The Do’s & Don’ts of Blogging

Whether you’re a pro blogger or a beginner, having a successful blog offers many advantages. For example, it can be used as a tool to help generate targeted traffic to your website.  It can even increase sales or leads. However, there are a few important things to remember when blogging.  Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts:

Do get your best blog ideas from your target audience. One effective way of getting ideas is to answer the most pressing questions from your audience. You can search via social media and see what type of comments people are leaving. If you’re a startup company, you can take a peek at your competitor’s blog comments, Tweets and Facebook comments. If you notice any kind of questions or problems they are having, it could make a great post. People love stumbling upon articles that speak to them.

Don’t add fluff. Often times, many business owners will blog just for the sake of blogging.  They will write long drawn out articles that ramble on just to fill up content on a page.  Make sure you add value to your blog by providing your readers with interesting posts that inspires them or solves a problem.

Do build up your email subscriber list. Building a subscriber list will help you to share your new content with your audience.  One way to increase subscribers is to be creative with your call-to-action. For example, instead of saying:  ‘Join Our Email List!” say something that will capture their attention, such as:  “Get Our Latest Tips by Email” or “Subscribe & Receive Monthly Deals.”  This gives your readers more of an incentive to subscribe to your list.

Don’t be inconsistent. Make sure you are consistent with your blog. This doesn’t mean that you have to blog every day. It doesn’t even mean that you have to blog every week. Just make sure that you blog at least once a month. There is nothing worse than seeing an abandoned blog that hasn’t been updated in several months.

Do use relevant keywords to draw traffic. Blogging is a great tool to use to help increase your web traffic, as mentioned previously. Make sure you research and use keywords that your audience is currently using to find the product/service you’re offering. Don’t forget to create well written Meta Tag titles and descriptions that are engaging and SEO-friendly.

Don’t use poor quality photos. Quality photos are worth a thousand words. If you don’t have access to a professional photographer, make sure you use quality stock photos. You can purchase royalty-free photos from sites like iStockPhoto, Shutterstock, CorbisImages, etc.

Do track your results. Make sure you are tracking your traffic results. This will give you details on which blog posts people are reading the most. If you are using WordPress, there are several WordPress plugins you can install to monitor your blog’s traffic results.

Do you need help building a WordPress blog? Need help improving an existing blog? Feel free to contact us or call: 203.414.9692

 

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