Lady working at her laptop writing blog content
Blogging

10 tips for how to create great blog content

For any blogger content is so important. Creating great content is what keeps your readers returning again and again, and it’s what makes your blog tick. They get excited when they see a new post from you, and look forward to that email landing in their inbox or seeing your latest post on social media. Without great content or any content it can be tough to maintain your blog, especially if you are needing those traffic numbers. However it’s not always easy to write great content. You could be suffering from bloggers block, or simply don’t have anything interesting to write about. I’ve been there. So to help you, I’m sharing my 10 tips on how to create great blog content.

Know your audience

Rule number one is to know who you are talking to. Your content should benefit them. For me my audience is Mums and Dads as I run a parenting blog. I make sure that every single piece of content is relevant to them in some shape or form. That doesn’t mean that each of my topics has to be parenting related. It means that whatever I write about has to benefit them. For example I have a section on my blog for Mums in Business, this isn’t strictly parenting related, but it tells a real-life story of being a working Mum, which is what Mums want to read. It doesn’t matter if you are write a wedding blog or a lifestyle blog, each piece should be relevant to your audience.

Vary your content

To keep your blog interesting and exciting your content should offer a great mix to your readers. You could have a mix of parenting posts, recipe posts, travel posts and lifestyle posts, as long as they benefit your audience. It really helps to mix things up a bit, and keep your content fresh. Plus it’s great for you and your motivation to be writing about different things.

Post your content consistently

Your content posting schedule should be consistent so that your readers know when to expect a new blog post from you. If you post every day this should ideally be at the same time each day. Or if you post three times a week, this should consistently be on the same days of the week. It also means that can build your content scheduling and writing into your own routine.

Blog content planning

Aim for more than 500 words

My advice is that all blog posts should be at least 500 words, and you should be aiming for somewhere in the region of about 800 words. I find that this is a great length for a blog post, and anything over that will tend to be skim read. On the flip side if I read a blog post that’s less than 500 words I am often wondering “is that it”. So think carefully about the length of your blog posts, and as a bare minimum for SEO every post should be more than 300 words.

Use your keywords

This is really important for SEO. Your keyword should be in the blog post title, first paragraph of text, meta description, scattered throughout your post, and placed in the title of your image. I find that my keyword is usually the main idea of the blog post, which is usually easy to think up, and this should mean it is easy for you to use in the post.

Avoid content block

I am sure that many bloggers will have suffered from content block. I know that I have in the past. When I experience content block or bloggers block I will try to have a break from the blog, and come back to it feeling fresh. You might even find some inspiration during that break as well. If you’re struggling Content Mother is a new service launching that can help you with content creation and content marketing.

Plan your content

To prevent getting content block it’s always best to plan your content is advance. This means you can see upfront what’s coming up and make sure that you have varied content to publish. Plus it should help to keep you posting consistently too. I often plan a week in advance, but I know that many other bloggers plan weeks or even months in advance. Just do what you’re comfortable with, but always have a forward plan of at least a couple of days.

Blog content planning

Social media posting and sharing

To ensure that your content is read by your audience you need to share it on social media. If you need those traffic numbers and want to get your posts read by people, then social media is the way to do it. 20% of your time should be spent writing the post, and 80% of your time should be promoting it. Use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and even LinkedIn to the best of your advantage, making sure that the post is shared immediately after you hit publish. Lastly keep promoting on Twitter at different times of the day, and use different hashtags to see what works for you.

Research

Make sure that your content is backed up by fact. If you’re writing a particularly hard-hitting blog post that you want people to read, then make sure you include some facts in there. Think about yourself as being some one who tells a story or writes a news article. If you’ve got facts that you agree or disagree with then add these to your blog post. People love reading opinions, and that will keep your readers returning again and again.

Evaluate 

Lastly evaluate your content. Once it’s been live for a month see how it performed in terms of traffic to your blog. At the end of each month I review using Google Analytics my most popular pieces of content. This tells me what people are interested in, and that I should write more of a similar topic. Plus it’s great to see what posts you should keep sharing on social media.

So those are my top 10 blogging tips for how to create great content for your blog.

I hope you found this useful and I would love to know if you have any other tips?

Claire x

How to create great content for your blog

 

This is a collaborative post. 

30 Comments

  • Holly

    Thanks for this! I think the balance of being true to yourself but staying ‘on brand’ is tough!
    Do you have any advise on starting / using pinterest for blogging?

  • Sophie

    This is a great post; it’s always good to read tips from another blogger. I’m always interested and sometimes surprised to see which if my posts are popular’ with my readers and it’s sometimes not the ones I think! #blogcrush

  • Lucy At Home

    So much great information packed in here! I think setting myself a posting schedule from the beginning has been a big factor in keeping me going because I got it into my head that Tuesdays and Thursdays were blog posts days – it gave me a deadline for each week and kept me focussed.

    And congratulations because someone loved this post so much, they added it to the BlogCrush linky! Feel free to collect your “I’ve been featured” blog badge 🙂 #blogcrush

  • The Rhyming Mum

    Some great tips in here. I tend to ignore most blogging tips/SEO best practice when it comes to The Rhyming Mum. But in my day job it’s so important. Google likes to change it’s algorithm regularly but if you stick to consistently good, shareable content you’ll be safe from a lot of the updates and your readers will love you for it.

  • Jenny Curtis

    I think I fall down on the promoting part quite often- I enjoy writing and optimising but haven’t got to grips with Pinterest or even Facebook! Things to work on. Really useful tips, thank you. #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Sara @ Magical Mama Blog

    I’m 6 months into blogging and am still trying to find a balance of what I want to write, what people want to read, what social media outlets to share on, and so on. You have a great plan set out for new bloggers and some great tips for seasoned bloggers. Thanks for sharing!
    #ForTheLoveOfBlog

  • The Squirmy Popple

    Publishing consistently is my biggest issue – I often find that real life gets in the way, so I might only publish once a week, or maybe not at all. And I still hate promoting myself, no matter how much I get that I have to do it. #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Noleen Miller

    I do agree that for a blog must have a variety of content to keep the audience engaged and to attract new audience. Social media also plays a big role in attracting audience to your blog. Thanks for sharing – some great tips here.#fortheloveofBLOG

  • Hayley @ Mission: Mindfulness

    I always think how good you are at knowing your audience and varying your content. You are also super organised as your posts are as regular as clockwork! These tips are so good – I need to take on board the points about using social media to share better – I have fallen out of the habit of scheduling posts etc #fortheloveofBLOG xx

  • Ali Duke

    I do suffer from content block now and then. I am so busy with life sometimes my mind is a blank when I sit down to write! Thanks for these tips, I will be bearing them in mond when I write x
    #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Mrs Mummy Harris

    Youve made some really good points here – I really need to get a decent schedule for social promo sorted as other than the initial shares when it goes live, Im pretty flakey to be honest!! I also need to sort out sharing via linkedin too! #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Kelly

    Fab tips. i’m suffering hard with content block as I don’t want to write rubbish. Trouble is with G getting bigger, I’m finding that I’m writing about her less and less as there are less things that are of interest to anybody else but me! x #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Daydreams of a mum

    Needed to read this!!Since Christmas we’ve all been ill and I just had nothing to say so was all down on my blog thinking I should just sack it off , but actually a week away and I find ideas popping back into my head! Must work on consistency though ! #fortheloveofBLOG

  • Lisa Pomerantz

    Thank you, Claire, for this really great post. I am still learning so much about how to grow my readership and expand on exposure. You have certainly been very helpful here! #fortheloveofBLOG xoxoxo

  • The Autism Dada

    Love the tips. Most of these I already do, but its aways good to get a confirmation that this is what others think and do too. Though I probably don’t share enough on social media that I should. For me its about the fun part of blogging and connecting

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet