benefits of blogging (onsharp digital marketing coaching class)

BLOGGING BEST PRACTICES BY

Benefits of Blogging

Components of a Powerful Blog

How to Optimize Your Blog

SESSION AGENDA

Blogging Best Practices

BENEFITS OF

BLOGGING

Companies who blog receive

97% more links to their

website.

Customers have rated blogs the

5TH

most trusted source for accurate info

Pages of companies who blog are indexed

443% more often than those

who don’t

WHY BLOG?

-Awareness Inc. -Technorati -Business 2 Community

MORE REASONS TO BLOG

FRESH CONTENT ADDITIONAL CONTENT TARGET KEYWORDS

CREATE RESOURCES DISPLAY EXPERTISECREATE SHAREABLE

CONTENT

FRESH CONTENT

Lady Project Blog uses their blog to share advice and showcase local women to create

and build their community

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

Lissadee Photography uses a blog to feature additional resources, inspiration and other

types of valuable content for current and

prospective clients

TARGET KEYWORDS

College Nannies and Tutors Stone Oak

integrates keywords into their blogs which helps

people find them through search engines

CREATE RESOURCES

Baby List uses their blog to answer their

customer’s frequently asked questions

CREATE RESOURCES

Anytime Fitness creates resources like

video workouts and how-to guides to build their reputation as an expert

source

DISPLAY EXPERTISE

Kennelly O’Keeffe displays expertise by

relating their blog topics around areas of law they

work with

CREATE SHARABLE CONTENT

Unglued creates content that can easily be translated to sharable social media

posts

ACTIVITY 1

What Should You Blog About?

COMPONENTS OF A

POWERFULBLOG

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Be brief and concise

+ Be descriptive, clear, and to-the point

+ Create a sense of urgency or importance

+ Use numbers

+ Be controversial (if you want discussion)

KEYWORD AT BEGINNING OF TITLE

DESCRIPTIVE AND TO-THE-POINT

CREATIVE BLOG TITLES

Use listsBlank Forest Zoo

Ask a question Kennedy Chiropractors

CREATIVE BLOG TITLES

Give a sneak peak Mint Finance App

Teach them something new ZipTopia (ZipCar) blog about smart City Life

COSCHEDULE.COM/HEADLINE-ANALYZER

ACTIVITY 2

Title Writing Challenge

HOW CAN I GET REACH MORE PEOPLE ON TWITTER?

SOCIAL EMPLOYEES HASHTAG STRATEGY

WHAT ARE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS/TOPIC AREAS YOU COULD ANSWER THROUGH BLOGGING?

WHAT KEYWORDS DO YOU WANT TO BE FOUND FOR IN SEARCH ENGINES?

1

2

WRITE POTENTIAL BLOG TOPICS USING THOSE KEYWORDS3

HOW TO SELECT SOCIAL EMPLOYEES

THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL EMPLOYEES ON YOUR BUSINESS

5 THINGS TO SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN BUILDING A SOCIAL

EMPLOYEES PROGRAM

THE SECRET TO EXTENDING YOUR REACH- SOCIAL EMPLOYEES

4 IDEAS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HASHTAG STRATEGY

HOW TO ADD #TBT INTO YOUR HASHTAG STRATEGY

HIGH FIVE FRIDAY: @CAREERFM’S HASHTAG STRATEGY

BUILD A HASHTAG STRATEGY IN 6 SIMPLE STEPS

QUICK TIP

CONDUCT A GOOGLE SEARCH FOR THE KEYWORD YOU WANT TO BE FOUND FOR TO SEE WHAT BLOGS PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY WRITING

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Ideal length is between 600-1,500 words

+ Can be longer or shorter depending on topic

+ Make it scannable

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Use headings

+ Use number or bullets

+ Break up text with images, text call-outs, or tweets

+ Consider using a feature image

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES WHICH DO YOU WANT TO READ?

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Use image or infographic to highlight or summarize

key points

+ Make it shareable (Pinterest button)

+ Utilize a gallery

+ Use alt text to describe images

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Add your logo or website in images

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Use consistent feature images

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Visually show what you’re sharing in your blog in the form of a recap graphic

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Visually show what you’re sharing in your blog in the form of a recap graphic

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Visually show what you’re sharing in your blog in the form of a recap graphic

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES Using images can help your blog get pinned on Pinterest

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Link to external sites that you reference to either give credit or provide additional context

+ Link to different places in your website to give reader more information

+ Feature other blogs they may be interested in reading

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

+ Each blog should include a call-to-action such as:

+ Contact us for more information+ Link to contact us page or email address

+ Read a related blog+ Link to blog

+ Share your feedback+ Social share

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Promote a product/service

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Encourage them to continue reading another one of your related blogs

TITLES

LENGTH

FORMATTING

IMAGES

LINKING

CALLS TO ACTION

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Encourage social sharing or commenting

BLOG TITLES KEYWORDS META DESCRIPTION

ALT TEXT LINKS

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG

For best optimization, keep your page titles between 50 – 70 characters long

QUICK TIPLength of titles

BLOG TITLES

BLOG TITLE

It’s important to include the primary

subject and keyword for that page at the

beginning of the title.

KEYWORDS

very broad and have very high search volumes

LONG-TAIL SHORT-TAIL

more specific and give you better

results because they hone in on a user’s

specific interest

Example:Example:

+ 155 characters or fewer

+ Should be unique to each page

+ Should incorporate primary keywords

+ Should be easy-to-read and provide a

compelling description

QUICK TIPSMeta Description Best Practices

META DESCRIPTION

META DESCRIPTION

Meta descriptions are a website page’s

opportunity to entice a user to click-through.

They tell users what they can expect to see

on your site before clicking into it.

ALT TEXT

Alt text makes your website’s images SEO friendly.

The text description you provide for an image helps

give search engines an idea of what the image

represents and what the context is.

ACTIVITY 3

Optimize the back end of your blog

POST-CLASS TO DO