If you are a freelance content writer or ghostwriter, start a blog today. Good quality blog posts will improve your website rankings considerably. Moreover, blogging is a proven marketing technique and extremely enjoyable to boot! You need to set your blog up properly before starting, so you will avoid any problems down the road. Here’s some helpful advice about how to commence your blogging career.
Select a Suitable Niche
It is best to make your blog about a topic you are familiar with. However, don’t try to include all your interests. Specialization is the key. Choose a main subject and publish your posts around it. By staying with a theme, your audience will associate your blog with that particular niche and your readers are more likely to return to read your next post.
Setting up a blog on betting means that you publish reviews about gambling systems. Setting up a cooking blog readers would expect you to publish different recipe ideas. Obviously, every now and then you can publish an off topic post, however try to keep to one subject in general. People who visit a cooking blog do not expect blog posts about politics.
Research Your Keywords Properly
Correct keyword research is the next step, after you have selected your niche. Identify what people are looking for. Which phrases do they use when they search for content about your subject? You need to start thinking like your target audience. By researching your keywords correctly, you will compile a lengthy list of phrases your website can rank for.
Focus on popular, competitive keywords for your main titles, along with long tail, less competitive keyphrases for your blog text. There are many tools out there for keyword research, like Google’s Keyword Planner.
Structure Your Website in the Right way
The structure of your website is extremely important. Which niche categories are the most popular? Which keywords would you prefer to rank for the most? It is best to write a lengthy, high quality article about all of these keyphrases. These articles will serve as the foundation of your website, which you can build the other content around. If you have a “Featured” category and/or feed in your website’s theme, be sure to use them for these posts.
Once you have published those wonderful foundation blog posts, create numerous articles about sub-categories of that primary subject, and include links to your longer articles. By doing this, you will be informing Google precisely what the best content on your site is.
Get Your Initial Post Published
Although you need to allocate sufficient time for structuring your website and doing keyword research, do not spend too long on this. Otherwise, you might experience ‘analysis paralysis’. Simply get that initial post written! Clear your mind, start typing and get it done. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Your first article does not need to be flawless, it just needs to be available. You’ll get better the more you do.
Videos and Photos
There is more to blogging than just creating entertaining stories. A good blog features videos and photos too. All posts should display one photo at least. Snapping some good shots yourself is an excellent way of producing visual content, and filming brief videos is an effective blogging technique as well. Particularly if you are writing articles about your personal life experiences, photos can often convey the message much better.
Make Sure Your Blog is SEO Optimized
Prior to publishing an article, make sure it is optimized for the search engines. Include relevant keywords in the title and meta description. Also, incorporate other keywords into your blog text naturally.
Advertise Your Website
Social networks are a good way of connecting with and expanding the audience for your website. That is why you should set up a Facebook page for your blog. Sharing Facebook posts is an effective advertising strategy. Do not overlook Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Google Plus either!
As well as using social networks to market your website, it is advisable to send out an e-newsletter. Put an opt in form on your blog that people can use to register for your newsletter. Then, email them periodically about your new articles and other interesting content.
Final Thoughts
Once your blog is up and running, it is vital to maintain some momentum. Keep writing articles on a regular basis, because fresh content always ranks highly in the search engines. Try to establish a timetable for publishing new articles.
There’s no need to write every day, if this is inconvenient, however you should be consistent. To begin with, one post per week, or possibly every couple of weeks is fine. Then, stick to it! Your visitors will become accustomed to your writing schedule, if you keep to a regular pattern.
