Blogging is becoming increasingly important for individuals and brands.
While there are dozens of articles and resources discussing the importance of blogging, many people find themselves overwhelmed with where and how to start writing a blog post.
Many people sit down to write and then find themselves riddled with questions such as:
What is the ideal length of a post?
Should I use photos?
How do I make it sharable?
How do I optimize it for search?
Below, I will tackle all of those questions and provide 5 easy tips that will help you become a better blogger and boost the reach of your blog posts:
- Headline: You should have an attractive headline that grabs the attention of the reader. The headline should reflect the overarching theme of the post, as well as your position on the topic. The best headlines serve to pique interest while still alluding to the value or takeaway a reader can expect upon finishing reading the post.
- Multimedia: Social media is becoming more visual by the day. Why? Because people get bored easily and prefer visuals. The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply when it comes to social media and content marketing. Nothing bores (or overwhelms) people faster than seeing an article with multiple paragraphs of unbroken text. Adding rich media (photos and videos) and links will help make your post more interactive, engaging and visually appealing, therefore increasing the likelihood that others will share it.
- Length: Blog posts aren’t meant to function as mini novels. They also aren’t typically meant to function as sentences. Content marketing best practices usually state that the ideal blog is between 300-600 words. While there is definite flexibility, you should cut yourself off if you’ve reached 900 words – unless you are discussing something very juicy that requires extra detail and description. Regardless of the word count, your blog should be filled with keywords
- Call to action: The blogs that perform the best are ones that have a clear call to action. For each blog post you write, you should think about what you want the reader to do, what action you want them to take, after reading the post. Do you want them to fill out a form or a survey? Do you want them to go register to vote? Whatever it is, in order to maximize the effectiveness of the post, you need to be clear about what you want readers to do after they read your post so that they can take action right away. Be clear and straightforward, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you want, be it shares or likes on a post!
- Categories and tags: Your blog should be set up with categories that represent the different types of information you blog about. This way, when you publish a blog about marketing, you can put it in that category so that your readers can easily find related posts. Another important step is to add keyword tags. Your post should be filled with keywords throughout. Inserting those keywords in the “tags” section of your blog will help it perform better on search. Finally, your URL structure matters! A blog with a URL structure including keywords and categories (ex: http://www.thepartnership.org/blog/partnership-affinity-programs-savings-you-can-trust/) will perform better than a blog with a disorganized URL structure such as http://www.thepartnership.org/blog/05/19/2015/.
Comment below sharing what aspects you think are critical to creating a good blog post!
