Whether you like to travel, take photos of your outfits, or are looking to compile useful information for your business, it’s imperative that you have a blog. To most people, this means a simple WordPress website with some random posts and no coherent thought behind it. If this is your thinking, then it’s time to change it. Blogs are incredibly valuable, and for many people are an income-generating tool or a means of directing traffic towards your business. There are standards that set good blogs apart from bad ones, and below, we’re going to look at four ways to ensure that your blog meets those standards.
Ensure that it is SEO optimized
Being able to find your blog via a search engine is vital, which is why your blog should be SEO-optimized, regardless of whether you’re writing for your local area or worldwide. Using the correct keywords in your texts and your metadata, as well as the alt tags of your photos, will ensure that when people are searching Google for a topic, your blog shows up. This is invaluable when it comes to reaching a broader, more diverse audience and growing a readership.
Your content should be meaningful
Content needs to have value. The more value it has, the further it will be shared and the more likely people are to find it. If you’re writing a blog about a well-trodden niche, then ensure you’re writing from a fresh angle. If you’re a business, make sure that your blog posts contain information that people can use that will enhance their lives. Readers will start to see you as a voice of authority on certain topics and are bound to become repeat customers.
There should be no downtime
Your blog should never crash. A website that loads slowly or doesn’t load at all will lose frequent visitors faster than you can say “Why is this taking so long?” This means either starting with or transitioning your blog to a trusted and well-known web provider to ensure that they have the infrastructure to support your growing site.
Link to social media
Blog posts should not exist in a void, and should be shared via every social media channel you currently have to guarantee that it’s reaching the maximum number of people every time. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram – they all count, and all increase the chance that your post will be shared further.
