When it comes to starting a blog it can sometimes be a lonely experience... You are dedicated to writing great content full of helpful information that you know your target audience will love. How can you make the most of every blog post? More importantly how do you reach the people who really want to read what you have to say in your blog? That's why I'm here to assist you. These guidelines will help you increase the reach of your blog posts if you follow them. Blog Post Checklist 1. Blog Title When writing a title for your blog post www.kittykornercatfurniture.com you need to give it some serious thought. Your title is what people will read. It is what makes them decide whether they want to continue reading or not. Keep your title brief and to-the-point. To improve your SEO, make sure you include your primary keyword in your title. If you are struggling to come up with a title you like try 'Portents content idea generator' for some alternative and often amusing suggestions. 2. Content Make sure the main body of your blog post is clear and easy to read. Keep paragraphs under five lines. Keep sentences as short as possible - 20 words is the recommended limit. Plain English is best - you don't want to display your knowledge of the most complicated words in English. Break your text up with sub-headings - this not only makes your readers experience easier to take in it also makes your post look more interesting. Remember your blog will be read by like minded people who are interested in what you have to say, but never the less you still need to ensure the content is interesting enough to hold their interest. 3. Images Include at least one featured image. Humans are visual creatures and an eye catching feature image will get their attention. When you upload an image ensure that it is not too large in terms of data size so that it will load quickly. Make sure you fill out the alt attribute box and include your keyword in the description. 4. SEO SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Basically the better your SEO the more chance your blog post will have of appearing higher up in search engine rankings There are a number of things you can do to improve your SEO. Make sure your main keyword/s is included in your title, in the first paragraph of your post and used often throughout your post. Ensure your post is at least 1000 words long as search engines like a decent amount of content. Add alt attributes to the images that you use, so they will be displayed in the event of your image loading. Include your keyword(s) in a brief meta description. The meta description is the text that appears under your main title in search engine results. 5. Links Try and include links in your post whenever possible. You can link to external websites as well as direct people to other relevant sites on your website or blog posts that may be of interest to them. Including links also helps with your SEO. 6. Credit Your Sources You must credit any sources you used for research or quotes in your blog post. This will give credibility to your content and show readers that you have reliable sources. 7. Social sharing When you set up your blog be sure to have social sharing buttons available from the start. This allows your readers to easily share your blog to any social media platform they choose. 8. End and Publish Finally end your post with a question to your readers in order to encourage comments. Alternatively present a call to action related to your post i.e. download your free guide here. The final thing to do before you publish is to proof read the whole thing. You can make any changes, but you must also proofread the entire thing once more to ensure it is correct. Post Publishing To Do List 1. Share and share again Once you have published your blog post the first thing you should be doing is sharing to every social media platform that you have a presence on. Don't stop there though, post to all relevant groups and communities also. Do this everyday for the first week in order to reach as many people as possible. Try posting at different times in order to spread the reach of your blog post. If you have a presence on Pinterest then create an eye-catching image to go with your post. A Pinterest image should be at least 736x1200 pixels in size. 2. Respond All comments, good and bad, should be responded to. After all even bad feedback if it is constructive can help us all learn and improve. 3. Develop Alternative Content Explore ways of turning your blog post into alternative content. For example you could record a verbal mp3 version for download from your website. If you are intending to post on a regular basis why not consider turning your post into a podcast? Maybe get in front of the camera and record a video to post on YouTube with links back to your own website. 4. Revive old posts Don't think that just because a blog post was done two, three or four months ago that it has served its purpose. You can go back and review your posts and update them as necessary. Then, give them a new lease on life by re-sharing or re-formatting.
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