If you want to succeed online, the blog should be your best friend.
You’ll have to spend lots of time with it, keep it under constant surveillance and feed it at least once a week with new articles.
The posts that you can write on your blog take a different aspect depending on the context in which they are inserted. If you blog for business, your articles should be rich in useful content while, if it is a personal website, you may use a totally different tone and editorial line.
If you choose to start a blog for your business then, you’ll need to constantly work on it in order to succeed. It should be updated with fresh content, which is excellent for ranking well on search engines.
Be careful, taking care of a blog is not child’s play and writing for success is not easy, but these few tricks can help your blog climb to the top of Google results!
1. Before You Start a Blog, Define Your Target
The first step of any strategy is the creation of the buyer persona, or else, the generalized representation of your ideal client.
Analyzing precisely who are the people who are going to read your blog and eventually become your customers, allows you to understand exactly the topics that you are going to cover.
You can then set different basic components, such as the one used for creating the content.
Do you need help with this?
Here’s how to create detailed buyer personas for your business.
2. Create Original and Extremely Useful Content
Google is very smart, penalizing the content that is not original and leaving it lower and lower in the search results (not surprisingly, if you kill someone, the best place to hide him from anyone is the second page of Google results).
To create original content, you have to find a unique idea and an innovative approach to the content type: brings to light your point of view, with useful and practical tips, offer something extra that the others do not give.
If what you write can also be found elsewhere, it basically means it is not unique.
The more useful your articles will be, the higher the probability of conversion to your site.
3. Take Advantage of Marketing Psychology Techniques
Your goal is to make your visitors coming back after reading your blog posts or even better, convert them to subscribers or new customers.
To get to this point, you will need to use specific techniques, including structuring the content to attract them and always adding a call to action, for example at the end of the articles. The more you will be convincing in your posts, the better the chances to get a conversion.
Social proof (or testimonials, or else, feedbacks) are among the most commonly used formulas in the content because if your users realize that other people have already used your product or service, they will be more likely to buy it too. In the online business the opinion of people is critical (TripAdvisor has founded his empire on this principle).
There are other techniques of persuasion that you can use, such as:
- Repetition: Reiterate the point, over and over again, repeating until it is clear;
- Reason why: It’s the motivation that drives people to listen to you;
- Concreteness:Â You should be convincing because if you write something strong and you take a certain position, your writing is the only prop up your theory;
- Comparisons:Â To facilitate the reading of your content, you can use analogies and metaphors to facilitate understanding;
- Social acceptance:Â The sense of belonging is a need that the man has always had, there is no strongest motivation to persuade a person;
- Storytelling:Â This is something commonly used, as you know how important is to tell a story to capture the attention of your readers.
Persuasive communication is definitely a valuable ally to be included in your marketing plan, but it is just a small part of the strategy, because if it is true that it is very useful to attract the attention of your readers, then you have to get them to perform an action if you want to complete the conversion. As taught by the Inbound Marketing, after telling a good story, you have to guide the users to take action (CTA), and a well-designed landing page is what you need to increase your conversions.
4. Optimize Your Content for Search Engines
It is very difficult to succeed online if you can’t reach your audience and one of the most effective ways to do this is via search engines.
For this reason, you need to optimize your content. Your aim should be reaching the top positions of Google and attract new visits that can be turned into customers.
Let’s see what are some of the techniques you can use to optimize your articles:
- include your keywords in the URL of your post;
- write a compelling title (H1) that will attract potential readers, with your keywords in it;
- use your keywords within the text (in a certain percentage – be sure not to overdo);
- use informal language, be understandable and do not use too complicated words;
- divide your text into paragraphs and use your keywords in the subheadings (H2, H3, etc.);
- add compelling pictures, cite the source of these images and enter your keywords in the alt text;
- if you have relevant articles in your blog archive, add a link to them (internal linking);
- link to useful and interesting content outside of your blog (outbound links).
Another very important aspect of optimizing your blog for search engines is making it fast to load. Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check your site status.
Related Post:
How to write a Viral Blog post?
Final Words
Creating a blog is very easy, but reaching success is quite another story.
Having a plan, using the right tools with specific techniques will allow you to increase the chances to build a killer blog!
What do you think?
Can you add something else?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below and do not forget to share the post, if you liked it. Thanks!
Hot Tips for Creating Content People Want to Link To
Yeah, I agree with you Robin, content optimization for search engines is super important – adding internal and external backlinks and using proper keywords, but that doesn’t mean you should overload your content with them! I think it’s important to bear that in mind when creating content.
Hey Robin,
You are really say write creating a blog easy but archiving success is more difficult. Every one dream to own his success blog but some one blogger achieve target.
Hi Robin,
All the points mentioned by you are important but #1 is something that defines your success. Having a target can motivate you and will not let you go off the track. Even smaller goals like “I will write ten posts every month” can prove to be very helpful.
Hi Shafi,
Yes writing ten posts every month will be great.
Good one! Thank you for sharing this informative content.
This is great and quite accurate as well
A lot of people fail at it because DUH they don’t have defined targets you know.
And then a lot of us aren’t willing to put in that much time as well.
I guess, its great to start of with these tips for blogging!
Great work.
Hi Usman,
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Hi Robin,
Your tips on starting a blog will be very useful to new bloggers and more experienced ones alike.
Fortunately – unless you do terrible things and get into Google’s bad books – new bloggers can learn as they go along and improve their posts with increasing knowledge, such as the advice for bloggers that you include here.
When I look at some of my original posts I could just cry. And that doesn’t include the blogs I consigned to the bin before I decided to focus on my own as it is now 🙂
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi Joy,
I am glad that you think that my post is good and also thankful for sharing your feedback.
Have a good day.
Hi Robin,
Few nice tips listed here to create a killer blog from scratch. Optimizing content for search engines by keeping the readers in mind is the best way to get good results.
Thanks for sharing this post.
Hi Kuldeep,
I am glad that you found the post helpful.
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Hi Robin,
Another awesome article from you. Writing an engaging post isn’t difficult if you follow a right structure and have a perfect blogging strategy.
You have covered some awesome points in this post.
Thanks for sharing.
– Umesh Singh
Hi Umesh,
I am glad that you found the post informative. Keep visiting.
Have a good day.
Hi Robin,
good tips for people who want to start blogging business .
all your points are really important to think about and it is right
writing a good post is only a part . To reach the right audience
and make it a successful blog patients and learning is needed.
Thank you for the great advice may it help many beginners.
Erika
Hi Erika,
I am sure that it will help many beginners. Although thanks for sharing your feedback. Have a great day.
Hi Robin,
Nice post. One main thing is I would like to add is consistency. For a blog to be successful, you need to have a consistent publishing schedule and stick to it. Once people start reading your blog, they start expecting posts to come out at certain times of the week. If we are inconsistent, we lose followers.
–Michael
–Michael
Hi Michael,
You are right that consistency is the much-needed thing which can make a blog successful.
Hi Robin, I can never read enough about how to improve my blogging skills thanks. You are so right it takes work. I love my blog but boy if I knew then what I know now I might have stuck with videos. It helps when you are writing about something you are passionate about but that still isn’t enough.
Hi Lydia,
I am much happy that you found the post to be helpful and shared your feedback.
Robin, these are fabulous tips. I especially like how you wrote in a way that illustrates your own advice…us simple terms. This brings so much clarity.
Hi Elise,
I am glad that the post made you clear.
Hey Robin,
First time on your blog and really enjoyed your post. You provided some great insight on what makes a great blog.
Thanks for sharing,
Beth
Hi Beth,
Welcome to my blog. And I am glad that you liked my post, keep visiting and have a good day ahead.
Hey Robin,
I appreciate you for this brilliant post that has been shared here. I have read many posts about blogging, but this really impressed and I wish you should keep the great thinking in your endeavors. What the brilliance of writing that I have felt from this post is that what you have said has been used to convince the readers of this post as well. That’s a magical skill that I have noted from you. This seems to be the best guide I have ever read about blog posting. I’m really thankful to you. This is great work!
Hi Charles,
Ii happy that you found the post to be a good guide. SO, keep visiting and have a good day.
Robin, what a thorough review of what it takes to succeed as a blogger!
Many think they just set up a blog, write a couple of posts, and the rest just falls into place naturally. Not true at all!
I enjoyed the first line about “spend lots of time with it, keep it under constant surveillance, and feed it at least once a week with new articles.” I am an animal lover and I know you used the analogy of a “best friend” but what came to mind for me was a pet! Your blog should be a “pet project,” something you look forward to spending time with, a labor of love.
Thank you for all of these great tips. Enjoyed this post!
Deborah
Hi Deborah,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. And I do like animals but won’t be able to start a project about animals.
Hi Robin,
First of All Thanks, You have shared very helpful knowledge. I have followed marketing technics and got more benefits. You have shared another helpful, Thanks, I will share this article on social networks.
Thanks 🙂
Hi Asif,
Thanks for sharing on social networks.
Hi Robin,
Awesome post on the importance of blogging and what you need to create a killer blog for success! Thanks for sharing your wonderful tips 🙂
Great advice, wish I’d come across something like this when I started blogging 7 years ago! You are so right, it’s easy to start blog, keeping it going and creating something meaningful with it is another thing entirely. Thanks for the tips!
You are Welcome Marquita.
You are Welcome Marquita Herald.
Hello Robin! I loved all 4 of your tips and they all seemed to be in the right order too! I do need to start putting more time into my blog.. I love what you have done here with yours.
Keep up the great work my friend..
Chery :))
Hi Chery,
I am glad that you liked all the tips.
Hey Robin,
Every tries to craft a viral post. But they forget about the main factors which are influencing a blog post’s strength.
I agree with your point of defining the target audience and the marketing funda. You should always take the SEO factor into consideration.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi,
Yes, One should always keep the SEO factor in consideration. So, Thanks for sharing your feedback.