Three Simple Steps to Fine-Tune an Underperforming Blog

The many moving pieces of the modern blog often leaves our heads spinning.

However, the need for constant content marketing is more apparent than ever. Businesses can’t skimp when it comes to keeping their blogs fresh; likewise, those same marketers understand the need to tweak sites when they’re underperforming.

Oftentimes, optimizing your blog doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Instead, consider small tweaks you can make to your current content strategy to boost interest amongst your audience.

If your blog isn’t where you want it to be in terms of traffic and engagement, consider how you can fine-tune your blog posts in three simple steps.

Posting Frequency

In his how-to guide to building a blog, marketing guru Neil Patel discusses the importance of planning out posts to ensure that you’re blogging regularly and coming up with ideas that meet the desires of your readership.

The debate over how often a business should blog is fierce. While some brands are pushing out daily blogs that are on the shorter side (between 300 and 500 words), others are focusing on a “quality over quantity approach,” crafting posts that boast thousands of words that strive to be more in-depth.

The answer to “how often” you should post varies heavily depending on the resources at your disposal. For example, small firms probably don’t have the resources to hire a designated daily writer and therefore would have to cut corners elsewhere to meet their content needs.

Regardless of your industry or niche, consistent blogging has huge benefits for businesses including…

-More opportunities to rank for keywords related to your niche
-Additional authority in the eyes of Google and your readership as you build up an archive of useful content

There is a time and place for all types of content, both short and long-form. As long as you’re writing on a regular basis to meet the needs and expectations of your audience, you’re more than likely good to go. In other words, consistency is key.

Post Timing

The question of “when” to post in regard to the day of the week and time of day depends heavily on your audience. For example, ask yourself:

-Is my audience local or global, tied to a certain time-zone or spread out across multiple ones?
-Are my readers mostly looking for content in real-time, such as during their lunch breaks or in the morning at the office?
-Does my audience interested in my content over the weekend, or do I get most of my traffic during the week?

Understanding the metrics surrounding “when” you get the most traffic is telling. Statistically, Monday mornings are incredibly blog-friendly and Saturdays are the most popular time for blog comments. While you should take such statistics into consideration, make sure that your timing decisions are also based on your own data.

Post Titles

When it comes to making an impression on your readership, titles are perhaps one of the most importance pieces of the puzzle.

Shockingly, many content marketers fail to give their headlines the attention that they deserve. Considering that your post titles represent your content’s first impression on visitors, you need to take the proper steps to spicing up your headlines. For example…

-Turn your headline into a question to pique the interest of your readers
-Frame your posts as a list or how-to guide to give your readers something easy to read and helpful to them
-Include keywords relevant to your business or niche to help get found via search and let users know that they’re in the right place based on your post titles

Simply put, a proper headline can take an ordinary post to extraordinary in terms of readers, shares and engagement.

There are numerous ways to beef up your blog; however, sometimes improving your content strategy only takes a couple of small tweaks. By improving the frequency, timing and titles of your posts, you can take simple steps to giving your blog new life without giving it a complete overhaul.

Original post: Three Simple Steps to Fine-Tune an Underperforming Blog

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