3 Key Ingredients of a Successful Blog

Whether you are running a business or a non-profit entity, you can get a lot of publicity through blogging. People nowadays are driven to consume large amounts of information, which explains the steady rise in the number of blog articles being posted each day. But to truly stand out from among the noise, you will have to do more than typing and clicking publish.

There are a lot of factors that go into blogging, so if you want to create a successful platform for your ideas, you have to figure out how the system works and determine the most important elements that every blog needs to have.

Building your audience and creating an educational platform that can make a huge impact are possible if you keep these three elements in mind:

1. A specific topic

Try searching for tutorials on how you can clean kitchen tiles. Chances are, Google gives you thousands of search results that discuss the very same thing. If you have an idea in mind, it would be safe to assume that someone has already beaten you to it. So, if you are planning to write content, make it unique. 

You can write from a different angle. You can also provide information that no one else included in their own blogs. More importantly, you can identify a specific problem or issue, know the kind of readers who need to know more about it, and write your blog from there.

2. An eye-catching headline and lead

In news writing, a headline and lead are crucial to any story because they function as attention-grabbers. These are the first parts a reader sees, so creating a well-structured headline is important for getting the right people hooked. 

When structuring the headline, ask yourself what your readers should really know about the blog you are writing. For example, if you are writing a blog about toxic pet care products, your headline could read along the lines of “Is Your Fur Friend Safe from these Pet Care Products?” 

You can then write a lead that could entice a visitor to keep reading. You can start off with something like, “You know you love dogs, but when does love turn to obsession?”

3. Keywords, keywords, keywords

Now we’ve come to a part that many people usually ignore when it comes to writing blogs. Search engine optimization or SEO helps give blogs online visibility. If you are planning to raise brand awareness or get more followers for your online advocacy, you need your blog to be on top of Google’s search results pages whenever someone uses keywords related to your organization or post topic. 

You want your blog to rank high on specific search words, so it’s important to come up with a list of possible keywords your audience is actively searching for. It also pays to know how Google ranks certain content. For instance, this interesting case study finds that blogs discussing right-wing topics are less favored compared to topics championing left-wing articles. By taking SEO seriously, you can give your blog an edge when it comes to online visibility.

Don’t let your ideas stay in online limbo. Get them across to your audience by making them more engaging and searchable!