There has been a lot of buzz in the marketing world the last couple of days about an update to the rankings section of Google’s Webmasters Tools. The update reads:

In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.

Prior to this update, Google encouraged marketers to focus on link building for improving site rankings:

In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.

This is not a big surprise because the importance of unique and well written content on websites has been steadily increasing over the past few years.  This update does not mean that other factors, such as site structure, internal and external link building, Author tags, and social signals are not important. But, in level of importance, unique and well-written content is definitely at the top of the pyramid.

One of the most effective ways that business can increase the amount of quality content on their website is to develop and maintain a blog. If your website does not currently have a blog, there are several great blogging platforms that you can use, such as WordPress. No matter your level of expertise, you will be able to add, build, maintain, and optimize a blog on your website using a blogging platform like WordPress.

So how do you create the quality content that will help increase your rankings and drive traffic back to your site? Here are 5 tips for creating unique, relevant, and traffic driving blog posts.

1. Use Visuals

One of the best things that you can do to both attract and keep readers on your blog is to add visuals, including images and videos. In addition to images, the formatting of blog posts plays a large role in the visual appeal of an article. Make sure that your articles are easy to read and skim, because readers will often skim a blog prior to reading it fully. Readers have a short attention span, but the use of sub-headings and bullet points will make content easier to consume in a short period of time.

2. Write an Attention Grabbing Subject Line

Before a you can get someone to read a full blog post, you have to get them to the article. This is done with attention grabbing blog titles. The following are three things that can help you to write a great blog title:

1. Keep it simple, short, and natural sounding
2. Incorporate a target keyword (but do not stuff titles with an array of keywords)
3. Include numbers or words such as Best of , How to, or Easy Tips

3. Post Frequently

Set an initial goal to post at least once a week on your company blog, with a secondary goal to increase that number to twice or even three times a week. In addition, try to publish blog posts on the same day of the week so that people know when to expect new content. Publishing new content every week, and on the same day of the week, will increase your reliability and credibility to readers.

4. Providing Value

You do not have to re-invent the wheel each time that you write a new blog post, but you do want to always provide value to your readers. An easy way to write about a popular topic is to focus on adding your personal insights. By using this approach you will showcase your expertise and knowledge on your industry, in turn helping you to become a trusted source to your customers.

5. Call-to-Action

You have now written a great blog and are driving people back to your website, but are you keeping them there? When writing blogs, make sure to incorporate links to other relevant content on your website and at least one call-to-action for readers, such as a link to download an ebook, sign-up for your newsletter, or submit a form for more information.

After you write and publish each of your blog posts, make sure to dedicate time to promoting your blog on your different marketing channels. This includes sharing new posts on social media and including links to the articles in your email blasts or newsletters.

By Brianna Smith

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net