Blogging can be a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. Today’s online battleground is fierce, and the key to success is content, content and more content. The more active you are on your website and on social media, the more exposure you will gain.
We’ve compiled 9 tips to help your blog be as successful as possible:
1. Post Often
Many business owners make the mistake of starting a blog and not following through with it. They may start off with the best intentions and post a few times early on, but then the posts get more and more spread out. Eventually, they stop altogether. One reason blogging is helpful for boosting SEO and website traffic is that it is fresh content on your site. If you are not adding more posts regularly, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Also, if you have any dedicated followers of your blog, they will lose interest if there aren’t posts happening consistently.
2. Write Quality Content
Another common misconception about blogging is that you can post anything and it will produce good results. Sure, it will be fresh content and you can argue something is better than nothing. However, if the articles are poorly written or lacking substance, it can turn away readers and actually work against you.
3. Mix Up Your Topics
If you are blogging regularly, it’s important to discuss a variety of topics in your articles. Otherwise, it gets repetitive and uninteresting. The good news is there are so many different things you can write about. Customer testimonials/case studies, new hires, current employee profiles, news about your business, training events attended, new equipment/resources, industry trends, services offered, product information—these are just a few of the things you can post about. Ultimately, customer testimonials and case studies will be what you should post most often. They are great way to highlight specific services you offered while also sharing positive feedback about your business.
4. Use Keywords and Phrases
Your blog posts should included plenty of keywords and key phrases that your customers will be searching for. Make sure they are pertinent to the story. You don’t have to cram in everything. Use the terms that are fitting with the topic of the post. The more specific, the better. Always pepper in keywords, but also don’t overdo it. Again, it goes back to quality writing. If it’s too loaded up, it will not present well and readers will lose interest.
5. Use Tags
In addition to the keywords in your articles, you can add meta tags and keywords to any post. These will work “behind the scenes” to help boost the SEO appeal of any post you make.
6. Include Links
Within your articles, create hyperlinks to other pages. You can link to other pages on your website or other blog articles that may be related. You can also link to outside vendors if you don’t want your article to come across as too self-serving. Just remember to set any outbound links to open up a new page/tab so that it doesn’t take them completely away from the blog post they are reading. Also, don’t overdo it with links. Usually one link every 100 words is the max we recommend.
7. Include Photos
Make sure your blog posts include at least one photo. Visuals help break up the text and people always enjoy looking at nice imagery. Stock photos are okay, but try to personalize posts as much as possible. Take pictures relating to your business, your customers and your employees. This will help add personality to your blog.
8. Pay Attention to Word Count
You don’t want your posts to be too long or too short. Find a happy medium. At NextGear Marketing, we usually like to keep our customer’s blog articles in the 300-500 word range.
9. Share on Social Media
Any time you post a blog, make sure the link to that article is shared on your social media pages, as well. This helps ensure more of your followers see the post, while also creating more inbound links to your site. That’s good for SEO. Include a photo with the link, so the visual will help grab readers eyes within their social media feeds.
These are some of the basic strategies to use when writing and sharing blog posts. If you follow these simple rules, you will see a boost in organic website traffic. If you have questions about blogging for your business, contact NextGear Marketing for a free consultation.
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