Creating a High-Engagement Blog
The first step in this guide to creating a high-engagement blog is understanding that there are a lot more factors to consider than simply just writing your thoughts.
Even if you are wanting to start blogging for fun, knowing these essential factors can help you get your blog seen and rank higher in search results.
Which ultimately leads to increasing your skills as a successful blogger.
Although sites such as Anyword and Jarvis have AIs that can write original content for you, it’s still important to understand how to create a high-engagement blog yourself.
However, if you decide to use Anyword for getting your blog content created, you can use discount code Anyword20 for a special rate.
In this post, we are going to go over the ins and outs of successful blogging.
Creating a High Engagement Blog: What We Cover
- Picking the right niche
- The factors behind readability
- Understanding SEO and why it’s important
- Where and how to post your blog
- Expanding social credibility
Picking the right niche
If you’ve looked through this site on the various ways of making money online, you’ve seen how important it is to pick the right niche.
One factor in this guide to creating a high-engagement blog is knowing what you’re going to write about.
You want to pick a niche that you’re not only passionate about, but that has low competition.
Especially if you’re a beginner blogger.
Remember that you are going to be competing with the other top sites in your specific niche.
That’s why keyword research is so important, among other reasons.
To read more about keyword research and picking a niche see our keyword research section.
The Factors Behind Readability
Your next step in this guide to creating a high-engagement blog is to understand readability.
Readability, simply put, is the measure of ease when reading text.
Read+Ability = Readability = Ability (to) Read (the written text).
One of your main goals for a successful blog post is understanding the importance of readability.
After all, you want your readers to actually read your post, and equally important, have the desire to read more.
Creating excellent readability is a big factor in this guide to creating a high-engagement blog.
Lets go over the basics of excellent readability in 7 factors
7 Factors to Excellent Readability in Creating a High-Engagement Blog
- Use less than 10% passive voice
- Keep your paragraphs short. Ideally, between 1-3 sentences.
- Don’t use more than 17 words per sentence
- Include transition words in at least 30% of you sentences
- Use headings and subheadings appropriately
- Avoid using the same word to start sentences
- Aim for at least 2000 words in total
Now, if you have a general understanding of this list, you can skip to the next section.
On the other hand, if you’re asking yourself what things like passive voice and transition words are, keep reading.
Let’s go a little deeper into understanding what the following list means and why those factors are important in this guide to creating a high-engagement blog.
Passive VS Active Voice
The difference between active voice is essentially simple.
Passive voice is passive and active voice is active.
Obvious right?
Not really.
So what does this mean exactly?
Let’s go over some examples of when passive voice is used vs when active voice is used.
Active: You should read the directions before you start the project.
Passive: Reading the directions will help you with the project.
Active: Active voice: [subject]+[verb (performed by the subject)]+[optional object]
Passive voice: [subject]+[some form of the verb to be]+[past participle of a transitive verb]+[optional prepositional phrase]
Active voice is more direct, it gets the point across, and it flows nicely.
Passive voice, on the other hand, sounds almost boring and doesn’t get the readers’ attention.
As a rule of thumb, you should be using less than 10% active voice, (if possible) within your blog.
Keeping your paragraphs short
When writing your blog post the most important factor is to keep your readers reading.
Having walls of texts inside your blog will not help you do that.
Keeping your paragraphs 3 sentences or less will help you keep attention by increasing your readability.
Don’t use more than 17 words per sentence.
This is another factor towards readability.
Having long sentences makes your readers want to read it again to understand it fully.
Which is not what you want.
If your readers have to do this, chances are they may leave your site completely to find a site that is more direct.
After all, they are coming to your site for information.
If they aren’t receiving that information, they’re probably not going to continue reading, and it will decrease your chances of creating a high-engagement blog.
Use transition words in 30% of your sentences
Transition words put simply, are words that connect the previous sentence to the next.
There are various types of transition words, depending on where you are in your writing.
Below are some examples of commonly used transition words.
Using headings and subheadings appropriately
When blogging, using headings and subheadings appropriately will drastically increase the readability of your posts.
What’s more, it will increase your SEO, helping you to rank higher in search results, and bring you closer to creating a high engagement blog.
For appropriate uses of headings and subheadings here are some things to keep in mind
Don’t go too long without a heading or subheading
You shouldn’t have more than 300 words in between headings
Use only one H1 heading in your posts.
The H1 tag should be the general topic of your complete post
Make sure your subheadings align with your headings.
Meaning, they should be in the right place and continue on from your headings.
Additionally, using your keywords in your headings is also important.
For example, if you’re writing a post on dog grooming, it could go something like this
H1 – Dog Grooming
H2 – The importance of dog grooming
H3 – One reason dog grooming is important
H3 – Another reason dog grooming is important
H2- Dog Grooming basics
H3- Picking the right tools for dog grooming
Notice how there is only one H1 heading, and the rest are H2 or H3, and the keyword “dog grooming” is used in the headings.
Also, take note that you should have headings and subheadings frequently throughout your post.
As a general rule of thumb, aim to have less than 300 words within your heading sections.
Avoid using the same word to start every sentence
Using the same word to start sentences can get too repetitive for your readers.
Furthermore, it can decrease your chances of getting a positive SEO.
Both of which are very important.
That’s why it’s important to switch things up and keep your content interesting.
For example, let’s summarize the importance of readability the right way vs the wrong way.
Wrong way to start sentences
Don’t use too much passive voice.
Don’t use more than 17 words per sentence.
Don’t have long paragraphs.
Don’t misuse H1 and H2 headings.
Don’t forget transition words.
Although these may be direct and use active voice, they lack creativity.
Here is an example of you can rewrite these sentences to increase readability.
Better way to start sentences
Don’t use too much passive voice.
Make sure your sentences are under 17 words.
Keep your paragraphs short.
Use headings and subheadings appropriately.
Include transition words.
If you’ve already started blogging and want tips on how to improve your content, check out the Grammarly Chrome extension. This writing assistant extension can help eliminate writing errors in your tone, style, grammar, and spelling.
Positive readability and all of the factors involved with it can not only keep your readers reading your posts, but also increase your SEO.
This brings us to the next point
Understanding SEO and why it’s Important when Creating a High Engagement Blog
SEO put simply, is how Google and other search engines rank your page and how far up in the search results you’ll be.
If you’ve been doing some research on becoming successful at anything online, you’ve most likely heard of SEO. (AKA, Search Engine Optimization).
However, if you’re still unsure as to exactly what SEO is and why it’s important, you’re about to.
There are various ways that search engines determine this.
In fact, Google alone uses 200 factors to determine your ranking.
We already covered readability, which plays a huge part of how your site is ranked.
Additionally, there are other factors to consider.
Let’s take a look at some other ways search engines determine ranking.
Beginners Guide to getting a positive SEO
- Keyword optimization
- Backlinks
- Shareable Content
- Images and Video
- Page Speed
- Mobile Friendliness
- Secure and Friendly URL
Keyword Optimization
Keywords play a major role in SEO, as it helps the search engines know what your blog is about.
If you aren’t using enough keywords in your posts, your blog isn’t going to be indexed into the various search engines databases and will, therefore, be ignored.
Furthermore, using the right keywords and keyphrases will play a part in this.
By using a keyword research tool, you’ll be able to determine which keywords and keyphrases will help you achieve a higher rank.
However, you want to use keywords the right way.
Tips for Using Keywords
Don’t keyword stuff
Essentially, keyword stuffing is when you use your keywords a ton of times. AKA, you stuff your keywords into your content.
Stuffing your keywords in tons of places within your post not only decreases readability, but it may not make sense.
And search engines have gotten very smart and are able to recognize this.
You want to use your keywords and keyphrases appropriately as to not annoy your readers or your search engines.
Include target keywords in the right places
On your journey to creating a high-engagement blog, understanding the use of keywords is key.
Again, search engines need to know exactly what your pages and posts are about so it can give their consumers accurate and enjoyable content.t
To achieve this, you’ll want to place your keywords in some specific places.
Where to use your keywords/keyphrases
- title Tag
- first 100 words of the page
- image alt text
- H1, H2, H3 tags
- last 100 words of the page
Add LSI Keywords (words and phrases closely related to your keywords)
Another factor to having search engines understand the depth of your content, is to include LSI keywords.
LSI keywords, simply put, are the “related topics” keyword section at the bottom of the page on search engines.
For example, if you go to Google or Bing and input “The best venues for weddings” and scroll to the bottom of the page, you may see something like “best wedding venues near me” under the related topics.
Using these LSI keywords within your posts will help search engines to understand how your posts can help the consumers.
Backlinks
Essentially, backlinks are links to your blog from other sites.
Adding backlinks from reputable sources will help you drastically in your blog reach.
Not only does it gain trust from search engines, but it helps others to find your blog as well.
The best and most beneficial way of getting backlinks is to reach out to site developers and ask them to link to your content within their site.
However, you want these backlinks to hold value.
Meaning, not only should your content be similar to their own, but they should already have a trustworthy and reputable site.
Another way of getting backlinks is to download the “check my links” extension into chrome.
This extension allows you to scan websites related to your topic, topics, or posts to find broken links within their site.
When you find a broken link, simply contact the company and ask them if they will replace their broken link with a relatable link of that topic to your website.
In turn, this can contribute to the traffic when creating a high-engagement blog.
Essentially, if you’re a beginner blogger and don’t have much credibility yet, reaching out to sites with broken links will help to increase your reputability and bring in more traffic.
Sharable Content
Lists, charts, videos, and reviews are great ideas for shareable content.
Create things that you think other people will want to share on their social media platforms or link to.
By doing this, you can not only be seen on various platforms, but it can help to link people to your site.
Images and Video
Not only do images and video help to create shareable content, but they’re also preferred in search engines.
Research shows that images and videos get a much higher engagement rate when it comes to blogging and SEO.
However, you have to use them appropriately.
Make sure that they are first, related to your content, and second, you’re including ALT tags to the images and videos you’re using.
Studies have shown that search engines prefer original content (content you’ve made yourself) versus other images found on the web.
You can do this pretty simply by creating something in Canva, with images, videos, and animations already available for you.
However, some content you just can’t make or don’t have the time to create yourself.
A great place to get high-quality images is Vecteezy, they have a lot of great free images available to use.
Always check to make sure that the images you’re using are available for commercial use and what their policies are.
For if they are not, this could be a violation of copywriting.
Page Speed
Page speed is yet another factor when determining your ranking on search engines.
If your page speed isn’t optimized, chances are your readers are going to back out and click on another site that gives them quicker results.
This results in search engines determining that your site isn’t as good as other sites within your niche, and will therefore drop your page’s ranking.
Mobile Friendliness
Mobile-friendliness relates to how your blog is viewed on a mobile device VS a desktop.
With the majority of consumers using their cell phones to receive information, its important to make sure that your blog post is optimized for their devices.
Luckily, most blogging platforms make this easy, including a “mobile view” option to customize right within the site.
Secure and Friendly URL
Like many of these tips, creating a secure URL is fairly easy.
Basically, you’ll want your URL to contain HTTPS instead of an HTTP. The “s” defines the “secure” part of your URL.
This is not only important to increase security, but it’s more preferred by search engines.
Which results in, you guessed it, a higher ranking.
When signing up for your account, you’ll have the option to have a secure URL; just make sure it’s checked!
Now onto the next part of your epic blogging venture.
Creating a high engagement blog: Where to Post
We’ve gone over the importance and benefits of SEO which will help you get organic reach on search engines, but now you want to expand your reach.
Basically, instead of letting search engines do all the work, you’ll want to help it along, by providing your content on other sites and establish a target audience.
Luckily, there are plenty of sites out there where you can share your content.
Best sites to share your blog posts
Blogger
Blogger is an easy-to-use platform where millions of people go to publish their passions online.
They have layouts, images, and templates to fit any niche or you can create your own personalized posts.
What’s more, Google AdSense can automatically display relevant targeted ads on your blog so you can start earning an income from your posts.
It also has built-in analytics so you can track what your audience is interested in and where they’re coming from.
Medium
Much like Blogger, Medium is another platform that brings in over 100 million readers.
Inside Medium, you’ll find expert and undiscovered voices that aims to spread ideas and deepen the understanding of the world.
Medium is open to anyone looking to increase their blog/ideas reach and collaborate with other like-minded individuals.
Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.
Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down by other members.
Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called “communities” or “subreddits”, which cover a variety of topics.
Establishing yourself on Reddit can help increase the number of people in your target audience and build up trust.
Quora
Much like Redditt, Quora is a website users go to get answers to their questions about specific topics.
Creating a following on Quora can very much benefit your blog.
When you answer a question on Quora, you have the potential of reaching 100s or 1000s of other people looking for the same answers.
Which will help to reach your target audience and build a connection.
Furthermore, if you provide quality and accurate information about these topics, it will pique interest and they’ll be more likely to view your profile and link to your blog.
Twitter is another platform that can be used a lot like Quora.
An easy way to peak interest with users on Twitter is literally just searching questions about your niche in the search bar and providing the products or services the users are looking for.
What is more, Twitter is good for providing your opinions on your niche in the Twitter feed.
LinkedIn is basically an online social resume.
There are tons of connections that can make by being on LinkedIn and providing your expertise on your profile will grab other entrepreneurs’ attention.
Pinterest is another site you can use to help gain attention to your blog.
With Pinterest, you can post attractive pins with relatable content that links to your blog.
Tumblr
Tumblr is best described as a micro-blog site.
Basically, it’s a mix between Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
With Tumbler, you can post videos, GIFs, links, blog posts, and images, among other things.
Additionally, you can repost other users’ content as well as they can repost yours.
Promoting your blog on multiple platforms is going to help your target audience reach your blog and help establish your trust score, resulting in rankings on search engines.
Which will, in turn, help establish your credibility.
Establish Social Credibility
On your blog, you’re going to eventually want to have following links to social media.
Now, you can have these link to your already established social media channels if you want your target audience to know who you are or get to know you on a personal level.
Otherwise, you may want to create social media profiles based around your blog.
For example, if you were writing a blog on Traveling via hot air balloons, your social media might focus on pictures and videos of hot air balloons.
Keeping your social media niche specific is best for creating a following around your blog.
Your readers are going to want content that is consistent.
That way, they’ll always know they’ll be getting the content they want.
Apart from sharing your blog posts on the earlier platforms we discussed, you can share images, GIFs, and videos related to your niche with various other platforms.
The more “social type” platforms
Platforms that help gain Social Credibility
- TikTok
- YouTube
See more about advertising with social media.
Creating a following on these platforms will also help expand your reach and can direct people to your website or blog.
And there you have it.
Understanding the importance of all these factors will help you in your journey of creating a high-engagement blog.
Next, you’ll want to check out what you will need to build a website for your blog; including a domain name, WebHost, and building platform.
Related article: Step by Step guide to starting a blog using HostGator