Want some tips for starting a blog? If you’re looking to get started blogging, you’re not alone. There are plenty of good reasons to start blogging.
Here are just a few benefits of blogging:
- Improve SEO on your website
- New content for social media
- Answer questions for your audience
- Update your website regularly
- Create reusable, evergreen content
However, to get all the above benefits, you have to be mindful about how you blog. It’s not just getting your thoughts out like a journal. There’s a strategy behind it. If you’re interested in blogging but aren’t sure where to begin, here are a few blog tips to make sure you get the most out of blogging.
Tip #1: Picking a Blog Topic
To get started, you want to pick good topics for each of your blogs. That requires some research though.
You can check places like trends.google.com and trends.pinterest.com. For instance, I may know that I want to do a blog post about Facebook. I can look up Facebook on trends.google.com. If I do that, I see that the below are the most searched terms at the moment.
I can decide just from looking at these that Facebook live is really the only one that applies to my audience. So, I should write a blog about that. Good thing I already did.
You can also use autocomplete on Google or YouTube to see other things that people are commonly searching for.
It looks like there are a lot of questions about Facebook groups. So I might want to write a blog about that in the future.
Tip #2: Writing for SEO
Writing for a blog isn’t just like writing a journal entry. You have to plan it out and follow some rules to get the best out of your SEO.
First, pick a keyword. In the Facebook live example, that could be my keyword. I could also make it more specific by saying “Facebook live for beginners” or “Facebook live tips.”
Once you have the keyword, you have to include it in the right places. If you’re using WordPress, get the Yoast SEO plug-in. It will show you a breakdown of places you can include your key places you can improve you can improve your SEO.
If you don’t use Yoast, here’s a good list of places to include that keyword:
- The main title of your blog post
- In the introductory sentence
- In one of the headings
- In the first sentence of the conclusion
I also want to make a note about headings in general. Sometimes people think about headings as how big they want the text to be. That shouldn’t be the case. Headings are the outline of your article. You start with H1 which is the title of the article. Anything below that is H2 and anything within that is H3 and so on.
This is important to follow for accessibility. People who are blind use a website reader that relies on how you organized your headings.
However, it’s also important for SEO. Search engines don’t care as much about H3 tags as they do about H2. There should also only be one H1 tag, your title. This helps search engines know how to reach your pages.
Tip #3: Figuring out Graphics
You’ll want to include some graphics or at least photos with your blog posts. On WordPress, you need a feature image with each post for them to appear well on your site.
I also like to include a footer graphic. That can drive people to your newsletter, a freebie, or just to check out the services that you provide.
Tip #4: Sharing your blog
Don’t just write a blog and expect people to see it. Sure, you did some work on making sure that your blog post meets SEO standards so some people will find it on their own. However, more people will find it if you keep sharing your blog as often as you can.
You can share your blog on social media, in a newsletter, on your homepage, in your email signature, create a related video, or even when people ask you a question that a blog post answers.
Make your blog work for you. If you just write it and leave it alone, you aren’t getting the most out of your blog. Why spend time on a blog and then separate time on a Facebook post. Make the most of the time that you have.
You can even write blogs that are “evergreen” meaning that they will be helpful no matter when you sell them. Once you have enough blogs, you’ll always have some content to share even months or years later.
Tip #5: Use Pinterest
Yes, I already mentioned that you should share your post on social media. But Pinterest is such an important driver of blog traffic that I feel like I need to focus on it for a second.
My last blog post was about getting more visits to your website from Pinterest and why that matters. Pinterest is a big deal for blog traffic and I use Tailwind to make sure my Pinterest is always scheduled out.
Conclusion for Blog Tips
A blog is a great addition to your company’s marketing so long as you use it properly. Make sure you make the most out of any blog post that you’re creating so that you’re not wasting your time on something. I hope these blog tips were helpful.
Your blog can add value for your audience, answer commonly asked questions, and increase the number of eyes on your website. That doesn’t always guarantee a conversion but it gets your name out there to hopefully warm up your audience.