Bloggers and content creators all know that consistency is key: regular posting is one of the most effective things you can do to draw people in to see your work. But what happens if you run out of ideas or hit the dreaded writer’s block? One skipped day probably isn’t going to make much difference, but if you’re struggling to come up with ideas for consistent content and winning posts, one day can become a few days or a few weeks, and cause you to lose all the momentum you’ve gained with your blog.
If you’re staying current with best practices, you’re probably already using a lot of search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help shape your articles. Using SEO strategy combines knowledge of keywords and search engines with the ability to create great, unique content and help you began to push your work higher in search engines for better visibility. You can use what you know about SEO to help get new ideas for blog articles.
Use Google as a Starting Place
It’s a good bet that your blog has a general theme and that your posts focus on topics within that theme that you’re knowledgeable about. If thinking about your general blog theme and approach isn’t giving you any immediate ideas, turn to the master search engine: Google. According to Emfluence, there are several tools you can use on Google that help generate prompts that can become new content.
You may notice after searching a phrase that Google provides you with a list of other popular questions that people ask. This list is generated by Google’s algorithm to determine what other questions people are asking related to the topic at hand. For example, if you inquire about how to fix a leaking faucet, Google tells you that people have also searched for what causes the faucet to drip or how to temporarily stop a leaking faucet. Both of these would be good companion sections or articles to an article about how to fix a leaking faucet. The above example extends to most topics as well; you can also search a question you’ve always been curious about and explore the answers for new post ideas.
Google Trends is a free tool that can show you what topics are trending all over the world – however, you can also use it to find popular trends that could become new articles. For example, if you type "do it yourself "or "DIY" into Google trends, the top related queries involve do it yourself closet systems, pest control and wedding decorations. Any one of these can take you in a refreshing new direction for additional blog content. Google Trends also shows related phrases and queries that are on the rise – this will help you keep your content current.
Use SEO Tools Creatively
When it comes to using SEO, keywords are, well, key. These words are built from the phrases people type into search engines when looking for useful information. It’s important to know what these phrases are so that you can work them into your blog posts; this helps your articles be found by the search engines. There are a number of free and paid ways you can use to research the best keywords to use. Some of these resources also provide related content information so that you can see popular topics that other bloggers are writing about. With a bit of poking around, you’ll start finding keywords and phrases for related content that you can use when creating new articles. Starting within SEO tools means your SEO research will have already been started once you land on a new idea.
Blogging optimization tools don’t just stop with keywords though; you probably have an analytical tool that you use to watch the performance of your website. You can use past results to help focus on future topics as well. Look through previous posts that have performed particularly well and see if you have anything more to say on similar topics or if your top posts present a theme from which you could expand on in the future. If your analytics show you which search phrases brought people to your blog, use those search phrases and other tools like Google’s People Also Searched to generate new concepts that might interest your current readers.
These methods all tie back into whether or not you know your blog’s theme and strategy. Starting with the content that you have and the things related to your blog’s central theme helps you develop your own brand and voice. As you work to develop a consistent posting schedule, keeping the tone of your pieces consistent will help readers know what to expect and keep them coming back for your content. Once you’ve established yourself, you can simply ask your readers for additional topics they’d like to hear about next.
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