Regularly written blog posts can do so much for your SEO, reach, business and more! Blogs should be filled with valuable and relevant information – for your audience. But, setting up your blog posts so they do well, is just as important as writing one that is valuable to your readers. Establishing the right systems will pay off in the long run. Today we are here to give you a few tips so that you can set up your posts for success.
Wait before hitting “publish”
When you are first done writing your post – hit “save” instead of “publish”. Take a break and come back later to take another look at the post with a fresh set of eyes. Look for any ways you can polish it up or for any items that need editing & fixing before publishing.
Add Images
Jazz up your posts with visuals! Visuals are key to driving traffic from social media and Pinterest. Prepare attention-grabbing images for your blog posts, social media (in the correct sizes) and for Pinterest. If you need stock images, we have links to free sites here!
Set a Featured Image
When choosing and creating images for your blog make sure you choose a featured image. This is the image that will appear on your website (next to the blog title) and on any shared links of your blog post.
Add Alt text
“Alt tags”, “alt descriptions,” and “alt text” is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.
Anytime you save an image to your computer for your blog post, make sure it is saved with a title that includes relevant keywords or even better, your blog post title and then upload it to your post. Then make sure on the upload screen (to your blog) that you fill in the alt text area with a keyword rich description of your article/image.
Optimize
Always think about SEO when writing your posts! Make sure you have added meta tags, meta title, and meta description. Also, don’t forget to check your posts for target keywords and keyword phrases. If you don’t have it already – download a plugin like Yoast SEO. This will assist you greatly in optimizing your blog posts for SEO!
Also – whenever possible, add links to your products/services or relevant older articles to your current blog post! Adding links to your other content keeps visitors on your website longer and it directs them to other useful relevant information!
Set up Social Networks
If you have not done this yet because you are not on social media yet, now is the time! Go to each network and secure them in your business name. If someone has already taken your name, you can get creative and change it around (but not diverting too much from your business name) for example if your name that is taken is @BartletInk then you can change it to something like @BartletIncCo.
The big players in the social networks that you don’t want to miss out on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Lock those down as soon as possible! If your audience is on other networks like Snapchat, make sure to grab that as well!
Add follow buttons
Include social follow buttons on all pages of your website (usually found in a top corner and on the bottom of your page). These buttons tell people where to find YOU on social media so they can follow you.
Add social share buttons
This is not the same as the follow buttons. Social share buttons will appear above and/or below your blog posts. They allow visitors to share your blog posts on their own social media account feeds. This is a great way to get your articles in front of the eyes of others! This also allows you to add an “email”, “bookmark” and “print” option to your posts. You can download a free social share plugin on WordPress and easily set it up.
Add Pin/Save buttons
WordPress plugins such as “Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover” allows people to pin your beautiful images directly to Pinterest. This is great because all those on their feeds will see it as well and may pin and read your article. This is also where your alt text comes in handy! Pinterest uses your alt-text as the description of the pinned image – so make sure it is your blog title post and/or a keyword rich enticing description!
Add “Click to Tweet”
Another GREAT plugin to add is “Click to tweet”. This free plugin allows you to select a quote or great text from your blog posts and it places it in a shareable image on your page. Visitors can click on that and share the text directly to their twitter feed and it includes your web page link! (The visual is created by click to tweet for your page only – the text is what is shared to the user’s Twitter feed)
Add Headers
Heading tags are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with <h1>, the most important, and ending with <h6>, the least important. Headings are not just about appearance. They also help search engines to find the page. Google scans your post for content relevant to the searched words and looks within the heading tags to see what the content is all about. Heading tags tell a search engine how the various text blocks are connected and their interrelation. Once you know this, it’s easy to understand why your keyword must find a place within the tags. Google perceives this content as most relevant for the search and this will likely improve your search engine rankings.
A call to action
Always always always include a call to action (CTA) to your posts as well as to your social media posts! This reminds your readers to share your posts on social media if they found your post helpful, leave a note in the comments section, give your business a call for more assistance, etc.
Publish
Now that you have had a fresh (or second) pair of eyes review your post and you have added all of the proper images, text, keywords etc., It is now time to publish your post! As soon as you go live, share it on social media networks. The more eyes on your post – the more successful it will be.
“Revive” your post
Download a free plugin called “Revive Old Posts”. This plugin will re-share your previously written blog posts automatically (once or twice a day) on to all of your social media accounts you link. We tend to forget to share older content as it gets buried away in the archives of your blog and this is a great way to keep that content out on social. you can also choose any particular posts you do not wish to re-share (maybe something seasonal, for example).
Most of these tools (like the plugins) are just a one-time setup and you do not need to set them up each time. But, you do want to make sure that you are manually doing the other items listed each time your write a blog post (alt text, add photos, share the post, CTA, click to tweet, etc). Soon enough, all of these items will become second nature and you will be automatically on your way to creating successful blog posts! Don’t have the time to create and share blog posts on a weekly basis? Don’t worry! If you need assistance with your blog post creation or with social media, give us a call!
We would love to read your blog posts! Feel free to share your recent favorite below in the comments! And of course, let us know how these tips work out for you!