There are more than a million bloggers right now, each spinning out unique content perfectly pitched to reach for their target audience. But is producing content alone sufficient for blogging success? Not necessarily, according to marketing mavericks such as Ahrefs, Moz and others. To catch your audience’s attention and truly engage with them, bloggers need to pay attention to the right keywords, blog structure, meta descriptions, headlines, image optimisation and other fine, seemingly innocuous details. Here’s how; these 4 of best blogging practices for content producers.
WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?
Keywords are central to the structure of a blog. These are key phrases or words that attract readers. Search engines rank blog posts according to keywords or phrases, and when a content writer sits down to write a blog post, one of the first things that they should do is find a list of the right words and phrases that attract their customer or reader.
Keywords vary according to the theme of the blog. A blog specialising in home delivery of flowers might use ‘seasonal flowers’ in its posts, for instance, whilst one describing how to barbeque mackerel should mention ‘grill’, ‘bbq’, ‘oily fish’ and so on. Very often, content writers fail to get the right words and phrases that attract traffic. If as a small business owner, you are unable to get your keyword strategy right, then there are specialists, such as Click Intelligence, who can help.
CLICK-WORTHY HEADLINES AND FITTING A NICHE
Even if the content writer has discovered the right words that will attract traffic, they still have another challenge. Unless the reader clicks the blogpost and reads it, how would they know what is on offer? For this, the blogger has to write click-worthy headlines. These headlines should be short and excite the reader, since great headlines can make or break the blog.
Great headlines should contain common, uncommon, powerful or emotive words. This title should encourage readers to share your content. An important part of the blogging strategy is to carve a niche or a space that nobody has occupied. While ‘gardening’ is a broad topic, ‘growing hibiscus flowers’ is indeed a niche topic. Several tools can help you discover niches.
META DESCRIPTIONS
Meta descriptions are short descriptors of the blog post. When a reader posts a query on the web, the search engines show up several web pages to them. Some of those pages are described by a short text no longer than 160 characters. This text helps the reader decide which web page answers their query. Meta descriptions are important for your blog’s success.
According to Yoast, meta descriptions are there to generate ‘click-throughs from search engines’. Readers decide to click on blog posts depending upon what they see in these descriptions. Google says there is no correlation between website ranking and meta descriptions, but you write a good descriptor, your site is more likely to be clicked by a good many readers, and this is how you get readership.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINK
Linking one blog post to another is considered a good blogging practice by search engines. Doing so lets readers know where and how can they get additional and relevant content in your blog, and sometimes reduces the necessity to describe things better covered on a more relevant page. This gives value to the reader; an invaluable asset in the eyes of Google et al.
While external linking means quoting authority websites and directing traffic to them, raising your blog authority in the process, internal linking also helps drive up organic traffic. And that’s why you’re here, right?
Is your thirst for theory not yet satiated? Might we then point you in the direction of our 5 tips for improving your SEO strategy for more of the same? Enjoy!
