10 Tips to Get Your Blog Noticed in 2017

Blogging is an established form of Content Marketing and one of the most cutting edge forms of marketing available to marketers today. Blogging is possible for anyone with a new idea and access to a website. And its effectiveness shows, with 79% of companies that engage in blogging reporting a positive ROI for inbound marketing.

Blogging has become a common trend that is being practiced by people of all walks of life including C.E.Os, university students, small business owners as well as lone individuals, among others. The latest statistics as at 2012 – courtesy of Blogging.org – show there are close to 31 million bloggers in the United States (U.S.) alone. Furthermore, over 300 million people were viewing blogs monthly whereas there were close to 400,000 comments posted daily on various blog posts.

These numbers clearly attest to the fact blogging is a booming economy that can reap plentiful dividends for bloggers if done right. The key to this is to get your blog noticed by visitors to the Internet by providing original content that satisfies their thirst for information – and this is where the problem begins. Most of those engaged in blogging find it an arduous task transforming their blogging activities into money minting opportunities. The stats from Blogging.org clearly underline this fact when they state that only 2 per cent of bloggers make at least $150,000 from this activity.

Top Tips for Getting your Blog Noticed

So how do you get your blog noticed? Well, there is no silver bullet or magic solution to getting it right. There are fundamental practices you must be cognizant of when blogging:

Understand your niche and stick to it

One of the biggest headaches encountered by bloggers is finding a suitable niche that they can base their blog upon. This challenge is quite common for individual bloggers unlike their counterparts who are blogging for a business or company since in their case they already have a defined niche. There is a danger in focusing on a single subject area because this may restrict your writing landscape. At the same time, choosing to focus on multiple niches might confuse your readers and possibly turn them away.

Solving such a problem requires that you understand the purpose for which you have set up the blog. It may be to promote a product, ignite a debate on a certain issue or highlighting matters that are trending in the public domain. Understanding the goal of your blog will help you determine the target audience or readership for it – these are the people that often crave for the information you wish to offer. Equally vital is the need to understand and determine the type of value you are adding for your target readers in the niche you have chosen to delve in.

Interact with readers and other blogs

Getting comments or feedback to your blog post is a sure sign that your blog is garnering the attention it deserves. This is the same case when people start to talk about you or your business in other forums. How do you ensure this? One trick is to make sure to respond to comments posted by your readers on your blog posts – whether positive or negative. This shows your readers that you appreciate them for taking time to read your content and that you are conscious of their opinions. You can also ask thought-provoking questions at the end of your posts to enable readers engage in a debate on the issues under focus.

You can also interact with other blogs that either are in the same niche or in a related one. This can be accomplished by directing traffic to these blogs by providing links to them in your various blog posts. Readers who click on these links can then be redirected to the subsequent blogs where the additional information is contained. Other blogs are sure to repay the gesture by providing links to your blog posts, which can get you more traffic via their readers.

Focus on SEO friendly content

Search engines, such as, Google, Yahoo and Bing provide the perfect platform for bloggers to put out their work for the world to see since many people use these avenues to look for information on the Internet. Ranking high on the search results of these search engines is a most treasured achievement because users are likely to click on the pages that rank first on these search engines. Research on the keywords used in search engines by most Internet users who are looking information related to your blog’s niche. You can then incorporate these words into your blog post titles as well as body. A key pointer is to always restrict your blog title to 120 characters. Ensure that the content is original and valuable to the reader – as pertains to information.

Utilize social media

A grave sin would be to ignore the importance of the social media in blogging since Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus or Twitter are platforms where a lot of conversation goes on online. You should allow your readers to share your blog post with their friends on social media who are likely to share it with other peers. Soon, the post will have been ‘broadcasted’ among multiple people – this is known as word-of-mouth advertising. On your blog, you can install the buttons for each of these social media such that readers can share your content with others by clicking on these buttons, which will automatically share your articles with their peers on these platforms.

Avoid jargon

Understanding the information needs of your readers is not enough to guarantee increased spotlight on your blog. You need to package this information in the right format that is easily understandable by the readers. Avoid the use of jargon or technical words when you know that this is not what your readership is used to. For example, a poetry blog will not need to sound like a press release because this is an informal context where you are supposed to encourage people to maximize their creativity.

In some instances, it might be beneficial to use images or videos as some readers may be able to better understand and consume information this way. Understanding and speaking your reader’s language – via your blog posts – will benefit your SEO objectives as well as enhance reader-writer engagement.

Post regularly

Garnering traffic for your blog will demand that you don’t rest on your laurels and instead stick to your writing and posting schedule. If you decide to put out a blog post every two days, then you should establish consistency in doing the same. Nothing puts off your readers than finding old content on your website that they had encountered before. They will most certainly shift their attention elsewhere as this amounts to a failure – on your side – to quench the thirst of your readers for information. Of course, keep in mind that your original and relevant information is what got them there in the first place. Thus, it is imperative that the quality of your content remain consistent.

Spice up your blog posts

Sticking to the same blog post format, authorship and length can sometimes make for a boring reading, which may eventually lose you readership. You can add a little variety to your blog posts by at least tweaking the format or incorporating guest writers on the blog. These changes could be instituted at least once per month. Altering the format could involve changing to an interview-type story or opting for a video transcription. Guest authors could be industry colleagues or professors with unbridled experience in the subject area.

Post at appropriate days and time

With a regular stream of quality content, your blog should become a welcome distraction for many readers in their workplaces. Posting your blog content on weekdays can reap dividends for you than during weekends because many people are unlikely to go online during the latter period. In contrast, weekdays sees a lot of people gain access to the Internet by virtue of their workplaces.

Understand blogging trends

Understanding what is currently happening in the blogging world will provide you with the right knowledge upon which you can develop your blogging strategies. Information about the most successful post thus far in your blog should be at your fingertips as should be the same case for information on the blog entries with the highest conversion rates. Having all this information first-hand will guide you in developing new ideas for blog format, content ideas as well as timing.

Make your blog visually appealing

The benefits of making your blog visually appealing often come to the fore through the social media. Reward for eye-catchy images in your blog include multiple shares, likes, comments, retweets from Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn use. Some of the visual images you can incorporate in your blog posts include infographics, photos, videos and memes. Take care not to overload your blog posts with a lot of images as this could distract attention from the gist of the content. Your blog may also have to endure webpages that load slowly.

Remember, blogging is an exercise that demands dedication as well as persistence. Do not jump straight into the money-making process, rather you will have to take some time establishing the blog to make it renowned among your readership. Adhering to the aforementioned tips religiously is guaranteed to get your blog to the leading pack as far as the most popular blogs (in your niche) are concerned.

Check out the infographic about Blogging for your Business via the link or below.