If you are just starting out blogging, it’s useful to have a framework to work within. Or a check list of some essential elements which your blog simply must have, no questions asked. In this ‘Introduction to Blogging’ post, we talk about 5 things that you simply must have in each article.
Introduction to Blogging: Get Started With These Essentials
1 Catchy title
In order for your blog to be appealing to searchers, it must have appealing title. It’s tough to stand out in a crowded market place, but you’ve got to give it your best shot anyway. Things that work are:
- List titles e.g. ‘7 things that should be in every blog post’.
- Questions: for example ‘What are the best items to put in a blog post?’
- ‘How to’ posts for example ‘How to make your blog stand out in a crowded marketplace’.
Think of your potential website visitors having a problem that they need solved and address it with your blog title.
You only have seconds to grab their attention so try and make it count.
2 Interlink your own posts
One of the easiest ways to give your other posts a quick boost is to interlink. What does this mean? Simply linking to other posts on your site from your own posts. It passes valuable link juice to your own pages and is easy to do and free. In fact, it’s one of the easiest possible quick hits you can give to your blog.
3 Meta description
The description tag is an often overlooked area which also adds a valuable boost to your clicking potential. Again this takes only a few minutes. It will be visible under your page title on the Google search results and should concisely explain what your page is about and the benefits a visitor will get from visiting this page. If you don’t fill out a description tag, Google will select some text from your page which it thinks is relevant. But it’s better that you customise this tag yourself and remain in control.
4 Link out to an authority site
Whatever you’re writing on, it’s more than likely that there will be an authority on the subject. It can help your blog on the eyes of Google if you link out to another authority website on your niche whether it’s too back up a point or to note a reference you have made. Again it’s quick and easy to do and can help give a small boost to your site’s ranking potential. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t link out to a direct competitor, but should link to a large brand site or news website for example such as BBC.
5 Relevant photography and or graphics
Words are great and to quality content is even more important. But you’ve got to have something to break up the words. It could be photographs, graphics, illustrations, graphs, charts or tables. Whatever it is should illustrate the point or the aim of your post and make it easier to understand.
If you are using images, make sure they are tagged correctly with alt tags.