When it comes to content marketing, having a great blog structure is essential for success. However, you're likely to struggle if you don't have a plan for your content. If you want your content to be found by potential customers, you need to make sure it is optimized for search engines and that it appeals to your target audience. Blogging doesn't require master's level writing skills, but there are some vital parts of a blog you should know about.
In this blog post, we will discuss the best way to structure your content so that you can see the best results from your marketing efforts. We'll also provide tips on creating high-quality content that will engage and convert readers into customers.
Why Should I Blog?
Blogging is a great way to improve your website's SEO and to generate more organic traffic, making it a good option for small businesses. Including keywords in your blog content can make your site more visible to search engines and potential customers. In addition, blogging allows you to share valuable content with your audience and build relationships with influencers in your industry.
Blogging is the best way to focus on your digital marketing strategies by including content marketing in your marketing plans. Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a defined audience — with the goal of driving profitable customer action.
The first step in content marketing is to understand your target audience. What are their needs and wants? What problems do they need to be solved? Once you know this, you can create content that addresses these needs and provides value to your audience.
The next step is to create a content strategy. This will help you plan and organize your content so that it is most effective. A content strategy will answer questions such as:
What types of content will you create?
Who will create the content?
How often will you publish new content?
What channels will you use to distribute your content?
Creating a content strategy is essential to content marketing success. Without one, measuring your results and making changes if needed will be difficult.
How Often Should I Blog?
There is no magic number when it comes to how often you should blog. However, most experts recommend blogging at least once a week. If you can commit to writing more content, that's even better. The important thing is to be consistent and to provide value with each piece of content you create.
What Type of Content Should I Write?
You can create many different types of content, but not all content is created equal. When it comes to content marketing, it's essential to create high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience. You should also aim to write in-depth pieces offering value and insights your readers can't find elsewhere. Having a unique point of view or expert opinion from your field is essential. You don't want to get lost in a sea of the same information; readers won't be able to differentiate and often skip over your post in favor of someone else.
There are several different types of content you can create for your blog. But some of the most popular and effective types include:
How-to guides: These posts provide step-by-step instructions on how to do something.
Listicles: These types of posts are typically lists of tips, tricks, or ideas.
In-depth articles: These posts go into great detail on a particular topic.
Product reviews: These types of posts provide an honest evaluation of a product or service.
Case studies: These posts tell the story of how a particular company or individual used a product or service to achieve success.
Guest posts are another type of content. Guest posts are articles that you write for another website. This is a great way to get your content in front of a new audience and build backlinks to your own website. Alternatively, you could ask someone in your field to write a guest post for your blog. This would create a two-way street of backlinks, benefitting both parties.
Recycling content is an easy way to produce content. If you have a text post, use that information to create an infographic. Or, if you have a podcast, take the transcript and use that as a blog post. Content creation doesn't mean you have to reinvent the wheel; you can efficiently and effectively reuse your content if done well.
How Long Should My Blog Be?
When it comes to blog length, there is no definitive answer. However, most experts recommend keeping your content between 600-2000 words. Hubspot says that a blog post typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains other media types such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts.
A word count within that range ensures that you provide enough value without overwhelming your readers. If you have a lot to say on a specific topic, consider breaking your content up into smaller pieces or creating a series of articles.
It's important to note that search engines prefer longer content over shorter. When a search engine crawls your site, it may not display when it comes to searches if your blog is too short. So if you're looking to improve your SEO, aim for blog posts that are at least 1200 words.
What Are the Different Parts of a Blog Post?
Now that we've covered some basics, let's discuss the different parts of a blog post. Most blog posts will include a title, an introduction, body content, and a conclusion. While not part of a blog itself, it's important to note that a meta-description is also necessary for blogs as it's the part of the text that shows in search results above the snippet.
The title is often why people will choose to read your blog. Your title should be catchy and make use of SEO keywords. Making it stand out while using researched keywords will grab more attention.
The introduction should be short and to the point. It should give readers an overview of what they can expect to learn from your blog post. The introduction should be engaging, so consider using a story or anecdote to hook your readers. This is where most people will stop reading if it doesn't catch their attention. Make sure you're using creative language and that it's easy to read without much jargon. It should be clear what your readers can expect to learn or gain from the post.
The body content is where you will flesh out the main ideas of your blog post. This is where you will provide value and insights to your readers. Be sure to use headings and subheadings to break up your content and make it easy to read. You should also include visuals, such as images, infographics, or video content to break up the text and to engage your readers further. Using images and alt-text is one way to optimize your blog.
Headings and Subheadings
As we mentioned earlier, headings and subheadings are important for both search engines and your readers. Search engines use headings to understand the content of your blog post, while readers use them to scan and find the information they're looking for. This is why using headings and subheadings throughout your content is vital.
Not only do they help improve the readability of your content, but they also allow you to include additional keywords. When creating headings and subheadings, be sure to keep the following in mind:
Use keyword-rich phrases
Make them descriptive
Keep them short and to the point
Use different levels of headings (H tags)
If you can do this, then you will be able to improve both the readability and SEO of your content.
Visuals
Don't forget to include visuals in your content! Visuals are important for many reasons. For one, they help break up large chunks of text and make your content more visually appealing. But more importantly, visuals can also help improve the SEO of your content. This is because search engines often prefer content that contains images and videos. So, if you want your content to rank higher in SERPs, be sure to include visuals such as images, infographics, and videos.
The conclusion should be a brief summary of your main points. You can also include a call to action (CTA) in your conclusion, which is an invitation for your readers to take some kind of next step. This could be signing up for your email list, downloading a free guide, or following you on social media.
Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
Content marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand.
You can't have one without the other.
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), while content marketing is the creation and distribution of high-quality content that's designed to attract and engage your target audience.
Content marketing is one of the most important aspects of SEO because it's what helps you to rank higher in SERPs in the first place. Creating high-quality, keyword-optimized content is essential if you want your website to rank on the first page of Google. But it's not enough to just create content for the sake of it.
Your content must be relevant to your target audience and provide the value they want. If you can do this, you will not only rank higher in SERPs but also build trust and authority with your audience, which will lead to more social shares and engagement.
The bottom line is that content marketing and SEO are two sides of the same coin.
You need to create high-quality, keyword-optimized content to rank higher in SERPs. But at the same time, your content must be relevant and provide value to your target audience.
Keyword Research for Blogging
If you want your blog content to succeed, you need to start with keyword research. Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords to target for your blog post. When you do keyword research, you're essentially trying to find out what people are searching for in Google and other search engines. Once you know what people are searching for, you can then optimize your blog content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for those keywords.
There are a number of different ways to do keyword research, but one of the most effective methods is to use Google's Keyword Planner tool. With Google Keyword Planner, you can get ideas for new content topics as well as find out how much traffic certain keywords are getting. This information is invaluable when it comes to creating successful blog content.
Once you have a list of targeted specific keywords, the next step is to start creating your content. And when you do, be sure to include your target keywords in the following places:
Title
Headings and subheadings
Introduction
throughout the body of your content
Conclusion
If you can do this, then you will be well on your way to ranking higher in SERPs for your target keywords.
Blogger's Metrics
The best way to determine if your blog content is performing well is to track your traffic and engagement metrics. Using Google Analytics is an easy way to compare these metrics. There are some different metrics you can track, but some of the most important ones include:
Pageviews: This metric tells you how many people have viewed your blog post.
Time on page: This metric tells you how long people spend on your blog post.
Bounce rate: This metric tells you what percentage of people leave your website after viewing just one page.
Social shares: This metric tells you how many times your blog post has been shared on social media.
Comments: This metric tells you how many people are leaving comments on your blog post.
Tracking these metrics gives you a good idea of how well your content is performing. If you see a sudden drop in traffic or engagement, then that's an indication that something is wrong with your content, and you need to make some changes.
Free Tools for Blogging
If you're serious about content marketing and SEO, then you need to use the right tools. Fortunately, there are a number of great free tools that you can use to help with your blogging efforts.
One of the most popular free content creation tools is WordPress. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to create and manage your content easily. In addition to being easy to use, WordPress is also SEO-friendly, which means it will help you to rank higher in SERPs.
Another great free tool for content marketing is HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator. This tool allows you to enter a few different keywords related to your industry and generate a list of content ideas you can write about. They also offer several templates to choose from, should you get stuck.
Finally, if you're looking for help with keyword research, then you should check out Moz's Keyword Explorer tool. This tool allows you to enter a keyword and see how much traffic it's getting, as well as get ideas for related keywords that you can target.
All these free tools will help you create better content, which will help you rank higher in SERPs and drive more traffic to your website.
I Wrote My Blog, Now What?
So, you've written your blog full of great content, now what? This is where your social media marketing and content marketing strategies come in.
The first step is to share your content on your social media channels. This will help increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. But it's crucial that you don't just post a link to your blog and call it a day. Instead, you should try to write engaging social media posts that will entice people to click through to your blog. Post your blog as an article native to LinkedIn; this is one way to drive B2B customers to your site.
In addition to sharing your content on social media, you should also try to reach out to influencers in your industry and see if they're interested in sharing your content with their followers. This can be a great way to get more eyes on your content and increase your reach.
Finally, don't forget to add a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your blog post. This can be something as simple as asking people to subscribe to your email list or follow you on social media. You could ask a question and ask readers to answer with their thoughts in the comments. This is one way to increase search engine optimization as well. Search engines like content that has user-generated comments! A CTA is a great way to increase engagement and get more people involved with your content.
Now that you know the parts of a blog, it's time to think about your next blog post! What piece of relevant content will you share next? Let us know in the comments! Drawing a blank? Let Wordsmyth Creative Content give it a go!