Having a blog is an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. Blogs have proven to be one of the three most used communication tools in content strategy.
If you have already decided to create a blog for your business, you should know that these articles should be of high quality and target the right audience. This allows you to convert your visitors into leads.
What is a post?
A blog post or publication is an article, message, or guide published on the blog section of a website. They typically cover a specific topic or question, are educational, ranging from 600 to 2,000+ words, and include elements such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts. Blogs allow you to post your ideas, thoughts, and stories about any topic on your website. It helps increase brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, it helps drive traffic to your website.
Today, people and organizations from all walks of life use blogs to share analyses, how-tos, reviews, product information, industry results, and more.
What makes a good blog post?
Before writing your blog, make sure you know the answers to the following questions.
“Why would anyone keep reading this entire blog post?” and “What keeps our audience coming back?”
First of all, good blog posts are interesting and educational. A blog should answer questions, help solve challenges that readers are experiencing, and do so in an interesting way.
It’s not enough to answer someone’s question, you should also provide actionable steps. For example, your introduction should captivate your readers and make them want to continue reading your post. Then use examples to pique the reader’s interest in what you have to say.
To create a blog post: the simple formula to follow
- Define your strategy.
- Choose the main topic.
- Consider all on-page SEO.
- Organize your content.
- Develop blog content.
- Write a compelling (engaging) introduction.
- Insert a call to action (CTA).
- Review, correct, and edit posts.
- Measure your blog’s performance.
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define a strategy
Before you start writing a blog, you need to decide what industry you want to be in, who you want to target, what your users and customers should achieve with your posts, and the subject area you want to establish yourself as an opinion. leader…
Knowing the target group, you’re trying to address is also important. What information are you interested in? what do you identify with? Therefore, it makes sense to generate buyer personas (consumer profiles). When defining your publication strategy, consider what you know about your buyer personas and their interests.
For example, if you want to attract millennial readers who are looking to start a business, you probably don’t need to provide important information about their social media.
Even so, it would be advisable that you give them information on how to adjust their social media dissemination to move from a more informal and personal vision to one that is more business, professional and focused. That kind of tweak makes the difference between posting generic stuff on your blog and posting what your audience wants (and needs) to hear.
But you can only know this and achieve it when you establish a strategy that allows you to see the complete panorama of opportunities that your blog can take advantage of, taking into account what you want to achieve. And, of course, when you strive to create buyer personas as close as possible to your target audience.
To create buyer personas, you must think about the type of target audience that your company and blog want to address.
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Select the main theme
Before you unleash your creativity, you need to choose a topic for your post.
Depending on the topic you want to position yourself with, you should ask yourself how many more articles on the same topic you can write. A great way to represent this is to resort to the topic clustering strategy, as it will help you deconstruct your main theme into sub-themes and complementary themes.
This allows you to define the angles with the greatest organic potential and those most related to your product, even if they do not have as much search volume. In addition to the creation of different content, this strategy also helps you to have blogs ready for internal links and thus connect readers between articles in the same cluster.
We know that generating ideas for blog posts can be a bit exhausting, but with a little effort, you can get a great list of alternatives to develop.
To get you on the right track, we recommend creating a search metrics report that revolves around the topic you want to address. This will be the best way to plan the content of your post to improve the organic traffic of your blog.
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Consider all your on-page SEO
There is a step before writing your blog that you cannot leave last and this is the SEO of your post. We recommend thinking about SEO insights and then developing your content around that. This process will help you to know what aspects your user is interested in knowing and then complement them with other more specific ones in which you are an expert; for example, something more related to the functions of your product or service.
Some of the aspects in which you should improve the SEO of your blog are the following:
Meta description
Meta descriptions are the descriptions that follow the post title on Google search results pages. They provide searchers with a summary of the post before clicking on it.
They are usually between 150 and 160 characters long and start with a verb like “learn”, “read” or “discover”. While meta descriptions are no longer a determining factor in Google’s keyword ranking algorithm, they do give searchers an overview of what they’ll get from reading your post, which can help improve your clickthrough rate. in searches.
Page title and header
Post and page titles are the most important part of on-page SEO. For now, you can decide on a temporary title that helps naturally include keywords and phrases that are interesting to your target audience.
If you’re a plumber, you might start with a practical title about leaking faucets. Later, you can fine-tune your title with various preliminary ideas. So different approaches to the subject help guide your writing. For example, you can focus on “Tools for fixing leaky faucets” or “Common causes of leaky faucets”. A working title is specific and lays the foundation for your post so you can start writing. Notice the progression from topic to working title to final title. A tentative title may not be the final title, but it provides enough information to focus the post on a more specific topic rather than a general or overwhelming topic (see more on that later).
Please note that the title must contain the keyword. Also, keep your headings short (preferably less than 65 characters) to avoid truncating them in search engine results.
Anchor text (or anchor text)
Anchor text or anchor text is a word or words that link to another page of your website or another website. Choose the keywords you link to from other pages on your site carefully. Search engines take this into account when ranking pages for specific keywords.
It’s also important to check the sites you link to. Consider linking to pages you want to rank for that keyword. You might rank on page 1 of Google’s search results instead of page 2, but that’s not easy.
Mobile optimization
Having a website that is responsive or designed for mobile technologies is becoming increasingly important. To improve the SEO of our website by optimizing our technology for mobile devices, in addition to providing the best possible experience for our website visitors (including visitors to our blogs) I can.
You already know how important mobile optimization of your website is. From 2015 until the last Google algorithm update in 2022, sites that are not mobile-friendly will be penalized.
About 61% of organic search engine traffic comes from mobile phones. This makes it abundantly clear that mobile optimization is essential if you want your content to rank well for the search intent you want to cover. If you need help with on-page SEO, you can improve both your entire website and your blog with SEO recommendation tools included in our free CMS.
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Organize your content
Posts can contain overwhelming amounts of information for both readers and writers. The trick is to organize the information so that the reader is not overwhelmed by the length or amount of content. You can organize your information in many different ways.
Sections, lists, tips, or whatever works best for you. However, the post should be organized.
Take a look at our guide post on using Snapchat for your brand. Due to the amount of content in this post, we have divided it into various sections using the following headings:
How to set up a Snapchat account, how to use, send and view Snaps, and how to use Snapchat for your business. Sections are divided into more detailed subsections, making the content more dynamic.
To complete this step, simply create a draft post. That way, before you start writing, you’ll know the points you want to cover and in what order they’re best unfolded.
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Develop blog content
The moment of truth has come:
I write the content myself. Of course, we couldn’t forget it. Now that you’ve covered the main points of SEO and a set of topics to focus on, feel free to use the outline as a guide and elaborate on each point as needed. If you’re writing about a topic you’re familiar with, you can do a little more research to gather information, examples, and data to support your point.
When integrating external sources, remember to correctly state the source. For example, if you write a digital marketing blog, you can weigh your posts by including recent and compelling stats about marketing trends.
If you’re having trouble connecting sentences, you’re not alone. Finding your way can be difficult for many. Luckily, there are hundreds of blogging tools you can use to improve your writing skills.
Likewise, taking into account the essential characteristics of your blog will allow you to have a better structure and the right tone for your target group, in addition to his excellent SEO optimization.
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Write a compelling introduction
Now that you’ve covered your blog’s main topic and subtopics, it’s time to start writing an effective introduction. Admittedly, this is the first section readers will see, but many writers and copywriters build on it until they’ve written the entire post. why? Since you already know all the details of your blog, you can explain and present it in more detail and make it more engaging.
You can start your blog with an introduction, but as you develop your subject, you may want to wait a little longer, as you may add subtopics or interesting facts not covered in the introduction. Do you make a lot of unnecessary modifications?
Another point that usually generates a lot of conversation when writing a post is the ideal length of your blog post. However, a certain word count is meaningless if you can’t craft a compelling introduction based on your goals and buyer persona. First, you need to grab the reader’s attention. If you lose readers after seeing the first few paragraphs or first sentences of your introduction, they will stop reading before giving your post a chance. This can be done in various ways.
Tell stories and jokes, show empathy, and captivate your readers with interesting facts and statistics.
Next, explain the purpose of your post and how you will address any issues readers may encounter. This gives them a reason to keep reading and connect on how your post can help them improve their work and life. Here are some examples of posts that are sure to grab your reader’s attention right away.
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Insert a call to action (CTA).
Calls to action are generally believed to benefit marketers. When a visitor reads your post and clicks your CTA, sooner or later a lead is generated. However, a call to action is also a valuable resource for anyone reading your content. Use CTAs to provide more content similar to the topic of the post you just read. CTAs should be placed in key places in all content. There’s no limit to the number of CTAs allowed, but it’s best to match the length of the text and what the section is about.
For example, in the middle of your blog, you can add an invitation for readers to read other content from your cluster. That way, you can keep them on your site longer and they will continue to learn more about the topics that interest them.
Her essential CTA concludes each post and tells readers what she wants them to do next, whether it’s subscribing to your blog, downloading your ebook, or signing up for a webinar or event. For example, our post, 16 Best Blogging Platforms (And How To Choose Which Is Best For You), gives readers a practical idea of which platform is best for you. Finally, he has a CTA urging readers to download a comprehensive guide to creating a blog for your business.
If you’re wondering about the best placement for your CTA, you can run an A/B test to see how your readers react to different options. That way there’s less room for error and you know what type of CTAs to add for her and where to add them strategically based on user behavior.
8. Review, correct, and edit posts
Not finished yet but will be soon. The verification process is an important part of any blog, so don’t neglect it. Ask a classmate who knows grammar to proofread and proofread your post. He’s also considering making a list of key points that shouldn’t be overlooked during reviews.
When you’re ready to review formatting issues, consider: Choosing attractive and relevant images for your posts. The visual element has a lot to do with the success of the blog content you share on social networks, as social networks like to enrich their content with images. According to a recent study by HubSpot, posts containing images and photos in addition to videos are the most commonly used content types across all social channels to increase audience engagement.
Exterior
No one reads ugly publications. Also, it’s not just the images that make a post visually appealing, it’s the format and structure of the post that matters. Well-formatted and visually appealing blogs use headings and subheadings to divide up large blocks of text and find that these headings follow the same style. Here is an example from one of our posts.
Also, screenshots should always define similar frames so they don’t look like they’re floating in space. And this style should always be respected in all contributions.
Maintaining this consistency makes your content and brand appear more professional and engaging to your readers.
Topic/tag
Tags are specific public keywords that describe your post. Readers can also search for more content related to the same category on your blog. Avoid adding long lists of tags to each post and instead take a closer look at your tagging strategy. Think of tags as “topics” or “categories” and choose 10-20 tags that represent the main topics you’ll cover on your blog. Then try to stick with them.
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Measure contribution performance
Once your publication or contribution is ready, published, and shared in your communication channels, it is important to answer the following questions:
- Are you getting the traffic you expect?
- Are you meeting your goals?
- Do you need to optimize?
This can be determined by evaluating a post’s performance against several marketing outcome metrics. For example, conversion rate metrics can help you determine whether your posts are meeting your goals and whether the rewards you’re offering (such as e-books or toolkits) are appropriate.
Knowing what you’ve done well and what you need to improve can help you get the most out of your blog and prevent the content you’ve put in so much time from going unrewarded.
For example, with his free CMS, you can use Blog Analytics to identify posts with the most clicks and identify the features that are most engaging for your readers. This allows you to optimize your poorly performing posts.
Remember:
How to write your first blog post
There are technical and practical details.
It’s time to write your first blog post. No, this is not the place to introduce yourself or introduce a new blog (e.g. “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media addresses. Could you follow me?”).
Your first blog post is never a guide. Remember you need to build authority in this area. Instead, start writing on very specific topics that will help a small percentage of your readers. This seems counter-intuitive. Because more people searching for a term or topic means more readers. But it’s not. If you choose a generic, commonly searched topic that is covered by your main competitors or more established brands, your post is unlikely to rank on the search engine’s first result pages (SERPs). lower. Try your nascent blog by choosing a topic that few other bloggers have written about.
Your first post should cover a niche, low-volume topic. As you blog more and more and build your topical authority, you can start covering more search keywords.
Let’s see this process:
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Find topics with low volume
The first step is to find topics with low Google searches (we recommend 10-150 searches per month). These topics have less competition, which makes it easier for new blog posts to rank. To select
topics, you can do a traditional brainstorming session or keyword research. I recommend the latter because you can see how many people are searching for this topic.
Don’t let the term “keyword research” fool you. It is useful not only for marketers but also for new bloggers. And it’s so easy. To start your keyword research, start by identifying the overall topic of your blog.
Let’s go back to the plumber example. A popular high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67,000 searches per month).
Then paste that term into a keyword research tool like this:
Go through it and choose terms with low search volume. In this example, we’re using “plumbing under the sink” (1,400 monthly searches).
Try this keyword again in the keyword research tool. Look at the results. Find terms with low search volume. do it again.
For this example, select “Plumbing problem under the kitchen sink” (10 searches per month). That’s the subject of our first post.
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Search the term on Google to see your search intent.
topics retrieved (your theme). Double-check if the user’s search intent is being met with your blog post.
What does that mean? A user searching for “plumbing problem under the kitchen sink” may be looking for a guide, diagram, article, or product to solve the problem.
If you’re looking for the first three, that’s fine. You can cover it in a blog post. However, products are different and blog posts are not ranked.
How is search intent verified? Search Google for the
term and review the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, no problem. If all you can find is a product page or a list of important posts, find a new topic to cover in your first post.
Consider the term “bathroom fixtures under the sink” (30-month search). Given the low number of monthly searches, this seemed like a perfect match.
A Google search for this term found product carousels, Home Depot product pages, and guides written by major publications. (You should also avoid topics that have been covered in major publications, at least for now.)
Before writing your first blog post on a low-volume topic, Google your keywords to find out what your users are thinking. please. Also, don’t forget to check who has written on this topic so far. If you see a big brand, you should write about another topic.
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Find questions and terms related to this topic
You have a very unique subject that few people have ever covered. It’s time to develop it further, including related and adjacent topics.
Use the following tools:
- Answer the Public – Add a keyword to this tool to see a list of questions related to that term.
- Google:
Google is your best friend. Search for terms and browse related questions and related searches. Be sure to address these issues in your post.
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Sketch and write your post
Now let’s sketch and write our first post.
Using niche topics and related questions as a guide, you can write posts that are relevant to your niche and have low competition.
Do not forget:
- Get at least 1000 words. Longer posts generally have higher ranks.
- Enter your target keywords in the title. Remember the niche topic you chose in step 1? Try to include it naturally in your title. • Include at least two H2s in relevant search terms. Remember the related topics you found in step 3? Use them as H2s to build your article’s current authority.
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Promote your first post
As a new blogger, you probably don’t have a social media following yet. solution? Start posting by creating some backlinks to your post.
Backlinks are an important ranking factor, but you don’t want to use the wrong method like this: B. Spam the comments section of other blogs. Instead, reach out to people and let them know that this new resource exists so they can link to your post.
For example, if you are a plumber, you can contact your local plumbers’ association. Want to get started as soon as possible? Download the blog post template for free now.
8 Post example
- Posting to the list
- Management
- Collection place
- SlideShare Presentation
- Newsjacking and posting news
- Infographic Post
- Submission method
- guest entry
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List of posts
List-based posts are articles that provide information in this way. Lists use subheadings to divide your blog posts into discrete parts to help readers more easily scan and digest your content.
As you can see in the blog example, lists can offer a variety of tips and methods for solving problems.
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Management
Leadership posts allow you to share your expertise on specific topics and share first-hand knowledge with your readers.
Written in the first person, these articles help build trust with your readers, and people will take your blog seriously while you continue to blog.
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Collection location
A collection is a special kind of list blog post. In this type of blog post, rather than sharing tips or how-tos for doing something, we share a list of real-life examples that have something in common to illustrate the larger point.
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SlideShare Presentation
SlideShare is a presentation tool that helps publishers organize more information into shareable slides.
Think like PowerPoint. But for the web. With that in mind, this media blog post can help promote SlideShare and generate a steady stream of visitors. Unlike blogs, SlideShares typically don’t rank well in search engines, so you need a platform to get your message to the people looking for it. By embedding SlideShare into your blog post and summarizing it, you can share a lot of information while giving it a chance to rank on Google.
Need a SlideShare idea? In the example above, we turned our corporate culture code into a SlideShare presentation for everyone to see and learn from, and promoted it in a blog post.
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Newsjacking or publishing news
“Newsjacking” is a technique aimed at attracting attention to flashy or novel news. If you use your blog to post important news related to your industry, but not specifically about your industry or products or services, you may be resorting to newsjacking.
Therefore, the release of the new Jack is a kind of article intended only for the attention of consumers.
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Publish infographics
Infographic posts serve a similar purpose to SlideShare posts, conveying information that isn’t best formatted in simple blog copy. For example, if you have a lot of stats to share (without boring or confusing your readers), wrapping that data in a well-designed and engaging infographic can help keep readers interested in your content. You can continue. It also helps readers remember information long after they leave your site.
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Post your method
For this example, you don’t need to look beyond the blog post you’re reading. Guides like this help readers solve their problems. They are like a cookbook for your industry, guiding readers step by step to improve their knowledge of the target audience.
The more you create posts like this, the more your readers will want to work with you and invest in the services you provide.
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Guest Posting
A guest post is a type of post that you can use to include other voices on your blog. For example, guest posts are great if you want to hear outside experts’ opinions on a topic.
Additionally, these posts bring different topics and perspectives to your blog. Guest posting is a great solution when a client has an unsolvable problem.
Once you start accepting guest posts, establish editorial guidelines to meet the same standards as your posts.
Now that you know all the steps of creating a post, I believe that over time you will gain an audience and become an expert in search engine positioning.
Finally, we recommend using blog post templates to save time every time you publish. It also adds a lot of visual consistency to your blog in general, making it a distinctive feature your readers will recognize.
