As the days are passing, there is 1 thing I am certain about blogging – “There’s no replacement for producing effective content”, it’s undeniable and has been a proven one; to achieve the big business numbers. Building the content is not an easy job and achieving marketing results out of that, is another big challenge. However, by knowing your blogging goals, you can easily make the most of your content strategy.
You ask any blogger, Content is stronger than any other strategies, even stronger than building backlinks. But writing the blog posts is not what I’m talking about, it’s beyond.
Each month, algorithm updates turn up all over the Internet. We bloggers, often worry about losing the user traffic and thus metrics. I had been through it. So in this article, I am going to present a few best content marketing practices that can help you build a stable online business.
Let’s find out.
1. Build the image by mastering the topic
Regardless of the niche you write or audience type you have, I’m sure there will always be some other bloggers as a competition. Plus, most niches are exhausted with the same type of content flow. Don’t the audience deserve the fresh? How do you stand out?
Of course, by developing a strategy to ensure to create unique, quality and authoritative content: 3 in 1. Along with that, the blogger needs to build an ‘expert’ image in the niche that he/she works on. It takes constant research, learning and time, so don’t rush.
For example, take Anil Agarwal from BloggersPassion. His blog and community come to mind when I need some help related to website SEO or blogging. That’s the impression he created indirectly in the blogging community along with the time and his hard work.
It might not matter if you are writing on multiple categories; keep learning and give the best to your readers. Ensure you offer the educating content in long-form and detailed, if required. Always sound like an influencer.
2. Give the right thing to the right person
Whatever the content you develop is likely to solve the reader’s need. If you are writing on WordPress, you will have to understand what kind of readers are there within the topic. Like wannabe’s, beginners, growing, mid-level, and experts.
Once this is identified, the content can be created and displayed on your blog accordingly. By keeping the audience type in mind, create the content.
For example: – When you are trying to write an article for mid-level users, interlink with only the content which is created for mid-level users or experts. Because they might not need the links that take them to the back to basics.
What is working and what not – It should be analyzed using tools like Google Analytics and understand why users are leaving the pages/blog posts in without engaging. Then, look to create extra value and fix the content.
Let the new user know what is your blog about and what you got. Create categories, subcategories on your blog’s menu or sidebar. It gives clarity to the user which eventually leads to signup or subscribe or probably a purchase too. Plus, developing such a structure blog helps you in the SEO aspect.
3. Content variation
Another key tip to focus on is how you do you entertain or help the reader. Here are some ways:
- Text (Short form articles, detailed long-form guides)
- Videos & Podcasts
- Infographics
- FAQs
- Question & Answer sessions through any social media platform
- Interview’s
Note that, in all the above ways, the goal is common – to add the value and help the reader. It is important to produce content in a variety of formats.
Recently, Vishwajeet has added a kick boost to his blogging by starting his own channel on YouTube. That’s what the exact diversification strategy we all bloggers need, eventually.
We can also convert one form of content to another. Like, Text articles can be quickly converted into audio or even a video. Having multiple content types on your blog creates a fine impression, like a knowledge hub for the reader. Plus, search engines like diversity, helps in SEO point of view.
4. Fix old content
No one can possibly deny the fact that blogging is constant learning. Relating to it, there would be always some betterment you can do with most of the older content.
Let me quickly ask you, How many articles you have published till now? And, how many got indexed and ranking well on Google?
If your answer is ” a few”, now is the time to fix that thin content. Even my blog had so much of it but when I started working, I really started to see the betterment.
Thin content is the one which could be duplicate, has got no value or in the short form like 200 or 300 words, lacks detail or readability. Such content gets forgotten by search engines and people. I strongly encourage you to always repurpose the old content.
What can you do with the thin content?
- Simply throw to the bin (Delete)
- Update with fresh statistics or information
- Modify the content to sync the search intent for keywords
- Add new cover images or any other content form
- Add new keywords, post title and description
- Fix the broken links if any
- Interlink to your recent articles
As per my knowledge, the blog with fresh, updated content has a high chance to get crawled by Google spiders and thus to see immediate rankings.
5. Maintain content relevancy
Google’s core algorithms have been evolving in such a way that ranking of one page or post does not only depend solely on the content of its but depends on other factors like link profile, niche relevancy to the article’s content, overall page rank (PR), niche, and so on.
Let’s assume there are two articles about the topic “blogging trends in 2020” talking about the trends in blogging. Both articles have covered the same topic in-depth. However, 1st blog usually talks dedicatedly about blogging while the 2nd blog covers multiple niches like entertainment, sports, health, etc.
Now, what do you think which one ranks first? As I observed recently, the 1st one ranks better than the 2nd. Because along with the value on that post, the other content on the blog adds up more relevancy and ranking to the article.
So, build authority by working on relevant topics. For example, WordPress, Blogging, and SEO relates to each other and have higher chances to rank than the blog which has Blogging, Health, Finance, Sports categories.
It can be done by figuring out the main topics and cutting down to parts as subtopics and covering each topic in a more detailed way. You can also consider interlinking to your multiple articles from a single post.
6. Be experimental about content structuring
Most people advise us to use bullet points, cut down into paragraphs, bold, headings, subheadings, add media items, Call To Action (CTA’s), etc. Good thing, However, my question is do you listen to someone blindly?
Maybe you should not do that.
For a long time, my blog had been structured without sidebar. However, I wanted to give a try with a sidebar by adding a ‘Recent Posts widget’ and an ‘Affiliate banner’. Guess what? It works great now; I’m getting better results now in terms of affiliate clicks as well as improved bounce rate.
My point is don’t step back experimenting with the new stuff on your blog. Try popup’s, email subscribes, use various size banners, add cash earning articles to your menu, and so on. Why not experiment with the multiple structuring’s and see what works great?
7. Be a storyteller
People get inspired by stories. I agree that the blogger cannot tell stories all the time. However, once in a while, sharing the stories and experiences of your blogging is really a fantastic gesture; from you to the readers. Such stories connect with the audience and remain memorable.
For example: Which blog post title would seek your attention quickly:
“How to increase your blog traffic.”
or
“Less user traffic? Why not try these 7 proven tips !”
I hope you got my point. You can also do the storytelling by adding your stuff through ‘How-to guides, case studies, how I made,’ etc.
Asking Questions…
Questions alert the mind…Connect the pain point of the reader to Questions, so ask. If someone asks through comments, do respond without fail.
FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions)
If you’ve written detailed long-form articles of 3000+ words, make sure you add FAQs section in the article. Put yourself in the shoe of the reader, prepare questions and answers and present to your readers.
Give the readers a reason to listen to you and get inspired through the content you presented. They will stick to you, like forever.
Conclusion
There are tons of ways to earn money by blogging but before that, work on your content strategy. Invest time to research and experiment to understand what ascents your blog’s growth. Content is all about satisfying the user intent with additional value. Focus on bringing up the content more exciting and creative.
That’s all I’ve got right now in my mind. Do you have any other content practices to rock online? I’d love to know.