This is a guest post by Heather Higgins.
“Quality over quantity” is one of those sayings that gets thrown around a lot, but when it comes to content publishing and marketing, they are truly words to live by. Blog development is more than presentation. Your success ultimately lies in the hands of your posts. The quality of your content is everything.
Without further ado, here are ten simple things you can do to improve your blog posts.
1. Optimize All the Time
First thing’s first – optimize your content. Each post you create should contain keywords you think readers will use to look for your topic in their favorite search engine whether it is blogging, sports, or fashion. You can further optimize by deep linking within your blog, and linking to relevant third-party sites.
2. Choose a Good Title
Most people decide whether or not they will read a blog post based on this factor alone. No wonder so many copywriting experts say that the title is almost as important as the article content itself. Ideally, you want a title that is short, keyword-rich, and sums up what your post is all about.
3. Thoroughly Edit Your Stuff
It’s fairly easy to write out a post, scan over it, and then click “Publish” – especially when you’re busy and short on time. Unfortunately, this method is prone to errors, which will eat at your credibility when that post goes live. Read your stuff multiple times before hitting that irreversible button and if you must, use a third-party editor.
4. Make It Reader-Friendly
A good blog post appeals to search engines and human visitors as well. However, if your posts come off as too difficult to read, they may be ignored. This is why it pays to touch up your content with short paragraphs, bullet points, and other formatting elements that make it easier to digest and less intimidating on first glance.
5. Use Multimedia
Few blog posts will make an impact without compelling copy that grabs the reader and encourages them to take action. But even the most well-written pieces could use a little help. Insert a captivating image or video clip, and your post instantly becomes more attractive to both readers and search engines alike. The popularity of Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube prove that visual content is more powerful than ever.
6. Change Your Design
Believe it or not, but your blog design could hinder the quality of your posts. Perhaps the advertisements or dynamic content in your sidebars is distracting readers from the main course or worse, blocking the search engines from indexing your page. In this case, it would be wise to scale down and go with a simpler look. A solid blog design can lay the foundation and set the tone for a successful post.
7. Start the Conversation
They say social media is where the conversations take place. That might be true, but before there was a Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, there were plenty of discussions taking place in the blogosphere. The more people you get talking, the better, and for you, starting the conversation on your blog could be as simple as ending a good post with a question.
8. Incorporate Your Voice
The best blogs are written in a natural, conversational tone that makes the experience more personal for the reader. Nobody wants to read something that sounds like it’s being dictated by a corporate robot. People want to know that they are interacting with real people. So even if you are promoting a product of service, don’t be afraid to incorporate your own unique voice.
9. Get Social With It
People love to interact with social media – even from other sites. This is why you commonly find buttons from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks all over the web. You can improve the SEO value and overall quality of your blog posts by simply including buttons and icons that allow readers to connect to wherever you dwell in the social realm.
10. Get to Know Your Readers
This may actually be the simplest thing you can do to improve your blog posts. After all, you are trying to cater to an audience, so when you adopt the mindset of putting their needs first, you start paving the path toward better content. Whether it is a through a survey or dialogue in the comments section, if you get to know your readers, you will be able to churn out high-quality posts on a consistent basis.
Content is, and will forever be king. What are you doing to improve your blog posts?
About Heather Higgins
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
Hey Heather Mam,
Thanks for these awesome tips, I mostly prefer the design of a blog, And believe that without an attractive design blog content can be useless. A Design also greatly affects the bounce rate too, this can also turn your blog new visitor, into a returning visitor. Anyway, congrats for this awesome Guest Post on Kikolani.
Well Done! wishing you best your blogging career. Thanks a lot for this post.
Mairaj Pirzada @Guide Please! recently posted Why Blog Commenting? Some Benefits and Tips of Commenting!
I agree. The design of the blog definitely affects the bounce rate. It also affects the conversion rate. I’ve been testing with Google Experiments and it seems A/B split testing using that particular section in Google Analytics actually works out great.
Heather recently posted Happy 15th Birthday, 9th sphere
Great read! More emphasis is being given to the quality of your content than ever before! Personally, I recommend writing for readers (actual human beings) rather than writing for search engines. I also think it is essential to write unique, interesting, well-researched and thought-provoking content.
Marlon recently posted Optimizing Your Blog After Google Penguin
Heather,
Though basic, all very important concepts for getting results. Thanks for sharing.
Ryan H.
Ryan Hanley recently posted The Social Media Reciprocity Strategy to Traffic Growth
Thanks Ryan
Thanks for this useful list Heather …. I couldn’t help smiling when I read #3 – especially after the second word in #1 jumped out at me! Those darned apostrophes keep turning up where they aren’t wanted…
Louise Barnes-Johnston recently posted Are You Tackling Too Many Challenges?
All of your points make valid sense.
If a person doesn’t add value into their written content, then don’t expect to see great results in return.
Excellent article Heather.
Samuel@Internet Dreams recently posted Top WordPress Plugins To Reach The Top!
I think most people forget that a good title is key. If your title contains just enough wit/content but leaves the reader wanting to read more, then you have crafted a great title.
All the other pointers you gave were also great advice. Looks like you hit all the key points you gave out. Nice job!
Thanks for all the great tips to help improve our blog post. I like the tip about making sure your design doesn’t hinder your post. It seems sometimes we are inundated with too much information, keeping the design simple is an excellent way to keep the focus on our content.
Tom@BestCarCoverage recently posted Geico – The $1 Billion Advertising Machine
Nothing beats the basic Heather. Thanks for sharing your own explanation and insights about it.
Ron Leyba recently posted The Best Job For Video Gamers
Great stuff Heather, number 2 and 4 are the most important by far but you’ve got them all:) If I could add one it’s be personal and share your own story so you stand out from the crowd.
Annabel Candy, Successful Blogging recently posted Are You Being Conned? Fair Sponsored Blog Post Rates and Best Practice Guidelines
10 Powerful Tips shared! I love this one, and before I proceed, I came from twitter and searching @blogtips I was able to find your wonderful blog. Sometimes, you know, am really inspired to write a blog posts, but I found it too boring because am just writing and writing – I do not see any reader’s engagement at my blog… so I realize I need to come out from the open too. And exposing myself to these kinds of tips are worthy, yeah, 30 minutes of reading and commenting, it will paid off. Thank you again!
Prime Aque recently posted 12 Effective Make Money Blogging Tips to Remember
Hi Heather,
Yes – I do agree with the great tips you’ve shared in the post. Though when it comes to optimizing all the time it is a definite must – but also not going to do you good If you over-optimize your content and website. With the recent updates in algorithms from Google this has become another issue for quite a couple of webmasters who has done too much optimization. The trick is not to let Google know you are trying to beat them (especially when linking internally and most importantly externally) but to show them the quality of content and where to find the content (thanks to SEO – both onpage and offpage “signals” alike).
Anton Koekemoer recently posted How to find time with your social media campaign
Made me think if I’m doing all these things before and after I publish. I guess being an SEO Specialist, there are some things here that are easily overlooked in exchange for ‘optimizing’ your content to max out your content’s SEO.
Thanks for the good reminder Heather!
Sean@SEO Philippines recently posted Content Strategy Guide
At last, I found one from Philippines. You know, it’s really hard to be a SEO specialist, I don’t really know if I have done my best or not… or if all I have done for my blog are just a waste of time… but it seemed I am into it… and learning from people like you fuel me up…
Prime Aque recently posted Quick Blogging Tips for Inspired Bloggers
I also think that multimedia is important to spicen up that blog post. Many views are just not into reading but listening or viewing. Some just like to view videos. On top, pictures speak for themselves. Thank you for these great tips.
Shalu Sharma recently posted The Qutub Minar
Getting to know our readers is one of the most important things that can dramatically improve our blog posts. I have seen that from my experience so far as a blogger.
It is always very important to “know” what our readers want from us. Without that information, a blog post will simply miss the meat! Every niche focused blog has a focused audience and it is not a big deal to get to know what the audience in that niche are after
Thanks for this wonderful post Heather!
Hi Heather,
great tips. All of them are important but IMHO points #8,#9 and #10 are the most important – they add something additional to our posts – our point of view
Thanks for sharing, Chris
Chris recently posted 8 Helpful Tips, How To Promote Your Blog
Recently started on one of my blogs to really ‘incorporate my voice’. I tried it before by using videos, making a podcast, but it was all a too big of a leap to take.
You can write as well with your own voice, by telling a story instead of giving just some advice. And as I changed my design as well, this helped me big time in relating with the readers more!
Great article.
Stefan @ Cursus Bloemschikken recently posted Goedkoop Bloemschikken – Geldbesparende Tips Om Met Budget te Bloemschikken
You have written nothing controversial, Heather. All 10 of those items would serve well on a todo checklist for any blog. They are fundamentals of writing good blog posts. Fundamentals will always be important. It is amazing how much time people proficient in music, sports, or the theatre will spend practicing the fundamentals of their disciple.
For me, I need to figure out ways to branch out and get social with social media. I also need to connect more with readers.—#9 & #10 speak to me.
Prooreading (#3) will be my next blog post. When proofreading is incomplete, it can ruin a lot of hard work.
David Sneen recently posted How to Combat Inflation, Expenses & Increased Taxes
I agree that thoroughly editing your blog or site is important. I find it off-putting to see errors on a site, even if they are small grammatical ones. It indicates a lack of professionalism on the part of the writer and professionalism is what makes your blog successful and makes you money.
Elena Anne recently posted 7 Reasons why People Yawn During Exercise
Sometimes the thing to do is make sure you are getting the basics right. Thanks for the useful tips Heather.
craig recently posted How To Delete History on iPad – Chrome and Safari
Excellent and easy-to-follow these tips are! And I agree with each and everyone. I would just like to reiterate the importance of honing one’s own voice as a blogger. Blogging is, after all, another form of writing. And if you look at all the successful writers and also bloggers you will see that they have all cultivated their own voices.
Reese recently posted 9 Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids about Money This Summer
Hey Heather,
Such a good post, all above mentioned points are useful and easy to follow. These days Social Media Playing Important role, all other points are also good. thanks
Rohit recently posted 10 Samples of ‘Follow up email’ after Interview
Hi Heather,
I really enjoyed reading your post.
No. 7 “Start the Conversation…” is a huge one, back in the days a simple call to action was enough. In my opinion, today with all the distractions it is much harder to keep visitors on one’s blog. Therefor the content itself must be more engaging with questions throughout the whole post.
Thank you,
Mark
Mark Hunt recently posted Yoga For Sciatica