Five Blogging Tips For Ranking

Rules are made to be broken.

Unless you are breaking blogging rules, then I'm here to tell you that's not okay. Here are my five tips for blogging - easy to adopt, easy to practice. Just start!

Tip #1: Write for Humans

It can be hard to separate your writing from appealing to humans vs. appealing to the Gods of search engines. Let me help you. Only people matter here. Not algorithms or SEM or SEO or other catchy marketing acronyms. And yes, I see all of you search engine optimizers sitting back in your chairs as you read this, gently recoiling, stifling a laugh. Let me rephrase.

Determining the keywords to include in your blog is a necessary evil. If you want your content to be found - include language to help your users find it. Be specific. But what I mean is, write for readers. Use natural language and flow of sentences. Don't keyword stuff; don't include a random, lengthy list of obvious search terms. It will turn off your reader and will likely tip off Google and the like to what you're up to.

Cheat Code: You don't have to try so hard when you write. In general, users prefer to consume informative content at an 8th-grade reading level. So, relax.

Tip #2: Make Your Headline Game Strong, Yo

I was recently at a digital marketing summit for content. When the presenter's keynote flashed over to that of a goldfish GIF, I knew where he was going with this. We all know that human's ability to focus and attention span is < a goldfish's.

But no, it's actually not. Not according to that breakout I sat in on. He said someone made that up. (Probably someone in the content marketing industry) But still, my point with blogging tip number two is this. It's a cluttered world - that's not made up. Make your headlines work harder for you by being smarter. A few ways to do this are playing around with the words you use - here's an easy chart from the crew at CoSchedule and to vary the types of headlines you feature within your content. 

Cheat Code: Aim to answer a question with your blog's headline. The rise of voice search data is real. Siri - how can I get my furnace to stop blowing cold air?

Tip #3: Strategy = Success

An easy way to think about this tip is blogging is about conversion, not content.

What does that mean? The goal of any and all content we produce here at Leighton Interactive is to do something. Like, anything really. But the overarching goal of blogs is to convert the user. It doesn't have to mean your intended audience will read your blog and click that add-to-cart button or pick up the phone. Converting is as simple (and as important) as providing value. Having a user subscribe. Bookmark. Share on Instagram. Etc. We call those micro yesses. The macro yes, in that sense, is converting to a lead. 

Have a strategy for all that. Don't just blog for the sake of blogging or creating content. Time is too precious.

And so are you.

Cheat Code: I'll give you hint on blogging strategy: start with a content or editorial calendar. Step one; check.

Tip #4: Think Outside the Content Box

The ticket to fresh content?

Fresh content. Our fam at Leighton Broadcasting uses a term that's one of my favorites: Shock the Broca. Its origination comes from the Wizard of Ads and Broca refers to the section of the human brain associated with anticipation. Verbatim: "Broca: The theater critic of the imagination, the part of the human mind that anticipates and ignores the predictable." Think of blogging, and how to shock the Broca. If I'm your user and I'm continually consuming what you publish like written blogs, my Broca would be nice and shocked to see you pushing out infographics, Slideshares, visually-heavy content, and vlogs. Do it.

Cheat Code: If shooting a video sounds extreme or intimidating, start by recording just 10 seconds of video introducing your latest (written) blog post.

Tip #5: Get to Know Distribution

Think about the social platforms you or your brand predominantly use for promotion. I bet you named the Big Four ... but did you know there are at least 56 other social platforms? I didn't either until Google returned this article to me when I asked it to, "60+ Social Networks You Need to Know About in 2018". Am I telling you to vet 50 other platforms and share your content on every single one? Of course not. Though, that might not be a bad gig for your intern.

What I am saying is, think about sharing content differently. Distribution is the new black, and hitting publish is only the first step. The. First. Step. Now as a writer, that sounds ridiculous. I just slaved over a piece of content for hours or days. I'm done when I ship it, right? Wrong. You as the writer can be done. But you have to hand it off to the distribution experts on your team and have them hustle it out there to the masses.

Cheat Code: Content lives forever. Regard it as such.