It seems like every few months, another organization comes out with tips and tricks to making blogging more effective. A problem with these tips and tricks is that they often are time sensitive. What worked, say in 2018, may not work so well today.
However, there are blogging tips and tricks that have managed to withstand the test of time. They worked when they were first uncovered and they still work today. Here are 10 of those blogging tips and tricks:
Have a blogging goal.
Before starting a blog, make sure you have a goal. Are you trying to promote the company and products or just address topics of general interest? If the blog is used for product promotion, the more subtle and tactful it is, the more effective it will be.
Know your audience.
Writing for cleaning professionals would not be the same as writing for facility managers. The writer must take these factors into consideration.
Be safe, not sorry.
Remember that anything said online is open to the world to see; do not post anything you would not want picked up by a search engine—especially anything that could be termed hurtful or overly negative.
Pick a blogging attitude.
Some bloggers are famous for ranting and complaining, others for being more positive and hopeful. In business, upbeat is always best and should be the tone of all blogs even if something negative is addressed.
Proofread.
Typos, grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and run-on sentences all stand out more online than they do on paper. Always proofread everything before publishing.
Use photos selectively.
If a photo is added, make sure it is relevant to the story discussed. Also, add ALT text that includes keywords for the blog (more below)
Interact with readers…fast
If someone responds to your blog, write back as soon as you can. Interaction breeds more interaction, which gets picked up by the search engines.
Keep it alive.
Blogs should be posted regularly—at least once per week—in order to be effective. And here is another trick. Old blogs never die, they just get repackaged. If you wrote a blog several years ago but the content dicussed remains relevant, just give it a facelift. A new title, a bit more content, new images if necessary. And also re-date it. When we post things online, your website will automatically give it a day. Make sure you update the date so it looks like it was posted more recently.
Effective bloggers are willing to change.
There probably has never been a medium that has changed as quickly as the Internet. Stay attuned to changes in the ways blogs are presented, and be aware of new Web portals and opportunities that develop.
Keywords.
You can spend an hour or more tweaking a blog with keywords. Here’s a shortcut. Select three key words. Test them using Google Suggest to see if they are used in searches. Have a primary keyword in your title; one or more in your first paragraph, and then sprinkle the rest about every 100 words. Finish the blog with a keyword. If you have subtitles (recommended) add at least one keyword to the titles and make them H3 headlines.
More information on blogging can be found here.
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