I've picked up a few tips during my time blogging and know how useful it can be to have a little guide for how to improve your posts and blog. These are some of the important things to remember when blogging and are great things to try and include in your posts. Some of these additions will help to boost your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so that your posts are more likely to come up when people search for topics or keywords.
Set all headings as Subheadings or Minor Headings
This will help sections in your post stand out which can often make it easier to read rather than one bulk of text. Even though you can create headings with plain text and use simple formatting such as bold and underline, using these headings will help the text come up in search engines. This will help more people see your post and only requires a simple change.
Include photos in your post
It seems such an obvious point but having images in your post really helps to improve the overall look. Spacing the text out with images makes the post easier to read, although this does depend on they type of post as to how many photos you can realistically put in. Even if you have only one photo in the post for something like a chatty post, it gives something visual to attach the post content to and might help people remember your blog post. It can also give you something to help promote your posts via other social media.
Bold key positive words in the post
I have only recently started doing this myself, but I've found it improves the look of your post and helps your readers see the important parts. When a reader notices a bold word they will be drawn to it, and then read over what you are talking about. It's also a good method to help summarise what you are talking about, even if they are only skimming over your post.
Include complete words from the title within the post
If you are writing a post, you may often put the full name of a product in the post title, but only the shortened version within the post. For example, if you were doing an 'iPhone 6S Review' you may just write 'iPhone' or 'phone' when describing the product in the post. If you can write the full product name at least 3 times, it will be better for your SEO and give your post a better chance of being found when people are searching for something.
Pin the images from your blog post
This is a good way to increase the traffic sources to your blog as people often click through from a pin to read your post. You can often attract different readers that may not have seen your posts otherwise if they don't use other social media such as Twitter. If you have high quality photos, it will attract the attention of people on Pinterest, which will then give them more reason to click through. It is also a way of creating a collection of your posts all in one place so you can quickly view a large number of posts.
Link back to at least one previous post if possible
This is a great way to increase your page views and readership. If people have liked what they have been reading, and you can link back to a post with similar content, they may be inclined to click and read another post. It gives people a quick and easy way to find other posts, as they may often not want to search through themselves. These links could be within the post or at the bottom depending how your have written the post.
Check your formatting
Remembering to check how your post is laid out will make sure it looks professional and readable. If someone clicks onto your post and they see text in different locations and sizes, or some has been centered while other parts are left-aligned, they may just click straight off without even reading. It wouldn't matter how good your content is, if someone is put off by the look of your post, it could prevent you getting readers over a simple fix. Some platforms let your preview you blog post, so you can check the formatting here, but make sure you check your post when published too as it can often throw up some issues once you hit publish, even if you they didn't appear in preview mode.
Re-read your post when you are done
It sounds obvious, but you will be surprised how many little things you may have missed. It's not the best idea to type your post out and hit publish without checking over it. Even if there are no spelling mistakes, you may find yourself cutting extra words out that are not needed, which will improve the quality of your post.
Add ALT text to your images
This is the alternative text that will appear if your images within the post don't show for some reason. This could be for a number of reasons, but having this text will mean the readers can still understand what is supposed to be there. It's also a great way to help improve your SEO as it helps your content come up higher in search engines and will be more likely to be seen.
Promote your blog post
Making sure your promote your post is an important way to increase your page views and readers. Even though you have spent time and effort producing a good blog post, if you don't put it out there on social media, people aren't going to get to see it and your efforts may not be recognised. People won't always go searching for posts, so you need to give it to them so they only have to click through to see it. Scheduling tweets is another good way to increase traffic, and can be used to promote previous weeks posts so that they don't end up in the archives with nobody reading them.
If you found this post useful, you might also like my Pros & Cons of Using an iPad for Blogging, 8 Apps I Use For Blogging and How I Take My Blog Photos. Let me know if you have any useful blogging tips below.
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