How To Get The Most Out of Every Blog Post
Blogs can be your most versatile piece of content. Here’s how your small business can make each post count to drive traffic and engage your target audience.
A blog on how to blog. No, this is not UpCity’s remake of Inception, but simply us trying to make sure our customers get the most out of their marketing, credibility, and visibility efforts. Many articles and digital marketing experts will say that it’s important to have your own blog. But many of them also leave it at that and don’t go into further detail when it comes to having a blog on a business website or contributor for a guest post (like our UpCity Experts blog!).
To have a successful blog, you need more than great post ideas that resonate with your audience. You need to have a solid content marketing strategy if you want that blog content to get search engine results, social shares, subscribers, and more. So before you push the next post to live or submit your guest blog post contribution to a third-party editorial team, run through the checklist below to make sure all your bases are covered.
Credible Sources
We know you’re experts in your industry, but your potential buyers are still wary about that. Proving your expertise is aligned with what trusted experts are saying boosts your credibility and helps back up the claims you make.
Not to mention, external linking has its SEO benefits, which are going to improve the performance of your blog. According to HubSpot, adding trustworthy and relevant website links to your content not only improves the credibility of your website but also provides your readers with references, which will, in turn, enhance your website’s authority. It shows that you’ve created your content based on high-quality research and it’s a common courtesy to provide attribution to others. They may just return the favor down the road.
It’s also important to recognize what is a credible source so that you’re linking back to quality content. There’s a lot of content out there, but sticking with the tried and true experts is the best way to go. For example, if your B2B business focuses on public relations, citing PR Daily or PR Newswire will do you good. Or that’s why you’ll often find SEO-focused agencies citing top sources such as Backlinko, Moz, Search Engine Journal, etc. Know your industry leaders as much as your target audience. And don’t forget to set the links to open in another tab!
Call-to-Action
A call to action (CTA) is a way to encourage readers to engage with your company further, whatever that may be. Clickable CTAs can be as simple as one word but are proven to have an incredible impact on increasing conversions, whether they are in social media posts, email marketing newsletters, or blog posts. The most common CTAs for bloggers typically encourage readers to become email subscribers, click sharing buttons for different social media platforms, or direct them to certain landing pages or your homepage.
If you’re guest blogging, however, you can skip this step. Inserting a CTA may be up to the editorial discretion of who you are blogging for. In exchange for publishing your post on their site, they reserve the right to switch out any promotional material you have and insert CTAs of their own. Always check with that company’s guidelines before assuming.
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Internal Backlinks
A great way to keep posts you’ve already written fresh is to link back to them when writing on another topic. This benefits the reader because it directs them to additional information if they’re interested in learning more about the topic, but helps you boost your search engine ratings.
Backlinko puts it simply. “[I]nternal linking is key for any site that wants higher rankings in Google.”
To get the most out of your internal links, lean on keyword research for your anchor text and try to keep them higher in your post. Utilize internal link building right, and you’ll help send page authority (or PageRank) to other pages on your website, as well as improve optimization and metrics such as overall blog traffic, bounce rate, and click-through rate.
Images
Humans are visual, and what better way to entice readers with your content than images. You don’t need to overdo it, but a quality image that relates to your specific topic here and there is a good way to break up blocks of content, improve readability, and keep your post engaging. The best content for blog images can often be found on stock websites or cited infographics.
Great Content Goes Beyond Writing
Once you’re finished writing your new blog post, there are more ways to squeeze results out of it. Your content management systems, such as WordPress, will have a sidebar allowing you to tag and sort what type of content your post is and where you want it to live on your website and add widgets.
It’s also important to write the post title and subheadings like someone would type in a Google search. This is also a great time to check all images have alt text so that your post stays ADA compliant.
Once it’s published, the content creation can go further with social media posts. Share the post with your company’s social networks and email lists. Encourage others to share on LinkedIn or relevant Facebook groups or other forums.
Remember that content strategy focuses on more than simply writing a template blog post. Look at the full lifecycle. What can you research beforehand? How can you promote the post in the future?
Ready to put your new blogger skills to the test? Submit a topic request to contribute new content to our UpCity Experts blog! If it’s your first time, view our guidelines, and don’t hesitate to reach out to experts@upcity.com with any questions!
About the author
Rebecca helps keep all things content running at UpCity. Prior to joining, she was a magazine editor at an agency for several award-winning publications based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and a content specialist for several brands within the SMB/B2B landscape. She also has significant experience in digital content creation, most notably targeting hunters and anglers (despite being a vegetarian) during her time at Gander Outdoors. Rebecca has also worked in PR, covering a diverse terrain of products and events, including the promotion of local musicians and music festivals and the latest craft beer offerings from local breweries.
