Blogging is an effective way to generate a following and also helps you in the search engines. The more Quality Content you create with frequency, the better your chance to rank and to develop a loyal following. So what are the steps to writing an effective blog post and then what are the steps you should take to get maximum reach?
Identify the goal of your blog post
Write down what the main points of the post will be. I remember in school when I was told to brain storm my ideas. You will also want to make sure you identify your target audience for this particular post.
Create a draft of your blog post by writing freely and letting the words flow. Then Edit it several times so you can get your message across in a concise manner. Shoot for between 500 and 1500 words. This is ideal for both users and search engines. Minimize the fluff!
Choose your images wisely
Pictures speak a thousand words and you want to make sure your pictures are relevent and optimized. You will also want to decide if you will be using Stock Images or pictures that you take yourself.
Getting Social
You will also want to make sure that your Website is setup so that your readers can share your articles on their social networks and also connect with you on your Social Pages. The most important ones are
- Google+
- Youtube
Social media is a great way for you to drive traffic to your website. Especially if you aren’t on page 1 of google. Depending on your niche, page 1 status might be difficult at first hence why social media is so important.
SEO Optimized
Make sure you do your homework on what your title will be, target keywords and make sure that you are using a SEO Plugin such as WordPress SEO by Yoast. Don’t forget
- Alt Tags for your images
- H1 tag for your article which tends to be your Title
- Also make sure to put a proper meta description
- URL Structure should reflect the article topic
Google Webmasters
You should also remember to let Google know your blog post exists. You can either wait for Googles Spider to get around to visiting your website which can take a while or you can sign into Google Webmasters Tools and use the fetch as Google feature. You can just place the url path for your artcile in the input field. Then submit to index.
If you don’t have Google Webmasters then get it asap. It’s free and full of good info about your site. Also make sure to get Google Analytics.
Relationships
It’s important to develop relationships with other bloggers. That way they can also help to promote your content to their readership and social following. You might have a small following at first but if you have a friend that’s also a blogger, they can provide that innitial boost you will need.
Email Marketing
It’s important to develop an email list of people you’d like to keep updated. For lists with less than 2000 contacts, I recommend using Mailchimp since it’s free for a list of that size. It also has a lot of cool features that help you to analyze your reach.
Google Analytics
Once your article has been live for a few days, it’s good to see how well it did, or didn’t. The best way to do this is to use Google Analytics. Since it’s free and provides a wealth of information, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be using it.
Conclusion
These are just a few tips on how to prepare and market your blog post. I hope you found it useful. As always, thank you for reading and feel free to share.