A common misconception among those new to blogging is the belief that a blog’s success is based on the quality of writing. While great writing is imperative to creating a successful blog, it is only one piece of the puzzle.
Successful blogging is much more than putting words on paper, it is a science that requires a specific methodology. From ideation to publishing, successful blogs share common traits that guarantee success.
Determining a Blog’s Success
To track the overall success of a blog one must define which measurable outcomes should be tracked to determine performance. Key performance indicators (KPIs) will heavily vary based on your blog’s intent.
If you are using your blog to push products, sales will obviously be the most important KPI. Different niche audiences may also different goals. When removing niche and objective specific goals, the following KPIs are applicable to all blogs – users, unique visitors, bounce rate, and average time on page.
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Users
Users are the total number of sessions on your website or page; it does not take into account return visitors. If a person visits your site/page, leaves in the morning, then returns in the evening, they would count as 2 users.
As a blogger, your goal is to see growth in this number as time goes by.
Unique Visitors
Unique visitors are the total number of individuals who visit your page or site. Individual IP addresses will only be counted as 1 visit, no matter how many times they return to the site/page.
Similar to overall users, your goal should be to get as many unique visitors as possible.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of people who navigate away from your page or website after only viewing one page.
For sites that are primarily blogs, this number will be higher than a retail or service site, but you should strive to continually lower this number.
Average Time on Page
As you can probably gather, this is the amount of time individuals spend on your page. Your goal is for this number to be high as that means your content is being consumed.
Writing for Success
You are reading this article because you want your blog to be a success. You realize great content has no value if it’s not read.
Below is an overview of how you can make your next post a huge success. To really get a full grasp on this topic, make sure you also read this article for an in-depth review of best practices for SEO copywriting.
Blog Topic Selection
An individual blog’s topic is arguably the most important factor in determining its success. Topics should NEVER be selected at random or chosen because it is something you’ve “been wanting to write about.”
Keyword research MUST be done for every blog. The goal of keyword research is to find a topic that is heavily searched, but not overly competitive. SEM Rush is a fantastic paid tool for keyword research for the serious blogger and Uber Suggest is a free keyword tool for the casual blogger.
When performing your keyword research, it’s best to start with the general topic you’d like to write about and determine which keyword or phrase describing that topic gets the most monthly searches. From there, you want to judge if you will be able to rank (show up on the first page of a Google search) for that specific search term.
Writing a Successful Blog
Now that you have your topic it’s time to write. I’m probably the last person ever to critique your writing style, but I’ll be the first to help you optimize for search engines.
SEO writing is more of a science than a style. Use these methods and you are sure to greatly improve your search positioning.
Keywords
You searched for the perfect keyword, now make sure you use it throughout your blog. Your goal should be to use your keyword phrase 3-6 times throughout your post.
Tip: Don’t overuse them and only use keywords in a natural way. You will be penalized for overstuffing keywords.
Headings
Use H1, H2 and H3 headings! These headings help Google’s bots determine what your article is about. If you can, include your keywords in your H1 heading and similar keywords in a couple of H2s.
Tip: My keyword for this article is “successful blogging”.
Length
To answer the age-old question, yes, bigger is better. Your blog needs to be a minimum of 600 words, but you should shoot for over 1,000.
Tip: Google sees more content as being more knowledgeable. See how many words your keyword competition has and write more than them.
Edit
Make sure your work is error free. Errors will cause people to exit your page. Although unrealistic, people expect expert writing on every web page they visit.
Tip: Have someone else read and edit your work.
Internally Link
We know that “bounces” are bad. To prevent bounces, have internal links with strong calls to action (CTAs). This will keep individuals on your site longer and reduce your bounce rate.
Tip: As you write more and more content, go back and edit old content to link to the newer, more applicable content.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are an extremely important search tool that is often overlooked by novice bloggers. A meta description is the page description accompanying your page link on a Google search. Adding a meta description that captures your audiences’ attention is sure to generate additional traffic.
Tip: Make sure your meta description reflects what your blog is about.
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Conclusion
Anyone has the ability to create a successful blog, however, it is imperative you approach every blog in a scientific manner using proven processes and strategies. As you begin, or continue, on your blogging journey, remember that your blog needs to be geared toward your niche.
What questions are they asking? How are they asking? And what specific content do they want to consume? If you can answer these questions in a meaningful way, your blog is sure to be a huge success!
This article is written by Karen Evans. Karen is a former college student who, after making real money learning how to build and scale niche blogs, decided to go full time and hasn't looked back since. After seeing so many people waste time and money trying to learn how to create websites that make money she decided to create the ever-popular https://startbloggingonline.com/. So far over 9,500 new blogs have been created using her guide! When Karen isn’t blogging, she enjoys spending time with her family, which usually involves finding some water to cool off in!
