What is the best way to rank organically on the first page of the search results? Write a rocking blog and win your customers with knowledge. It is not something new that blogging helps your website rank better on search engines. But conditions applied. Your blog page should comply with the advanced algorithm of search engines. You can improve the visibility of your website using these blogging tips, and that includes things you must do and things that you must ignore.
To use blogging as a tool to communicate with your audience and drive more traffic to your site, here is everything you need to know.
The benefits of blogging for your business
First things first, why you should bother to write a blog. Blogging is a powerful way of content creation that allows your user to look deep into your knowledge of a particular industry. It helps you establish trust. It is organic and usually costs you 60% less than the traditional outbound methods.
But search engines are not just looking at that. They are looking at other technical factors too, which makes you more relevant for people. There are keywords, the authenticity of the information, headings, tags, meta tags, and so much more. Honestly, it is too much to keep up with, but worth it. Here is all that you can achieve by creating good blogs for your website.
1. Improved Visibility
Search engines are always looking for fresh content. And no one can deny the role of backlinks in the improved ranking. To your surprise, a business that blogs consistently receive 97% more links back to their website than those that don’t.
The search engine spiders crawl all across the web to find relevant content people are searching on the web. Consistent efforts targeting particular keywords while being authentic and unique can help you win a good rank on the first page results. Factually, 75% of people don’t go beyond first page results and businesses that are more consistent in blogging see a 13% increase in ROI.
2. Showcase your knowledge
Blogs give you the freedom to showcase your knowledge. Knowledge helps you attract people and gives you the upper hand in the competition. A blog must make sense to your users and hence today it is not about how good words you are using in the blog, but it is about using simple language that is comprehensive to the masses and shows your expertise in your industry.
3. Go global
The world is becoming smaller and smaller with the advancement in technology. People are coming close despite miles and miles of distance between them. Blogging plays an important role in that phenomenon. About 57% business that blog at least once a month would gain new customers and this number jump up to 82% when you start blogging daily. Blogs allow you to get known to people, not in your local territory. It allows you to go national and even international. It helps you turn a global audience into a loyal user base.
4. Trust
A company consistent in blogging displays its activeness. Sharing the right information indicates leadership qualities. People trust companies that write about new trends in their industry vertical and would like to associate with them. Writing informative, fresh blogs is very beneficial when it comes to establishing trust in the market. You can use different content types to develop trust among your readers. Going by ranking, blogs are ranked fifth most trusted source of information for customers.
Also Read: Ultimate Blogging Guide For Beginners [Grow Your Blog]
5. Awareness and Recognition
People are now becoming more focused on the brand. Every industry has a brand, even if they are into manufacturing, healthcare, or anything else. 61% of consumers stated they were inspired by a blog post to make a purchase.
Readers look up to these leaders of the industry to find relevant information and that too fast. In this dynamic world, it is all about being the first. And in blogging too, you have to be very active in keeping up with the new developments in the market and using that information to create good blogs.
6. Increased traffic on website and development of social media community
An online community is loyal to your brand. Once you have established trust amongst your users, people would regularly come back to stay updated. Thus, blogs give you a great retention value. Distributing blog links on social media tools helps you in creating a strong social media presence. Blogging helps you improve your lead generation by 67%.
Why write a blog when you have other content types?
Blogs are amazing, and they have a bigger impact on the readers. They give you a better scope at showcasing your knowledge in a particular industry, and it is not annoying at all. A lot of people get annoyed with emails. People spend three times more time reading a blog than an email. People need relevancy, and people are looking for value a particular blog provides them. A blog serves it in the best manner.
(A) The Do’s of Blogging
Hopefully, you are all enthusiastic about blogging by now and are readily looking forward to the dos of blogging. Like any other marketing practice, blogs have the right process too that gives you unexpected benefits when followed. Here are 8 do’s of blogging.
1. Headlines
The first thing that would make your users click on your blog. Headlines determine what people would be found inside the entire content. When you fail your users in conveying the entire gist of the blog in just a few words, people are highly disappointed in you. Not just the blog body is important but also the headlines. Give a thought while making it. Use attention-grabbing titles. You can also use CoSchedule, a great tool to analyze and score the blog title on many different criteria.
2. Consistency
Yes, you have to schedule your blogs. You cannot write a blog and expect a huge return. You have to be very consistent in practice and update your blogs as some new information is related to the blog. It is much better than writing a new blog entirely. It would increase more visibility of the same blog and would save your efforts and time.
3. Research on Keywords
Keywords stuffing is a lost cause. In fact, if you do it in the current scenario, you might be penalized by search engines. You must stick to one or two specific keywords and use them strategically throughout your post. The keyword should sit naturally in the content, and appear in your title, sub-heading, and first sentence.
4. Don’t lose hope just yet
When we said it would take time, be ready to spend at least a year to see some significant result. It is an organic method, and it would take time. You should not lose hope and decrease your efforts in any manner. It is rewarding in the end.
5. Using media within blogs
Using media-rich elements in the blog is a good way to grab attention. Today you have a great scope to use images, graphs, Gifs, infographics in the blog post. Ensure you are doing SEO for the images and media too, it helps you improve your ranking greatly. Also, use original images.
6. Don’t be afraid to write long posts
Try to write in-depth about your topic; it helps you give more value and information in your posts. Make sections in your blog, and try to format it well. Give H1, H2…H6 heading and tags.
7. Proofing
Proofreading is very important, and you mustn’t overlook it. Read again what you have written, fact-check everything, try to give links to the facts you include in the blogs to the sources. And make it as fresh as possible. Try to not make any mistakes and typos. Collaborate with a teammate for improvising.
8. Sharing on Social Media
Social media is a great way to bring in more traffic on your blog posts. People can share the link to your blogs within their circle, and this entire chain of communication helps you capture the market beautifully. It is a good practice to find a new reader base and reach out to new customers. And the market is never small for that. You would always want to find new people that use your products and services.
(B)The Don’ts of blogging
Now that you know what you should do; let’s focus on the don’t’s. In short, where you might go wrong.
1. Inconsistency
As mentioned earlier, consistent efforts help you target the keywords you are focusing on. It also keeps your users engaged and make them return to you more for good information and new development in your industry.
2. Irrelevant Topics
Stay in line with your industry. You must give readers relevant information. Anything you write on should be aligned with your topics and don’t stray too far.
3. Negative Posts
A positive blog makes people more connected to your post. Negative blogs would just make your users more worried about the situation and make them feel disconnected. They might not want to continue knowing more on a certain topic, which hurts your stream of visitors.
4. Poor blog page design
As much as you are focused on having a structured homepage and service pages, don’t forget, the blog page is a part of your website. It should also be well structured and must have a user-friendly design. Also, don’t ignore the possibility that your blogs are being read using smartphones. Your blog page should be responsive.
You can use Blog Designer Pro – WordPress blog layout plugin, a trusted tool that beautifies and structures blog pages. It comes with 50+ unique blog page templates that offer you full customization of the blog page and allow you to improve your blog page experience. You can add categories, single posts, tags, authors, date, and also archive pages. It is one tool that would help you improve your blog to ten folds.
Useful Read: Why Redesign Your Blog? [Best Practices]
5. Readability Score doesn’t lie
Use the Yoast plugin and check the readability score. All expert marketers use the plugin to improve their blogging practices. Use other tools too such as check for content duplicity Flesch reading ease, Hemmingway editor, and more.
6. Lack of focus
Above all, the blog should be useful to your readers. Don’t pour in random thoughts, add facts and support your claims with proper research, examples, studies, surveys, or anything that you can find.
Related Read: 10 Critical To-Dos Before Launching Your New blog
Concluding
You have to be consistent and focused. Blogging requires both knowledge and patience. You cannot win the war in one day, and you must not even attempt to. Search engines are becoming more and more advanced in identifying any black hat practices.
Stay focused, and don’t waver from writing valuable blogs that give out the users’ right information. Use social media to channelize traffic, and in a matter of a few months, you would start seeing wonders happening.
