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How to Increase Organic Traffic: 6 Handy Blogging Tips

Nowadays, companies, brands, and even individuals are expected to have an optimized Internet presence. Whether a business creates a blog as part of a marketing initiative or an individual uses blogging to promote a personal brand, having a blog that draws organic traffic has become an important aspect of creating a successful online presence.

Though it can be tempting to pay for ad space, organic traffic is more important. Organic traffic consists of individuals searching specifically for you or your niche service or product, which means these are the individuals who are most likely to convert into customers or clients. Besides basic SEO practices, such as including proper keywords in your content and metadata, we offer several additional blogging tips here that can help you make the most of organic searches.

Know your niche, and find content opportunities.

In the fast-paced, instant-gratification world of the Internet, one of the biggest mistakes a blogger can make is trying to be all things to all readers. Instead of focusing your content on trends to gain more readers, figure out what is most important to you, and write about that.

Maybe you’re the new owner of a new dog grooming company, a marketer at a large corporation, an experienced writer, or a stay-at-home mom with a passion for DIY projects. Through the Internet, you can reach huge audiences hungry for good content about any one of these topics. Become an expert in your niche, and provide quality content that appeals to your specific readership.

Once you have determined your niche, research others who provide the same type of content. What posts are most popular? This is your passion; think about what information you would search for, and come up with a list of topics to write about. From there, see what content gaps exist in your niche, and then fill them with the best possible content.

For example, the owner of that small dog grooming business might find 2,341,748 articles describing the best shampoos for dogs but little information on the best options for dogs that have been sprayed by a skunk. A detailed article reviewing the most common shampoos in this category might draw more readers and rank higher for this more specific search topic than yet another generalized top 10 list.

Determine who the influencers are within your niche, and then network and promote your content.

Make a list of the top influential bloggers in your niche by finding the blogs with the highest readerships. Tools such as Buzzstream can help you determine who these influencers are, depending on specific keyword searches, and provide contact information for them. What kind of content are they creating? Take the great content you have created already and ask one of these top bloggers to provide a point of view.

You can also think on a bigger scale and create a post that includes advice from several influencers. Once your post goes live, make sure you contact these bloggers to let them know and share it on their social media accounts, which can be a great way to increase your own readership. The goal here is to get a link back from one or more of these influencers, who likely have high Google authority rankings in your niche. When one of these sites links back to yours, it will increase your search ranking and organic traffic.

Take advantage of content distribution and social networks to reach a wider audience.

Sharing content over social media networks is the first step in content distribution. Sharing strategically and often gives you the advantage of putting your content in front of the right audience, which will transfer into link clicking and organic traffic. The key is, once again, to know your audience and at what times they are most likely to see your post. Utilize account management applications to schedule content and share that content multiple times over different networks to gain the most exposure. Social referrals are an important factor in subsequent organic traffic.

Understand the importance of different types of link building.

Broken link building: Broken link building can be time-consuming when you don’t use tools. This method of link building involves finding broken links on other sites that are relevant to your content or have high authority value and then asking the site administrator to switch out the broken link for yours. Consistently following through with this practice can help you gain organic traffic by building site authority and search rankings.

Implied links: Implied linking is a new process Google has implemented that takes into account brand mentions without a direct link. This means search rankings benefit from your brand or website name being mentioned on other websites without them actually having to link back to you. The more you are mentioned, the higher your search ranking (and organic traffic) will be, because Google realizes your content has authority within your niche. To benefit from this type of link building, it is important to grow your reputation and network and to market your brand to get others to mention your name.

Backlinking using images: Consider all the photo- and image-sharing social networks available. Some high-authority content sharing sites are also relevant to growing your number of backlinks by sharing quality images. This type of link building works well for designers, photographers, or other image-heavy sites that can share their images on stock image directories, Flickr, or design directories with a link back to the original content. The more backlinks a website has, the higher it will rank in a search, resulting in more organic traffic.

Focus on long-tail key phrases rather than generalized keywords to tap into your niche audience.

Instead of focusing on general keywords that return millions of search results, consider your niche audience and what they are searching for specifically in relation to your content, product, or service. If you were to search for a local dog groomer, you probably wouldn’t simply search for “dog groomer” but rather “dog groomers in Chatham–Kent” or “the best dog groomer in Chatham–Kent” to make sure you received the most relevant results. This is how most users search for information, making long-tail key phrases more rewarding for niche content, which ranks higher when fewer, more specific search results are returned.

Google also looks at whether content is able to answer a long-tail keyword phrase in the form of a question and ranks quality how-to content higher in such search queries. Keep in mind what exactly your audience may be searching for, and include these key phrases in your content to increase your organic traffic.

Use schema markup in your SEO practices to boost organic traffic.

Schema markup is a more advanced SEO option that helps search engines return more information from your site in search results. The difference between schema markup and basic SEO is that schema tells the search engine what different aspects of your content mean by going beyond indexing for keywords. Schema explains that, for example, one keyword is the author of the content, another keyword is the product or service a business offers, and a third keyword tells the search engine what type of content is being displayed. Websites that incorporate schema markup into SEO rank higher in search engine results, because the search engine actually understands these relevant results. For more information, visit Schema.org or the Google Structured Data Markup Helper.

 

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: driving traffic, rw

Writing Cats and Dogs: Which Blog Style Should You Adopt?

I couldn’t possibly begin to tell you why a raven is like a writing desk, but I can tell you how a pet is like a blog post. As you’re probably aware, there are different types of blog posts, just as there are different types of pets. One easy way to break down blog styles, particularly if you’re as great a fan of four-legged companions as I am, is to think of the different types of blog posts in terms of two groups: the Dog and the Cat.

No, I’m not saying that some blog posts rule while others drool. And no, your blog posts aren’t going to drink from your toilet or shred your curtains. The analogy is a bit subtler than that, though I think we can agree that blog posts would be much more exciting—although also more destructive—if they did get into such shenanigans, no?

The “Dog” Post

The first type of blog post is the Dog. Much like my favorite type of furry friend, this blog style tends to have a short attention span. Most dogs are content to chase a ball, but only until they spot a squirrel. Likewise, a Dog-type blog post only addresses one topic, and it only does so long enough to cover the basic information about that topic. Just as your dog must investigate every smell in the backyard, the readers of your Dog-type blog post have other posts to . . . smell. Don’t try to limit their noses to just your post. Instead of sticking around, they’ll probably just get distracted and—SQUIRREL!

Short-form content is best for Dog posts. This blog style also lends itself to fun topics, like this one. Dogs enjoy playing and generally having a good time; similarly, you should use Dog posts to focus more on enjoyment than on information. Just as certain dog breeds are more suited to some people than to others, different types of Dog posts will be enjoyed and shared more by some readers than by others. This means you need to create lots of different types of blog posts to appeal to different kinds of readers. Think of each type of Dog post as a different breed of dog, if you will.

One of the great benefits of the Dog post is that this blog style encourages social sharing. Dogs make great companions to almost all people, and Dog-type posts tend to get along with a wide variety of people as well. In summary, Dog posts are fun, easy to read, and highly shareable.

The “Cat” Post

My dog has one solution to most of life’s mysteries: sniff it, lick it, and hope for the best. My cat, on the other hand, is a much more pensive creature. While my dog is happy to abandon any problem that cannot be solved with his mouth, my cat investigates each new scenario she encounters until she comes up with what she deems a reasonable solution (or until she gets scared and runs away—whichever happens first, really).

In terms of types of blog posts, the Cat-style post tends to be longer, more focused, and more targeted (here’s an example). This blog style lends itself to long-form content, allowing the reader to learn lots of specific information about a given topic. Each Cat-style post should be targeted to one specific group of readers. While dogs get the happy title of “man’s best friend,” cats aren’t always so universally loved. However, those who do have cats love them a lot. So each Cat-style post should be tailored to the type of person who needs the information that post has to offer rather than be written for everyone.

Ever asked someone to watch your cat while you were away? If your cat is anything like mine, it probably hid every time that person entered the room. It may have even refused to eat until it felt safe enough to come out of hiding. Like real cats, Cat-style blog posts are not always shareable. Sure, your cat may accept an elite group of people into its life, but for the most part, that feline is not willing to spend time with strangers. While Cat-style blog posts aren’t necessarily as shareable as their Dog-style counterparts, they provide great benefits for the people who do choose to read them. After all, cats make great pets, too!

Which Type of Blog Style Should You Use?

I know there’s an epic battle between “dog people” and “cat people.” Some may argue that you can only have one or the other, but when it comes to types of blog posts, you definitely need to take advantage of the benefits of both Dog posts and Cat posts. One works to attract and entertain people, while the other works to target more specific groups with the information they need to make educated business and consumer decisions. And, as with real dogs and cats, why would you choose only one when you can have the best of both worlds?

 

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: rw, writing advice

How to Screw Up a Blog Post (In 7 Easy Steps!)

Hey, it’s a jungle out there. There’s a blog for everything. Food photography, travel blogs, political rant pages, corporate musings, fan page free-for-alls . . . you name it. With all that competition, who wants to stand out and create an engaging, creative blog that actually adds value to the Internet? Not you. Quality work and responsibility to readers are just too much darn effort. You and I, we much prefer to float comfortably in the recesses of Internet no man’s land. We’re not attention seekers—we’re far too lazy for that. Afraid your blog might actually do well? Follow these simple blogging tips to make sure your blog is a complete and utter dud—in fact, its boo-boos won’t even go viral. It’ll even fail at failing.

1. Don’t proofread.

Typos, punctuation errors, and painful spelling mistakes are the quickest, easiest way to give your blog a death sentence (ooh, the puns). After all, a clean, error-free post might actually make you look credible, and you don’t want that.

2. Remove all comprehensible train of thought.

You know what happens when your writing is easy to read and has a logical flow, don’t you? People might *gasp* keep reading it. All structure, consistency of tone, and clear thought processes must be removed from your writing. Immediately.

3. Post irregularly, if at all.

It’s bad enough that you have to be bombarded by all those bloggers constantly updating their sites with structured, consistent schedules. Who do they think they are, anyway? You certainly don’t want to add to the success mess, and you really need to take care of those annoying Internet prowlers who have decided that your blog is interesting, or they’ll stick around no matter what. How can you rid yourself of such pests? Well, stop posting, of course! Or, if you must, post at random with long stretches of silence in between. Once you’re off your readers’ radar and have established that you can’t be relied on, they’ll swipe on to terrorize the next site with their incessant subscriptions, comments, and shares.

4. Steal whenever possible.

Isn’t Internet rage a joy? Of course it is. And what’s the fastest way to stir up the anger pot? Why, stealing intellectual or creative property, of course! Hijack ideas, writing styles, photos, or other created media, and don’t credit any of the original sources. Be prepared for the initial wave of attention your blog will receive (what horror!) when people start to realize you’re stealing their material, but worry not—it’s all negative, and it won’t last. Once your integrity is destroyed, no one will subscribe to you. You might even be so lucky as to receive a cease-and-desist order.

5. Plaster blank space with gaudy advertisements.

Maybe you’re a literary genius. Despite all your best efforts, you just can’t turn off the wordsmith charm, and people keep flocking back to your blog. Lucky for you, there’s a fail-safe to divert readers from even the best content: gratuitous advertising. Banner ads, pop-ups, and sidebar post-its will send potential subscribers—even the ones who really want to stay—away from your blog with grimaces on their faces and carpal tunnel in their primary click fingers. Did you know the speed at which a user runs from your page is directly proportional to the degree to which ads are unrelated to your blog’s topic?

6. Fill up on keywords.

Google keeps getting smarter and faster when it comes to finding more ways to send people to your page. How rude! Lucky for you, there are always new ways to convince the Google bots that your page isn’t worth visiting. Some of the latest? Saturating your content, tags, and anchors with keywords, of course! Once your text is so agonizingly full of keywords that it’s nigh unreadable, and your primary keyword is in every tag, even when it doesn’t make sense for it to be, Google will obligingly penalize your blog so that it appears too far down in search results ever to be noticed.

7. Ignore your readers.

Ugh, are people leaving comments, tagging you in things, asking questions, and suggesting content for future posts? Give them the silent treatment. Readers stick around when they feel like they receive a personalized, relevant, engaging experience, which of course you don’t want. By no means should you ever reply to readers when they make an effort to communicate with you. That would just make them feel too validated and like they actually gained something from your blog. Yuck.

In summary . . .

Be a bore. Be inconsistent. Over-advertise. Refuse to communicate. Publish your typos. Steal. Confuse. Distract. Disappear. Such are the magic tools by which you can keep your blog safe from Internet success. Now… who wants to hang out on MySpace?

 

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: rw, writing advice

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