Blogging is one of the most critical content marketing tactics for 2018. It’s the the human angle of your business and one of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your site. So it’s pretty important that you are doing it right! And we’re not talking about grammar or spelling. These are 5 things you should do to ensure that you’re not missing out on one or any of the many benefits of blogging.

Optimize for search

If you want to make sure your content gets seen, it should include the keywords people are searching for. (but no more keyword stuffing) Be sure to craft headlines that include a keyword or two you want to rank for. Keep in mind that it also needs to be compelling enough to grab clicks. Headlines longer than 65 or 70 characters will get cut off by search engines, so make sure your keyword appears early in the headline.

Make it easy to read

Many readers will want to scan through your article before diving completely in. Breaking up content into small paragraphs will make it more visually appealing helps capture and keep user attention. Tools such as subheads, bulleted lists and bolded text will help make your content easily scannable. You can also refer to Google’s Developer Documentation Style Guide for more ideas.

Call-to-Action

Following the inbound marketing methodology, adding a strong call to action (CTA) to every web page and blog post is almost as important as creating the post in the first place. A CTA will tell the consumer the next best step to take and offers more usefull information that is relevant to the reader’s specific needs. The CTA can be an offer for a free e-book, a white paper or consultation, depending on where the reader is in the buyers journey.

Using internal links

Aside from a CTA, you also want to include relevant links throughout the article that will help support the content and strengthen any claims. Internal links (links that are to webpages that are a part of your site) provide a better experience for the user, who can discover more information related to the content topic. They also can help nurture a lead in the the buyers journey, since internal links provide additional relevant and helpful content.

Add images 

Everyone knows that a good blog article needs a strong image to capture reader interest. But it is also another great way to break it up content and help with search engine optimization. Google image search is the second-most used search platform after Google.com, accounting for more than one-quarter of US searches. Be sure to use descriptive headlines, descriptions and tags to boost your chances of showing up in image searches.

Have questions? You can download our free e-book where you’ll learn to use your business blog to increase:

• Organic search traffic
• Inbound links (backlinks)
• Trust & credibility
• Sharability on social media
• & more!