We are back at it with another exciting post about – blog posting.
Really, that is what this series is mostly about. How to post on a blog, how to build out your website, how to market your blog, and all of those good things that take years to learn. I do my best to give you all of the information I have learned and gathered, to give you the best opportunity to be successful.
Although, one thing I have not covered yet is general things for blog posts.
Things you probably won’t really be thinking about till you already have a blog going, you’ve made some posts, and you are really not sure if what you are doing is right or even working.
General Things For Blog Posts
To make sure you are doing what you’re supposed to be doing to build a strong and respected blog, lets dive into some general tips to remember.
These are simple things that you can ask someone after they review your blog or simply read a few posts. These are things like:
- Is your content consistent
- How long should your posts be
- How Should You organize your blog
- Are there too many or too little photos
Each of these topics are common things that most people never really cover. But, not here on the tribe. We are going to dive into each topic and discuss it as it pertains to your blog, and your future.
Is Your Content Consistent
One thing you need to be aware of is the content you are publishing on your blog.
You might not think about it, but your content you publish all needs to follow a similar theme. That theme could be boats, motivation, dogs, how-to tutorials, or really anything that you are passionate about.
There are several reasons for this, but here are a few to consider.
First, your readers will get attracted to your blog through a post you write. They might find it organically on Google, follow a back link from another site to learn more, or simply see your Facebook post for something you wrote about.
Once they are on your blog reading, they might want to learn more about that topic, because clearly they were interested in it. Although, what if you have random posts of differing content all across your blog? They won’t know what to read next and probably leave. Everyone that clicks on your post is interested in what you are writing and will probably leave your site if there are not similar posts. You need to provide consistency, so readers know what to expect.
Second, Google does the exact same thing as those readers. Google will rank you blog based on common content that you write about. Therefore, if you are constantly blogging about horses on your website then all of a sudden one day you switch to cars, Google will probably penalize your car related posts.
Google wants consistency. They want to know what your blog is about and what topics to properly rank it for.
How Long Should Your Posts Be
Another common question for new bloggers is – how long should my posts be?
Really there is no perfect answer, but let me explain it to you this way.
It is possible to have not enough content on a page. In addition, if you have limited content, only a few hundred words, then people who read your posts will have a short time on your site and Google will recognize this and decrease your rankings.
Time spent on page is an important factor that Google uses to rank your posts. Therefore, a rule of thumb in the blogging world is to have posts that are at a minimum of 1,000 words on your site.
This is a healthy amount for you to convey ideas, provide plenty of content, and keep readers long enough on your page to increase your rankings.
Therefore, strive to make longer posts than shorter ones. Although, don’t over do it either. No one wants to read a 5,000 word blog post about your dog. No matter how cute he is.
How To Organize A Blog
Obviously, you are going to need to find a way to organize your blog.
This means if I go to your website and want to read about your favorite topic to write on, then I should be able to easily find it on your site, select a post and start reading. It should not take me 10 minutes to figure your site out.
Again, it should be simple. Please please do not build a lengthy, chaotic home pages with so much on it people get lost.
Make your blog simple. Really, the simpler the better trust me. People have very short attention spans, and if you do not make things obvious then people will not find it.
The entire idea of people landing on your website, is for them to make it to your blog posts. Make it as simple as possible, and then obviously suggest similar posts once they are done with that one to keep on reading.
In addition, make sure to organize your site by topics. This will help tremendously for new people to your site, or people looking just for a specific topic.
How Many Photos Should You Add
A great thing to actually spend time thinking about is the photos you put on your blog.
In general, I would say each blog post needs to have a featured photo at a minimum. This is typically the photo that shows up at the top of your page, populates on social media when you post the link, and ultimately defines your blog post topic.
I would also suggest to add photos throughout your post for several reasons.
One, people love to look at photos. We are naturally drawn to them as demonstrations for the text or simply for clarity for what is being written. Therefore, you need to pick photos that are relevant to the topic or text they are placed around. This means don’t put a photo of a Christmas tree by a sub section discussing your favorite workout routine.
The second reason is because of that time on page statistic that Google looks at to rank your post. If people are spending additional seconds on your post looking at the images or trying to figure out what they represent, that is all adding towards that time on page number that Google looks at. Therefore, images can be very good for blog posts.
I would say on average 2 to 3 photos is enough for a 1,000 word blog post. You can find free photos easily on Canva.com and use them on your site to achieve this!
Blog Post Basics
I hope these tips on general things for blog posts helps you. I would say make the topics we discussed a rule of thumb in your own blog, and you should be very successful if you follow them over time.
Thanks for reading and if you want to continue learning about blogging basics then click here.
