Make the Most of Your Blog Posts

It can be lonely to start a blog.

You are dedicated to writing great content full of helpful information that you know your target audience will love.

How can you make the most of every blog post?

How do you get to the people who are really interested in what you have to share on your blog?

That's why I'm here to assist you. These guidelines will help you increase the reach of your blog posts if you follow them.

Blog Post Checklist

1. Blog Title When writing a title for your blog post you need to give it some serious thought. Your title is what people will read. It is what makes them decide whether they want to continue reading or not. Try and keep your title short and to the point. Always include your main keyword within your title in order to improve your posts SEO. If you are struggling to come up with a title you like try 'Portents content idea generator' for some alternative and often amusing suggestions.

2. Content

Make sure the main body of your blog post is clear and easy to read. Keep paragraphs under five lines. keep sentences short - twenty words or less is recommended. Plain English is best - you don't want to display your knowledge of the most complicated words in English. Sub-headings make your text easier to read and your post looks more interesting.

Remember your blog will be read by like minded people who are interested in what you have to say, but never the less you still need to ensure the content is interesting enough to hold their interest.

3. Images

Be sure to include one featured image at the very least. Humans are visual creatures and an eye catching feature image will get their attention. When you upload an image ensure that it is not too large in terms of data size so that it will load quickly. Make sure you fill out the alt attribute box and include your keyword in the description.

4. SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Basically the better your SEO the more chance your blog post will have of appearing higher up in search engine rankings

You can improve your SEO in many ways.

Make sure your main keyword/s is included in your title, in the first paragraph of your post and used often throughout your post.

Ensure your post is at least 1000 words long as search engines like a decent amount of content.

Add alt attributes to the images that you use, so they will be displayed in the event of your image loading.

Include your keyword(s) in a brief meta description. The meta description is the text that appears under your main title in search engine results.

5. Links

Try and include links in your post whenever possible. Link to external sites as well as directing people to relevant places on your own website or other blog posts they may find interesting. Including links also helps with your SEO.

6. Credit Your Sources

If you have done research for your blog post or have used quotes or content from other places, be sure to give credit to your sources. This will not only give credibility to your own content it will also show your readers that what you are saying is backed up by reliable sources.

7. Social Sharing

When you set up your blog be sure to have social sharing buttons available from the start. This allows your readers to easily share your blog to any social media platform they choose.

8. End and Publish

End your post by asking your readers a question in order to encourage them to comment. Alternatively present a call to action related to your post i.e. Download your guide now.

Before you publish, proofread the entire thing. You can make any changes, but you must also proofread the entire thing once more to ensure it is correct.

Post Publishing To Do List

1. Share again and again

Once you have published your blog post the first thing you should be doing is sharing to every social media platform that you have a presence on. You don't have to stop there, you should also share your blog post to other relevant communities and groups. Do this everyday for the first week in order to reach as many people as possible. Try posting at different times in order to spread the reach of your blog post. Make sure you add a striking image to your Pinterest profile if you already have one. A Pinterest image should be at least 736x1200 pixels in size.

2. Respond

Respond and reply to ALL comments (good or bad) on your blog posts. After all even bad feedback if it is constructive can help us all learn and improve.

3. Develop Alternative Content

Explore ways of turning your blog post into alternative content. You could create an mp3 version https://www.kittykornercatfurniture.com of your blog post that you can download from your website. Consider making your posts a podcast if you plan to publish on a regular basis. Maybe get in front of the camera and record a video to post on YouTube with links back to your own website.

4. Revive old posts

Don't think that just because a blog post was done two, three or four months ago that it has served its purpose. You can go back and review your posts and update them as necessary. Then, give them a new lease on life by re-sharing or re-formatting.