What you really want to know is whether you should hire us.

Are we the right fit?

Or could hiring us turn out to be an even bigger mistake than the eighth Fast and the Furious movie? I mean seriously, how many do we need?

Doing business with someone, especially long-term, is a commitment. It’s a bit like any relationship–there has to be respect, honesty and good communication. We have to be on the same page. Otherwise, it ends up stressful, time-consuming, and could potentially end up in a divorce. Not a happy ending for anyone.

So in this blog post, I’m going to go through the reasons why you shouldn’t hire us, so you can establish whether we’re the right fit for you and your business.

And don’t worry, it’s not full of bullshit reverse-psychology reasons like, ‘you shouldn’t work with us if you DON’T want your business to succeed.’ 🙄

So who shouldn’t hire us for our content writing services?

Let’s take a look. 👀

1. There are lots of people involved in approving everything

We happily work with marketing teams, but we only communicate with one person within that team, particularly when it comes to feedback.

We’ve been in situations before where feedback has come from different team members.

Sometimes it’s been contradictory, where one person has loved something we’ve done and another has been unsure, meaning we have to clarify which person’s feedback we prioritise. And as you can imagine it all gets a bit…messy. 😬

The best thing to do is for our contact to collate any feedback and give us everything in one go (and they’ll be able to spot if there are any opposing views). If this isn’t possible, we’re not right for you.

2. You don’t have any time to give feedback on the writing

The aim of our SEO content writing service is to save you time. In fact, we save you up to 10+ hours per week by offering a full blog management service, i.e. doing everything from keyword research to hitting the publish button–and all the tasks in between.

But we still need a teensy-weensy bit of your time. And that’s to either:

• Approve each blog post
• Give any feedback

On average, our clients spend 15-30 minutes giving feedback and approving each blog post.

So if you picked our Gold package (which comes with 3 blog posts a month), you’d have to dedicate 45-90 minutes per month to giving us feedback and approval.

Often this time gets less and less as the project goes on, e.g. there’s more feedback on the first blog post than the fourth!

I don’t think it’s an excessive amount of time, but if you can’t do that, we’re not right for you.

3. You want a yes man/woman

At the start of each project, we create a content plan. We create this plan based on our in-depth kick-off call with you (where we find out all about your business), and our keyword research and competitor research.

In this content plan, we’ll suggest three months of blog content–which includes draft titles and a bit about what we should include within each blog post.

Not one single client has asked to change any blog content ideas we’ve come up with–which they’re more than welcome to do, by the way!

But we get why.

We put so much upfront work into the content plan, and because of this, our clients understand how our proposed content ideas will help them achieve their business goals. We even record a video to go through the content plan and explain why we’ve proposed each idea.

As you can see, we don’t just ‘write the content’, we’ll tell you what we need to write too. We do this, not because we’re ego-maniacs, but because doing tons of research tells us the best content ideas to go after.

So if you’re the kind of business who wants a yes-man/woman to tell us what to write and when to write it, we’re simply not the right fit for you.

4. You’re not exactly sure what you’re selling right now

You might be clear on your products or services, but maybe you’re not clear on exactly how you’re selling them or in what way.

For example, if you’re a website design agency, you know you’re selling website design (at least, we hope so 😂). But maybe you’re not sure whether to offer a ‘website in a week’ service or do a truly bespoke service for every client?

If these are decisions you’re still thinking about, then we might not be the right fit, right now.

We create content with the ultimate aim of getting you more sales, so we need to position you correctly through your content.

For example, the way we’d talk about a ‘website in a week’ service is completely different to how we’d talk about a bespoke service for each client.

But once you’ve figured all that out, come back to us. 😉

And if you need help with that, check out Janine Coombes who specialises in helping business owners package up their services!

5. You’re not sure who your audience is

If you’re thinking to yourself: should I pick a niche or not? Or even ‘What are you talking about? I sell to anyone and everyone!’ then we might not be the right fit for you.

If you don’t understand your audience and their problems, it’s difficult to create content for them.

Because everything starts with your customers–their goals, problems, values, the language they use etc. This will help inform our keyword research and come up with your content strategy.

It also helps inform our tone of voice. We would write differently for an audience of plucky microbusinesses and freelancers than corporate HR professionals.

If you’re still struggling to find your niche, definitely check out niching expert Amy Caiger! Amy can help you understand how to hone in on who your audience is!

6. You want us to pitch for work

We sound a little egotistical here and we really don’t mean to. But we don’t pitch for work. The reason we don’t pitch is simple: pitching isn’t the best way to find the right content writing agency.

Why? Well, there are three main reasons:

• It relies on you having already diagnosed your problem

You don’t go to the doctor having done your own diagnosis. Well, I’m sure some people do! Doctors need to do their own investigation to diagnose a problem and prescribe medication or further help.

It’s the same with your business.

You need an expert to diagnose any problems and tell you what you can do to fix them.

• Pitching is all about turning on the charm (and quite frankly, we’re not all that charming. But we are good at what we do 😉)

We’re just not ‘charm the pants off you’ kinda people. And we certainly don’t want to peacock our way to your money by being all ‘look at how good we are’.

It’s not us. And it’s not right for you either. You need a company that asks YOU a lot of questions. That listens to you. That gets to understand you and what you need. Not the other way around.

That’s the only way for us to create good content that will deliver rankings and sales.

• Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean it’s good

Pitching can sometimes feel like a race to the bottom, where everyone competes by giving all their ideas and strategies away for free.

But ideas are cheap.

We can only create a good content strategy by delving deep into your business, understanding who you are and conducting our own research like keyword research and competitor analysis.

To do that takes a huge amount of time. And it’s not something we can cobble together quickly for a pitch. If we did, we’d be doing you a huge disservice.

So those are our three main reasons why we don’t pitch! And, if you like, you can learn more about why we don’t pitch for projects.

7. Your website needs A LOT of work

Our service gets you higher search engine rankings and website traffic (nice), but if your website looks like a dog’s dinner, it’s pretty pointless bringing more people around to see it. They won’t be impressed, we’ll tell you that much.

Now, don’t get us wrong, even when we were website designers we’d always say: don’t spend thousands on a website until it makes business and financial sense!

You do not have to have a fancy-pants website to make content work, but it does need to be:

• Professional looking i.e. doesn’t look like it was designed in 1992
• Mobile friendly – because 50% of searches take place over mobile now
• Relatively fast – because people won’t wait around for it to load
• Be clear about what you offer – and have a good user experience where people can find what they are looking for.

And that’s it. But if it doesn’t do those things, you may want to look at improving your website first (or getting it redesigned).

Side note, it’s helpful if you have access to your full website. Some website design agencies like to control access or gate certain areas so clients ‘don’t break anything’ (newsflash, that’s why you have backups).

If you don’t have access, you may have to send content to your website design agency to upload for you, which adds time and money to the process! Our advice: get access! No company should be prevented from accessing something as important as their website! 

8. You want a cheap service

Honestly? There are writers that charge $20 for a blog article out there (if you look at places like Fiverr). And we’re a teensy bit more than that (our content writing packages start from £1397 per month).

When we work with clients, the actual writing takes up around 40% of the actual time it takes to press publish on a blog post. The rest of that time is taken up with:

• Keyword research
• Coming up with a content strategy
• Uploading the content–formatting it and optimising it for search engines
• Creating imagery (such as the featured image or images within the blog post)
• Adding and optimising images and GIFs
• Fixing small technical issues
• Tracking rankings

It’s a full blog management service, where you can ‘outsource your entire blog’ to us. We can do this because we’re experts in content writing, but also SEO, website design and content design too.

Unfortunately, all that ain’t cheap. If you want to learn more about it, check out our blog post: why are we so expensive?

9. You want free samples

We won’t work for you for free. Ever. No, not even if you’re Hopper from Stranger Things (he’s my favourite). But not even then will we work for free.

Of course, you’ll want to see samples of our writing. That’s fair. And if you contact us directly we can send some samples to you. But we don’t do any kind of free sample.

10. You just need one blog post

It baffles us when we get this request, because, in all honesty, you’re unlikely to see a massive difference to your bottom line thanks to one blog post.

Of course, we’ve had single blog posts that have performed AMAZINGLY well for us and our clients. BUT that was because we had a content strategy in place based on our research.

You can see results from just one blog post such as an increase in traffic, rankings and even leads. But to see results that impact your sales in the long-term, that only comes from consistent blogging.

11. You want to write about your awards

If you can honestly say that you’ve had a genuine customer or client contact you and say, ‘what awards have you won?’ then we will happily write about your awards. Until then, no. 😂

Think we’re a match made in heaven?

So, you’ve read through this and you’re thinking, ‘do you know what, Jammy? You’re my kinda people!’

Firstly, yay. We may be a bit fussy about who we work with, but that’s because we love the relationships we build with our clients. It’s better for everyone if we’re the right fit.

Secondly, visit here if you’d like to know more about our SEO content writing service. Or book a 15-minute chat with us to ask us any questions.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post 11 Reasons our SEO content writing service is not right for you appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

BUT, even though Facebook ads seem expensive right now, it’s still an important decision. Because whether you pick Facebook ads or content writing, it’s still going to take you time and/or money to get these things right.

Some businesses will be more suited to Facebook ads.

Others will be more suited to content writing.

Let’s find out what’s right for you, shall we?

But how do Facebook ads compare to something like SEO content writing?

It might seem odd to compare the two. It’s actually a question that three people have asked us before investing in our content writing packages.  And, essentially, what we’re exploring is the differences between inbound and outbound marketing.

Content writing is an example of inbound marketing: pulls potential customers in by creating valuable content that nurtures relationships.

Whereas Facebook ads are an example of outbound marketing: a traditional method of marketing that pushes messages out to potential customers.

I know what you are thinking! Lyndsay, you are a content writer, so of course, you are going to say it’s better than Facebook ads. Come on, you know me better than that by now! In fact, we know that there is a time and place for both, and we utilise both in our business.

However, it’s likely that depending on where you are in your business one might be more suitable than the other.

So, in this blog, we’ll explore the differences between content writing and Facebook ads, to help you decide which one is right for your business?

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: how much do they cost?

Of course, as always, the cost comes into play, and will likely have an impact on which one is right for your business. But in this case, the cost is a little more complex as you need to consider:

• Upfront cost
• Cost per lead

The upfront cost is what most people usually consider. However, you also need to think about how much it costs to obtain each lead, and whether this is feasible for your business.

For example, if you pay £500 for a service, but get zero leads, that would be a very bad deal. However, if you paid £5000 and get leads and sales worth £50,000, well then that would be worth it. Right?

More upfront, but better ROI in the long term.

So, let’s look into these a little more…

How much does SEO content writing cost?

The beauty of content creation is that there are multiple ways and budgets available to tackle it.

If you have the time, skills and inclination then you can DIY your blog content. This will cost you time, but it is free to publish a blog on your website. In the early days if you have very little, or no, budget then this might be the best course.

If you need a little guidance then we run regular content challenges and provide blog templates within our ‘Make your Mark Online’ membership. This helps keep you accountable and speeds up the content writing process.

If you’ve got some budget then you can outsource to a content writer. Although this will cost you money, it will free up time to spend on other revenue-driving activities.

Plus an SEO content writer will usually have more knowledge and expertise than you. It’s not just about saving you time, but knowing how to write content that ranks on search engines and converts readers into leads.

The cost of hiring an SEO content writer varies, but on average it’s between £200-£700/blog post. The exact cost will depend on the individual writer’s skills and experience. And the more blogs you want to publish every month, the more you will pay.

Related content: Why is our SEO content and blog management service so expensive?

What is the cost per lead for content marketing?

With blogs, it’s hard to attribute an exact cost per lead, as you are not paying for every single click or visit to your page.

And unless you are using software such as Hubspot, or using a customised lead magnet on each blog then you might not be able to track exactly what leads come from each blog.

If you take the DIY route then you should calculate your £ value per blog. And if you are paying a content writer, then you can divide the £ by the number of leads for an average cost per lead.

A lead magnet on one of our blog posts generated 574 leads in 18 months. Which is a pretty amazing number.

Of course, we wrote this blog ourselves, which took time but didn’t have any financial output for us.

But, let’s pretend that we paid ourselves to research, write, publish and promote this blog (which would cost £648.50 based on one blog from our Silver package). We can then calculate a cost per lead of around £1.12.

The success of every blog will differ, and not every single blog will generate that many leads. But it’s possible to get a lot of leads, for a very low cost with blogging.

And the beauty of the content is that once it’s published it works forever even without spending any more (more on that later).

In fact, we’ve got more leads since we started writing this blog post.

How much do Facebook Ads cost?

Despite changes to Apple iOS over the last year, Facebook is still the cheapest social media advertising channel in 2022.

However, unlike content writing, Facebook Ads will always come with a financial cost, even if you do them yourself💰. That’s because you are paying money directly to Facebook for them to place relevant adverts on their user’s feeds.

But, the beauty of Facebook ads is that you can spend as much or as little as you like. You can set your daily budget (from as little as £1), and either run them continuously or set an end date if you want to stick to a set budget.

Facebook ads use a bidding system. So exactly how many potential customers you reach, and how much it costs you will depend on the competitiveness of your industry.

It’s hard to benchmark costs as there are so many variables. However, Facebook bills are based on two metrics: cost per click (CPC) and cost per mille (CPM) ie. cost per 1000 impressions. Wordstream suggests that you can expect to pay:

• $0.44 per click
• $14.40 per 1,000 impressions

However, it can be very easy to squander money using Facebook ads if you don’t know what you are doing. Facebook make it easy to boost a post here and there, and before you know it you’ve spent hundreds of pounds with very little return.

If you are going to invest in Facebook ads, then we advise hiring someone who knows what they are doing. Hiring a professional Facebook Ads consultant will range between £250 and £10,000 a month. You’ll pay them a management fee, plus a budget for Facebook for advertising.

If you’re looking for a person or company to help, we highly recommend Facebook ads specialist, Jo Francis or, if you’re looking for an agency, Gavin Bell at Yatter.

What is the cost per lead for Facebook ads?

With Facebook ads, each lead will have an associated cost attached to it. However, you need to remember that not every person that sees or clicks on your ad will become a lead.

According to Wordstream, the average cost per lead (across all industries) is $19.68. This differs from industry to industry and can be higher or lower depending on what you are selling.

So you have to ensure that your customer’s lifetime value is higher than this. Otherwise, you risk driving revenue with Facebook ads, but not making any profit💰.

If you look at our blog post that got 574 leads, we would likely have paid around $11,296.32 (approx. £9,207.07) in ads for the same number of leads over the same 18-month period. This is much more expensive than the cost to write one blog post.

What’s the cost comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO Content Writing

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: how much time does it take?

In business, time is money, and it’s something everyone is always running low on. So understanding the time you’ll spend on each will help you decide which one is right for your business.

How much time does SEO content writing take?

As we said, SEO content writing will either cost you money or time⏰.

And it’s not just the time that it takes to write the actual blog. A good blog isn’t just about writing, there are quite a lot of different elements that go into creating a successful, ranking blog that drives traffic and leads.

You’ve got to:

• Research keywords
• Write (rewrite) and edit the content
• Proofread your content
• Upload to your website
• Design the featured image
• Create in-text images
• Design and format the blog post
• Optimise the blog post (so it’s found on Google)

As you can see, writing the content is just one part. And all of that can take around 10-16 hours per blog post. Honestly, we’re tired just thinking about it​​😴.

That’s why a lot of people invest in our blog writing and management service, as we do ALL of this.

Of course, there is a cost for this, but if you think it’s the right option for you then you can take your Facebook ads budget and pay us (or someone else) to take care of it for you. Not only will this utilise the skills of a professional, but it will allow you to get on with the things in your business you actually enjoy. Win, win!

How much time do Facebook ads take?

It can take as little as a couple of minutes to set up a boosted post, which Facebook actively encourages (and it’s so damn tempting to push that button). But, you’ll find that most experts don’t suggest you take a shotgun approach to boost posts. Instead, they recommend you, formulate an ad strategy that is tailored to your goals.

So, while the setting up of adverts can be pretty quick, it’s worth taking some time to figure out what you actually want. And take time to design creatives and copy that help you achieve these goals.

That’s why the set-up (if done correctly) will be the most time-consuming part of running Facebook ads.

And the setup always surprises people, because if you do it the right way, it’ll likely involve writing the copy for the ads, designing graphics/creating videos to promote them, designing a landing page and writing a follow-up email sequence once someone becomes a lead.

For us—and as website designers, graphic designers and writers, we’re at an advantage here—it takes the following amount of time:

• Writing the copy for the ads (we usually write three different types of copy to experiment with how they perform): 2 hours
• Creating the landing page: 1-2 hours
• Creating graphics or videos for the ads (again, we usually create 3 different types of graphics or videos to see how each performs): 2-3 hours
• Writing and setting up the follow-up email sequence (once someone is a lead): 3-4 hours

As we’re proficient in this (and have done it over and over again), we’re going to estimate that it would take someone who has never done this before at least double this amount of time. So let’s realistically say up to 22 hours to set up Facebook ads the right way. 

However, once they are set up, they are incredibly low-maintenance and require very little of your time.

Especially if you cleverly set up funnels, landing pages and email sequences which nurture potential clients through the entire process. Which certainly makes them an appealing way to drive leads and sales.

Time comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO content writer

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: which one gets you leads and sales faster?

Both content writing and Facebook ads are ultimately a way of driving more revenue and profit for your building. So it’s important to understand how quickly you’ll get results from each.

How long does it take content marketing to work?

You press publish and then the leads just flood in right?

Well, not quite! Content marketing isn’t a silver bullet, it takes time to work.

However, there is a bit of a myth that it takes 3-6 months before you see any results from content marketing. The 3-6 months marker is definitely a turning point, and if you are writing quality content then you should start to see consistent leads and sales as a direct result of your content marketing at this point.

But it is possible to see markers of success much quicker than this.

We recently wrote and published a client blog that ranked on page one of Google for their BIG target keywords after just a couple of days. Ranking for key search terms can instantly drive traffic, build trust and increase leads. Proof that if you are writing about the right things and optimising for SEO then you can see results almost instantly.

This, of course, depends on your website. So if you’ve had an active website for a number of years, naturally got some backlinks to it over time and have created content on it already, it’s much more likely to rank quicker through content.

Brand new websites take longer. If you think about it, that makes sense. Because Google needs to trust you first before it presents your website in the search results.

Here’s an example of how a keyword ranking shot up for our client within 24 hours of us publishing a blog post.

Over time though, the more content that you create the more keywords and phrases you’ll rank for. So even if it takes a while for you to see the fruits of your labour, those results will amplify over time.

Even if it does take some time for leads to find you organically from content, you can instantly integrate it into your sales process. If you have an existing audience, you can send them content that answers their pre-purchase questions. Publishing content is a brilliant way to build trust with potential customers and drive sales from day one.

Related content: How to make content part of your sales process (so you get more sales faster)

How long does it take Facebook Ads to work?

Once your Facebook ads have been approved (which usually takes 24 hours), they are instantly placed on the feeds of relevant people and can start showing results quickly.

Research from Hootsuite shows that Facebook ads reach up to 60.5% of users in the United Kingdom (and more in countries such as the USA and Mexico). So there is a huge potential to quickly get in front of the right audience.

However, the challenge is that if you are starting from scratch you are often targeting a cold audience. This is especially true if you are raising awareness for “new” customers, who have never encountered your brand before.

According to the marketing rule of seven potential customers need seven “touchpoints” with your company before buying. And although social media makes it easier to create these touchpoints the rule still holds true. This is why the cost per lead isn’t as simple as getting charged for one click.

So, while Facebook ads might get your business clicks and impressions almost instantly, this might not translate into immediate sales. You can take advantage of things like lookalike audiences, and retargeting, but these are usually a little more advanced and might require you to employ the skills of a professional.

For this reason, Facebook ads, like content, will likely become more successful over time. As you learn more about your potential audience, optimise the ads, and touch base with customers regularly they will learn to know, like and trust you.

So although Facebook ads are often touted as a quick win, the reality is that you will get the most success from them if you invest over the long term.

Which one gets you leads and sales faster: Facebook ads vs SEO content writer

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: which one works best long-term?

We know from above that both content writing and Facebook ads are ultimately long-term strategies to help grow your business.

But what would happen if you invested in one over the other and then decided to stop after a couple of months? Obviously, it’s not something we recommend, but it’s good to know the long-term impact that these two strategies would have on your business.

How long will content marketing work for?

Yes, content marketing can take a little longer to kick in, and it’s certainly not a silver bullet for your marketing needs.

However, the payoff is that most blogs are evergreen🌲.

Once they are published they are available on your website 24/7, 365 days a year.

You might need to update or optimise them to keep them relevant if things change or if there are any major Google updates. But your budget will never run out, and they have the potential to continuously drive traffic and lead generation for as long as they are live on your website.

In fact, the accumulation of great content means that the whole is greater than the sum of all parts. Over time, the more and more content that you create can make the content work even better. …

Plus, blogs live on YOUR website💻.

Remember MySpace? Yeah, me neither!

Although it feels like Facebook might be around forever, we’ve seen the rise and fall of social media sites before. If your Facebook is hacked, blocked or if Facebook is down then you are losing potential leads.

When you publish a blog you are in control of it, and it will be live for as long as you choose on your website.

We don’t plan on it, but we know if we stopped publishing content tomorrow the accumulative effect of the content we had already published would continue to drive leads and sales for a long time. And this is what happened when we stopped publishing content for 6 months ⬇️🙌

How long do Facebook Ads work for?

In our opinion, this is one of the biggest downfalls of Facebook ads, especially in comparison to content writing.

As soon as you stop spending, your ads stop being shown💰.

It’s a paid-for media, so their placement relies on your continual spending. You’ll always have to allocate some budget to Facebook if you want to keep seeing results.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be no residual effects from the adverts. The chances are you’ll get some new followers, email subscribers and customers as a result of your adverts.

These people are now part of your audience, and you have the opportunity to communicate with them without the use of paid adverts.

But, you lose the ability to get in touch with anyone who hasn’t interacted with your business. And if your cost per lead vs profitability is too high for Facebook ads, then you can get into a vicious cycle of needing the income to continually boost revenue. It’s not a good place to be.

The return should be high enough if you are doing ads right, that the continued investment is well worth it. 

This is why you really need to know what you are doing with ads, as you need to make sure you are making enough from the ads to justify the continual spending – otherwise, you’ll end up prioritising revenue over profit.

Evergreen comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO Content Writing

Combining Facebook ads and content writing: how does this work?

We actually combine Facebook ads with content. How? Well, we don’t just promote each and every blog post by setting up an ad–that probably would waste money.

What we do is take our service pages, like for our content writing service, and retarget people who visit that page with objection-led content.

It’s likely that if someone has visited that page, they might have additional questions about it. So we’re doing something a bit brave! We’re re-targetting people, sending them back to articles like why is our content writing service so expensive?

We’ll also create more articles to retarget people with too. We’ll keep you updated on here how it goes!

Content Writing vs Facebook Ads: Which one is best for you?

So, which one is best for you?

We’ve found that the key to both content writing and FB ads is winning strategy.

Writing random topics or boosting Adhoc posts probably isn’t going to have a long-term impact on your business. This sort of approach leaves businesses feeling disenfranchised, and it’s often the people you hear saying they don’t work.

You need to understand what your goals are and optimise the content or ads to achieve these goals.

But the truth is, that both content marketing and Facebook ads have the ability to drive revenue for your business if used correctly. And for many businesses, both content writing and Facebook ads will have value.

However, if you only have time or money for one which should you pick?

We think that step one is creating a really solid content foundation. Create an asset that is going to live on your website, and help you rank 24/7, 365 days a year without having to spend any more money on it.

If, and only if, you do this, you can then start using Facebook ads to amplify the impact of your organic content and drive traffic back towards your website.

This will help you avoid getting stuck in a spending cycle with Facebook, and allows you to increase your reach via search traffic and social media. Ultimately leading to more leads and sales over a long period of time.

Want someone to take control of the Content writing?

If you’d like to invest your energy into content writing without it taking up lots of time, then our SEO content writing and blog management service might help. We take control of the entire blogging process including planning, writing, optimising for SEO, designing imagery, uploading and formatting.

To find out where you should begin with your business blog, take our SEO quiz, and find out exactly how you can improve.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post SEO Content Writing vs Facebook Ads: Which One is Best for Your Business? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

If you want your business blog posts to rank on search engines, deliver website traffic, WOW your readers (and I mean really wow them) and deliver leads and sales, you’re going to have to approach blogging a bit differently.

Because there are actually six elements that make a successful business blog.

SIX!

I know, I know. It sounds like a lot and you’re probably thinking, ‘I don’t have time for this, Lyndsay.’

But here’s the thing:

• Most businesses don’t do all six things (or are even aware of them) so if you do, you’ll be miles ahead of your competition
• I’m going to break down all six things below, so you know exactly what to do in each of these areas. Which makes everything much simpler for you.

Ready to learn the 6 key steps to a successful blog?

Let’s get stuck in…

1. Conduct keyword research for your business blog post

Hold your horses! Before you get to the writing, you’re going to need to do a sprinkling of keyword research first.

Why?

Because surely one of the reasons you’re publishing blog content on your website in the first place is because you want to be found on Google.

You want your blog to consistently send you website traffic, rank well in the search engines, and generate more leads and sales for your business.

It’s no surprise that bloggers who do keyword research before writing content see much stronger results.

And if you want that to happen, you need to be strategic about it. That means you need to do your research in advance to make sure you’re writing content about topics that your ideal customers and clients are searching for.

So far so good?

Great.

So how do you know what your customers and clients are searching for?

Customer’s questions give you an idea of what people are searching for

Well, first thing first, you ask them. And before you say you don’t have the chance to do that, we know for a fact that you do.

Every email conversation, every discovery call, or sales call you have with a prospective client is an opportunity to find out what problems they have and what they want to know.

They will ask you questions (lots of them!) and your job is to write them down and save them so you can create amazing blog content about those topics.

But if you want further ideas or find out exactly what search terms people are using when looking for information about your industry, niche, or business, then there are tools you can use to do your keyword research.

Some of our favourite keyword research tools for business blogging

When searching for keywords online, you’re aiming for phrases that are both competitive and profitable.

What does that mean?

In a nutshell, you want keywords that lots of people search for but that aren’t too competitive. So make sure you spend some time doing keyword research for every blog post you write and try to pick keywords that aren’t overused.

Some of the tools we recommend are:

Answer the Public. An amazing free tool (with the option to upgrade to the paid-for version) that helps you visualise real questions that your potential customers have asked via visual and intuitive search clouds.

Quora. This website is free to use and is completely user-generated. This means users ask the questions and others will reply to them.

Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension. Once installed it will pop up on the side whenever you do a search. It’s free to use but a paid-for version is also available.

KW Finder. This is a paid-for tool that allows you to find the best longtail keywords to include in your content. It offers affordable plans depending on the number of keyword searches per month you need and also has a FREE 10-day trial.

Semrush. This is another paid-for, full-service research tool and allows you to figure out what people are searching for in relation to a specific keyword using their content marketing topic research.

You can find more information about each of these tools (including some cool screenshots that show you what they look like) in our blog post 23 of the Best Business Blogging Tools that Increase Traffic and Conversions.

Or, you can read a bit more about SEO and keyword research in our super comprehensive blog post SEO for Beginners.

Check competing blog posts for your keyword/phrase

Don’t forget this final important step: check your competition.

Don’t rely too heavily on your SEO tool to tell you how competitive a keyword or phrase is, instead Google the keyword or phrase and see for yourself.

These are some indicators you’re targeting an ultra-competitive keyword.

Go to Google (in incognito window) and type in your target keyword or phrase. If there is…

• A lot of ads
• Some well-known trusted companies writing about the topic
• Lengthy blog posts and guides dedicated to the topic

This could be a sign it’s super competitive. It may be worth digging a little deeper around that keyword. Is there a longer keyword or phrase you can use? Something more niche? But still with good search volume?

2. Plan your business blogging strategy

Different types of content will help you achieve different goals with different types of people who consume content on your website.

Most people think of content, especially business blog content, as something that will generate website traffic and rankings. That’s true. But actually, content can also sell too.

To do this, you must create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey…

Blog content at the awareness stage

People in the awareness stage of their buyer’s journey might not know about you yet. Actually, they probably don’t even know they need you just yet!

Let’s bring this to life with an example. Let’s say you’re a career coach who specialises in corporate, leadership roles. Some people might land on your website because they’re looking for a career coach that meets those criteria. And those people are further down the buyer’s journey already – they know they want a career coach.

But people who are still in the awareness stage might be looking for information such as “How to be a more assertive manager” or “How to become a better leader”. They don’t know about you or your services, so your job is to create content that answers those questions. And through that, they’ll want to find out more about you. Clever, right?

Examples of awareness stage blog content

So make sure you create blog content that tells people who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why they need to work with you.

This is educational and informative content that targets your customers’ pain points.

For example, a popular piece of awareness content we’ve published on our website is Why Am I Not Ranking in Google, and How to Fix It and How to Make Your Blog Posts Look Good.

These two blog posts came directly from questions we had from our customers. The keywords actually didn’t show up on keyword research tools! But we were confident people were searching for this. A few months later, these were ranking for lots of juicy search terms. Years later, they still are!

Blog content at the consideration stage

Consideration-type content is what helps your customers see that your business is a valid and viable option for them.

They’re certainly ‘shopping around’ and looking to solve a specific problem, so they’re checking what’s out there.

At this stage, they aren’t sure what solution to find for their problem, so they are looking for help. For example, someone who wants more leads and sales could invest inbound marketing (like blogging and SEO) or outbound marketing (like Facebook ads). They haven’t decided yet, so your job is to help them make that decision.

Essentially, your job here is to help people find the right solution for them. This does not mean pushing your solution as the only viable option! In fact, you may recommend a different solution to what you offer in some cases.

For example, if someone wanted to get 100 leads in less than 24 hours, we’d recommend ads over blogging – even though we sell a blog management service!

Be honest in this content and speak to your audience as if they are a friend. Discuss the different options available to them without bias and explain who is the right fit for each solution.

Examples of consideration stage blog content

If you want to check out a few examples of this, we’ve created consideration content like, ‘What is an SEO Content Writer?’ and ‘SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency, which one should you choose?’ You can see how both these articles would introduce this service as a potential solution to a problem.

Content at the purchase stage

Things are getting serious now. These are people who have decided to buy. They just need to be sure they’re making the best possible decision when going ahead and buying from you.

This is the point where you need to reassure them you’re the right and best option for them. It’s the last checkpoint before they press the BUY button, so you want to give them the last bits of information to help them take the plunge and buy from you.

They may be looking at your competitors too, trying to understand the differences between you and them.

This is where ‘sales content’ can come in helpful. This is content that talks directly about your products or service, not just your industry.

You can learn all about it and get some amazing sales content ideas here.

Examples of purchase stage content

Here are a couple of examples of purchase content we created on our website: Why You Shouldn’t Join Our 90 Day Content Marketing Challenge or Everything You Need to Know About our Content Fortress Course.

You’ll notice that these talk only about our products and services!

3. Create compelling business blog posts

The next thing you want to check to make sure your business blog is as successful as it can be is your copy. It needs to be engaging and compelling. And when we say that, we don’t mean you need to sound like Shakespeare.

Quite the opposite, in fact!

Your copy should sound like you. When your prospective customers read your content, they’re forming an opinion on who you are, the types of things you say, and how you work.

You want to make sure that the way you sound in your blog content is similar to how you sound when you talk to your customers face-to-face.

Make sure your tone of voice and your personality come across – don’t be boring and hold yourself back too much. But also, don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Your copy also needs to be direct, clear, and jargon-free. In your blog post, tell the reader exactly what the piece of content is going to be about and then deliver on your promise. This needs to start from the headline, so make sure you pick a great title for your blog posts. And if you want more information on how to do this, head over to 7 Ways To Write An Irresistible Blog Post Headline.

And all the way through you need to make sure your blog is well structured and makes keeps people engaged. You can read all about this in our article, how to write a blog post – which covers everything from start to finish!

Break the text down

To make your blog posts user-friendly, make sure you include plenty of sub-headings and paragraphs to structure your information so it’s easy to read and digest. As much as we all like to think that people who consume our content will read it all (word by word) that’s really not the case.

We know it.

And you know it.

And according to Nielson Norman Group, website users read on average 20% of the text on the page.

People who consume content online want to be able to get to the information they need as quickly as possible, so make your text ‘scannable’ by adding sub-sections (all with their own sub-headings) and bulleted lists that help you guide the readers’ eyes to the key bits of information.

Make sure you also include lots of white space and images (more on that in a minute) to let the page ‘breathe’ and ensure you break up the text. No one wants to read a big wall of text, do they? That’s the opposite of compelling!

Website design actually has a huge impact on your content, so make sure you do all of the things above. That way you maximise your chances of blogging success!

4. Include standout imagery in your blog posts

Photos and images are essential for your blog. In fact, articles with images get 94% more views than articles that don’t.

An eye-catching featured image (which is the first thing people see when they land on your blog) can help them decide whether to click on the link and read through or not.

This means more people clicking through your content rather than hitting the back button and heading off to another website! So make sure your featured images are striking, on-brand, and clearly include the title of your blog post.

The rest of the images you sprinkle throughout your article should also play a huge role in how successful your content is going to be.

Much like white space, paragraphs, and sub-headings, images help you break up the text and encourage your readers to stay on the page. When you choose the right images, they immediately elevate the quality of your content. Especially if you create bespoke imagery in your branding (i.e. your colours, graphics, fonts, etc.)

The right images help you stand out

We’re not trying to brag here, but people often tell us that the featured images on our blog posts are so unique that when we share them on social media, they’ll immediately recognise the post as being one of ours.

That shows that using the right type of imagery can make you stand out. People know it’s you before they’ve even clicked on the content and read a single word you wrote. And that’s a great place to be!

Plus, there are other benefits to using great images in your blog posts. Pictures can make you more visible and relatable. Rather than sharing generic stock images from the Internet, we always recommend you use pictures of yourself and your team. That helps you build trust and rapport with your readers.

And you’ve all heard the saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. It’s true. Choose your images wisely, and they’ll enhance your content.

You can optimise your images

There’s also a slightly more technical reason why it’s important to have images – you can optimise them! That’s right – it’s not just text that you can optimise for search. So if you’re trying to be found for a particular keyword, you can include that keyword in the title and description of any images you use in your blog post and increase your chances of ranking for that keyword.

5. Optimise each blog post for your keywords

Another important factor to help you decide whether you’re doing a great job with your business blog is optimisation. We know this is something a lot of people don’t even want to hear about, but it really doesn’t need to be complicated!

Optimisation is actually really simple when you know the key steps you need to take. All you need to do is to allocate 15-20 minutes at the end of writing a blog post to make sure you’ve included your keywords in a few strategic places.

How to optimise your blog posts

Remember that keyword research process we talked about at the beginning? Let’s say you went for the keyword “piano teacher in Liverpool”. You’ll want to mention that exact combination of words in the text of your blog post.

On top of that, you’ll also want to include it in:

• Your URL. That’s the web address for your blog post.
• The title tags. The headline and some of the sub-headings, if possible.
• The meta description. That’s the short description that appears on Google under the title of the blogpost that tells people what the content is all about. It’s what helps them decide whether they want to go ahead and read or not.
• Your images. If you’ve included any images in your blog post (and we really recommend you do), you should add your selected keyword in the Alt Description.
• Throughout your article. Include it naturally within your blog post. And if you can, within the first paragraph of your entire article too.

And finally, remember to add links to relevant and related content. These should be both internal links (i.e. links to other pages or blog posts on your own website) and external links (i.e. links to resources from reputable websites that aren’t your competitors).

And that’s all you need to do to make sure your blog posts are optimised! When you break it down, it’s still not the most exciting of tasks (yes, we can see that). But it’s easy enough to do, and it’ll definitely give a huge boost to your business blogging efforts.

You can learn everything you need to know about optimising your blog posts in this handy guide: The Ultimate Guide to Optimising Your Blog Posts.

6. Lead Generation

Last but not least, a successful blog post will help you generate leads. In other words, you want your business blog to attract your dream customers.

Driving traffic to your website is great. You definitely want more people to find you through search engines and consume your content.

But what you want even more is for people to give you their email addresses, sign up for a free trial, or hit that buy now button.

Tips to improve your blog lead generation

Here are a few things we recommend you do to encourage people to give you their email addresses…

Mention your products and services. Don’t be shy!

This is your business blog after all. It’s published on your business website! And while you can absolutely help people with the content you share, you can help them even more through your products and services. That’s why they’re here – looking for help. So let them know how you can serve them. (For example, did you know we offer an SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service? 😉)

Include a lead magnet on your blog posts

In this blog post, you may have noticed a Business Blogging Quiz. We include this in our blog posts about blogging (shocker!)

We also have an SEO quiz, and we mainly include this in blog posts about SEO. Either way, we are able to capture email addresses via our blog.

Use imagery throughout your blog post to promote your lead magnet

Rather than just signposting people to your lead magnets through a link (which isn’t all that visible) we recommend you use branded images with big and bright call-to-action buttons.

Images are more eye-catching and encourage the reader to spend more time on the page. Plus, these images will have a big button that people can press if they want to download your lead magnet. And give you their email address. Win-win, right

Make your lead magnet irresistible

So lead magnets are often a bit…meh. They are often a checklist or an email series, and that’s fine but it’s not exactly compelling. That’s why our quiz seems to work so well. It’s interactive, and fun and you also get a personalised report too. So that appeals to people. Try to think about how you can make your own irresistible lead magnet too!

And finally, the free blog post template!

Below, we’ve included a free blog post template you can refer to, to help you improve your blog posts! And if you want something more substantial, you can check out our blog post template pack which includes 12 fill-in-the-blank blog post templates.

What area of your business blog should you focus on first?

So there you have it. The 6 key steps you need to take to create epic, lead-generating business blog content. As a reminder, these are:

1. Keyword research
2. Blogging strategy
3. Compelling copy
4. Standout imagery
5. Optimisation
6. Lead generation

To know which area you should focus on first, take our blogging quiz which will score you in each individual category and tell you EXACTLY how to improve.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post 6 Simple Steps that Make a Successful Business Blog [+ Free Blog Post Template] appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

What is a MASSIVE investment for one business, might be a drop in the ocean for another.

Some of you might already know what we charge and think that we are really cheap. Given all the different elements that are included in our service (including planning, writing, publishing and optimising the content). After all, if you were to hire multiple different freelancers or agencies to do all of the jobs that our service encompasses then you could easily be paying double or more every month.

But recently, we’ve also had people who are interested in working with us ask: “why are you so expensive?”

And it’s a totally fair question!

Especially if you’re ready to hire someone to help drive organic traffic to your website, and you’re wondering why our SEO content writing & blog management service is more expensive than hiring a freelance SEO writer.

But regardless of which camp you fall into, we want to make sure you make the right buying decision. 

While we think that there is loads of value bundled up into our SEO content writing & blog management service, you need to know what you are getting for the cost before you sign up.

So, in this blog, we’ll explore why we are so expensive, what our service includes, and how we differ from other services available.

Before we get into it, if you’re not quite sure what SEO content writing is, you can check out our article on what is an SEO content writing service?

How much do we charge for our SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service?

Don’t you hate when you can’t find the prices online when you want to buy something?

That’s why we’re pretty upfront about what we charge. No need to book an hour-long call with us just to find out the price!

So let’s just dive straight into our pricing. Then you’ll know exactly how much we charge (and whether that’s expensive for you).

The prices for our SEO content writing & blog management service start at £1297 per month and go up to £2297 per month. The smallest package (£1297) gets you up to 3000 words a month, which is usually split between two blog posts. And the largest package gets you 6000 words a month, which is often split between four blog posts.

The total cost that you pay depends on how many blogs you want us to publish every month. Everything else in the package remains the same. So regardless of whether you go for our silver or platinum package, you’ll get the same level of support from us (just a different number of blogs).

If at this point you are thinking: “Ah, that’s incredibly expensive”, then please do us a favour and keep on reading🙏.

By the end of the blog, you might decide that it’s still too expensive for your business. And that’s totally fine, we might still be able to work with you in a different way. But you also might realise that it’s such a valuable service, with loads packed in. It’s more than just writing content, hence why we charge what we do.

If you are thinking: “Lyndsay, that sounds like an amazing price, how can I sign up right away.” Then you can find out more here. But also we still recommend reading, as we promise it will get you even more excited about working with us.

Content writer vs SEO content writing & blog management service: which is more expensive?

We write content! So it’s totally understandable that we get compared to content writers when it comes to cost.

And in all honesty, we are usually more expensive than a freelance content writer.

So, let’s dig into why that is…

There are a couple of different pricing structures commonly used by freelance writers.

The first one is per word, with writers charging between $0.02 and $2.00 per word on average. If an average blog is 1000 words, this would work out at around £20 to £2000 per blog (a HUGE difference). However, this type of pricing often promotes word stuffing – more words written = a higher cost. But a blog should be as long as it needs to be, so we think it’s better to get a set price per blog. And luckily, this is the most common way for freelance content writers to price

The average cost per blog is between £200 and £700. The exact cost will depend on the individual writer’s skills and experience. The more blogs you want to be written every month, the more you will pay.

Let’s say a content writer is charging £300/per blog, for two blogs you will be paying £600 per month.

If you compare this to our Silver package (two blogs per month) you pay £1297 per month or £648.50/blog. So over double what you would pay the £300 per blog content writer.

But when you see what you else you are getting for your money you’ll understand why we price this way.

Why are we more expensive than content writers?

So, if we’re both writing content, then why do we charge more than most content writers for our content services?

I mean, obviously, it’s because we want to fund our lavish lifestyle and make all our neighbours jealous with multiple Lamborghinis in the driveway, right? Just kidding 😉

It really comes down to two things: services and skills.

What does an SEO content writer service include?

Traditionally a content writer primarily sticks to writing content (I know it’s in the name). They focus on creating blog content that educates and informs your potential clients while ranking highly on search engine results pages (SERPs).

In order to do this successfully, content writers will be skilled in SEO and optimising content. However, they usually work off a supplied content plan and are not involved in the planning or strategy aspect. They’ll also provide the blog via Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or something similar and won’t usually upload the content to your website or promote it in any way across your platforms.

Of course, the skills of each content writer will differ massively, but a freelancer by definition is one person. So you are very much restricted by the skills that they personally have.

What does our SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service include?

In comparison, our SEO content writing & content management service covers a whole range of content services within the one package.

That’s because we know that good content is just one part of driving organic traffic to your website. In addition to content, it includes:

• A discovery call (to get to know your business)
• In-depth keyword research (this takes us a LONG time, and we charge £997+VAT to do this as a stand-alone service)
• Competitor analysis
• Content strategy (i.e. telling you the exact articles you should create to rank on search and convert)
• A website audit, where we look at what could prevent or limit you from ranking
• A professional proofreader to look over the content (who we hire separately)
• Adding the content to your website and formating it
• Creation of the blog post featured image
• Extra ‘in-the body’ images that are optimised for search engines
• Optimise the content
• Publish the content

All of this is in addition to the writing. So yes, you could hire an SEO content writer, but that would mean you’d have to do all of the above yourself. Which is not a bad thing, by the way. It just requires more of your time.

Plus, we can also create social and email marketing copy for an extra cost to amplify the impact of your content.

Taking all of the above into account, suddenly £648.50/per month per blog doesn’t seem all that expensive right? Hiring individual freelancers for all of these roles would cost you A LOT more. You’d need to hire an SEO agency, graphic designer and web specialist or tech VA for those roles. That’s a lot!

SEO and Web Specialist Meets Expert Writer

Plus with Jammy Digital there are two of us, so you get to take advantage of our individual skills (plus we use a professional proofreading service to make sure there are no mistakes).

Although we both love creating content we have two different skill sets that enable us to offer a wider range of services than your average freelance content writer.

I (Lyndsay) am the content & SEO strategist and writer. I create blog posts in your style and tone of voice and optimise them for ranking on search engines.

Martin is a website and SEO strategist and graphic designer. He develops content strategies around topics that will rank, as well as uploading, optimising the content, and making it look beautiful. He was also a website designer for over a decade and can spot issues with your website that will prevent or limit your rankings. Your website has a huge impact on the success of your content, so it’s handy having Martin in your corner!

So, not only do we offer a lot more in terms of service, but we also have a wider range of skills that your blogs can benefit from.

SEO agency vs SEO & blog management service: which is more expensive?

In addition to content writers, we’re also often compared to SEO agencies. It makes sense, as we both aim to get you ranking on search engines via organic traffic.

But, whilst our goal is the same, the strategy we use to get you there differs quite dramatically. And as a result, so does the cost.

SEO agencies can charge anywhere between £2000 – £6000 per month, depending on what services you require.

However, as we talked about in our blog on SEO agency problems, this price doesn’t always include content creation (especially if you opt for a cheaper SEO package). In fact, our research showed that 13 out of 20 UK SEO agencies offered content marketing as a separate service to their SEO services.

Out of the 20 agencies we looked at, only one provided a price, which was £2899 per month. This included a blogging strategy and content calendar but there was no mention of creating content. So it’s likely that you will need to DIY your content or pay the SEO agency more to write the blogs.

In comparison, our content services range from £1297 per month (two blogs) to £2297 per month (four blogs). Even our top-end platinum package is at the lower end of SEO agency pricing.

Of course, the service that we offer in comparison to an SEO agency is very different.

Related content: SEO content writer vs SEO agency: which one is best for your business?

Generally speaking, we are LESS expensive than SEO agencies.

Why are we less expensive than hiring an SEO agency?

So, why are we less expensive than hiring an SEO agency?

Suddenly even our Platinum package at £2297/month seems like a bit of a bargain in comparison to the £6000/month you could be paying an SEO agency.

Does that mean an SEO agency gets better results?

A good SEO agency will be highly skilled at driving organic traffic to your website. They’ll dive into the technical aspects of SEO that will affect website performance and rankings.

However, some of them won’t flag problems with the user experience or design of your website (that’s not in their ‘remit’).

They will potentially create content that helps you rank (although sometimes they outsource this). But often won’t create content designed for conversions. This could result in more eyeballs on your website, but not an increase in sales.

While there are many great SEO agencies out there, we’ve found that some rely on the fact that no one really knows what they do. SEO is a bit of a dark art, and many SEO agencies have a magical wizardry surcharge.

In comparison, we know that technical SEO wizardry alone is not enough. And we used to run an SEO agency, so you could say that we are pretty clued up on all things SEO.

Rich content is a crucial part of driving traffic to your site, so we focus on creating content around a keyword strategy that helps you rank on search engines. Of course, we’ll let you know if there are any major issues with your website that is blocking traffic.

Whether an SEO agency or a content service is right for you will depend on the specific problems you are having. But, for most businesses looking to drive organic traffic, and more leads, focussing on SEO optimised content is hugely beneficial and more affordable than hiring an SEO agency.

Related content: The biggest problems with SEO companies (and how to avoid them).

Need help with your SEO content writing & blog management?

If by this point you are thinking that our price isn’t really that expensive for all that we offer, then our blog management service might be perfect for you.

We’re generally more expensive than content writers, but less expensive than SEO agencies. This is because our combined skills and subsequent service offer a little more than is usually offered by a content writer. And while we do a lot of SEO tasks, we don’t dive into the technical stuff quite as much as an SEO agency.

You could say it’s a mid-point between SEO content writers and SEO agencies, and our prices reflect that.

If your business wants to drive more traffic, leads and sales by creating epic content, then the SEO & blog management service will help you do just that. Plus, the whole process will be managed by us so you can put your time to better use.

Want to see where you’re at with SEO?

Struggling with SEO? Or just want to see where you’re performing right now? Then take our 2 minute SEO quiz and get a personalised report, telling you exactly how to improve.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Why is our SEO content writing & blog management service so expensive? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You might have even heard of content writing.

But how have those two things been mushed together, and what the heck is it?

In this article, I’ll explain exactly what an SEO content writing service is. And more importantly, how SEO content writing can be an absolute gamechanger for your business.

Firstly, what is an SEO content writing service?

An SEO content writing service is the process of creating content for your website that helps you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The company or freelancer who offers this service will usually create content in the form of blog articles (just like this one).

Some companies can also create guest posts that are added to other websites (not just the client’s website). The aim of this is to increase the number of backlinks to your website, increasing your authority in the eyes of Google.

What does an SEO content writing service include?

At the heart of it, an SEO content writer should be able to produce compelling content written in your tone of voice and style.

The content should be highly engaging and get your reader to take action. This is the same for all content writers, whether they specialise in SEO writing or not.

So what’s the difference between an SEO content writer and a content writer?

The main difference is in the extra ‘stuff’ included within the SEO content writing service and the overall aim of the content.

An SEO content writer should have a deep understanding of SEO. They should know how to optimise your content for your chosen keywords and phrases (without it sounding like a repetitive mess!)

They should know how to get you ranked on Google and advise you on the best ways to do it.

What is the goal of SEO Content Writing?

Just like content writers, SEO content writers should create compelling, engaging content that users love to read.

If you use an SEO content writing service you should expect the overall goal of the content to focus on website traffic and search engine rankings.

Any good SEO content writing service should:

• • Increase your search engine rankings for a variety of keywords
  • Increase your website traffic
  • Increase your backlinks from high-authority websites

As stated in Search Engine Journal, the main issue with SEO content writing services is often they focus too much on rankings but don’t know how to convert that traffic into customers.

Are you thinking of hiring a company or freelancer to help you with SEO content writing? It’s a good idea you look for a company that can create compelling copy that converts AND help you rank on search engines.

What are some key elements an SEO Content Writing Service could include?

Writing is just a part of what makes a successful, high-ranking blog. There’s actually a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

Some SEO content writing services will include:

Keyword research

SEO content writing services may also include keyword research.

Keyword research is the process of finding out what topics and specific keywords and phrases people are searching for around your products and services.

If someone is doing this on your behalf, they will identify the topics you can realistically rank for that get a healthy number of searches each month. If they offer this as part of the SEO content writing service, then they’ll go ahead and write the content based on this research. Simple.

Content strategy

SEO content writing services are primarily focused on getting more traffic to your content via search engine rankings.

But good SEO content writing services should also focus on the entire buyer’s journey. It shouldn’t just be about getting people through the door (or finding you from Google), you also want to convert people too.

That’s why some SEO content writing services also offer content strategy as part of the service. They’ll help you form a strategy that guides people through the entire customer journey–from finding you to buying from you. This means they may create some content that isn’t designed to get website traffic, it’s designed to convert people into paying customers.

On-Page Optimisation

Some SEO content writing services will include on-page optimisation as part of the service. This means they’ll upload the content for you and ensure it’s optimised and formatted correctly for SEO. For example, they’ll optimise your URL, title tag, imagery, meta description and select your categories and tags.

This will increase your chances of ranking in search results. Optimising your content for your keywords is only part of what will help it rank, a lot of work also has to happen on your website itself too!

If you want to learn how to do this yourself, check out our article on how to optimise your blog post.

Measuring success

Some companies will track your search engine rankings as they continue to create content for you. They’ll also track things like the number of backlinks to your website, website traffic and leads coming through the site.

This is helpful as you can see what is working and what isn’t working so well and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Creating imagery

Some SEO writers or companies will even create bespoke imagery and optimise it for search engines. Some will also use stock image websites and ensure these are optimised for search engines too.

Who offers SEO content writing as a service?

There are a few types of freelancers or companies that offer SEO content writing as a service. And they all differ slightly in price, process and approach.

1. SEO Content Writers

These are typically freelance writers who have knowledge and experience in SEO. They are able to write blog articles and optimise them for search engines.

Some of them will offer keyword research as part of their service, which means they will research the topics, keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for.

Others won’t offer keyword research. They will ask you what keywords or phrases you’d like to rank for or what you think people are searching for. They’ll then optimise your blog post for these keywords and phrases.

Many don’t upload your content to your website and optimise your SEO settings. They will leave that part to you. But some will write things like the meta description for you, leaving you to add that to your website.

Some may upload the content to your website if it’s a platform (or content management system) they are already familiar with. There are a lot of different website platforms, and writers tend not to have knowledge of them all (nor should they need to!)

A quick overview of SEO Content Writers and what they do

Generally, this is what SEO content writers do and/or specialise in

• They are professional writers, often with experience in writing for business
• They have knowledge of SEO
• They are able to optimise your content for keywords and phrases
• Some will offer keyword research as part of the service
• Often they don’t upload your content to your website
• Often they don’t create imagery

How much does it cost to hire an SEO Content Writer?

SEO Content Writers can typically charge anywhere between £250 – £1000+ per blog article. I know that’s wildly different amounts!

I also understand that this can sound expensive. But remember, both writing and SEO are highly-skilled work, and it’s likely that the SEO content writer has a lot of experience and expertise. Plus, it will take them time to research and write each article. Hence the price tag!

2. SEO Agencies

Many SEO agencies offer content writing as part of the service. This is often part of a broader service where they’ll also offer things like keyword research, an SEO audit, technical SEO, improving your website’s performance, and increasing backlinks to your website.

Some agencies will outsource the content writing they do for clients, as writing isn’t their specialism. Some will have in-house writers.

SEO agencies are highly focused on getting traffic to your website, and as many are not expert ‘writers’, you may find they place less emphasis on your brand voice and style. The content is merely a means to an end, and that end is website traffic.

They will usually upload your content to your website and optimise it for search engines, but may not have the skills required to create fancy graphics.

A quick overview of SEO Agencies and what they do

• They are experts in SEO and focus on all aspects of SEO (such as technical SEO or increasing backlinks)
• They may outsource content writing or have writers in-house
• They are able to optimise your content for keywords and phrases
• They will offer keyword research
• They will upload and optimise your content
• Often they don’t create imagery

How much does it cost to hire an SEO Agency for this service?

They are usually more expensive than SEO content writers. A lot of SEO agencies have 6-month contracts and prices will vary from £1000 – £10,000+ per month (if they’re a pretty decent agency). And the more content they create generally the more expensive it is.

Remember that’s not just for creating content, that’s for an entire SEO service.

We know of a lot of great SEO agencies, but we also know that there are a lot of problems in the industry too. If you’re thinking of hiring an SEO agency, you might want to check out our article on the problems with SEO agencies.

3. Blog Management Agencies

This is where we sit.

Blog management agencies are less well known than content writers or SEO agencies, but they do similar things.

A blog management agency does exactly what it says, they manage every aspect of your blog. That means everything from keyword research and strategy, to content writing and creating imagery.

If they have a focus on SEO (like we do), they should hit the balance between creating compelling content and ranking on search engines.

Some of them will also be able to advise if there’s anything technically on your website that will hinder your rankings (like us!)

They may also write guest blog posts in order for you to build your backlinks to your website, building your authority with Google.

A quick overview of Blog Management Agencies and what they do

• They are expert writers and can write in your tone of voice and style
• They understand content strategy and should create content that helps people go through the entire buyer’s journey – from finding you to buying from you
• They should do keyword research for you
• They will upload your content to your website and optimise it for you
• They are knowledgeable in SEO
• Some (like us) should be able to create custom graphics for your blog posts
• Many don’t understand technical SEO (such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, broken links etc) so they can’t advise on that

How much does it cost to hire a Blog Management Agency?

There aren’t that many blog management agencies out there, and the ones that do offer this service don’t give a price unless you get on a call with them (annoying).

But a blog management agency would usually sit between an SEO content writer and an SEO agency.

We charge a minimum of £1397 per month for our blog management service.

Is an SEO Content Writing Service right for you?

Whether you choose an SEO content writer, SEO agency or blog management agency, SEO content writing can have HUGE benefits for your business.

Not only can you use that content to rank on search engines and deliver traffic to your website, but you can also repurpose it across your social media channels too. In fact, I can get 4-8 LinkedIn posts just from one blog post! You can learn more about how to repurpose a blog post here.

So yes, it’s an investment, but for many businesses, you’ll certainly see a good ROI from it.

And don’t forget to check out our SEO blog writing service for more information.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?  appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We know better than most just how time-intensive writing consistent and high-quality business blogs can be. We’ve been doing it pretty much every week (or more) since 2017. 

Back when we kicked off our blog we were primarily web design and SEO specialists. And we’ll admit there were times when blog production dropped to the bottom of our to-do list due to lack of time. ⏰

But, we also know just how crucial a strong content strategy is for growing your business.

So over the years we’ve tried and tested a bunch of business blogging tools to help with SEO, improve the quality of writing and shave some precious hours off the process. 

In this blog, we’ll share our best blogging tools to help you create blogs faster than ever before. 

IMPORTANT! There are zero affiliate links in this blog post. We don’t earn any money out of recommending these companies, we’re here to just give you the best tools for your business.

And don’t worry, these tools aren’t going to set you back hundreds or thousands of pounds. They are all either completely FREE to use or pretty cheap – so they won’t break the bank.💰

There are some key areas that these blogging tools can help in, so we’ve split the blog post into these sections:

Table of Contents

Evaluating Where You Are Right Now

First thing’s first, you’ll want to evaluate where you are now with your blog and how you can improve. That way, you’ll know exactly what you need to focus on moving forward (and what blogging tools you can use to help you do that).

Luckily, we created just the tool for you…

1. Business Blogging Quiz (FREE)

If you have ever wondered how “Good” your blog is, then check out the Business Blogging Quiz. We created this FREE tool that will automatically assess how well your blog is performing.

It will also tell you exactly how to improve your business blog so you can increase your website traffic, rankings and sales.

Click the link below and get your Business Blogging Score instantly.

The Best Blogging Tools for Generating Blog Post Ideas…

“I’ll run out of things to write about.” 

Have you ever found yourself saying this? ⬆️

We know that coming up with amazing, traffic-generating ideas is one of the biggest barriers to getting started on your blogging journey. 

But if you’re tearing your hair out trying to come up with blog ideas then stop. 🛑

We’ve been consistently blogging since 2017, and trust us when we say we’ve still got loads more to write about. 

That’s because we employ a few different blogging tools that help us generate ideas. They hack into what our potential customers are actually searching for online. 

Not only do these tools help create blog ideas, but they will allow you to see what terms and phrases people search for on Google. These are known as longtail keywords. 

For example, if you bake cupcakes, it’s unlikely that people are just typing “cupcakes” into Google. They are probably searching for things like:

• Where to buy cupcakes in Blackpool?

• How much do cupcakes cost?

• How to make my own cupcakes?

This is a crucial step for SEO, as you can sprinkle these phrases into your content. And this will allow you to be found by search engines.

Using these tools allows you to integrate topics your potential customers are actually searching for rather than guessing. So when they type their query into Google guess who’s blog will pop up first – that’s right, yours. 

• Related content: 5 FREE ways to check keyword rankings in Google

2. Answer The Public (Free)

Answer the Public is an amazing tool that helps you clearly visualise real questions that your potential customers have asked via an image known as a “search cloud”. 

Simply enter your topic into the search bar, and Answer the Public will produce a “mind-map” of questions that have been searched for.

Remember people ask Google questions they would never ask someone else (or you). So it’s a great way to gain insight into the inner workings of potential customers’ minds. 

It’s a useful tool to come up with blog titles, but also individual sub-headings and sub-sections. 

The free version gives you up to three searches per day, which will be enough for most small businesses. But if you think you’ll be running multiple searches a day, then you can upgrade to the PRO version. Below, we’ve shown an example of when we put in the phrase, ‘book editor’. 

3. Quora (Free) 

People ask a lot of random questions on the internet…

How long would it take me to walk to the moon?

Which country in the world has the strangest shape?

If you’ve ever searched for something online then you’ve probably come across Quora. 

It’s a free-to-use, search and answer website, that is completely user-generated. This means users generate the questions asked and the answers given.

It’s a really great insight into what people are searching for, and what the common answers (or potential misconceptions) around your industry are. All really juicy information when you are trying to come up with blog ideas. 

Plus, you can follow specific topics and keep tabs on any new questions that are popping up. Below, I typed in the phrase ‘book editor’ and look at all the juicy questions that could easily make great content!

4. Keywords Everywhere (Free and Paid Version) 

Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that helps you with keyword research, and SEO. 

It allows you to do keyword research on the go, as you type queries into Google. Once installed it will pop up on the side whenever you do a search and will give you access to:

• Trend data and search volumes for that keyword
• Related keywords to the search term you selected
• ‘People also search for’ suggestions.

It’s free to use but a paid-for version is also available if you want more information on monthly searches and competitor analysis. However, most people will find the free version more than adequate for their needs. 

Below, we’ve shown you an example of how this works by searching for the keyphrase ‘business book editor’. We do pay for this tool, but it’s incredibly cheap at just $10 for 100,000 credits (which is a lot!)

5. Semrush (Paid) 

Semrush is the creme de la creme of keyword research tools, but with a price tag to match. 

It’s is a full-service research tool and allows you to figure out what people are searching for in relation to a specific keyword using their content marketing topic research. 

It is a paid tool with prices starting at around $119/month, however, you can sign up for a free trial to see if it would be worth it. This tool is something that we use to get really deep insights into keyword research, rankings, backlink data and more. Below is a screenshot of SEMRush, with us searching for the keyword ‘book editor’ – and this is just surface level stuff (yes, we do geek out over this!) 

The Best Blogging Tools for Planning Blog Posts…

“Aghhh, I’ll just wing it, and see what happens.”

Does this sound like you?

We can almost guarantee that this is the easiest way to fall off the content bandwagon. We’ve seen it time and time again in the 90-day content challenge we run within our membership.

The people that fail to plan are always the ones that struggle to complete the challenge. Every👏 Single👏 Time👏.

Putting a little time aside upfront to plan out your content, and organise it into a schedule will give you a fighting chance. 

Not only will you not have to worry about what you are writing about every week (especially if you use the brainstorming blogging tools above). But it will also help you plan and prioritise blogging as a task on your to-do list. If it’s written down in black and white it’s not as easy to push it to the bottom of the list.

Everyone plans in a different way, so we’ve got a couple of different blogging tools that will suit depending on your brain works. 

• Related content: How to plan 50 pieces of content in 30 minutes

6. Trello (Free and Paid Version) 

Trello is an amazing visual planning tool if you have a logical and linear brain. It is a very simple visual planner that allows you to layout all your blog posts via boards and cards. 

The cards allow you to add more detail in an unstructured way. This makes it easier to create content plans than something like Google Sheets/Spreadsheets. 

You can create columns for each of your products and services so that you can manage what blogs are coming up, and what ones have been done. 

Trello is a free tool, however, if you need more than ten boards or want a calendar view then you can upgrade to a paid plan (starting from $5/person/month). But we’ve found that for most small businesses, the free tool is more than powerful enough. 

7. MindMeister (Free and Paid Version) 

Did you know that mind maps are 30% more effective than linear documents when it comes to generating ideas? 

MindMeister is a mind-mapping tool, and it’s a brilliant way to plan out content for people who love to inject some creativity into their planning process. 

The free plan allows you to create up to three mind-maps, which should be enough for most businesses. However, if you have a team, or if you really want to get into creating mind maps, then you can upgrade to a paid plan. Below is an example of how we use MindMeister.

The Best Blogging Tools for Creating Blog Post Images…

Have you ever seen a blog post image and immediately known who wrote the blog at a glance?

This is definitely something we’ve managed to achieve throughout pop-art blog images (or so we’ve been told). And while we create a new blog post image for every single blog, there is a definite and distinct theme running through them all. 

With over 4 million blogs published every day, and shared all over social media, you need a way to stand out from the crowd. 

Creating an eye-catching image for every blog post is a great way to do this and to convey your unique brand personality in the process. 

This might seem like a daunting process if you aren’t a graphic designer, but we use one great tool that is simple and effective. 

8. Canva (Free and Paid Version)

You’ve probably heard of Canva, it’s got a bit of a love-hate relationship, especially among the graphic design community. We are definitely on the LOVE side for Canva, and it’s a tool we happily recommend to all our clients and MYMO members. 

It’s much easier to use (and cheaper) than Photoshop. And it’s brilliant for creating consistent and beautiful images for your blog post. 

The free version has tonnes of functionality and allows you to overlay text onto existing photos, or add graphics to your website. 

There is also a paid-for version that offers a little more functionality and access to more images and graphics. 

The Best Blogging Tools for Editing Your Blog Posts…

Ever hit publish and then realised there is a glaringly obvious, totally embarrassing error?

Oh no, you’ll never be able to show your face in public again😳

Not really, we’ve all been there. But it is a good idea to eliminate as many errors from your blogs as possible. 

And we know the fear of errors is one thing that can hold people back from writing and publishing blog content -especially if they aren’t confident writers.

There are a couple of blogging tools that will help you write like you’ve got a team of editors and proofreaders on your team (well almost, they aren’t quite as good as trained humans).

9. Grammarly (Free and Paid Version)

Grammarly is an AI-powered tool that helps you write mistake-free content across loads of apps including Google Docs, Gmail, Facebook and Twiter. 

Contrary to what the name would have you believe it’s about more than just grammar (although it certainly does help with that). It will also check spelling and punctuation, as well as ensure the content is clear and easy to read. 

Basically, it’s an absolute life-saver if you are writing lots of content. It’s one of our favourite blogging tools!

And the best part is that it’s free, although you can upgrade to a premium version. 

Yes, you‘ll still need to read over your work, as some slip-ups will bypass the super-smart AI. But it’s a quick and effective way to check your work for mistakes and make your writing better in seconds. Below, we’ve shown you an example of how it works using this blog post!

10. Power Thesaurus (Free) 

If you’ve ever seen Friends then you might remember when Baby Kangaroo (a.k.a Joey) turned to a thesaurus to help him sound smarter. 

And while running every single word through a thesaurus is not a good idea – it can certainly help. 

Power Thesaurus is a free, community drive app that allows you to find synonyms or antonyms for over 80 million English language words. 

Perfect for when your brain stops working after lunch and you just can’t think of a smart-sounding way to say nice.

Ps. amiable, charming and good-natured could all work. 

The Best Blogging Tools for Optimising Your Blog Posts…

Despite what the latest marketing doomsday opinion piece will have you believe, Google is very much alive. 

And paying homage to the Google Gods can really make or break the success of your blog.

You could craft the most informative, beautifully written blog post, and still have it flop if you don’t adhere to some of Google’s rules.

The algorithm is ever-changing, so appeasing the search engines is an ever-evolving task. We call this optimising content, and we’re taking what we’ve created and tweaked it to give it a better chance of being found online. 

However, there are some blogging tools that remove the guesswork and help us adhere to the rules. 

• Related content: WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts

11. Yoast (Free and Paid Version – WordPress Blogging Tool Only)

Once you’ve written your blog it’s time to get it uploaded and hit publish. 

Well, yes but there are some steps to take before hitting publish to make sure that everything SEO related is in ship-shape for Google (and other search engines).

Yoast is a WordPress specific plug-in that double-checks the soundness of your blog content, and give you practical suggestions for improvement, including:

• Readability improvement (ie. sentences are too long)
• Keyword distribution and density
• Text length
• As well as loads of other features…

It’s one of our favourite blogging tools. It’s great for issuing practical prompts and presenting them in a traffic light system. Perfect if you’re like us and like competing against the machines. 

Ps. don’t worry if you can’t get all greens. It’s not always possible but it’s a good goal to have. 

The basic version of Yoast is free, but you can also upgrade which gives you access to even more SEO based tools to improve your writing. It is a tool that every self-respecting blog writer should include in their repertoire. We’ve included an example below of how Yoast looks evaluating this blog post for the keyword ‘blogging tools’. 

12. Tiny PNG (Free and Paid Version)

Have you ever tried to get on a website or a blog and it just takes forever to load?

Not only is it super frustrating (who has time to wait for a page to load). 

But if people get tired of waiting and bounce off the page then this can negatively affect your Google stats. Which can cause them to rank you lower than they would if your website was super speedy. 

One of the ways that you can stop this from happening is by compressing your images so that they take less time to load. You can use a free web-based app called Tiny PNG helps to compress the image size. 

It’s a really simple thing that you can do to help improve your site speed and overall Google ranking. 

This is us, showing you Tiny PNG by compressing this image of Tiny PNG (how meta!)

13. Pic Resize (Free) 

Got the ideal image but it’s HUGE, or needing to be cropped down?

Having images that look good, and are appropriately sized for your blog is essential in making it look good. 

And luckily Pic Resize helps you with just that. Allowing you to resize image dimensions, and crop out sections that are necessary quickly and easily.

Once you’ve done this you should still pop it through TinyPNG to compress the image size and make sure it loads.

The Best Blogging Tools to Make Your Blog Look Good…

While we’ve all been led to believe that looks don’t matter, that just isn’t the case for your blog posts (or websites in general).

Have you ever been on a website and left straight away because it’s a wall of text?

Of course, the content and what you are saying really matters, and there is no point in creating a beautiful blog with no substance. 

However, creating a visually appealing blog post is arguably just as important as writing amazing content. And the last thing you want is for people to not read your super amazing blog because it doesn’t look good. 

Getting people to click on your post and stay there requires a balance of content, SEO and visuals. 

Especially when there are some really simple solutions…

15. Depositphotos (Paid) 

We always recommend that you have professional images that you dot around your website and blog posts. This helps add personality and ensures people know what the person behind the site looks like. 

However, we know that sometimes stock images are needed, and when that is the case we recommend Depositphotos. It’s a bank of royalty-free images, videos, vectors, illustrations, and music, that you can use on your website. 

It is a paid tool (either on-demand or subscription-based), but we find that it’s much better quality than many of the free tools out there. And you can be confident that they are licensed to use for business. 

Just be careful of those super cheesy stock photos. You know the ones, where everyone has a psychotic smile and are way too happy!

16. Death to Stock Photo (Paid) 

Sick of cheesy stock images? Enter Death to Stock Photo. The clue is in the name really but this website provides the most amazing images that look, well, non-stock-photo-like!

There are no cheesy smiles or fake-happy looking people. Here’s an example of one of the images that came up when we typed in ‘office’.

17. Pixabay (Free)

If you’re on a budget, using a free stock image website like Pixabay can come to your rescue! They have literally millions of stock images you can choose from. And the best thing is, they are free. Although, it’s nice to ‘tip’ a cup of coffee sometimes to the photographers!

If you want to do even more than just create images, check out this blog post on how to make your blogs look good.

The Best Blogging Tools for Collecting Leads on Blog Posts…

Ultimately the aim of creating a blog post is to make sales. However, while we’d love for someone to pop on a blog page and buy straight away it’s not always realistic. 

People need to come into contact with various touchpoints before they buy from you. And that’s why it’s important to drive people towards an email list so that you can stay in contact with them and nurture them towards the eventual sale. 

We’ve recently launched our new SEO and blog management service, and this prompted us to look into who bought from us on launch, and whether they were already on our email list.

And guess what…they all were. 

In fact, we found that:

• they were on our email list for at least 12 months before investing in our 1-2-1 services
• they are engaged, email subscribers (ie. they open, click or reply to emails)

So aiming to get people off your blog posts and onto an email list is a good one to have. 

But how exactly do you do this? Well below is a good example using one of the tools we recommend. 😉

18. ScoreApp (Paid, with Free Trial)

One of the BEST ways of gaining leads from your blog post is by creating a quiz. Quizzes are fun, interactive and offer a ton of value. And our favourite quiz software has to be ScoreApp.

ScoreApp allows you to create beautiful quizzes easily. It’s so easy to create your quiz, and it comes with:

• Beautiful landing page designs
• Results page designs
• Personalised feedback depending on the results your audience gets
• Category scoring – so you can give people a score for different categories

19. OptinMonster (Paid)

OptinMonster is a very powerful, and intuitive lead generation tool that allows you to create beautiful and eye-catching opt-ins, pop-ups. Their ultimate goal is to help turn blog visitors into email subscribers. 

Ideal!

You can integrate these into your blogs, and on other pages on your website to drive people towards your email list. 

OptinMonster is a paid tool, however, the entry-level package is very affordable, and has all the essentials for building a lead generation campaign from your blogs. 

20. Thrive Leads (Paid) 

Another one that we love is Thrive Leads which focuses on driving uses from your blog onto your email list. 

It allows you to create visually stunning opt-ins in the form of pop-ups, widgets, in-line forms, screen locks as well as others. 

Thrive Leads is also a paid plugin, that you buy as a yearly subscription, however, it’s well worth it for those serious about making their blogs work for them. 

The Best Blogging Tools for Measuring the Success of Blog Posts…

Before you kick things off with your blogging you need to know your starting point. 

What pages or blog posts are the most read on your website?

Where do your visitors spend most of their time when on your website?

Knowing this is invaluable because it allows you to understand what is working, and more importantly what isn’t. From this, you can tweak and optimise your content to do more of what works. And if you’re struggling to see rankings, check out this blog post on why you’re not ranking in Google (and how to fix it). 

So how do you measure your website traffic?

21. Google Analytics (Free)

Google Analytics is a brilliant free web analytics tool that helps you analyse your website traffic in pretty minute detail. 

While the background workings are pretty technical (involving code, and tracking links), Google Analytics allows you to access easy-to-read reports that will give you insight into who has visited your website, how they found you, what content they consume and how they behave on your site. 

If this sounds a little scary, then don’t worry Google has a free course to help you get started with Google Analytics. Below is a screenshot of our daily users from Google analytics. It’s good to know!

22. The Hoth Rank Checker (Free)

The Hoth Rank Checker is a free tool powered by Semrush that helps you identify your website’s top traffic driving keywords. Simply put, what are people typing into Google that is leading them to your website. 

It’s a great way to figure out what is already working, and how to utilise these current top-performing keywords to boost you to page one. 

Think of Hoth Rank Checker as a soft “quick-wins” identifier. It will still require some work to boost these rankings, but it’s a good place to start.

It’s completely free, and the same website can also give you access to other tools such as backlink checkers, and keywords planners – but the rank checker is our favourite.  

23. Fat Rank Chrome Extension (Free) 

Fat Rank Chrome Extension is as it sounds another Chrome extension tool to help with on-the-go keyword ranking research. 

After installing the extension, simply visit a website and click the Fat Rank icon to find out where that website currently ranks in Google, and which page URLs are ranking. 

Again it’s a great, free, way to figure out what pages and keywords your website is already ranking for and might help with some potential quick wins or areas to focus on. 

Below is a screenshot of us using Fat Rank to determine where we’re ranking for the keyword ‘write blog post headline’. This shows us we’re number 12, so with some more tweaks to that blog post, we should be able to get to page one! Handy to know, right?

Does this sound like a little too much work?

Phew! That’s quite a lot of work and quite a lot of blogging tools to get your blogs in tip-top performing shape. 

Loads of people think blogging is just banging out some words, uploading it to your website and hoping for the best. 

But the reality is that in order to produce successful blogs, that actually drive traffic (and sales) there is a little more to it than that. 

And while these blogging tools will help you shave hours off your blog writing sessions, they will still involve some time on your part. 

If this all sounds like a little too much work then you might want to consider our SEO content writing and blog management service. It’s a full blog writing and SEO service, that could shave 10 hours off your to-do list every week. 

Just think about what you could be doing with that time?

We take care of:

• Generating search-drive blog ideas
• Writing the blog content
• Keyword research
• Planning the content
• Creating blog images
• Edit the blog (using a professional proofreader)
• Optimising the blog
• Ensuring you can collect leads
• Measuring the success
• Uploading it to your website

Basically, everything that we’ve covered above is included in our SEO and blog management package. 

Not sure if this service is right for you?

Don’t forget our free blogging tool! 

Take our Blogging Superstar Quiz – a quiz that tests how well you’re doing in the 6 key areas that make a successful blog post to see if you’re all sorted or need some help.

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 23 of the Best Business Blogging Tools that Increase Traffic and Conversions appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

The same goes for your blog posts. People will only click if the title is tempting. Whether that’s from social media or in search results, your title is the thing that will grab your audience’s attention. 

The problem is, writing a blog post title is HARD. 

We personally find writing an entire blog post easier than writing a title. 

But over the years (and after A LOT of testing) we’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. 

Read these 7 ways to write a blog post headline that’ll excite and entice your viewers to keep reading on.

1. Make Your Blog Post Headlines Specific 

If people don’t ‘get’ what your blog post is about from the headline then they won’t click on the blog post. 

For example, let’s say you’re writing a blog post about the best Keto Brownies you can order online. 

Imagine if these were the headlines…

‘The day I got to try a load of brownies!’ 

‘Brownies for the win!’ 

‘Chocolatey goodness without the sugar – yum!’ 

They don’t tell the reader what the heck your article is about. Yes, they’ll know it’s about brownies, but you need to be more specific with things like…

‘The best keto brownie companies that deliver straight to your door.’ 

Now that is specific, and it tells the reader exactly what they’re going to get. This brings us nicely onto our next point…

2. Optimise your Headline for Keywords 

If the aim of your blog post is to bring in website traffic, then you’ll want to optimise it for your keyword/phrase. 

Think about the example above. No one is searching for ‘Brownies for the win!’ on Google. 

But we bet there are people looking for ‘the best keto brownie companies that deliver’ or ‘the best keto brownie companies’ or even ‘keto brownie companies’. 

If you do a little keyword research, then you’ll know exactly what your audience is typing into search engines. 

Once you know that, you’ll know what words or phrases you need to include in your blog post title. 

Does anyone else really fancy a brownie right now or is it just me? 

3. Use numbers for list posts 

Oh, we don’t half love numbers. 

Numbers make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

When we see a number as part of a blog post title, we know three things: 

1. This is going to be easy-peasy for my brain to consume 
2. This is going to be specific and actionable 
3. I’m going to be able to skim read this and get the main points 

This is what makes articles that feature numbers way more appealing. In fact, in 2020, 41% of the top articles were listicles – i.e. list-based posts just like this one. 

4. For Big, In-Depth Blog Posts, Make Them Sound Epic

We love to read epic articles that go into real depth on a topic. 

I’m talking thousands and thousands of words here. 

But sometimes they might get missed if they have such a lacklustre headline. 

When you create an epic blog post, make sure your headline reflects that. Use phrases like…

• The Ultimate Guide 
• The Beginners Guide 
• X 101 (for example, Puppy Training 101)

When you call your post the ultimate guide, your audience will understand that this is a chunky post that will go in-depth on one topic. It’s definitely an appealing post title, particularly for those who are ready to learn. 

One caveat though–only use the phrase Ultimate Guide or Beginners Guide on blog posts that really do go in-depth. 

Don’t use it for blog posts like this that are more of an overview. Even though this is 1200+ words long, we would never class it as an ultimate guide. 

5. Sprinkle Your Blog Post Headline with Magic Words 

Magic words are exactly like they sound…magic. They add that extra pizazz to a blog post headline, making it irresistible to clicks. 

Take this blog post as an example, we could’ve said ‘7 Ways to Write a Blog Post Headline’ but we added in the word irresistible. 

Notice it’s still search engine friendly (it contains my chosen keywords ). But just that one word makes the blog post more interesting, right? 

Some other words you could use are…

• Surprising 
• Unknown 
• Shocking 
• Skyrocket 
• Drastically 
• Latest 
• Awkward 
• Impact 
• Instantly 
• Under (give timeframe)
• Steal 
• Ultimate 
• Secret 

6. Go Niche on Your Blog Post Title 

It may seem counter-intuitive to go super niche with your blog post title, but honing in on your audience can have much better results. 

Let’s say, for example, you edit fantasy fiction for self-published authors. Which of these blog post headlines do you think would appeal to fantasy fiction writers the most?  

1. 8 Writing Tips 
2. 8 Writing Tips for Authors 
3. 8 Writing Tips for Fiction Authors 
4. 8 Writing Tips for Fantasy Fiction Authors (Bingo!) 

You’re right, it’s the last one! Even if numbers 1, 2, or 3 received more readers, your target audience is far more likely to click on number 4. 

7. Experiment with the positive and negative 

Your blog post headline should make a promise to your reader. It should say, if you read this, this is what you’ll learn.

You knew before you read this article that you would leave knowing some ways to write better blog post headlines – and hopefully, we’ve done that! 

But you should also experiment with ‘negative’ headlines and ‘positive’ headlines. 

What we mean by this is headlines that point out what can happen if your audience doesn’t read your article (i.e. the bad stuff) vs headlines that point out what can happen if they do (i.e. the good stuff). 

Take this blog post for example. We focused on the positives–learning how to write an irresistible blog post headline. 

But we could’ve gone down a more negative route…

Positive focus: How to write an irresistible blog post headline

Negative focus: How to avoid writing blog post headlines that turn people off 

It would’ve been the same article but with a slightly different angle. 

It’s good to test out the positive and negative angles, to see what resonates with your audience. 

Where to start? 

It’s tempting to finalise your headline right at the beginning before you’ve even started on your blog post. But it’s often better to wait until the end of the post when you’re more clear and warmed up with lots of writing! 

Make sure you test out a few headlines too and see which one feels best. 

Martin & Lyndsay

The post 7 Ways To Write An Irresistible Blog Post Headline appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

• Best salesperson, bringing leads and sales to your business 24/7
• Trusted customer service advisor, informing and building trust and loyalty with your customers
• Knight-in-shining-armour, defending you against those crappy clients or customers who absorb all your time and cause you stress
• Personal ‘Town-Crier’, someone who will pull in the crowd and get traffic to your business

Publishing content consistently could help you rank higher in the search engine results and drive more traffic to your website. More traffic from the right kind of people means more leads and, ultimately, more sales. Ka-ching!

But getting results from your business blog takes time, and you have to be doing ‘all the right things’. This is why we put together this guide for you – covering everything you need to know about running a successful business blog.

Ready to grab a brew, sit comfortably, and get stuck in?

How to create a successful business blog

The first thing you need to decide (before you even get started) is what you want to achieve with your blog. Maintaining a business blog requires time, focus, and consistency, so you don’t want to do it just for the sake of it, right? Like with anything you do in life and in business, you need to have a specific goal in mind. Otherwise, how do you know if it’s working or not?

For your blog to be successful, you need a goal for it first.

So what do we mean by goals? What can a business blog actually help you achieve?

Here are some examples…

1. Drive more traffic to your website using your blog

Publishing regular content on your business blog can help you drive more traffic to your website. How? Well, how many times in a day do you search for something on Google? Loads, right? Every time we need information, we head over to Google. And your ideal customers are exactly the same.

So if you publish content on your business blog that answers their questions, bingo! You immediately increase the chances of your website popping up in the search engine results (ideally super close to the top), which in turn means that more people might click on the link, go visit your website, and read your articles.

Want some tips on creating content that gets found on Google? Check out our SEO For Beginners: The Ultimate Guide.

2. Attract more qualified customers with your business blog

Once you get people on your website, your amazing content is your chance to show them who you are, what you have to offer, and how you work. And your web pages (like your Homepage, your About page, your sales pages, etc.) can do that to an extent. But with the articles on your business, you can showcase who you are, what you stand for, and what you know in a lot more depth.

So what happens when people land on your website and find all your valuable content? They either feel they can relate to that (and find it interesting and relevant), or they don’t. And if they don’t, they’ll hit the back button, go back to Google, and move on to the next piece of content.

Now, that might seem like bad news for you. But it’s not, really. Because if someone can’t relate to you your content, they’re not the right people for you! You don’t want to work with them as much as they don’t want to work with you!

We’ve written loads about this, so if you want to find out more, check out How and Why You Should Create ‘Wrong-Fit’ Content, or How to Stop Customer Issues Before They Happen (Using Content Marketing).

What you really want is for the people who are the right fit for you and your business to stay on your website and engage with your content. Because these are the people you ultimately want to work with – the people who will buy from you and who will prove to be great clients. These are much better-qualified prospects. And you can attract them (like moths to a flame) simply by sharing awesome content on your business blog.

3. Increase your sales by blogging

Did you know your website can sell for you? That’s right. A lot of people treat their websites as fancy online marketing material. But if you play your cards right, your website can actually make sales for you.

How? Because people don’t care what you say – they care what you publish. And the content you share on your business blog can help your ideal customers get to know, like, and trust you. When you answer all their questions, reassure them you’re the right choice for them and the person who can solve their problem, the next logical step is for them to press the buy button and work with you.

And wouldn’t it be nice if instead of spending hours on a sales call with a prospective client, that call only lasted 15-30 minutes? If you publish enough of what we call decision-based content on your website, people will start to self-qualify, meaning that they’ll only go ahead and get in touch if they’re truly interested in working with you. So by the time they jump on that sales call with you, it’s only to finalise the details, sign on the dotted line, and ask when they can get started!

If you want to find more about that, here’s a handy blog post we wrote: How to Make Content Part of Your Sales Process (so you get more sales, faster!)

4. Grow your email list through your blog

Another goal you can achieve through your business blog is to grow your email list. When you give people something of value through a lead magnet (this could be a pdf guide, a quiz, an eBook, etc.) you can ask people to give you their email address in return. And with that, you get the privilege of landing straight into their inbox as often as you like.

Sure, you can advertise your lead magnet on your Homepage, but how well do people know you by then?

Probably not much.

But when they consume content on your business blog and learn about your views about a certain topic, it’s a lot easier for you to include what we refer to as content upgrades that people can download for free by entering their email address. Once they’re engaged with your content, your readers are more likely to want to grab the freebie you’re offering and land on your email list as a result.

So now that you know what you’re trying to achieve with your business blog, let’s try and work out how often you’ll need to share content.

Important! What to do if you have multiple goals...

You’ll probably have multiple goals for your blog.

In fact, our blog helps us achieve all the points above. We use it to get traffic, increase sales, deliver excellent customer service and to make sure we attract the right people to our business.

We know At some points in the year, we focus on sales – creating sales content for specific products or services we want to promote at that moment. 

During non-sales-focused periods, we focus on creating content that will drive traffic to our website and grow our email list (this blog post is an example of that – notice it’s published in December, a particularly quiet month for us). 

And then there’s the content we create that helps deliver excellent customer service and helps us attract only the right customers – this generally will come from the questions that people ask us. 

How often will you blog for your business?

If you’ve decided to start a business blog, the worst thing you can do is to publish one blog post and then disappear from the face of the earth for months on end. (Seriously, don’t do that).

Unfortunately, as much as we all wish blogging was like waving a magic wand, it’s not. It’s a game won with showing up regularly and consistently. So if you’re going to start, make a solid commitment and stick to it!

Yes, we know it’s hard. And that’s why we run our 90-day Content Marketing Challenge a few times a year to help you produce consistently good content that gets ranked on search engines. We also help you get faster and more efficient at content creation and, ultimately, get more leads and sales from your website. The cherry on top? We give you accountability and feedback and break down all the technical stuff that’s holding you back so it becomes super easy and actionable.

You can find out more and join the next 90-day content marketing challenge here.

Decide on your blogging frequency

So, now you’ve made the decision you’re going to blog, you need to work out how often you’ll publish new content. We find that consistency is key, so whatever you go for, make sure you stick to the deadlines you’ve given yourself.

Ideally, if you could blog weekly, that would be amazing, especially if you’re just starting out and don’t have a library of content yet. Nothing stops you from blogging more though – you could publish content 2-3 times per week or even daily if you wanted.

Blogging frequently tells Google and the other search engines that your website is updated regularly, which must mean you have great content to share. So by publishing more content you’re not only giving yourself more chances of being found for more search terms that are relevant to your business, but you’re also telling Google that your website is the place to be to find new and relevant information.

Having said that, you need to strike a good balance between quality and quantity.

Publishing a piece a day of only 300-500 words might not give you as much as going really in-depth into a topic and writing a good 1,500-2,000+ word article. So if that means blogging every fortnight or every month, then that’s a great start. But be consistent. Because your audience will expect to see new content from you on a regular basis, and delivering on your promise helps you build trust with your readers.

Decide on your platform – where should you put your business blog?

We’ve seen some companies use various platforms for their business blog, including…

1. A separate website for their blog
2. A website they don’t own like Medium
3. Using LinkedIn articles to replace their blog
4. Housing their blog on their own website

We recommend you house your blog on your own website. That way your articles will rank and get found by people searching on Google. And then easily be able to find out about your products or services or sign up to your email list.

You can always repurpose your blog posts for Medium or LinkedIn articles, but it’s wise to publish on the platform you own first!

What will you share on your business blog? 

I know what you’re thinking now. “This is all well and good, but I don’t know what to write about!”

Well, we know that getting started with something new is always tricky. But once you get going, you’ll have so many ideas you’ll never run out again. Promise!

So let’s look at some content inspiration for you.

“How to” content

This is the most popular form of content you’ll find on the internet and business blogs in general. There’s a reason for it – it’s great for website traffic. Because when you don’t know how to do something, you head over to Google to find the answer, right? So your “How to” articles provide your audience with the know-how they’re looking for.

Although this blog post you’re reading doesn’t have “How to” in the title, it’s a “How to” piece of content. It tells you everything you need to know about the topic of starting and running your own successful business blog.

So think about the kind of things you’re an expert in. What do you teach in your business? What do you find yourself explaining to your customers or clients over and over? Sit down with a cuppa and make a list of topics – you’ll end up with an awesome starting list of potential articles for your business blog.

Here are a couple of examples from our own business blog:

• How to Write Website Copy for SEO.
• How to Create a 90 Day Content Strategy.

“They Ask, You Answer” content

In a nutshell, this is about answering the questions that your existing customers or prospective clients ask you all the time. The term comes from the book They Ask You Answer, by Marcus Sheridan. You may have heard us talk about this book before (we love it!), and that’s because its teachings have literally transformed our business and the way we use content marketing to generate leads and sales.

If you want to find out more about the exact topics that Marcus Sheridan recommends you create content about and want more inspiration, head over to the blog post, How to Plan 50 Pieces of Content in 30 Minutes.

“Content Fortress” Content

If you’ve come across any of our content at all, you’ll probably be familiar with the phrase “Content Fortress”, which is the title of our book and online course.

So what does this phrase mean? Imagine your business is the ‘castle’ you’re trying to protect. To keep it safe, you might want to build a wall or some sort of structure around it. And for us, the way to build this ‘fortress’ is to create content. That’s it. Creating a content fortress means protecting yourself (as the most important asset in your business) with content.

With us so far?

“But protect yourself from what, exactly?”, you might ask.

Glad you asked.

From bad clients, for example. From people who aren’t right for you and your business – people who come with the wrong expectations or assumptions. Or people who might be after a product or service you don’t even offer!

See, the thing is – when you create the right type of content around your business (and publish it on your business blog), you start to attract more people who are right for you and repel those who would you might say yes to despite your gut telling you not to, and they turn out to be people who aren’t a great fit for you (or you for them).

Like we said earlier, repelling clients might sound like a bad thing, but it’s really not! Especially if it protects your mental health and ensures your business occupies a positive place in your life.

If you want to find out more about all this, head over to the blog post, What is a content fortress?

“Pillar” content

Pillar content is long-form content that goes really in-depth into a topic. We’re talking 2,500-4,000+ words here. Yes, it’s epic! But that’s what’s so good about it. It’s comprehensive, it goes into detail, it answers loads of questions that your ideal customers might have, and it’s great for SEO. It’s your typical “Everything you need to know about X” content.

Here’s an example we have on our website, SEO For Beginners: The Ultimate Guide.

When you write this type of content you’re not just providing a great customer experience for your users, but you’re also increasing your chances of being found on Google. Why? Because when you write long-form content you’re probably going to use lots and lots of handy phrases that people might search for (a.k.a. keywords) and also link to other pieces of content you’ve created. And these are the kinds of things that the SEO gods absolutely love!

Plus, with articles of this length, you’re also telling the search engines that their users are more likely to find what they’re looking for in your piece, rather than in your competitors’, who may have written a short 500-word article on the same topic. So you’re winning all round!

News-related content

There’s a lot you can do here. You could share newsjacking content, which is all about creating a piece showcasing your thoughts and opinions based on trending news topics or breaking news stories. This could be anything you have an opinion on, but we’re talking about your business blog here, so ideally, stick to topics that relate to your industry, niche, or business.

For example, are there any changes coming up to rules and regulations that affect your industry? Could your readers benefit from you breaking down key information and explaining how the changes impact them? Say you’re an accountant. I’m sure you have loads of clients who could do with an easy explanation of what Making Tax Digital is all about and how it impacts them, right? (No, seriously, are you that accountant? Help!)

And finally, when it comes to news-related content, it could be something about your own company. Although, we always say to try and limit this because as much as this is your website and your business blog, the harsh truth is that your prospective customers don’t care about you – they care about how you can help them.

So whenever you’re sharing news about yourself and your business, make sure they’re relevant to your audience. An example of this may be talking about ‘your why’ (i.e. why you started your company and do what you do).

But how do you write one of these blog posts?

Once you know your topic, then you actually have to write them damn thing. And even if you’re a seasoned blogger, there’s always so much room for improvement. We know, we learn something new on every post we create.

You’ll want to make sure you hit the key points that make a great blog post. Including…

1. A killer headline that attracts attention (and helps you rank)
2. An opening paragraph that grips the reader and gets them to read on
3. A structure that is easy-to-understand and follow
4. A conclusion that gets your reader to take action

We’ve actually created an in-depth blog post on how to write a blog post.

What will your blogging schedule look like?

Okay, so now that you know what you’re going to blog about, it’s time to look at how you’re going to do it. How will you distribute content across your business blog?

You have a few options here:

• You could mix and match your topics, choosing from the different types of content we shared in this blog post. This gives your audience a good variety of topics and ensures you’re not only just creating the same kind of article week on week. This is exactly wa
• Goal-focused approach. If you have a particular goal you’re trying to achieve (for example, increasing your website traffic), you could decide to create a lot of ‘How to’ or Pillar content to attract more visitors to your website from the search engines. Or, if you’re trying to rank for a particular keyword, you might decide to create a series of articles on that topic for a month or two or until you’ve said everything you wanted to say about that topic.
• Campaign-driven approach. This is about choosing the one thing you want to sell and going to town with creating content around it. If you want to read more about this approach, head over to our piece, How to create a 90-day content strategy.
• Awareness days content. You could also decide to create content around specific awareness days, such as Mental Health Week, Dry January, or whatever you choose. Again, you want this content to ideally be relevant to your industry and your business, as this gives you a chance to let your readers see what your take is on a particular issue and add value to them. 

How will you optimise your blog posts?

So you now know how often you’re going to blog, what you’re going to blog about, and how you’ll distribute your content creation. What’s next?

You’ll notice we talk a lot about SEO and the fact that having a business blog where you publish regular and valuable content will help you be found on Google.

But the thing is – it doesn’t just happen by magic. There are things you need to do before, during, and after writing your blog posts to make sure they are picked up successfully by the search engines. This is called optimisation, and even if you don’t know the first thing about it, you don’t need to be a techie or hire an expensive SEO agency to be able to do it.

You can learn everything you need to know about optimising your blog posts in this handy guide, WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts.

And once you’ve done that, simply set aside an additional 20-30 minutes to optimise each of your blog posts, and you’ll be good to go!

How will you drive traffic to your business blog?

Now that you have the most amazing business blog, the last thing you need to do is to start driving traffic to it. You’ve got this incredible content you’ve spent all this time and effort creating, so of course, you now want to make sure people find it, right?

Definitely (and pleeeease) don’t fall at this last hurdle! We see so many business owners do this, but your job when it comes to business blogging doesn’t stop when you hit the publish button. You need to get eyeballs on your content. Because that’s the first step to generate leads and sales from it.

So what are some of the things you can do to promote your blog posts?

1. Repurpose your content

Optimisation is of course the first big step in making sure you’re ticking all the right boxes so that Google and the other search engines pick up your content. But you can’t just leave it at that. So the next thing you can do is to repurpose your blog posts into other pieces of content to get them in front of more people.

So, for example, you could repurpose your blog posts into:

• LinkedIn articles.
• Guest posts on more influential websites with a broader reach than yours.
• YouTube videos.
• A series of slides, a talk, or a presentation.

To get more ideas and information about what repurposing is (and find out how to do it), head over to the article, How to Repurpose a Blog Post (and Save Yourself So Much Time!)

2. Share on social media

Sharing your content on social media also gives you a chance to reach more people. However…

How many times have you seen a post from someone on your social media feed saying,

“Hey, here’s my latest blog post! Go and read it! Here’s the link.”

Do you honestly stop scrolling and go and read it? We’re willing to bet that most of the time you don’t. (Unless the title or the title image happens to jump at you as the thing you’ve been wanting to look into for a while).

So instead of just broadcasting and letting your social media audience know you’ve published something new, try repurposing that content (see above). You can do that by pulling out some of the key points you covered in your blog post and inviting people in that way. You’re more likely to grab their attention and have them click on your link to head to your website and read.

3. Share with your email list

If you have an email list (and if you don’t, why not?), it’s another great chance to let more people know about the new content you’ve published on your website. A brand new blog post gives you a nice excuse to email your list, but (again) don’t just drop the link and run. Make sure your email shares something of value that links nicely to your latest blog post. And then you can drop the link.

And if you’re looking for tips on how to grow your email list, head over to the article, The Ultimate Guide to Generating More Leads From Your Website.

4. Paid advertising

Another way to drive traffic to your website is through paid advertising. You could run paid ads via different social media platforms (like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) While this isn’t free (the clue being in the name), when done right, paid advertising gives you the chance to get in front of new audiences, especially if you don’t already have a large following on your social media channels.

You see, social media platforms hold lots of information about their users that you could never dream of getting direct access to – things like where people live, how old they are, what interests they have, etc. So by using social media advertising, you’re in a much better position to utilise that data and get your content in front of more of your ideal customers and clients.

How to generate leads and sales from your blog

So now that you’ve driven traffic to your website, what’s next? Well, the last thing you want is for people to just come and have a quick read and then click the back button and never come back. When that happens, you have no real visibility of who’s been on your website, which means you can’t interact with them and steer that relationship in any way.

Instead, you want to generate leads – i.e. capture your visitors’ details. You want people to give you their email address in exchange for some sort of freebie or giveaway. It could be someone booking a call with you or filling in your contact form.

As we explained earlier when talking about using your business blog to grow your email list, you can do this by offering:

• A freebie or lead magnet. This is something you offer on your website to all your visitors.
• Content upgrades. This could be, for example, a free checklist or PDF that expands on the content you covered in a specific blog post.
• A paid product. Similar to a content upgrade, this product fits in with the content of your blog post, but instead of being something your audience can download for free in exchange for their email address, it’s a paid-for product.

You can learn more about how generate leads through your blog and website in general in our blog post, how to create a lead generating website.

Want to Cut Your Blogging Time in Half?

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about business blogging! As you can see, there’s A LOT that goes into blogging and creating a blog post can take a lot of time. This is why we’ve created our Blog Post Template pack. It includes 10+ fill-in-the-blanks blog post templates that will save you so much time and increase your traffic and rankings!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post The Ultimate Business Blogging Guide appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Do you blog?

If you’ve answered yes to both you’re in the right place. Because you’re probably wondering how on earth you can SEO your WordPress blog posts so you get higher search engine rankings. 

We won’t lie to you, SEO is not a sexy topic to talk about. A lot of people zone out as soon as we mention those three letters – They try and hide it, but we can see it in their eyes! 

That’s why we put together this handy guide to help you optimise your WordPress blog posts.

Don’t worry.

It doesn’t need to be technical.

It doesn’t need to be complicated.

And there’s a plugin (or two) for that.

Ready to get into it?

Firstly, why use WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular site builder and content management system out there. We love it because it’s completely customisable and super easy to use.

You don’t even need any knowledge of code or programming language at all because yes, it’s that easy to use! And when you come across something you can’t do, you have loads of people (other website owners or experts) and reputable forums you can go to for help. And even better, if there’s something you’re struggling with, there’s probably a trialled and tested plugin that will do the job for you.

But there are also some slightly more technical reasons why WordPress is always a great choice if you want your website to be found on Google. For example, WordPress offers a clean URL structure that allows you to create unique web addresses for each page. And it’s not built with lots of unnecessary code, which means it’s fairly lightweight and quicker than other platforms. And the search engines love that!

Ultimately, you can easily use SEO on your WordPress blog posts – even if you’re a beginner at SEO. 

We have a whole long list of reasons why we love and always recommend WordPress. You can read them all in the blog post Why Do We ONLY Use WordPress To Build Your Website?

Different WordPress plugins you can use to optimise your content

One of the big reasons why we recommend WordPress to all our clients and members is that it gives you access to easy-to-install plugins that allow you to optimise your content easily. And here are some of our favourites:

• Yoast SEO plugin. One of the most popular SEO plugins out there, it has a great free version, you can use it on multiple websites, and it comes with an extensive number of features to help you make your website more search-engine friendly.
• SEOPress also has a free version and is another strong contender when it comes to WordPress plugins for SEO. It includes most of the key SEO tools you’re likely to need and it works fast.
• Another WordPress SEO plugin worth checking out is All in One SEO (AIOSEO). 

But how exactly can these plugins help you optimise your WordPress blog posts?

How to SEO your WordPress blog posts – longtail keywords

When it comes to search engine optimising your WordPress blog posts, there are a few things we recommend you do to the text (or the content) of your article. But first thing first, you need to decide on the longtail keyword (or phrase) you want your content to be found for.

So, for example, if you’ve written a fantastic piece on how to grow your Personal Training business, you might want to optimise it for the longtail keyword “promote fitness business”. That means you’re going to include that phrase in various key, strategic places inside your blog post in order to give yourself the best chances of ranking high in the search results when someone goes looking for that phrase.

So let’s have a look at where you need to include the focus keyphrase you’ve picked. We’ll look at the following places…

1. Adding your keyword to your main heading or title
2. Using your keyphrase naturally in your subheadings
3. Adding your keywords naturally through your main body text
4. Using your keywords with your blog post images
5. Optimising your internal links
6. Using outbound links in your article

Let’s get started! 

1. Adding your keyword to your main heading or title

The very first place to add your keyword to (in our example, “promote fitness business”) is your blog post title. This is right at the top of your screen when you write your blog post. 

So using the same example as above, your blog post title might be something like:

• “10 Easy Steps to Promote your Fitness Business”.
• Or “How to Promote your Fitness Business in 2022”.
• Or even “The Best Marketing Strategies to Promote your Fitness Business”

How to assign a blog post title in WordPress

When you first create a post, simply type in your title, and WordPress will automatically assign it a Heading 1 tag (or Title Tag). That’s the only Heading 1 you’re going to use throughout your blog post.

Google will understand that this is a ‘H1 tag’, and the words you use in within this summarise exactly what your article is about. It’s hugely important for SEO, so try to make your title clear (and of course, include your keyword!) 

Top tip! The sooner your keyword phrase appears in the title, the better for SEO purposes.

2. Using your keyphrase naturally in your subheadings

Your subheadings are the Heading 2s, Heading 3s, Heading 4s etc. that you include in the body of your blog post to give it a nice structure and to make it easier for your readers to read through your content.

To SEO your WordPress blog posts for search, include the keyword phrase in some of your subheadings – not all of them, mind. You don’t want to sound too repetitive and robotic. It needs to sound natural and read well. If it doesn’t fit in the context of that section of the text, don’t try and force it.

How to assign a subheading in WordPress

As you can see below, we’ve added a H2 tag to the example blog post. To do this in WordPress all you need to do is simply highlight the text you want as your subheading, and change the text from pargraph to Heading 2, 3 or 4 etc. You can see where we’ve done this in the red circle.

Make sure your subheadings make sense. Your heading 3 should come under your heading 2 etc. Don’t mix them randomly! Google (and your end-user) read these to understand what’s most important on the page. It’s good for SEO and user-experience if you keep them logical and consistent. 

Top tip! Don’t worry about using variations of your keyword such as ‘promoting your fitness business’ or ‘promote your fitness and lifestyle business’ – Google is smart and will understands ‘user-intent’ i.e. the goal of the searcher (even if they use slightly different wording).

3. Adding your keywords naturally through your main body text

You’ll also want to include your focus keyword in the main text of your blog post and not just once. In fact, the longer the piece of content, the more time it’s recommended you use your focus keyword. Aim for 2 or 3 times at least, but if you’re writing a longer piece, your SEO plugins might suggest you sprinkle your keyword around the main body of the blog post a few more times.

When doing this though, always make sure the keyword phrase fits in the text naturally and organically. Don’t try to shoehorn it afterwards and out of context because your readers will be able to see through that. And they’ll quickly get fed up with reading and hit the back button. And that’s definitely not good for you or your SEO efforts!

How to add your keyword or phrase through your main body copy in WordPress

This part is simple. All your need to do is write as normal and include your keywords/phrases. There’s an example below highlighted in red (just please don’t highlight all your keywords and phrases 😂). 

Top tip! In all honesty, we don’t focus overally on keywords within our main copy. Yes, we may mention them. But it’s important you write for your users first. Write naturally, use personality. Don’t worry too much about keywords otherwise you’ll sound like a robot!

4. Using your keywords with your blog post images

No one wants to read a blog post that looks like a wall of text without breaks or images, do they? That’s not very easy on the eyes, so always make sure you include some relevant images with your blog posts.

The thing is though, Google and the other search engines cannot ‘see’ images as you and I do. To them, an image is a collection of pixels. It’s just a bunch of data. So in order to tell Google what your image is all about, include your focus keyword in two key places:

1. The name of the file. Wherever you can, just rename the file and make sure you include your focus keyword in there.
2. The Alt Description. This is a bit of text that you can populate when you edit the image. The Alt Description is normally used to describe to Google (in words) what the image is all about, and it’s the perfect place for you to add your focus keyword.

How to add an Alt Description in WordPress

Firstly, you’ll need to add your image. To do this, go to ‘insert’ at the top of your page. 

Then go down to ‘add media’ and upload your file (the tab on the left). 

Once you’ve done this on the right hand side you will see a section where you can add your ALT text. 

Top tip! There’s no need to add the phrase ‘image of’ or ‘picture of’ when adding your ALT text, just go straight into it. 

5. Optimising your internal links

Another important factor for SEO on your WordPress blog is including internal links in your content. These are contextual links to your own website – the same website where you’re publishing the blog post you’re writing. The reason why they’re important for SEO is that they tell Google how various pieces of your own content are related to each other.

It’s a bit like giving Google the ‘map’ for your website. Internal links tell the search engine that piece A is linked to piece B, piece B is linked to piece C, etc. Plus, they help your readers delve deeper into your content and get to know you and your work better. When you think about it, adding internal links is a great piece of customer service.

Don’t add these in at random though! Make sure you include internal links wherever they’re relevant. For example, if you briefly mention a topic that you’ve covered in more detail in another piece, add the link to that piece of content. You don’t have to have loads – 2-5 is plenty!

How to add an Internal Links in WordPress

All you need to do is highlight your text and click on the ‘insert link button’ (picture below) to link internally.  

Top tip! Don’t link the words ‘click here’ actually link your keyword or phrase instead, as then Google will understand more about the article you are linking too. 

6. Using outbound links in your article 

For similar reasons, outbound links are also important. These tell the search engines that your piece of content doesn’t just exist in isolation. So always try to add relevant outbound links to authoritative websites. This could be the BBC, national newspapers and other news outlets, or authority websites in your niche or industry.

You can actually see how ‘authoritive’ a website is by checking a website’s domain authority. This is where you can see how trustworthy a website is. Sidenote, do you see what we did there with linking out? 😉

Again, remember to only include links that are relevant and organic – you want to add value to your readers and give more authority to your content.

Top tip! This is a controversial one but for outbound links, we set them to open up in a new tab. This is because we still want people to remain on our website and not visit BBC then get distracted by something else – forgetting to come back to us! This is just for outbound links we do this. 

How to add an External Links in WordPress

You follow the exact same process as above (for internal links). However, you may want to set your link to open in a new tab. To do this, simply click on the gear icon when you’ve inserted your link. And then select ‘open in new tab’. 

How to use the Yoast SEO plugin to optimise your WordPress blog posts

So now you’ve sprinkled your keyword of choice in all the right places and done all the right things to give you brownie points with Google, you’ll want to use the additional features in your SEO plugin of choice and populate a few more entries. And here we’re going to give you an example of how to use the Yoast SEO plugin.

The Yoast plugin allows you to use search engine optimise your blog posts easily. There’s a free version too, so it’s well worth installing!

When you install and activate Yoast SEO on your WordPress website, if you scroll down to the end of your blog posts, you’ll see two separate tabs – one called ‘SEO’ and one called ‘Readability’. When you click on the ‘SEO’ tab, this shows you a few fields:

1. Focus keyphrase
2. SEO title
3. Slug
4. Meta Description.

So let’s get through each one in a bit more detail.

1. Focus keyphrase

This is easy. Remember when you decided on the phrase you wanted to optimise your blog post for before you even started writing it? We used the example “promote fitness business” earlier, so in this case, that’s what we’d type into the ‘Focus keyphrase’ field.

This won’t impact your rankings in any way, but it does tell Yoast what you would like to rank for. The plugin will scan your post (or page) for this keyword/phrase and tell you how well you’ve optimised your page for it. 

How to insert your focus keyphrase into Yoast

Just scroll to the bottom of your blog post to find your Yoast information. You’ll see the words, ‘Focus Keyphrase’, just go ahead and add your keyphrase into that section. Easy-peasy! 

Top tip – don’t worry about including words like “a”, “the”, “your” in the keyphrase. People don’t always type that kind of stuff when doing searches, so you don’t need to include it.

2. SEO title

Also known as the ‘Title Tag’, this is the title of your blog post that Google and the search engines will display when people run a search. If you look just above the ‘SEO title’ entry under the Yoast SEO plugin, you’ll see a section called ‘Google Preview’, which shows you (in blue) what your title looks like. In order to optimise your blog post, you want to make sure you include your longtail keyword in there.

If you don’t do this manually, WordPress will automatically take the title of your blog post and add this here, but you may find this is too long. It may also add other unnecessary details like your website name, which is fine if you have room but best to leave out if you don’t!

How to write your Title Tag using Yoast

Under the ‘SEO title’ section, you may need to delete anything prepopulated here (depending on how it looks under the ‘Google preview’ section). Once you’ve done that you can type in a more appropriate title that contains your keyword/phrase. 

Top tip – the earlier your focus keyword appears in the title, the better!

3. Meta Description

This is the bit in the search results that appears underneath the blog post title (the one in blue). This short bit of text gives the readers a little preview of what the content is all about.

When an exact match of your search term appears in the Meta Description, it’s highlighted in bold. This tells a user that your content is relevant to their search, so always make sure you populate the ‘Meta Description’ entry in the Yoast SEO plugin and stick to the length recommended by the plugin. You’ll see the traffic light go red if you’re over the maximum character length.

How to write your Meta Description using Yoast

Just head to the ‘meta description’ section and add an enticing description of your blog post that encourages people to click. Use the green and red marker to make sure you don’t go over your word count (where Google will cut off your words!)

Top tip – the meta description doesn’t impact the SEO for your WordPress blog post, however, it does encourage people to click on your website once you appear in search results. So make sure it’s enticing!

4. Slug

Also known as the ‘URL permalink, this is the unique web address allocated to your piece of content. Say you went for the blog title “How to Promote your Fitness Business”, your URL might look something like this:

www.yourwebsitname.com/promote-fitness-business

As you can see, there’s no need to use the full title there. In fact, the shorter your URL, the better! What matters for optimisation purposes is that your focus keyword is in there.

How to create your URL using Yoast

Head over to the section that says ‘slug’ and add your slug here, using hyphens to separate each word. You don’t need to add the www.yourwebsitname.com/, just everything that comes after that. 

Top tip – Keep your URL slug short (2-3 words if you can) and remove all unneccary words like ‘the’ ‘and’ or ‘of’.

The SEO Analysis for Your WordPress Blog Post

Once you’ve written and optimised your blog post and added your focus keyword in all the relevant places, you can check the section called ‘SEO Analysis’ under your Yoast SEO plugin. Hopefully, the traffic light against it will be green, which means you’re good to go. If it’s amber or red, you can use the drop-down arrow on the right-hand side, and the plugin will tell you what you need to fix.

It could be that you haven’t added or optimised any images, or that you haven’t included any inbound or outbound links. Or even that you’ve used the keyword phrase but just not enough times. But if you follow the instructions in this blog post, you’ll know exactly what to do to remedy any of these points.

And if you want more cool tips on SEO, head over to the blog post, SEO For Beginners: The Ultimate Guide.

Having said all that… Please know that the traffic light system isn’t the end all be all of SEO! Because obsessing over the traffic light system is something we see people do all the time, and it’s a waste of your time.

Further Elements that Impact Your SEO for Your WordPress Blog

Although not WordPress specific, here are a few further elements that can impact your SEO results…

1. Wordcount

Word count (i.e. the length of your blog post) is also a big factor for SEO. Why? Because the type of content that’s published on the internet has changed over the years. Gone are the days when a short piece of 500 words would have ranked at the top of the search results. And that’s because people publish much longer content, which is why we always recommend you choose a specific topic and then go really in-depth when writing about it.

Ideally, you’re looking at creating blog posts over 1,000 words. But don’t be afraid to hit the 1,500-2,000 word mark (or even longer!) This will really help when it comes to your SEO for your WordPress Blog. Some of our top ranking articles are 2000+ words in length, and more importantly, they actually convert!

2. Include a Call to Action (CTA)

A Call to Action (or CTA) is your way of telling your readers what you want them to do once they’ve read your blog post. Do you want them to go read another piece of content? Check out your course or membership? Or maybe download your lead magnet and sign up to your email list?

Ideally, with your CTA you want to keep your audience on your website because this improves your bounce rate. Simply put, you want to stop your readers from hitting the back button and going back to Google to check out another piece of content. The longer they spend on your page, blog post, or website, the more Google takes this as a signal that your content is relevant, interesting, and trustworthy. And that means in the future when it comes to similar searches, they’ll rank your content higher than someone else’s who has a higher bounce rate than yours.

For example, here’s our call-to-action you’ve probably seen throughout our blog post – look at us getting it in here again 😉

3. Related content

And finally, you can add a section at the end of your blog post with ‘Related Content’. If it’s content you’ve published, this gives you the opportunity to add more internal links to your piece, which is great for SEO.

But you could also link to videos on your YouTube channel, for example. Or even better, embed those videos inside your blog posts. This increases the time that your audience spends on the page, which, again, tells Google that your content is relevant, interesting, and trustworthy.

Common Mistakes with your WordPress SEO for Blog Posts

Please please please don’t spend way too long trying to keep the Yoast SEO traffic light system happy. The plugin is there to help you and remind you of the things you could improve when it comes to SEO. But if you follow the tips in this blog post and have them at the back of your mind while you’re structuring and writing your blog post, optimising it shouldn’t take you more than 20-30 minutes.

And on that note, here are a couple of other SEO for your WordPress Blog mistakes that are worth calling out.

• Spending too long on keyword research. This doesn’t have to be complicated! Use handy tools like KWFinder, Answer the public, or Keywords Everywhere to help you.
• Focusing on search rather than users. We mentioned this quite a few times throughout this blog post, but this is important. You don’t want to stick words in for the sake of it because your readers will see through it and will disengage from your content and, as a result, from you as a brand. So always make sure your keywords are included organically and naturally in the text – they need to sound like they belong there. And if you’ve chosen your keyword and your topic right, they will! 

If you want to find out more about all this, head over to our blog post, The Biggest SEO Mistakes You’re Making (And What to Do Instead).

Ready to take your SEO to the Next Level? 

The benefits of good SEO are clear – it helps you get more leads and sales organically, without having to spend so much time on social media or fork out a load of money for ads. 

But often, business owners find SEO a bit too complicated, which is why we’ve created our SEO Starter Pack. This pack is aimed at complete beginners and will teach you exactly how to optimise your website for better search engine rankings. 

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

WordPress makes everything easier.

Within seconds you can copy and paste your content into the editor and publish a brand new blog post for the world to see.

There’s only one problem, how can you make it look good?

Design is important

Good quality content is one thing, but DESIGN is important too. Especially if you want people to read your articles properly and share your content online.

The standard WordPress editor is easy to use but VERY basic. You can barely change the font size without knowing a bit of code. This makes it very difficult to create something visually appealing for your readers.

So what can you do about it?

Realistically, you’re not going to learn how to code; even the basics would take months to learn.

You don’t want to rely on your web designer for every little change. That could cost a fortune.

You may be tempted to add some drag and drop software to make things easier, but that’s going to affect your page load speed.

Good news

Luckily, all is not lost. WordPress allows you to make lots of visual changes to your articles within their editing system and you won’t need ten different plugins either.

All you need is one handy little plugin, and you’re all set.

Within a few steps, you’ll have everything you need to make your blog posts look amazing without spending a penny.

Install Tiny MCE advanced

Before reading the rest of this post, you’ll need to install this plugin. I always try to avoid adding more plugins where possible, but this one is going to be worth it. It will make your entire blogging life easier.

As you can see, it comes with so many extra options, and I now install this plugin on every website we build.

WordPress Blogging Tips

Now you’ve installed the plugin you can follow along with these 15 steps to make your blog post look epic. And if you want to understand what to actually cover in your blog post, have a look at our article on how to write a blog post.

1. Never create content within WordPress

Never. Ever create your content in WordPress.

Never.

You could spend hours writing a post, and if something goes wrong with your internet, you’ve lost it. I learnt this the hard way and so have many others.

I create all my content using Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Whatever you use, save it often until you’re 100% finished.

How to add content

Once you’ve written your blog post and you’re happy with it, don’t just copy and paste it into WordPress. It sometimes transfers over some messy code from the text editor you’ve used.

Instead, you want to right click in the white space of the blog post and select “paste and match style.”

This will clear all of the previous formattings and give you a clean post to work with.

2. Use Headings and Subheadings

The headings and subheadings on your post will help your reader consume your content easier. They will also allow you to break up your content with little milestones.

Headings are usually much bigger than the normal text, and your readers will often skim your headings before reading the content fully.

Adding headings is the first thing I do after adding the content.

How to add proper headings/subheadings

Highlight the text you want to use as a heading or subheading and use the drop down list in your editor (pictured below) to choose the relevant heading style.

For more information on how to choose the correct WordPress headings, read this article here.

Depending on the theme you’re using, each heading will have its own style. This means that it might not look how you want it to, but don’t worry, you can change this without knowing any code.

Once you’ve chosen the appropriate heading, simply highlight the text again and use the editor to change the size, colour and style of the font.

3. Create a main featured image

WordPress allows you to add a “featured image” to each blog post. This is a dedicated image that often gets shown when your article is shared online. I always upload a unique image for every new blog post and ensure it’s included within the blog post article too.

These big images are the visual representation of your article and, like it or not, people still judge a book by its cover. The better the image, the more people will take notice and share it online.

I also include this same image within the post too, usually right at the top, above the entire article. Just like this one.

How to add a featured image to WordPress

When editing your blog post scroll down to the featured image section on the bottom right of your sidebar.

Click the “set featured image” link and add the image via your media library.

4. Use short paragraphs (My English teacher would kill me)

I love short paragraphs.

Just like the one above.

And this one.

They make it easy for people to read and it doesn’t feel like a novel.

It’s more important earlier on in the post. It’s about easing your reader into your blog post with short, snappy paragraphs to keep them engaged.

I very rarely use paragraphs over 2-3 lines of text and instead, I choose to show more white-space on the page.

It makes the process of writing easier too.

Give it a go and see how you like it.

5. Use a larger text size

The size of your text is very important. If it’s too small, it makes it very difficult to read, and this may cause the reader to lose focus.

I use size 20px (15pts) text for my blog post, and it works well and allows most people to read it clearly.

Anything below size 16px (12pts) is probably too small, and you might want to increase it.

How to change the font size

As you can see below, the new WordPress editor will allow you change the font size for each blog post. Simply highlight the text you want to edit and select your font size.

Note:

Ideally, you would change the text size within the theme code for your website. This way, you wouldn’t have to manually do it every time you created a new post/page. However, if you don’t know how to do this, this can be a good backup option.

6. Use dark coloured font on a white background

My best advice when it comes to text colour is to make it stand out. Using black or a very dark grey will allow your text to be read easily on a white background.

Many websites use a lighter grey colour for the main content, but it’s more difficult to read and will require more concentration from your visitor.

Make things easy and keep your text as dark as possible.

How to change the colour of your text

Highlight the text you want to change and select the colour from the colour swatch like in the image below.

7. Use a clear font style

Always try and use a clear font style for your blog posts. This will make it easier for your readers and will keep them around for longer.

The font will be set by your theme, but you can change this for each post using the WordPress editor.

How to change the font style

Simply highlight the text and change the font style as you can see in the image below.

8. Use images throughout your post

Using images within your blog post is an excellent way to keep your visitor engaged while they’re reading your blog post. It will help you communicate your point on a more visual level.

Try to avoid using cheesy stock photos where possible and opt for more helpful images like I’ve used on this post.

How to add images to your post

Place your cursor where you’d like to add your image and click “add media.”

You can then select the image from your computer or image library.

Once you’ve selected the image, you can use the image align tool to make it centred or left/right aligned.

9. Use links throughout your post

Where relevant, try to include internal links to the other pages or posts on your website.

Helpful links will allow your user to navigate through your website easily and consume more of your content.

The hyperlinked text is usually a different colour too which makes it stand out.

How to add links to your blog posts

Highlight the word or phrase you want to hyperlink and use the link icon in the editor and insert the destination page

I always try to hyperlink a related word such as SEO for Blog posts rather than use the words “click here” or “find out more.”

You could also list recent blog posts and hyperlink to the relevant page as I’ve done below.

The Ultimate SEO Checklist for your Blog Posts

7 mistakes you’re making on your homepage and how to fix them

Web Design & SEO Jargon Buster

10. Embed videos within your blog posts

Adding videos to your article will dramatically increase the value of your content.

By including video, you can keep people on your post for longer and engage more of your audience.

How to add a video

The most common way to include a video within your post is to upload it to a video hosting platform first, like YouTube.

You can then get a snippet of code from YouTube and paste it onto your website.

11. Use Bullet points

Adding bullets or numbered lists is a great way break up your content in a different way.

How could you use bullets?

• Listing pros and cons
• Giving step by step instructions
• Listing product features
• Listing benefits of a service
• Making a list of items
• And many more

How to make a bulleted list in WordPress

1. Add the list of items, one line per item
2. Click at the start of the line
3. Click the bullet or number button in the editor
4. Do the same for each item

12. Include Tweetables

A Tweetable is a shareable link which you can insert into your blog post.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Tweetables look good and make it easier for your audience to spread your message on Twitter.”]

You can ask your readers to tweet a sentence from your post which helps it reach more people online.

It looks good and makes it easier for your audience to spread your message on Twitter.

How to add tweetable links within your website

I’ll be honest; I use a plugin for this. It comes as part of my social media sharing plugin, however, there are many other plugins that will allow you to add “Tweetables” to your posts.

Click To Tweet is a popular choice and it’s free.

If you’d rather not use a plugin, there is a free online service you can use by the same company.

Simply authorise your Twitter account and add the text to field like in the image below.

It will give you a short snippet of code, and you just need to add it to the HTML of your post.

13. Add coloured boxes

Placing a box around sections of text is a great way to highlight it and change things up for the reader.

How to add a coloured text box

To add a simple text box within the WordPress editor, you can select the “Table” option and choose 1 cell.

You can then type in your text within the table.

Then click “table properties” and select advanced.

Using the field at the bottom, you can assign a background colour

14. Use horizontal lines to separate paragraphs

Adding a simple line in between your content is another way to break up your text in an interesting but subtle way.

How to add a line between paragraphs

Press enter after you’ve finished writing a paragraph and click “insert” on the editor menu and select horizontal line.

15. Lead captures

One of the more interesting ways to bring your blog posts to life is to include some kind of lead capture.

This could be an email signup form like the one below, which is used to capture your reader’s contact information in exchange for a free giveaway.

[et_bloom_inline optin_id=optin_1]

How to create lead captures in WordPress

To be able to collect your prospects email addresses on your website, you’ll need an email marketing tool such as Aweber, Convertkit or MailChimp.

These are 3rd party tools that allow you to easily add a signup form to your website.

Simply create a new form within your chosen tool, and they will give you the code to copy and paste onto your website.

Most of these tools do have a WordPress plugin you can install to make the process easier, but it’s up to you if you’d prefer to copy and paste some code.

You may have to switch to the text editor to paste the form code, but you don’t have to do anything.

What’s Next?

Making your website and your content look attractive is the best way to keep your readers interested and willing to share it online. Now you have 15 tips to make your blog posts look fantastic.

But, you also have to write a blog post that’s engaging too! Have a look at our article on how to write a blog post that people will actually read.

Over to you

Do you have any tips of your own that make your blog posts look better? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post 15 tips to make your WordPress blog posts less boring appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

‘Clickbait’ gets a lot of bad rap, and sometimes, it’s for good reason. If you click on something and find yourself on a slow-loading page, rammed with ads and content completely unrelated to what you expected, then you’re going to be pretty annoyed.

However, clickbait has been prevalent for centuries, just in different forms. From the summary at the back of a book, to the Oliver Twist look-a-like kid shouting ‘extra, extra read all about it!’ – these are all ways to get you to engage with the author’s content.

There’s no problem at all with readers being lured into clicking on your article but only if they’re rewarded for their curiosity with good quality, engaging content.

But how do you get them to click? Below, I’ve listed the most common ‘clickbait’ techniques, with the ones I think you should be using and ones you should definitely steer clear of!

1. Lists posts

Yep, we know, we’re guilty! But lists are a great way of gaining visitors to your content.

The user knows the article or video is going to be in easily digestible, bite-sized pieces and that’s always more appealing than big chunks of text. It’s also more likely to be actionable content, with facts instead of opinion pieces.

2. Boobs

I can’t believe I have to say this. But please don’t use women in bikinis unless your article/content is directly related to bikinis! The amount of times I see articles that have nothing to do with the female anatomy, using a picture of a woman dressed in barely anything is scary. And it’s not just prevalent in content marketing but advertising in general.

Don’t get me wrong, for some companies it may work where that kind of thing is part of your brand – just look at ads for gambling and gaming, but for most it just makes you look desperate and kind of confused about what you’re selling. Plus, you’re potentially putting off 50% of your market.

3. Being mean/horrible/bitchy

I know it sounds cheesy but I treat people how I like to be treated, so causing unnecessary hurt or anger would be something I’d certainly steer clear of.

I’ve seen articles with headlines such as ‘Celebrities with ugly partners’ and ‘Stars who have piled on the baby weight.’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure these ‘articles’ – if you can call them that – gain a lot of traffic, but it’s not something I’m into. We’re all human, including celebrities, and I would hate to think I’d hurt someone purposefully over something I’d written.

4. Sarcastic headline

16 reasons you shouldn’t wear sunscreen, 12 reasons not to visit New York, four reasons you should put a fork in the plug socket.

This particular one is a real Buzzfeed favourite and although a little annoying at first, it does have that punch to the stomach value.

For example, what’s a more powerful message…

Neglecting to wear suncream over long periods of time could cause skin cancer

or

Don’t bother wearing suncream, who cares about skin cancer anyways!

The second one certainly has the shock factor.

I’m not a big fan of this method but I do see its benefits. I’d advise to use with caution.

5. We like number 5 the best!

Which one do you like the best

Yep, we’ve gone and done it again in the article headline! By stating which one out of your list is your preference/the most shocking/made you laugh etc. your intriguing web users. They want to know what number five is and they want to see if they agree.

Overall, it’s not the most advanced strategy but it does work!

6. Humour

Sometimes, you don’t want to learn anything or digest a load of information. You just want to laugh and be entertained – hence the sheer popularity of cat videos.

So inject some humour into your headlines (if applicable to your brand, if you’re a funeral director maybe not – although it would make me laugh!)

7. Controversial headline

This can be tricky.

Firstly, I see a lot of people use a controversial headline to lure people in, and then backtrack the headline in their article.

Someone did this recently using the headline ‘SEO is dead.’ I clicked on it and the guy went through all the benefits of SEO. What he actually meant was some methods of SEO have been phased out – but of course, that’s not as exciting as ‘SEO is dead.’

I think controversy is good, if you truly believe in your opinion and you have stats and facts to back yourself up. Healthy debate is what keeps us up-to-date. However, using controversy to gain links should be avoided, because essentially, you’re just going to annoy people. See example above!

8. Stupidity

Again, like the boobs, I’m not really sure why I have to say this but some people think that being purposefully stupid will attract web hits. And it will, but from people who want to tell you that you’re an idiot.

Please don’t resort to stupidity to gain links, instead be an expert on your chosen topic and earn respect for your knowledge.

9. What happens next will make you cry…

Tearful content

This is actually one of my pet peeves! But I understand why they work so well.

You can usually spot these on Facebook; it’ll link to a video featuring puppies and sad music and annoyingly, you may start to get a tear to your eye!

I hate them because I don’t like feeling manipulated but some people do enjoy them and overall, they seem to receive positive comments. I suppose this one is down to preference!

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

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