improve blog rankings

Anyone can write a blog post. But writing one that makes people want to return weeks or months later is a different story. Quite often, articles cover a relevant topic but fail to provide enough value to compete against thousands of similar pages online. Writing long articles won't help here. One needs to understand the reader's expectations. Starting with Purpose Before starting writing, one needs to determine what value the reader should receive from the post. A valuable blog post solves some problem, answers a question or covers the topic in such a way that the reader knows more than before. An attempt to squeeze too much information into the post can dilute its value. In most cases, focused posts bring more value since readers are able to concentrate on the content and not get distracted by some unrelated information. It becomes possible if all the elements of the text contribute to the main idea. Going Deeper Than the Common Knowledge There are lots of posts repeating advice which can be found on many websites. It is easy to spot that such an article is nothing more than a retelling of someone else's information. One way to increase the value is to provide additional information which will put things into the perspective. The reasons why certain advice works, situations when the standard recommendation cannot be applied and practical points which can be missed by an ordinary person can make even standard knowledge useful. The valuable post must leave a feeling that readers have received something which cannot be easily found anywhere else. Making the Information Clear to Read The most useful information becomes less valuable if it is difficult to read. Big blocks of text, unclear transitions and complicated structure force readers to spend unnecessary efforts. Articles need to be structured into meaningful parts to allow moving smoothly throughout the post. Proper headings, short paragraphs and smooth transitions can help readers to stay involved into the content. The process of scanning an article before full reading takes place quite often. So, it is better to make sure that key information is visible and easy to find. Keeping the Information Up-to-date Things constantly change. New statistics appear, new recommendations emerge and new practices develop. Periodic checking of older posts helps to keep the information fresh and relevant for the readers. Updating the posts with up-to-date examples, fixing the mistakes and adding up-to-date references demonstrate a commitment to high-quality standards. The readers appreciate it since they see that the site cares about the quality of the provided information. In addition, such approach improves the long-term value of the whole content library since old posts also start working and helping the readers. Writing for People Not Search Engines Good ranking in search engines is important but still the main purpose of the article is the readers' satisfaction. Readers are able to spot a post where some information sounds unnatural or where keywords distract from the text. Instead of thinking about SEO tools, it is better to focus on answering questions, predicting future concerns and explaining some things in an understandable way. Useful articles attract more traffic since people like sites which provide useful information. When the main goal is helping the reader, SEO tools just help to achieve it. Increasing the Value after Publication Listening to the feedback from readers, answering their questions and developing the article can improve the content even after publishing. Also, it's important to keep realistic expectations about how quickly content pays off. Even good posts have to compete for visibility in search results where many factors play a role. Understanding this landscape is helpful, as this guide explains the connection between competition and backlinks. In general, valuable blog posts do not have to be long and optimized. Their only feature is respecting the reader's time, answering questions and bringing value for a long time.

Making Each Blog Post More Valuable – A Complete Guide to Better SEO and User Experience