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So content may be queen, but how do you increase the chances that folks will engage with your content?
Here are few tips to ensure that your content is ready to be engaged with.
Titles
OH HEY. THIS IS A TITLE. IT IS LAME BUT MAYBE YOU WILL CLICK.
Did you like that title, or did you find it mind-numbingly dumb? I remember talking with a blogger who once mentioned how another blogger we knew had had great success IN SPITE of her bad titles. I had never thought about it, but immediately realized it was true. Her titles were bad. They didn’t follow any copy-writing rules and certainly shied away from anything resembling click bait (CLICK HERE AND LOSE ONE MILLION POUNDS). But guess what? They worked because they worked for her audience. Her audience liked her, and they trusted her, and her titles sang of her tone.
SEO
SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization” is a big long word for a simple concept. In short, it’s important as a blogger to create content that the tiny robots working inside of Google can find easily. There are a few tricks to doing this. I’d recommend downloading the YOAST SEO Plugin, and following its simple prompts as a way to get started.
Images
There are few things more powerful than a great image, and so investing a tiny bit in ensuring you have great images attached to your content is key. Keep in mind, though, that this doesn’t mean you have to go back to college to study photography. You’ve got a few great options:
- Find free images online. Here is a list of my favorite sites for finding free images.
- Pay for images online and attribute them. Here is a list of great sites for that.
- Take your own quirky, weird images and thrill/horrify your readers with your personal style. (My Instagram feed is chock full of that.)
Short Paragraphs
One weird blogging secret you may have figured out if you’ve spent enough time reading other blogs is that short paragraphs are easy on the eyes, and the mind. Our attention spans suck, and are getting worse with every year we spend immersed in this digital age.
One way to combat this as a content-producer (you’re a blogger now! you produce content!) is to make sure you are using short paragraphs. This helps folks skim easier to find and absorb the content to their best of their attention-less abilities;)
Link to Relevant Content
Are you rocking the world and producing 3,000 word in-depth blog essays each day? If so, three cheers you Mother Theresa of Blogging, you. That said, you want to make sure people read your great content again and again. And again. Most importantly, not just when it’s brand new.
The best way to do this is to make sure that your posts include links to your other great content when appropriate. Let’s say you’re discussing how you trained your toad to sit up. This would be a GREAT opportunity to include a link to the relevant article about how you trained your lizard to sit up as well. See how it works? Provide links to other relevant things that your readers will love, but might not otherwise find on your site.
Your Challenge for Today?
Go into a new blog post you’ve written and add in two links to relevant content — one on your own site, and one somewhere else. People like to clicky-clicky, and giving them opportunities to do so will keep them engaged!
Did you do it?
Tell me about it below!
