Using a blog is a fantastic way to improve the traffic to your website and build trust with your readers. Blogging is a tool used in SEO best practices, as it helps to increase the power of your site and can aid search engines in correctly indexing your site, ensuring your site appears when you target different keywords. Writing posts on a daily basis may not sound like too much to do, but if you want your readers to come back time and time again, and you want to be found through search, your content needs to be well thought out, original, and provide value to your readers. To help ensure you hit these targets, here are five keys to follow that will ensure you continue to frequently produce great blog content.
- Can your post be skimmed easily? When visitors read blogs, they are looking for specific pieces of information. By producing posts that have bullet points, numbers and subheadings, you are helping your reader to quickly move over the page and easily hunt down the information they want.
- Be completely original when producing good blog content. Never plagiarize and try to stay fresh. By repeating what has already been said, time and time again, you will not be meeting the needs of your readers who want to see something new on the same topic. Adding to the conversation, rather than repeating, is a great way of showing off your knowledge and opinions and produces good content in the process.
- Create an eye-catching headline. The titles of your blog articles need to be carefully thought out. If they are dull, your readers may automatically assume the content is dull, too. Provide a reason for the readers to stay on the page and read through what you have written; divulge secrets, give out useful advice, challenge their knowledge, or give them something to think about.
- Use lists to your advantage. Lists make for great reading, and you can pop in lots of information without writing a ton of paragraphs, which look unattractive to the eye. Writing lists is also a good way to help you stay fresh, as they can be easier to write.
- Add an image. Images not only make the piece look more pleasing, they can also provide information for the reader on what to expect. Images can also be used for additional optimization and can be used as a link into your other content or information pages.
Since the Google Panda and Penguin updates, websites must provide value on their blogs. Failing to create original blog content will only serve to put off your readers and you will see your page rank dip in the search results. When in doubt…be natural!
Blog Post Written by Spencer Powell
Spencer is an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional and would love to help you get found by your prospects on the web. Spencer also specializes in helping builders and remodelers who are frustrated with the lack of leads they are getting from their websites.