Blogging Tips and Tricks for Beginners to Grow a Blog
1. Set defined goals for your business blogging.
As with any project or endeavor, setting defined goals will give you a vision and purpose.
Did you know that 70% of consumers learn about a company through its blog? Understand what you would like to achieve, so that you can better connect with your target audience.
Think about these things to establish your goals:
- Can you determine your “why” for writing?
- Who will your content focus on and specifically target?
- What value will your content bring to readers?
- Is there a specific tone or voice you’ll deliver your information with?
- Are there key metrics you want your blog to help achieve?
- What action should your user take from your blog (i.e. download, sign up, register)?
2. Build a blog component into your current website.
Keep your blog on the same domain as your website, but as its own separate section if you have other main pages like Services, About, Contact, etc.
If your blog is the main reason you have a website, then showcase it as the main feature.
Use a reliable blogging platform.
We recommend and use the self-hosted version of WordPress. It’s user-friendly, great for search engines, and very customizable.
If you already use WordPress for your small business website, you’re in luck since the blog functionality is already there!
3. Invest in your blog user experience & design.
One of the most important blogging tips and tricks for beginners, is to spend time on the user experience for your readers.
You may have to hire a professional web designer to help you with this. Not all blogs need to look the same, or make use of the same features.
Do what’s right for your particular business.
Pay attention to these areas:
- Text size should be readable on all devices (a responsive web design will help with this).
- Design elements should be consistent with your brand identity.
- Your content needs to be the focus. Avoid clutter on the page.
The Harvest blog is simple, clean, and branded well. Content is the focus, but they also offer clear call-to-action in the global navigation and sidebar (Sign Up and Try It Free).
4. Install Google Analytics to measure results.
You want to know who is visiting the site, how, when, from where…right?
Then it all needs to be tracked!
Knowing which blog posts are bringing in the most traffic will be invaluable data for targeting the right content topics, keywords and audience.
Google Analytics also allows you to set up conversion goals that will measure how often visitors complete specific tasks (for example: if you offer opt-in for an e-book, or a newsletter sign up).
Some important web metrics to track:
- Visitors (new and return)
- Referrals
- Bounce rate
- Exit pages
- Conversion rate
- Top landing pages
5. Your blog posts should not be fluff.
Content on your blog may be the first touchpoint that a reader has with you, or your business.
Writing quality, relevant content which can inform your readers is key.
Wanting to share this information is important—don’t be afraid that you’re giving away something for free!
Your expertise will be perceived as valuable in the eyes of a customer or client that trusts you.
6. Make a list of topics you feel confident writing about.
Ideally, topics will focus on your niche keywords, since you’ll be writing about your industry.
Don’t worry too much about the actual title you’ll publish with, just write down the general idea.
Start with 50 topic ideas…that’s just about enough to cover a year’s worth of article content if you can post at least one per week.
If you can break topics up into high-level categories, even better. Set those categories up as your blog navigation, so that your readers can explore specific areas of content if they choose to.
7. Alleviate blog writer’s block by exploring these areas:
- Pain points for your customer, or problems can you help solve for them
- Answering a common question you hear from people about your industry
- Subject matter that you are interested in learning about yourself
8. Use a blog topic generator tool.
Inspiration is always good.
HubSpot offers a fun blog topic generator tool. It’s an interesting way to get ideas based on a few keywords that you type in.
The tool presents a list of topics for you to get the creative juices flowing. Keep in mind that results are not 100% accurate, so grammar and terminology may need to be tweaked.
9. Develop and use an editorial calendar for blogging.
Once you have a solid list of topics that you feel good about, put it on a schedule.
This is one step that you should not bypass!
You’ll come to rely on how helpful organizing a blogging process can be.
You can put together a spreadsheet to manage topics, dates, assignment and promotion. We use Google Sheets, and then schedule corresponding events in Google Calendar.
Some information that you may want to include on your editorial calendar:
- Publish Date
- Author
- Keyword
- Topic / Content details
- Headline / Title
- Link to working document (if your are using an online editor)
- Link to published post
- A column for each avenue you will promote on (social media networks, email blasts and outreach, etc.)
10. Find the right keyword phrase for your blog post.
After coming up with your mega list of topics, find out which keyword phrase is the most effective to use as a common thread throughout each piece of content.
This will help your post index and earn search engine ranking.
You can do this with Google Keyword Planner (under Tools). Research multiple combinations based on your topic, and review the related options they provide.
Look for long-tail keywords with low competition, which relate directly to your subject matter.
In the case of this article, we could have targeted a more general phrase “blogging tips“. But, the competition on that search from more established sources was likely insurmountable for a new blog like ours.
The best choice is an even longer-tail keyword for the exact search that a subset of target users would conduct: “blogging tips and tricks for beginners” (see image above).
Now, 110 searches per month might seem low. But imagine rising to Page 1 on Google for that…or better yet, the number one position on Page 1.
Multiply that by 10+ more successful posts targeting the right long-tail keywords for your audience. Then, you may be getting thousands of visitors starting to view your content!
By the numbers, the top ranking search results receive:
- Page rank position #1: 33% clicks
- Page rank position #2: 18% clicks
- Page rank position #3: 11.4% clicks
It only goes down from there. If you are on Page 2 or further, you may not be found by many with search.
Consider this step very important, if organic traffic is a goal for your website.
source freshsparks.com
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