Are you are one of the millions of bloggers out there in search of guidance and information that rocks your blog? If not you should be seeking help to improve a blog. In 2004 there were 4 million blogs on the
Internet. That number has skyrocketed to approximately 152 million blogs in 2013. Why so many bloggers now? Quite simply blogging works!
For businesses the reason for establishing and maintaining a blog are overwhelming. According to Hubspot statistics:
- Companies that blog fifteen times per month generate five times more traffic
- Business to Business companies that blog just 1-2 times per month generate 70% more leads.
Additional Reasons for Blogging
- It increases your company’s profile and provides more web visibility
- Brings in new visitors to your site
- Provides content for email marketing campaign, EBooks, Guides and other content
- Improves your visitors experience to your site if you publish high quality content.
Blogging is not just about increasing traffic to your site but to serve your visitors by providing them with meaningful educational content to assist them with their search to the answers they seek.
With that in mind we have provided 5 questions to consider and help you improve your blog.
Is your blog original?
Your visitors want you to engage them with original posts, unique perspectives and educational information. If your blog mirrors others out there and your posts are similar posts to every other site it will be unmemorable.
Does your blog provide substantial value as compared to other out there?
With over 152 million blogs out there prospective visitors are overwhelmed with data and information. How often do we watch a series of ads on TV and 2 minutes later we can’t remember a single commercial. Your blog is no different. If your content doesn’t hit home, your readers will move on to a more relevant and interesting site.
Your goal is to develop relevant, meaningful content for the buyer personas you are targeting.
Does the blog have spelling, grammatical, or stylistic errors?
Who wants to read a poorly written article without spelling and grammatical errors? A poorly constructed article with grammatical, spelling or stylistic errors reflects poorly on your company and conveys the message that your visitors are not worth your time. If you are buying cheap articles from outside the US, the quality and content will reflect that.
Is the blog driven by genuine interest of readers or is it an attempt to rank well?
The first step, before creating any content, is to understand your readers and subscribers. What are they searching for that you can deliver to them? If your goal is merely to write content for the search engines, it may rank well but will generate little interest from your target audience and will not be shared.
On the other hand, if you understand your target audience, the struggles they face, what problems they need help with and you deliver content that helps them, adds value to their quest for information or enhances their life in some way, you will get noticed and get shared.
Is this blog the sort of thing you would want to bookmark or share with a friend?
When we discover a great resource, find awesome information, something that inspires us or makes us laugh we want to share it. Delivering great content that you are proud of and want to share is what you are after.
Take a step back and view your posts objectively> Are you excited to post on your Facebook page, Tweet it out, or forward it along to friends, family coworkers, etc.? If not, rethink it and edit the post until it is information that you are proud of and would be proud for it to be shared.
In Summary
Blogging has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. No longer is it sufficient to post articles. The expectations of your readers and targeted audience is to read compelling, meaningful information. With over 152 million blogs your audience has more choices when seeking information. If your information is not written and tailored to your targeted audience it will fail. The first step is to understand your buyer personas. If you are not familiar with what a buyer persona is you can learn about it here.
