If you are wondering how to make a successful blog this is the right place to start. There are a lot of blogs on the Internet. When we create a piece of content, we’re competing for readers with a half dozen other sources, whether we’re writing news articles, blog tips, or creating product reviews.
On top of that, not all blog posts are created equal. Your blog writing style will affect how readers perceive you and whether they stick around, but so will your use of images and the way your articles are structured.
The good news is that if you get it right, you’ll reap the rewards regarding the search engine traffic that it brings in and the conversions it creates. After all, helpful blog posts are always SEO friendly because they develop backlinks and lead to engaged website visitors. Nothing pleases Google more than content that is helpful. Blog posts are especially useful if they use structured data, which allows Google to display answers without users having to click through and visit your website. Websites that publish quality structured data like recipes, reviews and events are quickly becoming trendsetters.
Creating a successful blog can also have a significant impact on your bottom line if you get your call-to-action right. But how do you write a helpful blog post in the first place? It’s time to find out.
1. Pick a subject you’re passionate about
If you are uncertain where to start, you might want to think about your interests. As a blog owner, you will be the one who needs to keep creating content and promoting your blog. Therefore, you won’t put in the necessary effort required to make your blog a success unless you have a keen interest in the subject matter. If your goal is to make money, you might want to consider creating a coupon blog. People like saving money. Helping people save, is one of those things that will keep them coming back.
2. Make it evergreen
How to make a successful blog starts with evergreen content. Evergreen content remains relevant over time, and this means that you’re likely to continue to see returns from it in the months and years to come. From a traditional publishing point of view, evergreen content tends to take the form of interviews, opinion pieces and features rather than breaking news stories. The good news is that if you’re trying to be helpful by creating tutorials and other how-to content, it’s likely to be evergreen by default.
3. List actionable tips
The most helpful blog posts have clear headings that list actionable tips, like this one. That allows readers to skim read articles if needed and it also provides them with a checklist of sorts against which they can check their progress. Actionable tips work great whether you’re giving instructions on building a DIY project or talking about something less tangible, such as offering marketing advice.
4. Include images
Images are useful for breaking up big chunks of text and for illustrating complex topics, so it’s a good idea to use them where possible to bring your blogs to life. Images are particularly relevant if your subject is tricky to explain in words, but you can describe the process through an image, a GIF or a video. Imagine explaining to someone how to tie their shoelaces, for example. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier actually to show them? When you’re using images correctly, they become such a fundamental part of your blog posts that your content has little impact without them. Check out this article for “A Brief Guide to Creating Viral-Ready Images.”
5. Check analytics
Make sure that you have software like Google Analytics installed on your website so that you can see what visitors are doing. Keep an eye on which posts are being visited most often, as well as how long people are spending on the page and what action they’re taking next. You can then start to identify common themes amongst the top performers. You can then choose this and apply it to new articles to increase their chances of success.
6. Solicit feedback
One way to find out what people find helpful is to ask them. If you have an active audience then why not consider deploying a survey or posting updates on your social media profiles to ask people what they want? By getting an overall idea of what people are looking for, you can increase the likelihood of them finding your blog posts useful. After all, the best way to cater to your audience is to give them exactly what they want.
7. Always iterate
No matter how good you believe you are, you’ll never stop learning and improving. That’s why you should go out of your way to continually try new things to see how your audience responds. An iterate approach involves using different content types such as audio and video on top of your written content, and it also means testing out new formats such as interviews and Q&As as well as reviews and guest posts.
8. Don’t forget SEO
An article on how to make a successful blog would not be complete without white hat SEO strategies. It is one thing to create helpful blog posts, and it is another to have them found. Unless your website already has a reputation for producing helpful blog posts and has a ton of links from other sites sending it traffic, you’ll need to consider “white hat” SEO strategies.
First, make sure you have written your post with the right keywords in all the right places. Use Google’s keyword planning tool as a guide. Next, you need to work on improving the rank of your page. Improving PageRank means getting websites that publish quality content to cite your company and link to your post. Getting high-quality, relevant backlinks from sites that have a reputation for quality content and are on topic is not an easy task, but you can achieve it by employing white hat SEO strategies or hiring an SEO consultant. Finally, make sure your content follows Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Read our article to learn how guest blogging strategies can help: Is guest blogging dead or alive? SEO benefits, backlinks, Google PageRank and More!
How to make a successful blog – conclusion
Writing a helpful blog post doesn’t have to be difficult. If you manage to get the balance right then, you’ll continue to reap the rewards for the months and years to come. Blog posts are particularly helpful when they are evergreen and don’t become outdated over time. But even with the time-sensitive material, you can always go back in and update it at a later date if it becomes super popular.
Following our tips on how to make a successful blog is a good start if you want to be as helpful as possible, but ultimately it’s your readers who have the final say. Pay attention to their feedback and make changes to your approach if necessary to give them what they want. Don’t forget to plan out your white hat SEO strategy for each post and you’ll be bringing in the traffic in no time. Good luck.
