Blog Tips: How to Maximize Your Content
Hey, there blogger babes, let’s talk maximizing your content, shall we?
We want to make our content as great as possible, don’t we? The funny thing about blogging (at least for me…..well… I don’t really think it’s funny, perhaps, interesting would be a better word to use here) is that by the time I hit publish on this post, my mind will already move on to the next one.
I’m not one of those bloggers who has two months’ worth of content pre-edited and ready to go. This would suck the fun out of blogging for me. I also don’t post every single day. Sometimes, when I work really hard on a particular post, I like to let it “simmer” a bit. Just publish it, let it be for a day or two before I add a new one. At the same time though, I don’t want my statistics to suffer- this is why I do my best to maximize my content.
I’ve published nearly 700 posts over the last few years and a majority of my traffic goes to those archived posts. When you maximize your content, you’re making sure that nothing gets buried and that you have a steady flow of traffic coming through. Here’s how to do it. (or…. maybe I should say that this is how I do it– BUT, it’ll work for you as well… promise!)
HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR BLOG CONTENT
PIN YOUR ARTICLES
Tired of me talking about Pinterest? I don’t care. Sorry, not, sorry, but Pinterest is HUGE and it’s here to stay (I already talked about it here and here). If it wasn’t for Pinterest, I’d be missing out on a huge, daily flood of traffic. Pinterest is great for promoting your archived content. I noticed that a lot of bloggers have a Pinterest account, but don’t really use it, and that’s a huge mistake (unless, of course, you don’t care about expanding your audience, which is totally okay!). There are a few posts that I’ve published years ago, but still get tens of thousands of views every month, because of Pinterest.
Making sure that your blog has a Pin It button is important, but you also have to remember to pin your own articles as well. You can create a Blog Board where you only pin images/posts from your blog. I’d also recommend joining a few group boards (you can search for them right here). Once a week (or more often, depending on how many posts you’ve published) go through your archives and share a few good, older posts on Pinterest.
FORMAT
This is something that I mention quite a lot. I noticed a big difference in engagement (comments, in particular) when I started formatting my posts; using shorter paragraphs, headings, emphasizing important points, etc.. Basically, making them easier to digest. My writing style has changed over the years, so once in a while (or whenever time permits) I’ll go through a few of my old posts, and update the format. This way, when someone comes across my older posts, they’ll see the improved version which is easier to read (or skim through). Creating a better “user experience” means that when someone comes across one of your posts, they’ll be more likely to stick around.
If you’re on WordPress, I also highly recommend you install an SEO plugin like YOAST SEO– it scores and guides your posts both for readability and SEO which is very helpful.
CALL TO ACTION
In addition to displaying related posts at the end of each article, you can also use a CTA. Tell your audience that if they enjoyed this posts, they’ll also love this one, and link to relevant content. People are also much more likely to share your posts if you ask them to do so.
LINK
Another simple way to maximize your content is linking to your archived posts. I do this all the time, whenever it’s relevant. I also love it when other bloggers do it and I probably click on those links 80% of the time. As a result, I often spend 30 minutes to an hour, reading through that blog’s archives. Bonus? Internal linking is also great for SEO. When you link internally, you’re letting the search engines know that the content you link to is relevant to your reader- to the point where they might want to stop what they’re reading and move on to the article you linked. This also, once again, creates a good user experience since you’re linking to content relevant to what your audience is reading. When doing this, make sure that you link only to relevant content and that it makes sense.
RECYCLE
There are so many different ways you can reuse your archived content- it doesn’t have to just “sit” there. You can create a mini-series on one topic. A few years ago I decided to have a “Photography week” where I only shared photography-related posts for a few days and it pretty much transformed my blog and doubled my audience within a month. You can also use some of that older content to create an e-book and give it away to your readers for free as a bonus for signing up for your newsletter. Another way to recycle your content is to simply update it and republish it. I’ve done this a few times with some of my posts and had great results. If you have some posts that you’re particularly proud of, but at the time of publishing your audience wasn’t as large as it is now, re-publish it. I recently refreshed and re-published this post and it got picked up by Bloglovin’ (it was linked in their newsletter) and sent me a ton of new traffic and subscribers.
You can also use your archived posts as a tool for creating ideas for new content. Maybe you briefly mentioned something in one of your posts that is worth expanding into a separate post?
GO THROUGH YOUR ARCHIVES
….and update them. Your images, your format (as already mentioned), you can also add some links (link to new content within your older blog posts). This can be really time-consuming, so I definitely don’t recommend that you do it all at once. I, for instance, pay attention to my statistics and when I notice that one of my older posts is picking up on Pinterest or was mentioned on another blog or website, I give it a quick face-lift. I make sure to read through it, see if I can add any relevant links anywhere, maybe change or add a few images, etc. This definitely makes a big difference and it’s worth looking into.
All of these ideas are definitely worth looking into if you want to maximize your content. I used every single one of these strategies with great results. When making a little extra effort to maximize your content, you’re making sure that your blog has a steady flow of traffic- even if you don’t post anything new for a few days.
Any other ideas for maximizing your content?