Blogging regularly is a great way to get people to your website (there's no reason to come back if there's no new content!), as well as to establish yourself as an expert in a field and to build community around a common issue. It's also really good for search engine optimization (SEO) and increasing your chances of being found in Google searches.
Here are three tips to help create blog content for your readers that they will find valuable and enjoy.
1) Posts don’t need to be long
People don’t commit to a blog post the way they do to a book or even to a magazine article. There is so much content out there to read that if you can say it in fewer words, do it. I think 300 words is ideal, but Google thinks quality content needs to be at least 500 words long. That means that I aim for 500-600 words but if your blog post is shorter than that, don't worry too much about it, just make sure some of your core content is longer.
2) Break big topics up into multiple posts
You have a topic you can’t POSSIBLY write about in under 500-600 words? Can you make it into multiple blog posts and create a series? I can write about blogging for far more than 500 words, but instead I will share digestible amounts of information more frequently. This means you could turn one post into three and save yourself some blogging time and the chances that your audience will get a lot out of what you had to say probably increased too.
There are some exceptions to this rule - a post that has a lot of valuable how-to information can actually do really well if it's over 1000 words, so play around with both and see what works better for you.
3) Write for your audience
I see this a lot - people blog about their topic as they would to their peers. Are your peers your audience? If they aren’t, are you writing above their heads? Keep your content easy to read for people who don’t know the ins and outs of your industry. Avoid jargon and always try to think about how you can take a few steps back from where you are to make sure nobody feels confused.
Do you think any of your posts could be turned into a series?