Blogging is still one of the most effective techniques to increase website traffic and acquire new consumers. But are you utilizing your local company blog to its full potential? Not likely.
What should you do if you aren’t? The solution begins with numbers and concludes with precise recommendations. Let’s look at some data first, and then 5 recommendations for making your blog work for you.
The Science of Blogging
A big research of blogging discovered some useful information that might help you improve the success of your company blog, based on the evaluation of 912 million blog posts. Some of the most important findings are listed below.
Backlinks
Google still considers backlinks to be one of the most significant ranking criteria. Long-form content received 77.2 percent more links than short-form content, according to the blogging study. Although this is a significant change, it is not without its limitations.
Once a post surpassed 2,000 words, the study discovered a substantial drop-off in linkages. However, 94% of the posts examined had no backlinks.
It’s also worth noting that certain article layouts and titles receive more backlinks than others. “What” posts, “Why” posts, and Infographics were the three most popular post kinds for backlinks.
Backlinks to these three forms were 25.8% higher compared to “how-to” and video postings.
Sharing on Facebook
You may believe that blogging will help you with social media, but the statistics show otherwise. Backlinks and social sharing, for example, have no relationship.
It’s also worth noting that just a small percentage of blog pieces are successful when shared on social media. According to the report, 1.3 percent of “power” postings account for 75% of all social shares.
There were some particular discoveries and questions around headline length (longer headlines receive more shares) and headline length (longer headlines get more shares) (blog posts with questions in the headline get more shares than those without questions.)
List posts are also far more likely to be shared than other posts. They receive 218 percent more shares than “how-to” posts and 203 percent more than infographics.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 words is considered the “sweet spot” for getting blog content shared on social media.
One last figure to motivate you: according to one study, blogging can increase your chances of achieving a good Google ranking by up to 434 percent. That’s quite a sum.
Improve Your Local Business Blog with These Pointers
The information from that study can help you improve your business blog by giving you a foundation to work with. Of course, backlinks and social media aren’t the only things to be concerned about, but the study’s other findings point in the right direction.
With that in mind, consider the following five suggestions for improving your blog.
#1: Make a Blogging Schedule (and Stick to It).
The first piece of advice is to keep a regular blogging schedule. There’s some evidence that four times a week blogging is best. In fact, businesses that blog at least 16 times per month receive 3.5 times the amount of traffic as businesses that blog only once or twice each month.
It could appear that 16 blog postings is excessive. However, you could discover that sticking to a blogging schedule will help you be more disciplined in terms of coming up with blog ideas and writing those entries. Remember that if you don’t have the time or motivation to write, you can always hire a writer to write your blog entries for you.
#2: Use catchy titles in your posts.
When it comes to driving traffic, social shares, and backlinks, it turns out that titles are really important. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
On social media, list posts are more successful than other sorts of content. Part of the reason why Buzzfeed has so many lists is because of this. They are popular, and you may take use of this fact to increase traffic to your website.
Give your articles names that are at least a couple of words long. According to one study, blog postings with titles of 6 to 13 words outperformed those with titles of less than 6 words.
Pose a question to the person you’re conversing with. According to the results of that large blogging study, blog titles that asked questions received 23.3 percent more social shares than articles that did not.
Make a statement that will make people think. Even if individuals aren’t inclined to read blog posts, saying something unexpected or provocative can entice them to click. Curiosity killed the cat, as the saying goes.
Although a rose by any other name would smell as lovely, names do matter when it comes to blogging! You’re looking for inspiration? Try the blog topic generator from HubSpot or the concept generator from Inbound Now.
#3: Double-check the number of words you’ve written.
We previously stated that the “sweet spot” for blog content is 1,000 to 2,000 words, with longer pieces receiving more engagement, backlinks, and sharing than shorter posts.
Does this imply that you must write long posts every time? No way! If you’re used to writing 300-500 word blog posts, though, writing a longer post every now and again can be beneficial. It might become one of those “power posts” that drive visitors to your website from social media and Google.
#4: Include Images That Are Appealing
Although this may seem obvious, many businesses overlook the importance of using photographs in their blog postings. People recall considerably more information when it is presented with a visual aid than when it is presented without one, according to studies.
Pixabay.com and Pexels.com are two excellent free photo sites.
#5: Add Buttons and Widgets for Social Sharing
If you make it simple for people to share your blog entries, they will. As a result, including social sharing buttons in your content is a fantastic idea.
However, exercise caution. If you provide a comprehensive list of social sharing buttons, you may discover that it has the opposite effect that you desire. What is the demographic of your social media following? Put a Twitter button on your blog and use the “Tweet this” widget to allow users to share key lines from your blog. Put a LinkedIn button on your blog if you’re selling to other businesses.
The good news is that enhancing your company blog is rather simple. It’s all about being aware of the numbers and developing a blogging schedule and strategy that works for you. The clicks, shares, and links will come as a result of this.
