6 Simple Tactics to Immediately Improve Your Blog Post
You can apply these to any content you create on your website!
You can do many things on your website to improve traffic and user engagement.
I firmly believe that each piece of pillar content you create should have a page on your website.
A blog is the most common form of pillar content to host on your site. But if you create videos or podcasts as your pillar content and you aren’t posting it to your website also, you are missing out!
Many YouTubers or podcasters don’t think it’s necessary to post to their own website because it creates extra work. But it doesn’t have to. Chances are you have transcripts for your videos or podcasts. All you need to do is create an episode page on your website for each piece, copy the transcript text and embed the video or podcast audio to the page.
Once you have your webpage for your pillar content, you can take a couple of easy steps to increase your traffic and improve the user experience for your audience.
1. Make it clear and concise
Keep your sentences and paragraphs simple and concise whenever possible. (This is where I struggle the most 😖)
Your text needs to be scannable. Many readers will skim the material before they determine if they want to commit to reading it.
If you are anything like me, I have 1000s of pages marked to go back and read because it didn’t capture my interest enough to read it at the moment. But, let’s be honest, I rarely ever go back and actually read them.
The longer your sentences and paragraphs are, the more your reader has to process what you’re trying to say.
Cut out any unnecessary words wherever possible.
Simplify your sentences.
Break your writing up into small paragraphs of only 2-3 sentences.
Articulate exactly what you are trying to say. Avoid being clever or cute. It may work in video or in person but it creates confusion in writing.
Minimize jargon and industry lingo to make it easier for the average reader.
It takes nuance to be able to write simply and effectively and still incorporate your personality. but, as with most other things, the more you do it, the better you’ll become.
2. Include visuals - images, charts, graphs, etc.
Break up long posts with visuals. It gives the readers’ eyes a small break and helps with the flow of your page.
Ask yourself if there are any items in your content that can be pulled out as a visual.
For example, can you make an infographic related to a process or workflow? This provides an illustration supporting your text and helps your visual learners.
Can you take a list of items from your writing and create a checklist image?
Are there photos that are representative of the concept or feeling that you’re trying to convey in your content? 🤔
3. Incorporate ways to encourage readers to promote your content on social media and other platforms
Adding a few hyperlinks to text and images is a great way to not only break up the content but also help your marketing.
By connecting parts of your content to social media, you can encourage your readers to share your content on their social media.
Some great examples of this include:
Adding an image to your headline to create more visual appeal so that when shared in Facebook, it’s the image that shows up
Pulling a quote from the content and creating a Click to Tweet
Adding pinnable images
4. Add links to external data sources
Including the latest research and related data to support your content is a surefire way to increase and build your authority.
Providing links to data proves that you have done your due diligence and aren’t just making up stats to support your ideas. Readers perceive a higher value when authors provide the sources for the information they share. This helps to associate you as an expert on the topic.
In addition to the value this provides your audience, this practice can significantly improve your search engine optimization.
External links demonstrate to Google that you can be useful to its searchers. This leads to better ranking, which will lead to more traffic to your website.
It’s an easy way to expand your reach. Other websites can tell when you link to them and they may, in turn, reciprocate and link back to some of your posts. You can also reach out to those that you link to and share with them your content and let them know you linked them as a resource. You can even ask them to share with their audience if they find the content would be useful to them as well.
5. Create internal links to other content you have created
Chances are a piece of pillar content you created will intersect with another piece of content you’ve previously done.
Providing links to similar content will encourage your audience to continue reading your content. This builds credibility and increases the amount of time the reader engages with your website.
The longer someone stays on your website, the more likely they are to become a future customer. In addition, the longer they stay the more value Google finds in your website and the better your chances of ranking higher in the search results.
And don’t forget … this works two ways!
It’s easy when preparing your new content to look at past posts that are relevant and to include those links.
But spend a few minutes and take it a step further to really improve your ability to serve your audience. Go to each of those pieces you’re linking to and add a link to the new post in them.
6. Include a call to action
You want to be able to serve your audience to the best of your ability.
This means you need to guide them to what you want them to do next.
Provide a call to action telling your audience what to do. Perhaps you want them to check other posts you created on the topic. Maybe they should download your lead magnet (freebie), book a discovery call or make a purchase.
Whatever the case may be, you need to tell your audience what you want from them.
Without a clear call to action, it’s likely your audience will just X off the page. And when that happens, rarely do they make it back to you.
By applying even just one of these steps, you will better engage and serve your audience.
You’ll also boost your Google rankings expanding your reach to even more people.
If you’d like to learn more about content marketing, click that little button below and I’d be happy to talk with you about how I can help you develop a content strategy to grow your business.