How to Create A Successful Blog

 

Today we are going to discuss the 5 main categories on what it takes to create a successful blog.

Category 1: Write unique, educational content.

All the content you write should be unique and educational. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective buyer and think about the common questions or concerns they will have while in the awareness stage of their purchasing decision. What will they be searching for, what questions or challenges that you can help address. More on longer tail keywords in another post.

 

Rules to follow:

1. write about your industry, not yourself.
2. Focus on on topic per blog post.
3. don’t try to cover too much ground.
4. Write consistently and frequently.

 

Category 2: Format you blog properly.

 

Rules to follow:

1. Write a clear title under 60 characters. (use the 80/20 rule)
2. Include whitespace and images – reader often scan.
3. Use subheadings, numbers and bolding.
4. Include a meta description for each post.

 

Category 3: Optimize your blog for search engines.

 

Now remember, always have your reader and intended audience in mind first and the search engines in mind second. It is people who read and share content.

 

Rules to follow:

1. Pick 1 long-tail keyword based on your topic.
2. Place that long-tail keyword in the title, URL, image alt-tags, body and meta description.
3. Include anchor text. – link to internal pages of your website, and outside resources.
4. Assign a topic to each blog post.

 

Category 4: use calls-to-action.

 

Rules to follow:

1. Place 1 call to action at the bottom of each blog post.
2. Place on your blog sidebar (1 for beginning of buyers journey and 1 towards the end when someone is getting ready to buy)

 

Category 5:  promote your blog through social media.

 

Rules to follow:

1. Share you blog post on all social media assets you own. (Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN)
2. Make it easy for your readers to share them as well. Include Social Icons and social following Icons on your blog posts.

 

 

And that is it. Those are all of the best practices that you need to have a “fully optimized” blog.