by Slingshot Bloggers Buffer
You’re doing great! You started a blog and have been posting on a regular basis with diligence. But sometimes frequency isn’t enough to have a successful blog that adds value to your website and increases your visibility in searches. Content that is consistently of high quality is essential for your blog to move forward and there are a few tips you can use to stir up your routine and give your blog content more impact.
1. Proofread: Proper grammar doesn’t have to be sacrificed.
It’s true that social media is meant to be personable and a more casual form of contact, but when it comes to blogging, don’t forsake everything you learned in your high school English class. Of course there may end up being a spelling or grammar error or two, I know I’ve certainly been guilty of this before in my posts, but too many grammatical mistakes can detract from your credibility.
Read over what you wrote at least twice, perhaps reading from the bottom up once in order to get a different perspective on how the structure will be interpreted by readers. Blogging guru Teli Adlam also suggests that “if you don’t trust your proofreading abilities, enlist the aide of someone whose abilities you do trust to give your document a once over.” A pair of fresh eyes can catch a lot of mistakes and ensure clarity.
2. Utilize Multi-Part Posts: There’s always more to tell.
One incredibly long post, no matter what the content or who the author, runs the risk of losing the short attention span of online readers. One great example of a successfully structured multi-part post is Slingshot President Kevin Bailey’s posts:
How Do I Value SEO Rankings? Pt.1
How Do I Value SEO Rankings? Pt.2
Breaking up this information not only gives you multiple posts to put up on your site, it also keeps viewers coming back for more.
3. Mix Up Your Content Type: There’s more to life than text.
Thinking outside the box of text as your content, you could also incorporate podcasts, videos or e-books in order to engage users. This is particularly important if you are posting blogs on a very regular basis, such as once a day, to break up the monotony for your readers and for you as the content producer. ReelSEO provides a large number of videos to attract visual learners and the structure for categories is very easy to navigate.
However, you must bear in mind that any other form of content used for your blogs must meet the same quality standards that you have for text. Don’t sacrifice quality for variety.
4. Update Older Content: Recycle your great ideas.
Refreshing old content on your blog is one of the simplest methods to show readers that you are keeping up with trends and technologies. If you find yourself struggling to come up with a blog topic for the day, go through previous posts on your website and see if you have any new thoughts or information on these topics.
If you find that your blog isn’t accurate anymore, write an update to the old post or create a new post regarding the reasons why the old post is updated and the events or developments that caused the change. This will increase your credibility and market edge.
You could also consider playing devil’s advocate to your original post. Presenting the opposite point of view exhibits that you are well versed with all angles of the topic and much of the research will already be done before you begin.
5. Invite Guest Bloggers: See what others have to offer.
Blogging consultant Chris Garrett comments in his post How To Guest Blog Without Disaster that, “Guest writing on blogs can help you reach a new audience, build a better profile, network and perhaps grab a powerful link or two.” Guest blogging adds fresh content and a fresh perspective within the realm of your website, which is a factor that can fade with time when you have become accustomed to your usual blogging routine.
In order to ensure that this tactic is beneficial rather than detrimental to your blogging success, do the proper research when finding a guest blogger and don’t throw just anyone’s post out there. Some bloggers may be writing just for the link they receive so you need to have a reliable source with motives beyond linking and one that will contribute valuable content.