Blogging is a crucial part of a well rounded online marketing and Auto SEO strategy. Creating a successful blog is hard work but the benefits can be huge. So how do you make sure that your blog is successful? Here are 10 basic tips to keep you on the right track.
1. Keep your headlines succinct
The goal of a headline is to get readers interested in your post right off the bat. Don’t be cute with convoluted, long or confusing headlines. You want your headlines to be Urgent, so that the reader is drawn to your post. also keeping them short and specific will help you capture the interest of a reader quickly as they scroll through either search results or a feed reader.
here are a few good examples:
The Rise Of Mobile
Virtual Currency Is The Next Big Platform
2. Create good recognizable URLs for SEO purposes
If your URLs are a jumbled mess it can effect you in two ways. First if people can’t read them they look unprofessional and are less likely to be clicked on in search results. Many people use the URLs just below the title in Google search results as a reference in deciding whether to follow one link or another. The second way bad URLs can effect you is by hurting your SEO. Including key words in your URL and removing things like “602-9912342-3046240?_encoding=UTF8&” will help search engines index you correctly. Fortunately most blogging platforms out there make this really easy allowing you custom edit the URL for each individual blog.
3. Remember to fill out your page title and description
Page title, description, and keywords are paramount if you want to rank highly in search. This is really a simple thing to do but it can have a huge impact on how well your blog performs. WordPress has some great plugins that will help you be consistent and relevant with all of your posts meta data, and remember good titles and descriptions will help your blog be more social media friendly.
4. Link to your old posts when you can
links are everything within your blog, and linking to your older posts can help you in a number of different ways. To start with referencing your other posts can help you make your point better, but that’s only the beginning. Links to old posts will help drive traffic back to them giving them new life. Also if you make sure your links contain key words that you want to rank for you will hugely improve your SEO.
5. Link to other bloggers
Yes I’m going on about links again, because they are that important. Linking out to other blogs is a great way to get more people involved, and will give you the opportunity to listen and trade ideas. Who knows maybe you’ll learn something. Also giving proper credit is huge. Many bloggers put their heart and soul into their writing, so if you make a post based on an idea you get from another blog or article it’s just common courtesy to give them credit by linking back to them. Lastly, inbound links obviously help your rank but so do outbound links. This is especially true if you’re linking to sites that are particularly popular or an authority on the topic at hand.
6. For the love of god don’t plagiarize
This should be a no-brainer but it still happens everyday. Coming up with consistent, fresh and interesting content is hard to do but copying content is not the way to go. There are lots of ways to overcome writers block and get yourself back on track, and there is nothing that will destroy your online reputation worse than plagiarism.
7. Write early and often
The amount of traffic you get on your blog is usually going to be directly proportional with how often you post. Obviously you’re busy so once a day is probably going to be out of the question; once or twice a week is usually good practice. Things move quickly these days so staying relevant usually means posting about a popular topic the day of, or at the latest, the next day. Try to set yourself a schedule, if you commit to posting on Tuesday and Thursday every week you’ll find it easier to consistently blog twice a week.
8. Invite your readers to leave comments
Having dialogue on your blog is very important, if you engage your readers they will be more likely to come back and read more of your stuff. The best way to encourage comments is to ask a question at the end of your post. Also posting about relevant, interesting, or even controversial topics will get readers to engage and express their own opinion.
9. Make sure your blog has a presence on social media platforms
One of the best ways to get more people to read your blog is to promote your content through social media. If you’re not publishing each and every blog on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus you’re missing loads of opportunities. Make sure you’re being strategic about how you’re using these social media sites as well.
10. Don’t give up!
Building a successful blog takes a lot of work and a lot of time. You might not get a readership or any success in the first few months of blogging. It is important to keep at it though, because as soon as you give up all the work you’ve done until that point becomes useless. You probably won’t see immediate success but if you follow these ten steps and stay committed you will definitely begin to see results before long.
None of the ideas here are particularly revolutionary but starting with the basics will help you build a strong successful blog in no time.
Did you find these tips to be Helpful?
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