What Every Blog Needs to Be Successful

Writing a blog can be a challenge, so make sure you know what every blog needs to be successful. Blogging is an easy way to increase traffic to your website. The more exposure your website gets, the more likely you’ll rank on search engines like Google. Eventually, an effective blogging strategy will result in an increase in new customers and improved customer retention.

HERE ARE A FEW THINGS TO CONSIDER:

Types of Articles

Shotgun
Deep Dive

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Keywords
Value

Blogging Strategies

Pillar Cluster Model
Distribution/Promotion

TYPES OF ARTICLES

Shotgun:

The shotgun strategy is intended to reach as many people as possible, without focusing on any topic in particular. The goal of shotgun content is to bring in as much traffic to your website as possible, but it doesn’t typically lead to more sales.

In order for these articles to be effective, you’ll need to write at least 10 articles per month. Each article should be around 350-700 words long with correlating keywords.

Write about as many topics as you can think of! Obviously, you’ll want to try and tie it back in with your business, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

Deep Dive:

The Deep Dive strategy is the exact opposite of the Shotgun strategy. The goal of this type of article is to reach a very specific target audience and buyer persona. These articles cover a single topic with very in-depth information.

These articles are usually over 2,000 words long and includes helpful visuals like infographics and videos. The information you provide is typically well-researched and includes your own sources and links to any outside sources.

Because these articles can take such a long time to write, it’s okay to only produce one every couple of months. You should implement several keywords (including long-tail keywords) to get the best results.

Don’t be discouraged if these articles don’t receive a lot of web traffic. The people that read your article will have a specific problem and will be much more likely to buy your product/service.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Keywords:

Keywords are a critical component of SEO and it’s the easiest thing you can do as you write. Keywords are terms that people type into a search engine like Google, such as:

“Home improvement ideas”
“Best RV dealers in Texas”
“How to maintain an RV”
“When to hire a contractor”

The list could go on and on. Each one of the phrases listed are considered keywords targeting that specific query. Once you have identified the topic you’d like to write about, make sure to research your keywords in a Keyword Planner. This will show you how much traffic those keywords get and how difficult it will be to rank on a search engine.

Here are some best practices when it comes to keywords:

Don’t saturate the content with keywords
- Google will actually penalize your content if they notice you’re just trying to cram a bunch of keywords in an article. A good rule of thumb would be to include one keyword for every 200 words written.
Include the keywords in the URL
- The keywords should appear in the link to the blog article. Usually you can accomplish this by simply using the keyword in the title of your article.
Use the keywords in a header
- If possible, using a H2 tag for your keyword will help make your article more searchable. But don’t try to have a header with a keyword unless it seems natural to the content you’re writing.

Value:

Artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day, with no indication of slowing down. Searches are becoming more conversational and less fragmented. A big reason this is happening is because of voice search (these are things like Siri, Alexa, OK Google, etc.).

By 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches
Approximately 30% of all searches will be done without a screen by 2020
55% of households in the United States are predicted to own a smart speaker by 2022

With this shift toward conversational searches, search engines are preparing to alter their algorithms. It will be more important for you to provide valuable and useful content for your readers. If you’re writing a blog just for the sake of blogging… it won’t have much of an impact.

BLOGGING STRATEGIES

Pillar Cluster Model:

This is a pretty in-depth topic… but we’ll try to break it down more simply. If you’d like to learn more about the pillar-cluster model, HubSpot is a great resource. If anyone knows what every blog needs to be successful, it’s HubSpot.

The goal of the pillar cluster model is to organize blog posts into specific topic areas. The pillar is the main general article or web page that connects all the other articles relating to that topic. The clusters are the specific pieces of content that dive deeper into areas of that pillar.

Here is the example that HubSpot provides to help illustrate this concept for what every blog needs to be successful:

With search engines transitioning to conversational searches, the pillar-cluster model is what every blog needs to start implementing.

Distribution/Promotion:

Writing a blog won’t do you much good if no one knows where to find it. You can hope that you’ll rank on Google for the keywords you’ve chosen, but it’s quite a challenge. You’ll actually be more successful if you repurpose your content for your customers.

Here are a few examples of how you can provide value to the customer, while also promoting your content:

Email Drip Campaigns
- Do you have customers you’ve worked with in the past? Or a new prospect that you’re trying to nurture to make a purchase? Send them valuable content they will enjoy. Using blog articles is a great way to provide a lot of value, without seeming like a pushy salesman. You can set up several emails to distribute automatically, each with different and helpful blog articles.
Social Media
- Are you using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook effectively? Add links to helpful blogs and write a quick summary about what they can expect to find in those articles. If you write engaging and conversational content, you can expect to gain a stronger following. If your customers like what they read, they’ll be more likely to share it with their network. This is what causes a chain reaction of traffic to your website.
Outreach
- Find other blogs that promote similar content. Reach out to the authors of those blogs and ask them if they will link to your relevant content. This process will also help you rank higher in search engine results.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what every blog needs to include. As you can see, this can be a very time-consuming process if you try to pack everything into one article. But, with practice, these steps will start to come naturally as you write your content.

What Every Blog Needs to Be Successful

HERE ARE A FEW THINGS TO CONSIDER:

TYPES OF ARTICLES

Shotgun:

The shotgun strategy is intended to reach as many people as possible, without focusing on any topic in particular. The goal of shotgun content is to bring in as much traffic to your website as possible, but it doesn’t typically lead to more sales.

In order for these articles to be effective, you’ll need to write at least 10 articles per month. Each article should be around 350-700 words long with correlating keywords.

Write about as many topics as you can think of! Obviously, you’ll want to try and tie it back in with your business, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

Deep Dive:

The Deep Dive strategy is the exact opposite of the Shotgun strategy. The goal of this type of article is to reach a very specific target audience and buyer persona. These articles cover a single topic with very in-depth information.

These articles are usually over 2,000 words long and includes helpful visuals like infographics and videos. The information you provide is typically well-researched and includes your own sources and links to any outside sources.

Because these articles can take such a long time to write, it’s okay to only produce one every couple of months. You should implement several keywords (including long-tail keywords) to get the best results.

Don’t be discouraged if these articles don’t receive a lot of web traffic. The people that read your article will have a specific problem and will be much more likely to buy your product/service.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Keywords:

Keywords are a critical component of SEO and it’s the easiest thing you can do as you write. Keywords are terms that people type into a search engine like Google, such as:

“Home improvement ideas”

“Best RV dealers in Texas”

“How to maintain an RV”

“When to hire a contractor”

Here are some best practices when it comes to keywords:

Don’t saturate the content with keywords

Google will actually penalize your content if they notice you’re just trying to cram a bunch of keywords in an article. A good rule of thumb would be to include one keyword for every 200 words written.

Include the keywords in the URL

The keywords should appear in the link to the blog article. Usually you can accomplish this by simply using the keyword in the title of your article.

Use the keywords in a header

If possible, using a H2 tag for your keyword will help make your article more searchable. But don’t try to have a header with a keyword unless it seems natural to the content you’re writing.

Value:

Artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day, with no indication of slowing down. Searches are becoming more conversational and less fragmented. A big reason this is happening is because of voice search (these are things like Siri, Alexa, OK Google, etc.).

By 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches

Approximately 30% of all searches will be done without a screen by 2020

55% of households in the United States are predicted to own a smart speaker by 2022

With this shift toward conversational searches, search engines are preparing to alter their algorithms. It will be more important for you to provide valuable and useful content for your readers. If you’re writing a blog just for the sake of blogging… it won’t have much of an impact.

BLOGGING STRATEGIES

Pillar Cluster Model:

This is a pretty in-depth topic… but we’ll try to break it down more simply. If you’d like to learn more about the pillar-cluster model, HubSpot is a great resource. If anyone knows what every blog needs to be successful, it’s HubSpot.

The goal of the pillar cluster model is to organize blog posts into specific topic areas. The pillar is the main general article or web page that connects all the other articles relating to that topic. The clusters are the specific pieces of content that dive deeper into areas of that pillar.

Here is the example that HubSpot provides to help illustrate this concept for what every blog needs to be successful:

Topic: Instagram Marketing

Pillar Content: Instagram Marketing

Cluster Content:

The anatomy of a perfect Instagram profile

How to write good Instagram captions: 8 bookmarkable tips for perfecting your copy

How to use Instagram stories: a simple guide for marketers

With search engines transitioning to conversational searches, the pillar-cluster model is what every blog needs to start implementing.

Distribution/Promotion:

Writing a blog won’t do you much good if no one knows where to find it. You can hope that you’ll rank on Google for the keywords you’ve chosen, but it’s quite a challenge. You’ll actually be more successful if you repurpose your content for your customers.

Here are a few examples of how you can provide value to the customer, while also promoting your content:

Email Drip Campaigns

Social Media

Outreach

Find other blogs that promote similar content. Reach out to the authors of those blogs and ask them if they will link to your relevant content. This process will also help you rank higher in search engine results.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what every blog needs to include. As you can see, this can be a very time-consuming process if you try to pack everything into one article. But, with practice, these steps will start to come naturally as you write your content.

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