readers know when they should expect new posts.
9) Show Some Personality
You don’t need to blog as if you are writing a college-level text book. Be yourself and write with personality. This shows a friendlier side and is much more inviting than a corporate-professional blog.
10) Consider Long-tail Keyword Phrases for Titles
Long-tail keyword phrases are those longer sentences and questions that people are now typing into search engines more often. See which types of questions people are asking and use those as your blog titles. Not only will this increase your chances of turning up in results but it will also encourage more clicks.
