Blogging is a very effective way to drive targeted traffic to your website. Well-written, informative blog posts demonstrate the depth of your knowledge in your niche. Moreover, substantive articles (blog posts) provide authoritative signals to search engines — helping your content to achieve placement in search results, and increasing the impact of your online footprint for potential clients or partners.
But blogging effectively is not an occasional practice; cadence is important. Regularly published posts that provide ongoing relevant and fresh content are necessary to maintain a presence in search results.
Read on for other tips to maximize the effectiveness of your blog.
Make an impact from the get-go
A strong headline, or title, is key to capturing a user’s attention. Phrasing and word choice are very important. Carefully assess the value of each word in your post title; then refine and finesse. Utilize a headline analyzer plugin to measure effectiveness of your post title. In order for potential prospects or customers to find your content, it must be indexed and ranked by search engines.
Questions and lists headlines can resonate with information seekers, helping your posts to rank in search results. Other creative headline strategies include alliteration, humor, and playing on a familiar refrain such as If you build it, they will come.
Attend to the technical details
For prolific writers, words flow easily and profusely. Creating posts of 1500 or 2500 well-crafted words is not a daunting task. Other bloggers routinely craft blog posts as short as 250 words.
The length of your posts notwithstanding, blogging effectively requires attention to proper use of categories and tags, sub-headings and image alt tags. While they may not be visible in the post itself, each of these technical details plays a role in the ranking and display of your posts in search results.
Use links strategically to share related content
There are several types of links that, when used appropriately, both help website visitors and improve your site’s authority. As you build up your body of website content — blog posts, resources, presentations, Services offerings, and so on — include links:
- Outbound links to credible sites, such as credentialing organizations or online review sites
- Inbound links from membership organizations, industry sites or partner sites
- Links within your website to deeper and related content, such as resources and other blog posts
We shared in a prior blog post,
One key factor in ranking for search engines is authoritative links. While inbound links are the primary objective, link building is a process. Think of an outbound link as an outstretched hand. Outbound links frequently lead to inbound links. Links within your site are also important, as they provide the visitor and search engines more information on a particular topic, demonstrating authority and command of your subject.
Leveraging Links: A Bigger Online Footprint
Downloadable Blogging Checklist
Download our free downloadable blogging checklist for the full list of best practices to ensure your blog posts are optimized for success.
