Get the most out of your blog posts

When it comes to starting a blog, it can sometimes be a lonely experience…

You are dedicated to writing great content filled with useful information that you know your target audience will love.

But how do you get the best out of each of your blog posts?

More importantly, how do you reach the people who actually want to read what you have to say on your blog?

Well, that’s why I’m here to help you. I’ve put together some guidelines that, if followed, should significantly increase the reach of your blog posts.

Blog Post Checklist

1. Title of the blog
When writing a title for your blog post, you should give it some serious thought. The headline is your headline, it’s what will make people decide if they want to keep reading or just skip ahead. Try to keep your title short and to the point. Always include your main keyword within your title to improve your posts SEO. If you’re having a hard time finding a title you like, try ‘Omens Content Idea Generator’ for some alternative and often funny suggestions.

2. Happy
Make sure the main body of your post is easy to read. Minimize paragraphs to no more than five lines. Keep sentences short – twenty words or fewer are recommended. Use plain English: This is not a place to brag about your understanding of the longest words in the English language. Break up your text with subheadings – This not only makes your readers’ experience easier to digest, but it also makes your post look more interesting.

Remember that your blog will be read by like-minded people who are interested in what you have to say, but you still need to make sure that the content is interesting enough to hold their interest.

3. Images
Be sure to include at least one featured image. Human beings are visual creatures and a striking characteristic image will catch their attention. When uploading an image, make sure it is not too large in terms of data size so that it will load quickly. Don’t forget to fill out the alt attribute box for your image, and be sure to include your keyword in the description.

4. SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Basically, the better your SEO, the better chance your blog post has to appear higher in the search engine rankings.

There are a number of things you can do to improve your SEO.

Make sure your main keywords are included in your title, in the first paragraph of your post, and used frequently throughout your post.

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

Include alt attributes on the images you use so that this is displayed in case your image fails to load.

Also write a short meta description and include your keyword(s). The meta description is the text that appears below your main title in search engine results.

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

6. Give credit to your sources
If you’ve done research for your blog post or used quotes or content from elsewhere, be sure to give credit to your sources. This will not only give your own content credibility, but it will also show your readers that what you say is backed up by trusted sources.

7. Social Sharing
When you set up your blog, make sure you have social sharing buttons available from the start. This gives your readers the ability to share on their chosen social platform with just one click.

8. Finish and publish
Finally end your post with a question to your readers to encourage comments. Alternatively, submit a CTA related to your post, i.e. download your free guide here.

The last thing you should do before posting is review everything. If you need to make changes, do so, then reread everything to make sure everything is as it should.

Post Post To Do List

1. Share and reshare
Once you’ve published your blog post, the first thing you need to do is share it on all the social media platforms you have a presence on. Don’t stop there though, post to all relevant groups and communities as well. Do this every day for the first week to reach as many people as possible. Try posting at different times to spread the reach of your blog post. If you have a presence on Pinterest, create an eye-catching image to accompany your post. The optimal size for a Pinterest image is 736 x 1200 pixels.

2. Answer
Reply and respond to ALL comments (good or bad) on your blog posts. After all, even bad feedback, if it’s constructive, can help all of us learn and improve.

3. Develop alternative content
Explore ways to turn your blog post into alternative content. For example, you could record a verbal mp3 version to download from your website. If you intend to post regularly, why not consider turning your post into a podcast? Maybe get in front of the camera and record a video to post on YouTube with links to your own website.

4. Revive old posts
Don’t think that just because a blog post was made two, three, or four months ago that it has served its purpose. Go back through your old posts, update and improve them if necessary, then give them a new lease of life by resharing and reformatting.

you can use the revive old post plugin to do this for you if you have a WordPress based blog.

If you found this article helpful, please leave a comment below, or if you have any tips or suggestions of your own, feel free to share them.