If your blog is proving popular, then there are things you can do to maximize its potential and get people to engage. The best part? You don’t need a coding degree to get results.
Have you ever looked at your Google Analytics and noticed that some of your blog posts are getting crazy amounts of traffic each month?
It’s not uncommon to write a blog that for no obvious reason attracts a lot of visitors. It means that you’ve hit on something that people are searching for. Usually, you’re answering a question that people commonly ask through the Google search bar, and you’re answering it better than others.
Creating original, informative, authoritative content is a great way to get organic traffic to your website. However, once you’ve got people onto your blog, how do you get them to engage?
I have some simple suggestions for you. Let’s take a look at maximizing your blog’s potential.
1. Ask Visitors to Take Action
People generally won’t take action if you don’t ask them to, so don’t assume that just because you have an interesting blog post that people who read it will look for your contact page and then give you a call – they won’t. Internet users don’t work that way.
To gain traction, you need to add a strong call-to-action to your blog post. That could be an invitation to download a relevant free report or perhaps a “click here to arrange a free telephone consultation” would be appropriate.
Maybe you can add several calls-to-action! Within reason, naturally. After all, people will bolt away from constant calls-to-action as they won’t like excessively being told what to do. Internet users don’t work that way. Your company may also appear desperate. And we don’t want that!
Have a think about what would be a natural next step for people who have read the blog post.
2. Entice Visitors to Stick Around a While
If the call-to-action didn’t get them to engage, how about enticing them to stick around and read more posts? How many times have you read an article online and found yourself clicking a link at the end to read another article simply because the headline grabbed your attention?
Link to other relevant posts (on YOUR website) at the end of each of your blog posts – the longer you can keep someone on your website the more likely it is they will start to trust you.
They may not be ready to take any action today but you will have sown some seeds of trust so that – in the future – it will be easier for them to engage with you. Here’s an example for your viewing pleasure:
3. Invite Visitors to Join Your List
Offer them the opportunity to receive regular updates. Avoid referring to this as a “newsletter signup” as nobody wants that! Pitch it as something your visitors might actually want, such as
“Like this post? Enter your name and email address and we’ll send great content like this directly to your inbox every week so you never miss anything important again!”
Make it simple for people to opt-in by putting the form directly on the blog post or in a popup lightbox (don’t take people off to a separate page and definitely don’t ask for anything more than first name and email address).
Accept that not a lot of people will opt-in but some will and that’s a lot better than none!
4. Use Pictures and Video
Very few people will stick with a blog post if you present them with a wall of text. Besides the notion of information overload, the page will also look unappealing and readers will opt to leave without digesting what you have to say.
Bring some colour and format to proceedings with some media! Whether that be in the form of images, video, animations, or audio, multimedia can also be used to justify a point of discussion or opinion, and help to illustrate information for extra understanding.
You don’t need to summon your inner artist for pastel drawings of abstract modernism, either. Neither do you need to pay hefty sums of money for image rights. Instead, you can join the likes of depositphotos or another royalty free image site. You’d be surprised at the scope of imagery they hold!
I should point out that these sites usually carry a monthly charge for the time you are signed up, but it’s a tiny amount compared to handing across thousands of dollars on the likes of Getty Images.
As for video and audio, why not record something to go along with the blog article? Online videos are one of the best ways to gain audience interaction and keep them on your webpage. By retaining attention, you’ll be maximizing the potential of your blog post.
5. Make The Content Longer
Nothing helps your blog’s growth more than having long-form content. Not only will Google and the SEO bigwigs lavish you with brownie points for a healthy SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) rankings, but you will prove yourself as an authority figure on your topic.
This is easier than it sounds, as new writers or those fresh to the digital scene may find it difficult to breach the 500 word barrier. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even 500 words is unlikely to be enough these days.
As we explored in a previous blog post from our SEO guru, the best practice is to exceed the 1500 word limit. By doing so, you are sending Google the signals that benefit your SEO ranking (more on that in the blog link above).
However, it’s not as simple as just upping the word count. You don’t want to pad your article out with irrelevant content or loosely-connected waffle for risk of losing the reader’s attention. If you feel that elongation of your content beyond a certain point ruins the article flow, don’t panic.
Once you’ve hit that creative limit, you can still ensure that the SEO aspects warrant compliance with Google’s ever-growing algorithms. Want a hand with those Search Engine Optimization elements? Get in touch with us. We’d be delighted to help out!
6. Ensure a User-Friendly Design
Utilizing a professional, organized, and user-friendly layout for your blog pages is paramount for retaining those visitors and maximizing the potential of your popular blog post.
How do you react to poorly laid out pages that seem to be crafted from the deepest pits of 1997? How do you react to dozens of pop-up adverts and a screaming-neon background? We’d bet that your first course of action would be to leave the page and take mental note never to return.
If your site has these aspects, we would encourage a redesign. When it comes to a blog, evidence and experience points towards a simpler design for better results. This means plenty of white space, no distracting (or revolving) fonts and colors, and a clear navigation structure.
While it may sound like common sense, it’s best practise to use subheadings for breaking down sections. You should also keep paragraphs short – between two and three sentences – to provide an easy breather between paragraphs.
Other life hacks in this department include the use of bullet-point lists and the emboldening of important statements (see what we did there?).
A further benefit of keeping everything clear and concise? It means readers can focus on your excellent written work!
Introducing: The DRPT Blogging Service!
You may have noticed that we’ve been asking questions about blogging lately. That’s because we’ve noticed how some PT Clinics are struggling to find the time for blogging. As a tool for SEO exposure, blogging is not to be avoided or ignored.
However, not everyone has the time for writing. Not only that, but we’ve learned of gradually building tension in some clinics between staff and management over writing a weekly blog. Not everyone enjoys writing, and such a request isn’t always part of someone’s original job description.
A stigma once hung around blogging. It was viewed as something celebrities undertook in order to appease their ego. Yet, times have changed and blogging is now one of the most adaptable and vital SEO cornerstones for success.
Problem is, what if you don’t have the free time to craft words for your blog? As a busy professional with a strict client diary, squeezing time for writing isn’t always possible. That’s where our Professional Content Writing package comes in.
We offer a triple-filter system where a professional healthcare writer takes on your article writing, with a proofreader to check everything over. Then we lay it all out for you and ensure all the SEO boxes are ticked.
Nothing is published without first getting your approval. We aren’t here to take over your blog – only to help you with the content and the SEO!
So, what about blog topics? Well, we delve into our search data to discover the topics that people are most commonly searching. We then compose a line-up of potential blog topics and titles for you to choose from, before setting to work in the name of your business.
Like the sound of our service? Think we can help you out? Then why not get in touch with us through our contact page? We look forward to speaking with you about maximizing your blog’s potential!
A version of this article was originally published in Paul Gough’s Cash is King Newsletter in April 2019
Flemming Arnott
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