8 Things You Must Do For Every Blog Post You Write For Your Business

I’ve written a lot of blog posts over the last 11 years for Mykidstime as well as Digital4Sales and once you get the hang of the writing, there are some key things you should do for every blog post you write for your business to make sure it has the best chance of working for your content marketing.
Here are 8 things you must do for every blog post you write for your business:

If you need help with writing great online content, I work with businesses to help them with their content strategy and processes to drive results. Schedule a time with me to have a chat.

#1. Research Keywords

Check what keywords people are searching on. Although you can’t get detailed numbers any more on Google Keyword Tool (unless you are running a Google ad campaign) it’s still worth checking what is low competition and high volume around the topic.

Also have a look at the “People also ask” section as well as the long tail keyword searches (at the end of the Google search results page) and where possible fit some of these things into your blog post.

You might also enjoy reading: My Top Tips for Researching a Blog Post

#2. Spend Time on Picking The Title

Spend as much time as you can on the title – it’s half of what is going to make people click and read your blog post. I recommend using Coschedule’s Headline Analyser tool. Try a few variations and follow their advice on unusual and powerful words to include.

#3. Pick an Excellent Lead Image

Can you find a good image to convey what the blog post is about? This lead image is what gets shared on social media so make sure it’s really impactful and at the same time tells people quickly what to expect.

• Is it eye catching?
• Can people see at a glance what the blog post might be about?
• Will it make them curious?
• Does it fit with your blog branding and style?

#4. Make Sure You Have Included Calls to Action

What would you ideally like people to do if they come and read your blog post? Download something? Make an enquiry to you? Make sure you have calls to action in your blog post.

Did you know that only 2 out of 10 readers make it to the end of blog post on average? It’s important therefore to add a call to action near the top of your blog post not just at the end of your blog post.

And consider this, if someone has taken the time to read right to the very end of your blog post that means they are engaged so how can your call to action at the end continue the conversation with them?

You might also enjoy reading My Top Tips on How to Write a Blog Post People Will Read

#5. Make Sure The Structure is Good

Do you have these things in your blog post to break up the text?

• subtitles
• short paragraphs – max 3 sentences long
• bullet points
• bold on some text to highlight key points
• images

When people read online they don’t like too much text, i.e. long paragraph after paragraph with no break. Make it easy to scan.

That’s how people read online; they scan down and those subtitles, images, bullet points, etc. can help highlight and stop the boredom setting in (which causes people to stop reading and bounce off your post).

#6. When You Publish Social Proof It

The search engines like to see at least one social share on a blog post as some kind of indication that readers like it so share your blog post directly from your social share buttons to make sure it’s “social proofed”.

Plus readers coming to your blog post are more likely to share themselves if there’s at least one share showing.

#7. Plan the Distribution of Your Blog Post

Add your new blog post to your social media and ezine distribution plans.

After all, there’s no point writing a great blog post if you don’t then share it regularly so make sure it’s added in to your social media content plan as well as being shared with your mailing list.

#8. Check the Analytics

After a month have a look on your Google Analytics.

Go into Behaviour / Site Content / All pages and find your blog post.

• How did it perform? (how many page views)
• Did people come to view it when you shared it?
• How long did they spend reading the blog post (ewell time)?
• Where did the viewers come from? To find this out click the secondary dimension toggle and pick Acquisition and Source to add the source of the views.

Look on the blog post on your website to find out how many social shares it had too.

If it didn’t perform as well as you think it should have, can you tweak the title and/or lead image and share again to see if that improves its performance?

I hope these tips have been useful for you for when you write your next blog post for your business.

Do you do these steps for your blog posts too? Tell me in the comments below.

If you need help with writing great online content, I work with businesses to help them with their content strategy and processes to drive results. Schedule a time with me to have a chat.