blogging rules

Eager to jumpstart your content marketing efforts for 2015? The quality of your blog posts and the topics that you choose will be more important than ever for the success of your website. Google started a SEO transformation several years ago and today, the process seems to be complete. Content has gained central position when it comes to optimization and promotion. Do you know, however, what it will take to make your blog successful in 2015? 1. Length and Quality Quality content is focused and lacking fluff. This doesn’t mean, however, that the pieces should be short. SerpIQ statistics show that the top 10 Google search results for particular keywords are usually about 2,000 words long. Longer posts provide more flexibility in terms of keyword placement and they also boost the audience’s engagement. The conclusion is simple to make – write at least 1,500 words per blog post. If you have detailed knowledge of the particular topic, you’ll find the task to be a relatively simple one. Longer posts increase your chances of getting quality backlinks, they are shared more often and they will probably be quoted by others, as well. Make sure that you have a unique approach and look at the topic. The more original and in-depth your blog posts are, the more valuable they’re going to be. 2. Have a Distribution Plan Good content is essential but how about coming up with the right distribution plan? Knowing how and where to share your content will boost visibility and make it much easier for you to establish that loyal audience. Content creation doesn’t end when the posts are written. Focus a bit more on marketing and selecting the right distribution channels. Social media have become the standard in the field and your pages should have been developed by now. Try distributing your content through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Scoop.it, among many other possibilities. Testing each of the channels and evaluating the response will help you determine which ones deliver the best results in terms of content promotion. Content distribution doesn’t have to be paid. Syndication and social bookmarking are two quite simple approaches, enabling blog and website owners to reach new, targeted audiences. 3. Content Repurposing That’s right, content can be repurposed. In fact, this approach will deliver great promotional results in 2015. Content repurposing doesn’t focus on the creation of new text. It simply makes the blog posts that you already have written available to a bigger number of people. In addition, you can use the content that you already have to create an informative piece for an entirely different medium. A series of blog posts, for example, can easily turn in a podcast. You can also change the length and the style of blog posts. An interview with an industry expert can easily become an opinion piece later on. You generate original content but you rely on source material that has already been created. Repurposing comes with a number of key advantages. It’s good for your website’s optimization, it enables you to reach audiences that look for information in different ways, it makes content creation easier and it gives you the possibility to capitalize on the most successful content you’ve written in the past. There’s no need to come up with something brand new each time. Some well-established topics and popular blog posts can easily be repurposed to simplify the task of keeping your blog updated. 4. Go Visual Are you still relying excessively on text? A few visuals will make your content much more engaging and interactive. Visuals grab the attention of the website visitor. If people like what they see, they’ll probably go through the text, as well. The human brain processes images faster than text. In fact, it perceives an image in 1/10th of the time needed to understand text. Statistics suggest that content containing visuals generates up to 94 percent more views than texts that are not accompanied by illustrations or photographs. Content that has both photos and videos will get 48 percent more views. Visual content can easily go viral and it will generate more inbound links. You have so much freedom, when it comes to picking visuals. Illustrations, slideshows, cartoons, diagrams and infographics are all audience favorites. Interactive graphics will be taking your visual content to the next level. These graphics can be clicked to reveal more information, which makes them interactive and highly engaging. 5. Do Competition Analysis Frequently The online world is highly competitive. You can set your clock by paying attention to what the competition is doing. If you haven’t been doing competition research until now, you’ve been missing on a huge source of inspiration. The blogs and websites of other entities inside the niche can help you come up with new topics. In addition, you’ll get to assess the audience’s response in order to determine which themes get people interested. Competition research can also help you come up with partnership ideas. Though many (including Matt Cutts) have claimed that guest posting is dead, this technique can still deliver excellent marketing and optimization results. Such partnerships give you access to a brand new audience. They result in more popularity for your website or brand. Optimization isn’t everything when it comes to being successful online. Joint efforts in the field of content creation can deliver excellent PR (as in press release rather than PageRank) results without being expensive. 6. Think about the Needs of the Mobile Crowd So many experts have said that 2015 is going to be the year of mobile. Take this fact in consideration when writing and formatting your copy. The same applies to the design of your website. Make sure that the mobile crowd is finding it easy to access, read and interact with your content. There have been claims about user experience affecting the Google ranking algorithm for some time. The number of individuals accessing web content through mobile devices is growing all the time. You cannot ignore and underestimate the needs … Read more