Kendall | August 24, 2021 | Content Marketing
Blogs are crucial to an effective content marketing strategy. In fact, you may have already heard all the wonders they can do for your business’ domain authority, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead generation.
Because of this, you may have created a website for your business and got started blogging right away — and for that, I’m proud. However, if you didn’t take the time to research blogging best practices, it’s likely you’ve just been winging it — writing about whatever, whenever, however you want.
The result? A new website with no traffic. The truth is, there’s a lot more to blogging than most people think. Here are 10 blogging errors you might be making, along with some tips on how to fix them and boost traffic.
One of the most important parts of getting traffic to your new blog is conducting keyword research. Keyword research is a fundamental SEO task that involves identifying popular words and phrases that users enter into search engines.
When you know what people are searching for, you know what topics will resonate with them. Basing your blogs around those keyword topics will help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and establish yourself as a credible source of information.
Use a relevant keyword a couple of times throughout your blog, wherever it fits naturally — in the title, headings, paragraphs, and/or meta description. However, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing, which is using a keyword so many times that search engines think your content is spam. This will cause your SERP ranking to drop.
Before you start writing blogs, you should have a clear understanding of your target audience. Because let’s face it, if you’re writing about topics your reader isn’t interested in, you’re not going to drive any traffic.
Who are they? What do they want to know about? What information and resources will resonate with them? This is where buyer personas come in handy. If you haven’t already developed buyer personas, I highly recommend that you do. They can help you solve customer needs and generate leads by delivering the right message in the right way.
If your blog titles aren’t interesting enough, you won’t get the traffic and engagement you want. You need a compelling title that pulls the reader in. Here are some tips for writing effective blog titles:
Writing for an online audience is a lot different than writing a novel or love letter to your high school crush. It’s condensed and skimmable. You want to write enough to fully answer the reader’s question, but not so much that you stray away from the main topic.
Keep your posts short
As a general rule of thumb, keep your posts between 500-2,000 words. Break content up into short paragraphs that are no more than four sentences long.
Reading through 1,000+ words of plain text can be daunting for readers. Images help break up your post content and keep them engaged. Other forms of media, like videos and social embeds, work for this too. As you’ve probably discovered, GIFs are my favorite.
If you don’t have enough high-quality images of your own, there are plenty of websites with free stock photos. Check out Pexels or Unsplash.
Linking is a powerful tool in terms of site navigation and SEO. By linking within your own blogs, either to relevant pillar pages or other blogs, you can encourage readers to browse other areas of your site. When they have a good user experience navigating through your site, and they find the information they’re looking for, they’re likely to trust you and turn into a lead.
Utilize Backlinking
In terms of SEO, backlinking is a great tool. Backlinking is when an outside source links back to a page on your site, which helps you build authority and drive traffic to your site. Search engines think of backlinks like a “vote” for your page, and use them to boost your SERP rankings.
Topic clusters are a content marketing method created and introduced by HubSpot. They help tailor your content for higher SERP rankings and better readability, both for search engines and human users. Here’s how to use them:
A good place to look is your pillar pages! Pillar pages cover a lot of information about a general keyword, so they serve as great topic clusters. Then, write blogs about more specific keyword topics that relate to those general topics, and link to the appropriate pillar page.
For example, if one of my pillar pages/topic clusters was “Remodeling”, some possible blog topics could be, “How Much Does A Kitchen Remodel Cost?” and “5 Great Design Ideas for Your Basement Remodel.” Then, in each of these blogs, I’d include a link back to the “Remodeling” page.
Meta descriptions are the small blurbs that appear underneath your website link on the SERP. They include information about specific pages on your website. Since they’re visible on SERPs, it’s important they are readable and compelling, so users click on the link to learn more. They’re also great places to put keywords so your blog post ranks higher.
When writing meta descriptions:
Stick to 150-160 characters. Any shorter, and you could be missing out on sharing important information with your readers. Any longer, and search engines will start to cut it off.
Blogs and social media are the perfect combo. They work together so well. While blogs create great content for regular social media posts, social media provides a high-engagement space for your blog to get more views. Your followers can view, like, and share your post, resulting in increased traffic.
Once you write a blog, use social media to your advantage and post about it!
Call to actions (CTAs) are one of the most important components of an effective blog. If you don’t tell your reader where to go or what to do next, they’re just going to take your information and go. Why are CTAs important?
Each of your blogs should have at least one CTA. It could include more, but using too many could confuse your readers. CTAs should fit naturally within the rest of your content, and be specific enough to get your readers to do what you want them to do.
For example, CTAs like “Click here” aren’t effective because they’re too general and the reader doesn’t know where the link will take them. Instead, try a more specific CTA like, “Learn more about our awesome content marketing team.” Like what I did there?
At Evenbound, we have a great team of content marketing experts. If you need some extra help driving traffic to your blogs, we’re always happy to help! Give us a call or contact us online to get started.
At Evenbound, we're all about helping our clients grow. We use inbound and outbound marketing strategies to deliver you the qualified traffic and leads you need for serious growth. And we have a lot of fun doing it.
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