A recent blog post by Graham Charlton at Econsultancy – “What I’ve learned from writing 2,000 blog posts” – caught my attention earlier this week.
Drawing on six years of experience, Graham lists his 20 blogging tips, all of which should be at least considered by anyone with a serious interest in blogging.
While every tip in Graham’s post is worthy of a mention, here is a handful (that I’ve tailored slightly) that I personally believe to be most important.
Don’t try to be a jack of all trades
Attempting to cover lots of different subjects on your blog can be overwhelming for you, and confusing for the reader. Instead, pick a few areas that you’re highly knowledgeable in, and stick to them.
Keep it simple & avoid jargon
Every industry has complex concepts and terminology attached to it. Using complex terms is often unavoidable, but wherever possible try to explain things simply and clearly.
The same can be said when it comes to using industry jargon – use plain English wherever possible and avoid pretentious industry slang.
Think about headlines
A good headline can make the difference between very few and many page views:
- consider SEO – write your headlines to reflect what people are searching for (within reason). A ‘well optimised’, keyword-rich headline has a much better chance of ranking highly in search engine results.
- descriptive – while search is an important consideration, it shouldn’t be at the expense of a good description. What is the post about?
- keep it short – there are many benefits to keeping headlines short: they will appear in full in search results, they can be tweeted in full, and they are an appropriate length for email subject lines. Econsultancy suggests 65 characters an ideal headline length.
Internal linking
Internal linking is important for a number of reasons:
- it helps Google crawl your site.
- it sends traffic to old posts, that otherwise may not be found.
- it’s useful for your readers, if for example they want to find out more on a certain subject.
- it reduces bounce rates, by giving readers a reason to stay on your site a bit longer.
Consider formatting
Make your content digestible by using short paragraphs, headings & sub-headings, lists, bullet points, charts and images. This is a particularly important consideration for lengthy posts.
Listen to comments
Listening to feedback, both good and bad, can help you to improve your content. If your blog allows comments, be sure to respond to them. Often comments can spark some great discussion, and even provide inspiration for future posts.
Be social
Like it or not, you should never discount the power of social media. Twitter, for example is a great tool for promoting your content, monitoring discussion related to your content, and even sourcing ideas for new posts.
Measure results
By using Google Analytics (other tools are available) you can see what works, and what doesn’t. You can identify trends, and which blog posts lead to the most conversions. This can also be a useful way of measuring the effectiveness of blog titles, for example, a very high bounce rate might suggest the content does not fulfil the promise of the title.
Above all, a successful blog comes down to one thing – good content. Team good content with the points within this article and you’ll be on the road to blogging success. You can read Graham’s post at econsultancy.com.
Image credit: jmoneyyyyyy
