8 Tips for a Successful Blog That Works for Your Business
September 28, 2018
Blogs are nothing new, but they have become an important marketing tool for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and even large conglomerates the world over. A blog helps you create an online presence, using unique and relevant content to increase traffic and provide a service to your clients, customers, or site visitors.
Not everybody is born a blogging natural, but that’s okay, there are several steps you can take to make sure your blog is a success each time you post. Whether you’re new to the world of blogging or just brushing up on your blogger knowledge, here are 8 tips for online success.
1. Never Underestimate the Importance of a Heading: Of course, the body of your blog is important, but it’s not the body that draws in readers, it’s the headline. In fact, research suggests that most internet users read the headline first and won’t bother reading a blog post unless it’s going to reveal something important and related to the headline. For this reason, it’s a good idea to add your keywords or key phrases directly to your blog title.
The average blog reader is looking for an answer to something. Maybe it’s a question about DIY engine tune-ups, maybe it’s how to bake an apple pie. What’s important is that your headline draws them in and suggests that your blog has all the information the reader needs to be successful. Using words like “simple”, “best”, and “safest” will help increase the popularity of a blog post.
2. Link Your Readers Internally: Link your blog readers to past updates in your blog which may be relevant to them. This guarantees that your reader is clicking around and finding other interesting pages to follow, which increases traffic on those pages and keeps them from straying to competitor blogs.
Google loves to see internal links, which is a bonus for you as a site owner. It helps the bots navigate and provides a deeper understanding of the content you’re posting.
3. Don’t Neglect Your Call to Action: A call to action acts like a final invitation to site visitors and blog readers to act on your product or service offer. Not only does it invite readers to “call now!” or “try it today”, it also urges readers to respond. Try creating a call to action which also acts as a question, compelling the reader to comment and create an ongoing thread of interested parties.
4. Don’t Skip the Photos: The world has become a very visual place, dominated by television, online, magazine, billboard, and even building-side ads. Your blog should reflect this love of visual aesthetics, including bright, colorful imagery which makes your reader want to scroll through and see what else there is to look at.
Photos pair great with keywords and hashtags to really drive home the point behind the picture. Leaving these out will mean your photo and blog are viewed by less people in the long run.
5. Share and Share Again: Once you’ve created the perfect piece of content and it’s live on the net, it’s time to increase your readership by sharing your blog post with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other forms of social media. Keep it public if you want friends to share within their individual social media communities as well.
A few weeks later, share the same content again through the same link, but use different hashtags or photos. Not everybody on social media uses it at the same time across North America, let alone viewers in Europe and other parts of the globe.
6. Don’t Ignore Comments: Whether they’re positive or negative, the comments on your blog prove to readers and Google that you’re a real person. They also provide a perfect opportunity to get in touch with your readers, see what they think of current blog posts, get ideas for new content, promote your brand, and make new partnerships.
For negative comments about your products or services, be sure to empathize and recognize the customer’s concern. For negative comments related to your blog, learn more about what made that blog post unpopular, and refrain from making the same mistake twice.
7. Consider Creating a Pinterest Pin: Not all content is Pin-worthy, granted, but if you have a blog which includes any DIY, art, food, or crafting, your pin could increase readership and promote sharing. The goal of any blog is to create a post which goes viral and invites mass traffic to your website, so the more places you can think to share it, the better.
A great advantage of Pinterest is that it offers your pin as a suggestion to other users. This is the epitome of free advertising, and it means less work overall to keep people interested.
8. Just Add Video: A picture says a thousand words, but a video lets your blog visitors experience those words in HD. A video can act as a blog post from time to time, and still count toward content on your site. Remember to supply a solid title and description with keywords aimed at your target audience. Vlogs are catchy and interesting, and don’t require your site visitors to read for themselves. Just remember not to make all your updates videos, unless you can back them up with enough written descriptors and hashtags.
Using a blog doesn’t have to be difficult, they’re easy to setup, and while they do require regular updates, there’s no real word limit to abide by. Just do your best to keep posts above the 400 word mark and write something once a week.