If it isn’t already, blog writing should be a key part of your digital marketing strategy. When done correctly, blogs can help increase your website traffic and can show the world what your business is all about, helping to position you as a thought-leader in your industry and providing real value to your audience.
But with 600 million blog posts worldwide, it can be hard to make your blog stand out. Blog writing isn’t as simple as throwing some copy together and hoping for the best, and getting it wrong can actually have a negative impact on your website traffic and overall digital marketing strategy.
If you are wondering how to market your business through blogs and drive website traffic to your site, we can help. Keep reading for our top blog writing tips.
1. Content is key
Blog writing falls under the umbrella of content marketing, which refers to any content that your business puts out into the world such as blogs, social media posts, podcasts and videos. Having a strong content marketing strategy is the best way to ensure that your blogs will drive traffic to your site and, most importantly, lead to conversions.
If you want your blog to increase website traffic to your site, you need to make sure that your blog, as well as other content you are putting out, is relevant, interesting and useful to your intended audience.
2. Understand your audience
If you are writing blog posts that are random guesses at what your audience wants, you won’t get the desired result of increasing website traffic. Before you get started with blog writing, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is the blog for?
Make sure you have a clear idea of your audience in mind, and what their needs are. It may be the case that you are targeting a range of different readers, and you should ensure your blog content is varied enough to appeal to different audiences.
You can understand what content audiences will find useful and interesting by looking at blogs written by others in your industry, as well as doing keyword research to find out more about the needs of your audience when they are searching around a certain topic.
- Why am I writing this blog?
Once you have an understanding of your audiences, you now need to think about what purpose you want your blog to serve. For example, do you want to educate the reader with an explainer piece on a topic that you are knowledgeable about, provide a ‘how to’ guide or simply be entertaining?
If you understand what the purpose of your blog is, you are more likely to create engaging and valuable content that will not only drive visitors to your site, but also keep them engaged.
- What action do I want the reader to take?
Once you have someone reading your blog, what do you want them to do next? If the answer is to visit other pages on your site, make sure there are links to other pages in the body of the text. Whether you want a reader to share a post on social media or leave a comment, make sure that they are able to do so and links are clearly signposted.
3. Use keywords wisely
If your goal is to increase website traffic, then including keywords in your blogs is a must. People come to Google to find the answer to a question or to search for something, and by using keywords correctly, the Google algorithm will rank your website higher in Google searches, helping to increase website traffic. Make sure that your title includes your main keyword, and use keywords in headings where possible.
But when it comes to keywords, quality trumps quantity. A blog post that is overzealous with keywords at the expense of relevant content is not going to lead to a positive impression of your business, and Google can actually penalise websites that use too many keywords, known as ‘keyword stuffing’.
4. Choose a good title
When it comes to effective blog writing, a good, enticing title is key. Your blog’s title should be eye-catching and interesting enough to prompt a reader to click onto your blog post when they see the title on a Google results page or on social media.
It is also important that your blog title accurately sums up the subject of the blog, or you risk annoying the person who has taken the time to read it. If too many people click off your blog quickly because the content isn’t relevant, this will have a negative effect on your Google rankings.
5. Use plenty of headings
No matter how good your blog content is, readers may still be put off if they’re faced with a big chunk of text. 43% of readers admit to skim-reading blog posts, making your blog easy to read by using plenty of headings, subheadings and bullet points.
6. Share your blogs on social media
We often think about the benefits that blog writing can have for SEO, but blogs can be a great tool for your wider content marketing strategy too. For example, sharing your blogs on your social media pages can be a great way to drive website traffic and engage your followers. Introduce your blog on social media platforms with an enticing summary and provide a link for readers to read the full version on your website.
7. Get the experts on board
If you’re wondering how to market your business and grow website traffic, we can help. At Social Chameleon, our expert team has helped hundreds of businesses to reach more customers and improve conversions through our content marketing and SEO services.
Find out more about how we can help you to transform your digital marketing strategy by getting in touch today.
