Each month, an estimated 409 million people view more than 20 million blog pages around the world. In the U.S., 77 percent of users say that they read blogs, and statistics show that they spend 3 times as long reading those blogs as they do reading their emails. What’s more, properly written blogs are layered with keywords that help to boost SEO, increasing your ranking on organic search results.
If your business doesn’t have a blog, you’re obviously missing out on reaching a large audience of users that could be converted into customers. Maintaining a successful blog on your website probably isn’t quite as difficult as you may think. It really boils down to following these 7 tips.
Post Consistently
Back when blogging was really hitting its stride, people were posting multiple times per week, even as much as once per day. Luckily, this frequency isn’t required to see results. What matters is that, whatever posting schedule you decide upon, you follow it as closely as possible.
Studies have shown that the optimal blog posting frequency is 4 times per week, but even posting twice per month works to boost your search engine rankings. The key is to set aside a specific time during the month to get the blogs completed and posted.
Do Your Keyword Research
As a business owner, you should already have a pretty good idea of what blog topics are going to be relevant to post. But topic ideas aren’t enough to make sure that your blogs are going to be found. For this, you’re going to need to use the same keywords that your customers do.
Keyword research helps you to figure out what keywords lead users to your website. If you have a Google Ads account with active (or recently completed) campaigns, then your work is already done for you. Simply read through your campaign reports and take a look at the keywords that most frequently led people to your site. If you don’t have Google Ads, there are tools available online that can help you by analyzing your website to backtrack the keywords.
Once you figure out what keywords you should be using, focus on just one to two per blog post. Try to fit it into the title, and then place it in your text a few times where it flows naturally. Do not fall into the trap of trying to trick Google by overusing your keywords; Google knows what you are doing, and will actually penalize your website for doing it. The ideal keyword density for blog posts is just 1–2%.
Aim for an Appropriate Blog Length
Perhaps one of the biggest questions people have when it comes to starting a blog is how long their posts should be. While the “optimal” blog length for SEO is 2,000 words, let’s be honest: not a lot of people stick around to read an entire 2,000 word blog post.
Instead, you should write each post to the length that is appropriate for the topic. Simpler topics might only end up being 500-750 words, whereas more complex ones could easily hit 2,000. As a general rule of thumb, try to hit in the 750-1,000 word range if you can. The most important thing, however, is that your blog post is well-written, quality work. No one will stick around to read a blog that is riddled with spelling or grammatical errors, or fails to provide them with any real information.
Use Relevant, Appealing Visuals
People, by and large, are very visual creatures. In order to catch their attention when they follow a link to your blog, you’ll need to have appealing visuals. At the very least, this should mean a high-quality image at the top that is relevant to the topic. But this can also mean incorporating tables, infographics, charts, etc. that put information into a visual format. People retain 65% of information that is put into a visual form, versus just 10% of information that isn’t visual.
Use visuals to highlight your key points to make it more likely users will remember it, and more likely to read the entire post. The longer users spend on your website, the higher your website quality score will be.
Answer FAQs
Another way to really maximize the effectiveness of your blog is to use it to answer frequently asked questions. This helps to kill two birds with one stone: you have an easy source of topics, and your customers get relevant information that helps them to make buying decisions.
Invite Guest Bloggers
Blogging can be fairly time-consuming, especially if writing doesn’t come easily to you. One way to work around this is to invite guest bloggers to contribute to your site. Having a fresh perspective on your industry, products, or services can help keep visitors engaged with your blog.
Invite an industry expert to write a blog, interview a leader in the business, or even ask your best customers to say a few words. Anything goes, so long as it is relevant to your business.
Discuss Industry News
It’s safe to say that most industries see at least some change, news, updates, etc. in the course of a month. One way to take advantage of this is to write a monthly (or even weekly) blog post about what is going on in your industry. Not only does this help your customers stay up-to-date, it also makes you look like the industry authority that all businesses strive to be.
If you’d like to integrate blogs into your digital marketing campaigns but simply don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, contact us today! Our team can help create a blogging campaign to suit your needs, and even make sure they get posted on schedule.
At Gulf Coast Web, we have over 25 years of experience in managing all types of digital design and marketing campaigns – even for companies outside of our immediate area. Our staff consists of highly-trained digital design advertising professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.