Okay, guys, I’ve been working on content marketing since the start of my career, and with the popularity of blogging, I’m starting to highly recommend that my clients begin to curate blog content along with me! More content published on your site means more opportunity for proper keyword insertion! Now with that being said, I feel compelled to suggest you read these top 5 blogging tips before starting to write content for your blog…
Keep in mind that writing a good blog post involves a lot more than writing the copy when you feel the urge – you get out what you put in (garbage in, garbage out). Check out my 5 blogging tips below.
- Always Start with a Purpose
Before you create content, ask yourself these 3 questions:
What is the primary purpose of this content?
What is the ultimate goal that I want to achieve with this content?
What action do I want users to take when they read this content?
Knowing your endpoint and objective is the first thing you should think of so that you can work backward to get the best results.
You’ll need to remember what is your blog for:
- Are you an information resource on a niche topic?
- A thought leader to be the authority in your space?
- Or, a topical or trend site that breaks news or cutting edge design and technique?
Once you understand the fundamental identity of the blog as a whole, then for each article you should answer, what is this post for:
- To grow readers?
- To grow subscribers?
- Is it a spoke to support a hub page?
- Is it for shares or for links?
- Is this to newsjack a trend for a quick win?
- Or, do you want longevity from an evergreen article?
- Keep your marketing strategy in mind
What is your marketing strategy? What are you striving to accomplish with your marketing? Follow that goal as you write your blog to keep the tone of your website and blog relevant.
If you feel a great amount of inspiration, generate a list of topics that your audience would want to read about. Then, use SEO tools to identify the appropriate keywords to try and target in that content. Keywords are a large part of your content marketing strategy and should be of great importance in all aspects of your digital marketing plan.
Furthermore, if you expect your readers to be engaged and build brand recognition, pick a topic and focus on that as your area of expertise for the individual post. As an example, a realtor can discuss a variety of items from financing to home inspections and easily link the topics all together in one blog post.
The trick is to remain more drilled-in for each blog post category for better SEO juice. With that in mind, this realtor’s new blog post speaks only to one specific topic, why you need a home inspection before you buy a property. The reason is for keyword implementation, and the opportunity to appear much more engaged as an expert in your field.
- Write About What You’re Qualified to Talk About
If a chicken farmer is telling me how to catch fish, I’m skeptical.
For a brand to build recognition, you need to prove to have the expertise and be qualified. Write using your knowledge and with a level of understanding your audience can grasp.
A legal firm offering recipe ideas is not going to reassure you of their conveyancing skills and a tennis coach wouldn’t try to give tax advice. If they do, I would be searching for someone else to do my tax return!
Once you know your niche, then go all in to be the expert surrounding that topic and cover every facet with the articles that you write (like Wellness Mama).
If you did your due diligence to define your audience then you will have a clear understanding of their pain points. Combine the pain points with your specialist knowledge, what your audience wants to read to find your sweet spot.
This will give your articles the edge by firstly the titles getting the attention of your audience and then secondly the body of the text will deliver on offering the best advice that will help them to get what they want.
- Be Original or Find a Fresh Approach
Content that talks about the same thing and in the same way that everyone else doesn’t do much for you.
Duplicate content is when you see the exact same thing on multiple websites when you are trying to conduct research. That replicated content is common across sites in the same niche – and frowned upon.
It’s obvious when scoping a niche that you can see the example of lazy research where one article has lifted the references and structure from another article.
High-quality articles that are unique and provide a good user experience are often what the search engines favor, but the copy-cats are the ones paying to get in front of people. This is an opportunity for your brand to gain recognition and build trust with your online community. Unique content allows you to stand out. So say something original or take an original approach to an existing subject.
Again, original content is much more likely to rank higher in the search engines and provide each visitor with an improved user experience.
- Focus on Content Density, And Not Content Length
There have been many studies on what is the best length for an article, and results are usually weighted towards long-form content dominating top 10 search results with an average length of around 350 – 2,000 words.
The reasoning behind this is that longer posts get more social shares and are more likely to attract links due to the quality and research.
BUT, (and it’s a big but) just because you may have a benchmark of 350 or 2,000 words doesn’t mean that you should write an article that long – unless you have something to say!
Blogs are meant to be so information that a person intends to read the entire post rather than scan the bullets. Sometimes, less is more!
If you have any questions or would like assistance with your content marketing strategy, reach out to our team!
