At the moment there are approximately 600 million blogs online. Out of those nearly 31 million active bloggers post once a month. A sub section of those blogs are the most successful in terms of content, reach, and overall sales.
Of course, getting to that level of notoriety and authority doesn’t come easy. You may have read a lot of tips about boosting SEO and searching for keywords. However, none of that guarantees that your blog becomes popular.
So here are some of the most common habits that the most effective bloggers all share. Perhaps by adopting a few of these habits, you can raise the bar for content on your blog.
The Best Bloggers Have Focus
If there’s one thing that effective bloggers all share, it’s an inclination towards hard work and focus. Not only do they devote a large chunk of their time to nailing their content, but they also follow timetables. They don’t post on odd days, but create a schedule that they can abide by.
This creates a two pronged effect. Not only do they come up with interesting content to write about, but their readers get used to timely posts. This creates an involuntary timetable for their readers too. Like anticipating a show that comes on at a certain time, readers expect their bloggers to post on certain days.
However, there’s a lot more to it.
The Most Successful Bloggers are Prolific
Successful bloggers write a lot. You’ll always see their blogs filled with posts that go back months and years. They’ll have two or three posts every single week. In fact, some of them will have daily blogs that focus on specific topics.
This consistency doesn’t just get blogs a lot of traffic, but it bumps them up on Google’s search rankings. The more you post on a topic, the higher your authority gets on that topic or niche. Google’s baby algorithms, crawling around and sifting through web pages can identify the best sites for each niche.
After Google’s E-A-T update, the algorithm even categorizes pages and blogs according to the author. If that author has a high authority for a specific niche, their articles will get preference.
Great Bloggers are Always Concise
Now this doesn’t mean that great bloggers don’t write lengthy posts. It just means they don’t beat about the bush. If they can express a thought in 100 words, they won’t use a syllable more. That’s a great choice to maintain the reader’s interest as well as to appeal to the Google algorithm.
Blogs with a lot of fluff and recycled information tend to get bumped down for lack of actionable info. This is another addition to the algorithm courtesy of Google E-A-T. The more actionable, or useful information there is in a blog post, the higher it will rank. So however long your post is, make sure that it also gets to the point.
If you’re not a master at this, then it’s better to hire blog content writers to accomplish this task.
Planning and Scheduling is Essential
As mentioned above, planning and scheduling is essential for the most effective bloggers. It’s not just about scheduling when your latest posts go out, it’s about planning months ahead. Most bloggers have posts planned out for specific holidays or a series of posts scheduled to go out one after another.
Scheduling helps build anticipation among blog readers. It also gives structure to your blog. Almost like a story, your blog keeps pumping out content regularly and keeps the traffic coming. This doesn’t guarantee a steady stream of traffic for every post, but it does improve the monthly average traffic.
Effective Bloggers are Always Improving
The most effective bloggers also have a habit of constantly learning new ways of improving their blogs. These can either include improving their SEO, learning from their readers, or following the latest trends.
However, the most important thing to remember is that effective bloggers keep learning from any source they can.
The Most Effective Bloggers Keep Learning
Whether it’s a new way to write blogs, to structure your post, or to phrase a sentence, bloggers are always learning. Google’s algorithms keep changing and trends keep changing. The only way to keep up is to adapt and to learn as fast as possible.
There are so many changes on the internet in a day. You have to keep adapting and shifting your thinking to stay relevant. While bloggers cater to a specific audience, their niche can also experience great changes. Staying ahead of the curve is a huge part of success as a blogger.
They Don’t Skimp on the SEO
While the most effective bloggers don’t obsess over SEO like marketers do, they don’t disregard it. Keywords, post structure, and SEO rules are still important. After writing the blog post, or even before that, effective bloggers think about how to optimize it.
This can include the placement of the keywords, the inclusion of LSI keywords or the Keyword Golden Ration, etc. Several different strategies can help a blog reach a wider audience than regular readers. However, it doesn’t just work for new readers, it also helps to keep old readers interested. After all, the most popular results on Google will be visible to readers anyway.
Great Bloggers Learn from Their Readers
The best bloggers understand what their readers want. Every top blogger doesn’t just write for their readers, but thinks like their readers. They think about what their readers want to read and product that. This doesn’t always involve intuition.
It involves taking a look at the analytics and the comments on the blog itself. The discussions and response to the blog posts themselves often speak volumes about an audience’s interests. The few questions that effective bloggers always keep sight of include:
- Which readers am I writing for?
- What useful information should I give to my readers?
- Why would a reader read this?
Great bloggers also have a loyal social media fan base that they give polls to. Polls can give bloggers a lot of information about what their readers want to read. A simple question on social media without a poll can also generate a flood of comments on certain subjects.
Don’t forget to employ this technique to gain a lot of content for your blog. You can always come back to the response that these blogs get and re-evaluate your strategy. Constant improvement and optimization of blogging strategies is necessary for improving sales and traffic.
They Follow the Latest Trends
The best bloggers often take advantage of trends to increase traffic and thus, revenue. Also, they often have special posts ready for the holiday seasons. This helps to take advantage of periods of increased activity on the internet. It also takes advantage of a niche that may not necessarily read that blog very often.
These streams of traffic are as essential to a blogger as great SEO. They allow the blog’s readership to grow and to reach new audiences. If nothing else, that’s the best reason to keep aware of trends and their power.
The most effective bloggers have cultivated habits that ensure their survival in the SEO jungle. Not only do they provide well written content, but also interesting, well-structured content. That ability to learn and adapt as time goes by keeps them on the top of the Google search results page.
