10 Tips for a Successful Blog
Developing entertaining, useful and well-performing blog content can be challenging. With a little help from former OMA staffer and now founder and owner of Teach to Fish Digital, Chris Sietsema, we’ve compiled 10 tips to help you do just that.
Own a topic. Pick a niche and stick to it. What are you interested in? What types of information do you want to share? Select a topic or a theme and be the best at providing content about that theme. Not only will this help you hone on in on regular topics to write about, but this also will help search engines such as Google optimize your blog for search.
Use keywords. This is still an SEO must. It’s important to spot a trend on the rise. Once it’s already trending, it can be too late to jump on the bandwagon. Try using Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to identify topics on the rise and be one of the first to start talking it.
Headlines matter. Be sure the headlines include some good keywords and match current search results. Use the Compare feature on Google Trends to see if your headline is aligned with posts about similar content.
Write compelling content. This might seem like a no-brainer, but meaningful content trumps all. Find the sweet spot between informational, entertaining or promotional. Striking this balance is key to success in building a community and piquing enough interest to drive return visits and new visitors to engage.
Call to action. If you’re not seeing much engagement on your blog, look at your call to action. Are you clearly asking for people to engage or comment? Try inviting people to comment or add to your post, this is a simple way to make readers feel like they can be part of the content and gives them an outlet to chime in with their thoughts.
Gated content. Use your awesome content to your advantage. If you’re posting a downloadable PDF, checklist or lengthy POV, gate it. This is one of the best ways to capture contact information for an email database in order to continue serving up favorable content.
Find your audience. First, you have to know your audience and then you need to determine the best way to reach them. Whether that’s through social media or a nurture email, this is one step you can’t miss.
Use Google Analytics filters. Unfortunately, there are spam sites and bots that can significantly alter Google Analytics data. Filter out spam website addresses through the hostname filter in order to accurately track referral traffic, time on site and page views.
Configure your site search. Learn what people are searching for on your blog by enabling site search through Google Analytics. This tool provides insight on what visitors to your blog and readers of your content are actively looking for, allowing you the opportunity to optimize your content and categorize accordingly.
Add a pop-up. Make it personal. Maybe your blog is struggling to move readers to read another related article. Try a small corner pop-up users can easily click to get to another blog post that may interest them.
