For every new blog post, there are 7 essential must-haves that are key to triggering an excellent rating with both your audience and search engines. Do you spend a lot of time creating stellar blog content but your web traffic shows no return? No engagement, little views – each new blog post just continues to disappoint you until you decide one day that even though you love writing, the posting part just isn’t for you.
I have news for you, my friend. Blogging is for you! Truthfully, blogging is for everyone. Anyone with a smartphone and a WiFi connection can post a blog and a few affiliate links and make enough money to live comfortably from month to month and the reason behind that madness is so simple.
They took the time to learn the basics.
These simple tips and tricks are all you need to create a blog post. Keep in mind the idea, the entire foundation of the content is up to you which is what will keep your reader intrigued long enough to read start to finish. Your content must be engaging and solve your reader’s problem. It must also be easy to read so if you’re working with a thesaurus toss that sucker right now and most importantly, your post must be SEO friendly; but we’ll get to that.
The Important Steps to Creating an Engaging Blog Post
- Create a Catchy Title
You’re a human being with eyeballs and as such, it’s likely you have every platform of social media so you obviously know that when scrolling through your feed you are going to be bombarded with headlines left and right. Some true, some fake, some borderline. You are more apt to click on a title named, “5 Ways Chocolate Can Help you Lose Weight” as Opposed to something entitled, “Confirmed Reports say Chocolates Origins Contribute to Minute Percentage of Weight Loss in Caucasian Male American Population.” What a mouthful. I stopped reading that while typing it.
Your post title is the first thing that will be seen on social media platforms and in search engines. It has to catch your audience’s eye; lure them in so they read your title and click.
2. Images Matter
An image with your blog post (preferably one you haven’t used before and is relevant to your post) is a must. Here’s why:
- When posting your link to social platforms, the image is the first thing that people will see. If you are on Pinterest, images are crucial, right? because that’s the basis of the entire platform. People are going to want to pin your post to their boards. My own personal preference is having my post images match when I pin so I created an easy template to use in Canva. You can do the same here. Each time I have a new post, I just swap out the title and a new photo and pin directly from Canva.
- We are an extremely visual society – look at how quickly Instagram came about where all it takes is just posting a photo, no caption necessary. (Or at least, not at first).
3. Use Heading Tags
Most website builders have these presets built into their posting sections. In WordPress, you have six. These tags are important because they not only bring focus to the major points of your post, but they also tell search engines what your content is about (think keywords).
H1 is reserved for your post title, so you don’t need to worry about using an H1 tag in your post. Focus on placing H2 and H3 throughout.
4. Title and Meta Descriptions
In order to ensure your post is ranking properly within the search engines, you need to make sure you are filling out the title and description fields within your post. These are located within the SEO plugin you use (typically underneath the post field where you write your blog). When you fill out these areas properly, the metadata will communicate with the search engines and tell the Google Gods what your post is all about.
I use Rank Math, which is located on the right-side panel. It has a Headline Analyzer which tells me, basically, if the title of my post ranks in a good way or is pure crap. Right now, it is at a 50. I’m 50 pieces of crap, 50 pieces of stellar something or others. It looks like I have some cleaning up to do.
After a lot of playing around with my title and different keywords, I went from a 50 to a 90 in the Headline Analyzer. This will significantly affect how search engines read this new post. Utilizing an SEO plugin/tool on your website is SUPER helpful.
5. Link to Other Posts within Your Post
Linking to other posts sometimes feels a bit boastful like, “Hey guys, love this post? Well guess what, you’re going to love this other one I wrote…” but guess what, I want you to do it. Linking to other posts not only allows you to show that you do, in fact, know what you are talking about because you’ve covered this area before but it also drives traffic to your older content and increases page views and website traffic. It’s a win-win.
6. Engage with your Audience
At the end of every blog, I’m sure you’ve noticed the comments section where it typically says, “Leave a Comment/Reply” or “Join the Conversation.” Some people get cute and say, “Leave some Love,” but if you see that, just walk away. These aren’t your people.
How are you ever going to get your audience to “leave some love” if you don’t engage them in the first place? Ask a question and get the conversation started.
7. Create a Call-to-Action
Each new post is a great way to grow your email list (if you have one. If you don’t, I recommend reading up on my fave platform here). Leaving your sign-up button at the bottom of the post is key to gaining new subscribers, and don’t just leave a button that says “Sign up here.” Don’t be lazy. Offer an incentive. Try something like, “Enjoyed this week’s post? Sign up below to have weekly updates delivered straight from me to you!” Opt-in incentives are always a great way to get the email list growing by throwing in a freebie related to your line of work albeit a “How-To Guide” or “Checklist.”
So how are we feeling about getting that next blog post started? Questions? Let me know in the comments below!
