Free and easy-to-use blogging software has turned the web into a virtual grandstand. But for everyone from lonely individuals to small business owners to CEOs, writing a successful blog is about getting the word out and being seen by people, and that means serving readers, not bombarding them with marketing material.
The most significant way to develop a loyal following online is by creating useful content that readers will consume and share. “Blogging, at its core, is about offering something of value to your audience,” says Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of inbound marketing software company HubSpot, and author of Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs. “Whether it’s a great story or a helpful perspective to help your audience solve a common challenge, your goal should be to create content people want to [read] and share. Too many people associate blogging with self-promotion, but that’s a common misconception. Your blogging strategy should be about building and cultivating an audience, and that goal is rarely achieved if you’re only talking about yourself.”
In Pictures: 14 Ways to Make Your Blog Stunning get real attention
Here are some additional tips on how to make your blog stand out:
Determine the purpose of your blog and stick to it. him. Start by defining for yourself which readers you want to serve, and then build a strategy on how to reach them. “Stay true to the goals you set for your blog: Are you providing product information? Are you provoking conversation? Are you commenting on current affairs? All approaches are valid, but you have to determine what value you will provide to your audience and continue to provide that value,” says Mike Merriman, vice president of marketing at Mzinga, a software and social services company. If a blog post isn’t useful or worth sharing, it won’t produce much value for any reader or the blogger themselves.
Leverage social media. Make the most of it social media by including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Google+, and StumbleUpon “Share” buttons on your blog. “The easier it is for people to share your content with their network, the more likely they are to do so,” says Shah. “It’s a one-time investment to set up your blog to include these social media buttons, but the dividends pay forever.”
Make sure your content is SEO friendly. Get smart about search engine optimization. Identify the keywords to search for a post’s topic, and think about the best way to incorporate those search terms into the post’s title and body.
Shah says as soon as possible in any string of words , those keywords appear, the stronger the signal that Google will receive. For example, “Hiring a Patent Attorney: Seven Things to Look For” will rank higher than “Seven Things to Look for When Hiring a Patent Attorney” because the desired keywords, “patent attorney,” appear earlier in the list. sequence. Shah recommends keeping each blog’s title under 120 characters, so readers can easily tweet it.
The strongest variable in Google rankings is the number and authority of sites that link to. a post. “The more powerful the linking website is, the stronger the influence on Google and the better the ranking,” says Shah. The more useful your content, the better your chances of other sites linking to it.
Speak the language of your audience. “Sometimes when marketers start the blogging process, they start writing words that sound more like a press release than a conversation,” says Shah. “You benefit most (both from an SEO and overall engagement perspective) by using terms that resonate with your end customers, so don’t use your blog to impress your high school English teacher; try to impress your customers at their place.”
Be a part of the conversation, both on your blog and others in your industry. Drive traffic to other blogs and respond as much as you can to negative and positive comments on your own blog. If you allow comments on your blog, make sure you have the resources to handle negative comments. If you don’t enable comments, be prepared for the conversation to appear elsewhere online.
“People are talking about your company or your products whether they like it or not,” says Merriman. “Blogging, as a component of a proactive social business strategy, offers an effective ability for company leaders to engage in conversations and helps create the opportunity for a dynamic exchange of information and ideas with potential and existing customers.”
Click here to read the 14 tips.
This article is an update of a previously published article by Helen Coster.
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