Does your blog suffer from consistently low traffic and poor visibility? Actively promoting your blog on social media, as well as other platforms, can help. Unless your blog features a variety of high-quality posts, though, you can expect lackluster performance. Regardless of your blog’s niche, consider filling it with the seven following types of posts to improve the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy.
1) How-to Posts
A form of evergreen content, how-to posts are essential to your blog’s long-term success. Millions of people turn to the internet for answers to a question. According to Moz, in fact, 8 percent of all Google searches are structured as a question. With how-to posts, you can reach these users while projecting your blog as an industry expert in the process.
To discover relevant how-to topics for your blog, use the keyword research tool at answerthepublic.com. After entering one of your blog’s target keywords, the tool will reveal common how-to searches, as well as other searches, performed by Google and Bing users. You can select a few of these top how-to searches to use as topics for your blog posts.
2) Comparison Posts
Don’t ignore the value of comparison posts. A comparison post, of course, compares two or more subjects. If you run a blog for an e-commerce website, for example, you can create a post comparing two products. If you run a cybersecurity blog, you can create a post comparing malware and spyware.
When creating comparison posts, avoid showing bias towards a specific subject. People seek comparison posts and articles to learn the nuances between two or more subjects. If you show bias towards a specific subject, visitors won’t get the information for which they are searching. At the same time, visitors may trust your blog a little less. Therefore, you should create comparison posts that accurately describe each of the subjects without showing bias.
3) Video Posts
Video posts have become increasingly common in recent years. Consisting of a single video, either with or without proceeding text, they typically yield a longer average time on page than conventional text posts. And because search engines use average time on page as a ranking signal, video posts tend to rank high in the search results.
While recording and editing a video to use as a post may sound difficult, there are ways to streamline the creation of your video posts. Using screen capture recording software, for instance, you can create videos of your computer’s or device’s screen. It’s an easy and effective solution for computer-related tutorial videos. There are also photo video maker tools, such as Animoto, that allow you to create videos out of images. Even using your computer’s or device’s webcam, you can create videos of yourself while you talk about a topic.
4) News Posts
Because of their time-sensitive nature, many digital marketers overlook news posts. After all, if a topic is only relevant for a short period, conventional wisdom may lead you to believe that it won’t offer much value to your blog. While the demand and traffic for news posts are short-lived, they’ll generate a substantial amount of visibility during the time frame in which they are relevant.
If you’re struggling to come up with topics for a news post, create a Google Alerts for some of your blog’s target keywords. When a new article featuring a keyword is published on Google, you’ll receive a notification revealing its location. While Google Alerts may send you notifications for relevant evergreen articles, you’ll receive notifications for news and other time-sensitive articles as well.
5) List Posts
You should also create list posts for your blog. Lists posts focus on multiple items, all of which are related to a single subject. The article you are reading is an example of a list post. It contains seven items that are related to blogging.
When creating titles for list posts, use figures for numbers rather spelling them out. The presence of a numerical figure makes titles stand out from their counterparts consisting entirely of spelled-out words. As a result, using figures in the titles for your list posts will help you achieve higher click-through (CTR) rates in the search results.
6) Roundup Posts
Roundup posts are unique from other common types of blog posts because they offer the opinions or advice of multiple experts. Also known as an expert roundup, a roundup post contains perspectives from multiple experts on a single topic. Visitors can reach through each expert’s commentary to gain a better understanding of the topic.
To create a roundup post, you must contact experts on a topic to ask them a relevant question. After collecting the responses, you can structure them as the content for a roundup post. Just remember to credit each expert for his or her answer. If you publish an expert’s response but fail to mention his or her name and credentials, visitors may not trust it.
7) Infographic Posts
With their colorful design and easy-to-digest information, Infographics are well-received by blog visitors. What is an infographic exactly? Basically, it’s a large image containing visualized information about a topic. Infographics typically contain overlay text as well, but they use charts, graphs, images and other visuals to convey information.
Infographic posts aren’t particularly easy to make. If you’re willing to spend the money, though, you can outsource this task to a freelance graphic designer or design agency. There are plenty of talented designers available on Fiverr, many of whom charge as little as $5 for a custom infographic. Of course, there are also graphic design agencies that charge anywhere from $50 to $5,000 for a custom infographic.
Blogging is an essential step to creating an effective content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, many digital marketers fail at blogging because they use a linear approach that revolves around just one or a few types of posts. To protect your blog from suffering the same fate, use a more diverse approach that includes all of the seven types of posts listed here.