Look at the sheer number of Singapore businesses running successful blogs, while leveraging content marketing for new businesses. One thing you’ll agree on is that the effort pays off.
While the world of blogging is already swarmed with all sorts of businesses, it’s easy to get intimidated when you think of taking a plunge into the game of content marketing.
The competition is stiff. The institution itself is already supporting thousands of web owners and followers, all experimenting with content marketing. It may therefore seem like the niche you’re planning to dive in has already been covered.
But the truth is – it’s never too late to start your own blog. Plus there’s plenty of room to accommodate almost every single web owner out there.
Why do You Need a Blog?
There’s no SEO without a blog. Which is to say, there’s nothing you can do to outrank your competitors in the SERPs if you have not dedicated part of your online life to blogging.
First, operating your business without a blog means that your SEO will plummet. Plus you’ll have absolutely zero content to share on social media for promotion.
A blog is even more crucial if you’re looking to establish yourself as an online authority. You want to gain online influence to generate leads and win customer’s trust, then dedicate a whole page to blogging. In other words, this is the page that proves your prowess or that you’re fully knowledgeable of what it is that you do.
Don’t let petty excuses hold you back from cashing in on the rife benefits of blogging. May be you’re convinced that you don’t have a knack for writing. But even with this there’s still plenty of ways on how to navigate all the hurdles you encounter along the way in your journey as a blogger.
What’s a Blog?
A blog is simply a shortened term for a ‘web log’. Started in the early 1990s, the whole concept of blogging was introduced as form of online journal where individuals published their stories and thoughts.
The posts made would then be shared with other online users.
While starting out, blogs were a lot personal and diary-like. Most of the posts people made were a lot like people’s minutiae made around their lives and the overheated rumination about the same.
It was until later on that people started taking a more abstract direction. And as we speak there all sorts of blogs covering all walks of life. We have people and organisation sharing invaluable analyses, criticism, instructions, and detailed observations in their area of operation.
Meaning, you have no excuse NOT to blog. As a matter of fact, it’s possible to come up with something to blog about every single day.
Here’s some ideas on what you can blog about:
- How-to Posts
- List Based Posts
- Curated Collection Posts
- News jacking Posts
- Slide share Presentation Posts
Blogging is both easy and hard. Easy in the sense that so long as you have a better understanding on any given subject matter, you can always whip up something around it and pass it as a blog post. But it’s hard in the sense that you have to find a way to strike out from the rest of the bloggers you’re in competition with. And one way to do this is to focus on offering real value.
You have to start by heavily researching on what you intend to write about. Scour the internet and available tomes for every useful piece of information and may be test them before dishing them out to your readers.
How to Write a Killer Blog Post
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Learn About your Target Audience
Before you even think about what to blog about, it’s important to take some time off and study about your target audience. Find out what they’re interested in. Find out about their pain points and which type of content resonates with them best.
It’s for this reason that you’re advised to consider creating buyers personas. Find out what you know about your buyers and their personas. It’s through the personas you create that you can come up with the topics to write about.
For instance, let’s assume the bulk of the readers you’re targeting are the millennials looking to take a jump into the world of business. While you’re allowed to supply them with almost any imaginable piece on information business ideas, you don’t need to provide them with an article on how to set up a social media account.
If anything, any millennial you know can walk their hands around social media with so much ease, unless otherwise. And while such information may benefits older people, odds are good the millennial you’re targeting is already running a social media account.
A much better approach would be to supply them with loads of information on how they can adjust their social media strategies for better engagement and more productivity. You’d also want to advise them to adjust their interaction and take a more professional approach with a special focus on networking and conversion.
It’s through this that the kind of content you post gets to stand out from the generic content already floating around.
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Come Up with a Blog Domain Name and Register it
You need to come up with a domain name for your blog. An alternative would be to add it as a page to your website. Just open a new page and name it ‘blog’ and that’s it.
But for those without a website and are looking to venture into the world of blogging, then you have to start by coming up with an appropriate domain name for your blog.
Once you have the domain, the next thing would be to go ahead and pick a web host. But first, they’ll have to decide on which content management system to use.
Basically, a CMS helps you manage your blog content. A classic example of a CMS to use is WordPress, with which you can come up with any imaginable blog design you have in mind.
The next thing you’ll be doing is registering the domain name you came up with. You’re also required to purchase some hosting space.
Your domain name is simply the name that exists between the two periods of your site’s URL. It’s what online visitors use to find your business. So it’s important that you make the domain name relevant to what it is that you do. The domain name should also be easy to remember and spell.
An alternative would be to create a blog as a subdomain. Just add the word blog at the beginning of your company site’s URL and that’s it. Something like blog.yourcompany.com. In which case, the subdomain is nothing but an extension of your website.
For hosting services, you have options aplenty. With some hosting providers charging as little as $3 per month, then running a successful self-hosted blog shouldn’t be that much of a costly undertaking.
Here’re a few web hosting services you can use in Singapore: i) Bluehost ii) Dreamhost iii) Namecheap iv) Hostgator v) GoDaddy to name a few.
Install Your Preferred Choice of CMS, followed by the theme You Wish to Use
Once you have a domain name for your blog, and you’ve purchased some hosting space, the next thing you do is install the CMS you settled for.
Next, go ahead and install your preferred choice of theme and customise it. Essentially, the theme you choose should match your brand and at the same time reflect the type of content you post.
For instance, if your plan is to blog about sustainability or the environment at large, then common sense dictates that you settle for a theme with a green coloured design.
If you’re planning to run the blog alongside your website, then find a way to match it up with the site. In other words, there should be uniformity with your site and all the accounts you create online. From your social media pages, to your site and the blog, everything must reflect a similar brand.
Here are a number of things to work on:
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Your Logo
Your business needs a logo. Your logo is basically a symbolic representation of your brand or business. It’s what people look at and get a feel of what your business is involved with without digging in for more info.
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About Us Page
You must already have an about us page describing your business. But even with this, you still need a mission statement describing what your blog is involved with.
Come Up with Your First Topic
The first topic you write about matters a great deal because it’s what defines what direction you’ll be taking with the rest of the content.
The topic should be a little bit generic and introductory in nature. A good example is, if you’re looking to start a web development agency in Singapore, then the first blog post you come up with should introduce your blog. It can be something general like the state of web development in Singapore and where you fit in as a web development agency in Singapore.
Whatever you decide on, it’s important that you reserve topics that are specific in nature for subsequent posts.
Also, try avoiding ‘how-to’ articles. Another approach would be telling a successful story concerning what you do. This allows you to showcase your capabilities and knowledge level to a point that your followers will start trusting you for info right away.
Here are more examples on the approach you can take for your first blog article:
Curated collection like ’10 web design ideas to emulate in Singapore in 2019.’
- News post: ‘A New Study Reveals that a Great Majority of Singapore Websites aren’t Optimized Good Enough for Search Engines.”
- List Based Post: ‘10 SEO Experts In Singapore’.
- Slide Share Presentation: ‘Old Modelled Web Designs Ideas to Completely Ignore’.
- How To Post: “SEO In Singapore: A Complete Guide”.
Be Creative with the Title You Choose
Apply your creativity on the titles you come up with. You can do this by coming up with possible variations of the title before settling on one that works best for the post.
For instance, assuming you want to talk about ‘a general overview of web development in Singapore.’ By coming up with a working title, you’re going to have an easy time figuring out what to focus on when you finally get down to writing.’
Here’s an example of a working title based on the topic above ‘Do majority of sites in Singapore Meet Industry Standards?’ This title sound more appropriate and well thought-out. But that doesn’t necessarily make it the final title you’ll be focusing on. As you get to writing, and discover yourself taking an entirely different artistic twist while writing, you can always adjust the title to make it more relevant and attractive enough to your target audience.
You simply start with a topic, then work it to a working title before editing it again until you’re finally able to come up with the final title.
Write an Awe-inspiring Intro
The intro you write is what will be capturing your readers’ attention. It’s what entices them to want to read the rest of the article. So it’s important that you let your creative juice flow and make the intro as captivating as you possibly can.
The point is to try and get the reader interested enough to want to read past the first few paragraphs. You don’t want to lose their attention. Otherwise they’ll be bored and fall out after reading the first few sentences of your articles. Which goes to imply a higher bounce rate for your blog or website.
Making the introduction captivating shouldn’t be that much of a hassle. All you have to do is come up with a really nice story or joke. You can also be empathetic by trying to fit into the situation of your reader.
Another approach would be to try and come up with a general overview or statistical fact of the topic you’re trying to cover.
Any of this can be followed by describing the reason for writing that piece of article. Why do you think that topic is of utmost important to your readers?
You can even explain about the pain points it addresses and the possible reasons the reader should continue reading all the way to end. How is the article going to improve their life? What important aspect of life does the topic address and to what benefit?
Outline Your Content
Don’t jump to the writing bit of the article without first organizing your content. You certainly have lots of ideas as to what you’ll be writing about. But at the same time, you don’t want to overwhelm your readers with unnecessary information. You also don’t want the post to be too stilt and block-like for your readers to read it all through to the end without getting bored along the way.
There numerous ways as to how you can organize the post. For instance, you can begin by arranging the content you have into subsections, breaking them into lists and bullet points where applicable. Whatever you do, just make the article easy for the reader to read it to the end without losing interest along the line.
Write the Post
At this point you’re allowed to go ahead and write the article. Use the outline you wrote in the previous step to structure your content and belabour on the main points.
But what’s even more important is the editing bit, considering you don’t want you article to sound amateurish and unprofessional, shrouded in poor grammar and careless mistakes.
So you make an effort to edit the article. You start by reading it loud, polishing it through until you’re finally able to come up with a refined copy with little to no grammatical mistakes.
If possible, try running the article through a premium grammar checker such as grammarly. This should run the final polish on the article and help you correct the little mistakes that escaped your eye.
How To Write A Blog Killer Post
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Make A Content Strategy Based On Thorough Keyword Research
In order to create content that is both strategic and successful, it is necessary to use precise words and phrases. If you want to maximise your online, newspaper, and even outside marketing efforts, you need to discover and apply certain keywords.
By conducting keyword research, you may learn a lot more about your target audience and what they’re looking for, making it easier for you to connect with them.
Many novices just write about subjects they believe their readers would be focused on based on their own assumptions. It’s unnecessary to rely on guesswork when you can conduct keyword research to discover exactly what your customers are searching for.
Content authors and SEO specialists utilise keyword research as a tool. Your content strategy may then be based on these keywords. An excellent method to come up with new blog post concepts is to look at what people are searching for on the internet.
Why Content Marketing Is So Crucial?
SEO and keyword research are inseparable. For your website’s SEO to improve, you’ll need to perform some research into what keywords are most relevant to your business.
Even if you don’t intend to be directly involved in the study, you should nonetheless familiarise yourself with the details and processes involved. This protects your business from being swindled by others.
To begin, familiarise yourself with the three primary categories of keywords:
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- Match keywords with a large group
Match keywords with a larger group, on the other hand, can be quite successful in generating traffic because they are less competitive. You’ll get fewer results from search engines if you type, for example, “Singapore pet shops” or “top universities in Singapore.”
Are there implications for your company or industry? You can’t go wrong with broad-match keywords. In terms of monthly traffic and competition, they’re in the sweet spot. This results in reduced CPCs, which saves you money.
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- Generic keywords
Unless you’re in a specialised industry with little competition, it’s tough to rank for keywords that are only 1-2 words long. For example, “top universities” and “pet shops” are examples of generic terms.
Pet shops and universities are both tough to rate since there are so many to choose from. For these terms, there are no physical sites or particular programmes associated with them.
Because of their broad scope, generic keywords are most effective when used in conjunction with your primary keywords in header tags or the body content of your web page.
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- The use of long-tailed keywords is another option
The easiest way to define long-tail keywords is to think of them as whole sequences of thinking. Has searching “where can I get a kitten?” ever occurred to you? what are the best universities for accountancy?”
These are keywords with lengthy tails. There are fewer but more engaged visitors to your website if you search for these terms, despite the fact that they aren’t often searched for.
There is less competition for these low-cost long tails than there is for wide match keywords, making it easier to rank for them while also saving money. However, be careful. In addition, generic long-tail keywords might result in low-quality site traffic and significant bounce rates.
Experiment with new things. Nothing in science is certain. Determine which keywords perform effectively for you, and learn how to use them to your advantage.
Keyword Research’s Advantages for A SEO-friendly content
In general, it’s a good idea to take your time and learn more about the issues and language that connect with your target audience. It saves you money and boosts your return on investment by ensuring that your messages are based on facts and figures.
As a consequence, more people will find your company or organization’s website when they perform a search, which in turn increases the visibility of your brand. It also demonstrates your willingness to break down the walls preventing you from communicating with your clients, as keyword research does.
Your clients’ needs and preferences may be better understood and catered to with better content and a more personalised strategy.
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Make Linking Internally a Habit
The more you blog, the more stuff you’ll have that you’ll want others to read. Using internal linking, you may direct new visitors to previous, related items on your site.
Building a connection between your new and existing content is easy using internal linking. Your earlier articles will benefit from this as well.
In terms of SEO, what is the significance of internal links?
A lot has changed since the early days of basic keyword matching in Google search. One out of every ten English search queries is now comprehended by Google thanks to the use of natural language processing (NLP).
Algorithms, however, are not without flaws. Context is necessary for them to grasp what content is about and how significant it is on your page.
Internal links are only valuable if they help you achieve that goal. Your site’s structure, meaning, authority, and more are all powered by these elements.
The advantages of implementing a strategy of internal linking
A well-executed, internal linking system provides a number of additional benefits in addition to the SEO indications we covered before.
User experience and conversions are boosted by internal connections. One of the best ways to increase your conversion rate and provide a superior user experience is through the creation of internal links. Users will have more inquiries as they go through your material.
You can influence their thinking by anticipating their queries. Then, by carefully inserting internal links into your material, you’ll elicit a response from your readers. As a result, people are less likely to go back to Google in search of answers when you provide them with what they want. Brand recognition, trust and loyalty are all increased as a result of this.
Your website is crawled by search engines using links. When it comes to finding fresh information, Google relies heavily on links. If a URL doesn’t have any internal or external links, Google may take significantly longer to locate it.
Crawlers like Googlebot and others follow links on the web as they go from page to page. Increased link popularity increases the likelihood that Google will find a new website or post.
Additional Reminder: Internal Link Strategies To Keep Away From
Don’t go overboard with your efforts.
It’s a simple pitfall to get caught in. We all want to reduce our bounce rates, increase conversions, and spread as much link value as possible. And the more content you possess, the more chances you’ll have to connect to it.
However, you must exercise self-control. If you have a lot of internal links, your content will seem spammy and your PageRank will be diluted. Furthermore, consumers will be overwhelmed with options and, as a result, unlikely to make any selections.
There isn’t a magic number for how many links a post should have. Put links where you think they’ll be most useful to your readers rather than counting them. Rereading past postings can also help you see whether you’ve gone overboard.
Don’t cram too many links into your footer and navigation.
UX and SEO go hand in hand nowadays, but this is more about increasing UX than rankings. Nobody will be able to locate what they’re looking for if you cram your homepage with hundreds of subcategories. In addition, Google will have a hard time figuring out what the point of your website is.
Hence, restrict your website’s internal linking to the most critical sites and keep its primary navigation simple. The main category pages, as well as a few key subcategories or product sites, should be linked to when managing a major e-commerce firm.
Incorporate additional transactional connections within your primary navigation. Your footer, on the other hand, should only contain links to pages about your business, such as “About Us,” “Privacy Policy,” and “Disclosure.”
Don’t use the same anchor text for several links on the same page.
A lot of people deal with this problem. Using exact match terms in the anchor text might be a source of anxiety for certain individuals, which is why it happens. As a result, phrases like “click here” or “in this post” are more commonly substituted.
A bloated content strategy may have created dozens of identical blog entries all aimed at the same term, which would explain why you see this. The ultimate result is that none of your pages gets ranked for the targeted keyword.
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Include Images and Videos Into Your Blog Articles
Engaging material is generally ranked higher in search results by search engines. In comparison to plain text, images and videos are significantly more appealing.
In between paragraphs, be sure to include photos in your blog entries. You should be aware of picture copyrights when including photos in your post. Using photos from other websites without permission might get you into legal problems, so it’s important to know what you’re doing.
Don’t worry, you can obtain free photographs to use in your blog entries on a variety of sites. In addition to utilising your own images, you can also utilise services like Canva to make visually appealing designs.
Canva has a number of free themes that you may customise with your own text, stock pictures (or your own), and more. Twitter, Instagram, Twitter, posters, and more all have template options. From sketches to phrases and images, you’ll be able to create a distinctive image for your blog post with the help of these designs.
Why Imagery is an important part of blogging?
Start by emphasising that adding images does not imply we want you to “suit up” your article with adorable graphics that distract from the content you’re trying to convey. When utilised correctly, visuals may aid in the comprehension of your writing.
A picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. Even if this doesn’t apply to Google, your readers could. An attractive image will sway Tumblr or Facebook users who are trying to decide which website to go to next. If you don’t utilise high-quality photographs in your blog article, your readers may not even bother to read the rest of it.
Another good reason to include high-quality photographs in your blog articles is that they make your content look more professional. You can no longer disregard Google’s visual search if you wish to remain visible in search results.
When consumers search for photos on Google, your photographs might appear at the top of the list if you have high-quality and well-optimized images. Even if you don’t have a photography website, you may benefit from this since you can appear in the search results.
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Go out and take some pictures yourself
If you’re serious about using original images, you might think about taking photos of your own. When you take your own images, you’re ensuring that the image you post is unique and won’t appear anywhere else.
You may also take a picture that properly reflects the topic of your article by using this method. It’s a no-brainer if you’re writing about your daily routine that you should take your own photos.
For food blogs, the same holds. It’s considerably more difficult to find images that complement your articles when you’re writing for a business or technical site.
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Using photos that are optimised for search engines is beneficial to your blog
In today’s environment, creating a website is a simple process. Use open-source software like WordPress and a slew of free plugins to grow your business without breaking the bank. It’s fantastic if you’re one of the select few bloggers who can support themselves only from your blog.
Please consider giving a little donation to the photographer if you utilise stock photographs on your website to reward them for their hard work in making it better. Decide for yourself whether or not you want to and whether or not you have the resources to do so, but give it some thought.
Your blog article will be more visually attractive and easier to understand if you include images and graphics. A good image may do wonders for your post’s exposure, especially if you upload it to social media. Make sure your blog entries stand out from the crowd by using unique photos!
It’s a Wrap
With this information you’re now equipped and ready to get down to the blogging business. You have no excuse not to excel in the field like any successful blogger you have in mind, thanks to this simple step-by-step guide.
Got something to ask? Well, just contact MediaOne today with your query for a free SEO and blogging consultation.
