Stay with us in this article to learn the key points of blogging.

In 2015, Si Quan created a dance blog with his friends. While they did not know about blogging and SEO, they managed to get more than three thousand monthly visitors to their blog at best. Si Quan now works at Ahrefs, where their blog has received 270,000 monthly visitor searches over the years. During such experiences, you can get many tips on how to get more traffic and readers for blogs. In this article, we’re going to tell you some of the key blogging tips that all newbies wish they knew right from the start.

  17 blogging tips

1- make nich

Statista estimates that the number of bloggers in the US will reach 31.7 million by the end of 2020. This statistic is only for America! This means that if you want to start a blog today, there is a lot of competition. Fortunately, there is a way to stand out and attract readers to your blog: Niching. What does this mean? Niching means focusing on a very specific subject and becoming a professional expert on that subject.

For example, if you want to create a blog about travel, it might be better to focus only on travel in the UK. If you want to create a blog about business, maybe starting a successful home business for parents who don’t have a lot of free time can be your way to success. Later, when your blog gets some attention, you can branch out and talk about broader topics.

This is actually what Ahrefs and many other blogs did. Ahrefs started by focusing strictly on SEO and trying to do it better than anyone else. This started their initial growth. In 2018, they decided to also talk about broader topics such as marketing ideas and podcast promotions.

Mark Manson’s blog was originally about men and dating. Ramit Sethi, founder of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, started his blog by writing about the intersection of psychology and personal finances. So the lesson of this episode is pretty clear, if you want to get noticed, build a niche.

2- Write about topics that people are searching for

51% of all website traffic comes from organic search. This means that for your blog to do well, you need to write about topics that people are searching for. The question is how to find these topics. The answer is that keyword research tools should be used to get an idea about this.

For example, you can enter a keyword into AnswerThePublic and the tool will show you questions related to that keyword that people are typing into Google.

There are many free keyword tools in the world that you can choose from. Unfortunately, while these tools are great for getting ideas, most of them don’t show keyword metrics like monthly search volume. This is an important problem. Because there is no point in writing about something that no one is searching for.

The solution is to use a professional keyword research tool like Keyword Explorer from Ahrefs, where you will find many more ideas along with important keyword metrics.

3- Consider the subjects in which your competitors perform best

Wouldn’t it be great if you could see which of your competitors’ articles are getting the most traffic so you can try to replicate their success? you can! Many blogs feature their best articles.

From here, it’s easy to figure out which keywords your competitor is trying to rank for by looking at URLs and headlines. For example, I can click on this article – The Ultimate Guide to Men’s Hair Products – I can guess that this men’s beard brand is targeting “men’s hair products” or “hair products”.

Although this work is not considered a data-driven process. We don’t know how the men’s beard brand chose these popular posts, and we can’t know if they resulted in more traffic. A better way is to enter your competitor’s domain into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, then go to the Top Pages section to see which articles are driving the most organic traffic to their site.

For example, we can see that BeardBrand’s article on beard styles receives approximately 8,717 organic hits per month, and out of the 3,260 keywords they rank for, beard styles sends them the most traffic. This is a great way to find good topics to write about.

4- Think about the intention of the search

Google always tries to provide the most relevant results for the queries searched by users. This means that if you want to rank high in Google and receive more organic and passive traffic, you must be in the most relevant result mode for the desired queries. The translation of this phrase is that you should produce content that is in line with the search intent or search intent of the users.

How to understand the search intent? Fortunately, since Google tries to show the most relevant results, you can use this to your advantage. Just take a look at the top 10 results for your topic and see which page designs are currently ranking.

5- Produce content that is worth being a reference

Four years ago, the head of marketing at Ahrefs produced a fantastic 5,000-word article on strategic writing. He then contacted Rand Fishkin, an SEO and marketing influencer, to tell him about the article in hopes of sharing it with his audience. Rand rejected the offer. What was the reason? The post was long, but it didn’t have any unique points. This article was a compilation of various points currently on the web.

Four years later, Rand retweeted Ahrefs’ post about podcast advertising, though they hadn’t told him anything about the post. Why did you share the post this time? The reason is simple; Because Ahrefs did their due diligence, they knew all the ins and outs of sponsoring podcasts and could provide a unique perspective that no one else had. In summary, the article was worth referencing.

Telling you to produce great content isn’t practical, but making sure your content is worth mentioning is a more logical model to work towards. It’s also much easier to spot if you have something fantastic in your hands.

  • Is your article unique?
  • Did you offer ideas, points of view, or perspectives that no one else had talked about?
  • Are people citing or linking to your article?
  • Are people sharing and talking about your article?

If your answer is a resounding yes, great! If not, go back to your workshop and work on it again. You can always add a unique perspective by including data, taking surveys, and gaining experience.

6- Make your posts easy to read

Ahrefs head of marketing, Tim Solow, says, “No one likes to read.” They are just looking for information. If they can download this information directly to their brains, they will.” No one can’t wait to read your article. They prefer to watch their favorite series on Netflix instead of reading your article.

So, your job as a writer is to help them decide to start reading. As one of the most famous copywriters in the world, Bond Halbert, says: “Good writing makes for easy reading.” To do this, you need to know how to edit your text to make it easy to read. The best book we’ve found on this is Bond Halbert’s book on editing.

Let’s take a look at some tips that we have implemented in our writings after reading this book.

  • Use short paragraphs: Bond calls this “creating a comfortable space for the eye.” Large chunks of text intimidate readers, but short paragraphs invite them in. Tools like Hemingway help you do this easier.
  • Break up long sentences: People usually read in their heads. So long sentences become hard to follow so quickly. Break these sentences by finding alternatives for the places where you used “and”, “because” and “so”.
  • Include multimedia: Videos, photos, GIFs, etc. can help you further illustrate key points without having to add more words.
  • Use formatting: Bold and italic fonts, quotes, and lists break up large chunks of text and add extra emphasis to key points.
  • Read your text out loud: This will help you identify parts of your content that don’t flow or become boring.

7- Write great headlines

On average, people read headlines 5 times more than the main text. Most people find content through search or social media and usually decide whether or not to read the content based on its title. This makes headlines the most critical part of your content. You need to learn how to write catchy headlines that grab your audience’s attention and make them want to read more about your topic.

Although you shouldn’t be looking to write clickbait, it does mean you should understand how good headlines work.

Check out the most popular blogs on the internet and see how they create headlines: Tim Ferris may not have branded himself as an internet marketer, but he sure knows how to write headlines that resonate with his audience.

Use templates: Most headlines are variations of proven formulas. You need to know what they are and how to make the best use of them.

Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer: If you’re not too sure about your headline, you can use this free tool to evaluate it.

8- Write a good introduction

The job of the title is to make the reader read the first sentence. Then, it’s time for your introduction to hook them and make them want to read the rest of the post. So if your introduction is long and boring or feels like formal writing, it’s time to change your writing style.

Ahrefs has a formula for writing introductions called APP. First, they align. In a sentence or two, show your readers that you understand the problem they are facing.

By doing this, your readers will feel that you empathize with them and their challenges. Then, it’s time to present your articles as a solution.

Tell them that you have found a solution to this problem. You can also explain the solution as concisely as possible without revealing everything. Always leave a blank space intact so that people will want to read more.

Finally, we have proof.

This is where you explain why your audience should trust you. Because you should always give the possibility that your readers are seeing your blog for the first time. You should visualize your success, experience, or expertise.

9- Do on-page SEO

On-page SEO is the act of optimizing content to get a higher rank on the search results page.

This topic includes simple activities such as:

Include target keywords in the title, meta description, and H1 tags: This will help you show searchers that your page is the most relevant result for their search query.

Use descriptive and short URLs: A descriptive URL tells you what to expect from the page you want. Searchers usually click on results that tell them what to expect from the page.

On-page SEO is more than just adding exact-match keywords to your text. The presence of related words and sentences is also very important. Google has confirmed this and says:

“Think about it: When you search for ‘dogs,’ you probably aren’t looking for a page with the word ‘dogs’ written in it a hundred times. With this in mind, the algorithms evaluate the pages to see if they contain other content related to the keyword ‘dogs’, such as pictures of dogs, videos, and even a list of their breeds.”

The question is how to optimize for such a thing.

If you are writing about something you already know a lot about, you may not need to do this. Because chances are you will add related words and sentences without even realizing it. Otherwise, if you’re not an expert on the topic you’re writing about, try this trick. Put a few of your top keyword pages into the Ahrefs Content Gap tool and make sure you select the URL mode from the dropdown menu.

10- Get feedback about your writings

Ahref took a month to write his first blog post, not because he was procrastinating. Because my drafts were being torn apart one after another by our team’s editors. All blog posts should be scrutinized in this way. Team members should take turns to read the content produced by each other and provide their feedback. They should identify areas that should be removed or added, points that need more clarification, sentences that could be better put together, etc.

This is why some blogs are continuously recommended by people. You also need to make sure that your readers know that the article they are reading is not the work of just one person, but that many people have worked together to make it look great.

Don’t ignore this suggestion just because you are working on a blog alone. Ryan Holiday says it well: “Nobody cares about super early drafts. No one can write second drafts that are better than first drafts without someone else’s input.”

If you want to do something extraordinary, you have to involve someone else. This person can be your colleague or life partner. You can ask on social networks if anyone is interested in helping you, or you can also join communities created to improve drafts. The presence of these people will make your work much, much better.

11- Connect with people you admire

Have you ever wondered why famous bloggers know each other? This is not a coincidence. Blogging is hard work. Going at it alone is challenging but with the help of others, blogging becomes manageable. That’s why smart bloggers reach out to each other and collaborate. They suggest each other, help each other, and introduce each other to their audience on different platforms. This is how you can grow more day by day. You should do it too.

The more people know about you, the better your work will be. More experienced people can provide better input to your content. They give you tips, refer you, or link to you, and can share your content with their followers. Don’t be afraid of their credibility or large number of followers. All the famous bloggers you know were once unknown. What distinguished them from others was the willingness to put aside their fears and pride and contact those who were better known than them. These bloggers understand this. They will be more than happy to help you, but only if you use the right strategies.

12- Build an email list

Do you have a Facebook fan page? Good luck, because Facebook might take it down at any moment. Do you have a YouTube channel? They can delete you whenever they want. If you only build your following on an external platform, don’t be surprised if they delete you or limit your reach. The best way to combat this is to create an email list.

As long as your fans are members of your list, you can communicate with them whenever you want. How to build an email list? You need two components; Traffic and a valuable thing.

If you follow the tips mentioned in this post, you will most likely have no problem attracting traffic to your blog. So the next step is to encourage them to join your list. To do this, you must offer something in exchange for membership. For example, in Ahrefs, they do this by showing a horizontal box at the end of the article.

Since the reader enjoyed the article (because they scrolled down to the end), they offered to receive the content they liked in their email inbox. Remember that you can do anything you want with this, you can offer a free e-book, a PDF version of a post, a free email course, etc… all you need is a little creativity.

13- Promote your content in online communities

Relevant online communities are where your target audience spends their time. They can be communities such as Facebook groups, Instagram, Slack, Reddit, discussion forums, etc. This was Si Quan’s main strategy when he sought to attract attention to his blog, according to his own words.

14- Write guest posts for other blogs

Ramit Sethi credits his guest post on the Tim Ferris blog as the post that made his book a bestseller. If you want to attract attention, don’t just write for your blog. Use this credit of others so that you can get more traffic and links and build your brand. You may be wondering why they should let you do this.

It’s simple, most popular blogs are built on great content, but creating great content consistently is hard work. So if you offer to write them a great article for free, why should they say no?

Today, most people find guest blogging opportunities this way.

15- Update the old content

As you progress in blogging, your thoughts, viewpoints, and knowledge will also change. You’ll learn more about your industry, learn new things, and improve your writing style. If you don’t update your old content to reflect the new knowledge and new ideas you’ve learned, you’re doing your audience a disservice. In addition, updating the content has an SEO advantage.

Think about it: even if you rank #1, your competitors are trying to get to the top spot, or Google might de-rank you because it thinks your content is out of date. So you should try to always have up-to-date and fresh content. Many big blogs do this.

For example, Ahrefs recently updated their post on how to get website traffic and the organic traffic they got from this update was huge. If you use Google Analytics, you can easily find the pages whose traffic is decreasing. Otherwise, put a bunch of your older pages into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool and take a look at the organic traffic graph in the Overview report.

This usually happens because your content has expired. The solution to this problem is to refresh the expired sections. However, in some cases, you may find that you need to rewrite the entire article.

16- Have a public notebook

According to Ryan Holiday, the public notebook actually:

“A central source or repository for the ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations, and information you come across throughout your life and your studies. The purpose of this notebook is to record and organize these useful things for you to use in the future in your life, business, writing, speaking, or anything else you do.

Why should you have one?

because of two reasons:

  1. Did you notice that we included several quotes from different people in this article? A public notebook makes this easier and faster.
  2. There are days when you do not make any progress in your work. Where you’ve been staring at your blank page for hours with nothing to show for it, a quick review of your scrapbook can help inspire you and spark ideas for what to write.

How to create one of these notebooks? For example, we do this with Notion, a project management application.

As we read a book, we create a lot of highlights. After we are done, we move them to a new page in the appropriate category. If we need something, we can easily go to any category or search for what we want.

17- Write every day

How did James Clear become one of the most popular bloggers as well as a consistent best-selling author? Practice.

For four years, he committed to publishing an article every Monday and Thursday. The process showcased her writing skills, popularized her blog, and eventually landed her a book deal, Atomic Habits. Because it is no secret that blogging is writing, but to write well, you need to practice continuously.

It doesn’t have to be very special. Just focus on getting into the habit of putting pen to paper daily. It doesn’t have to be a blog post, it can be a tweet, Instagram post, blog comment, email, or anything else. The more you practice, the better your content will be.

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