18 Feb 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog Overnight
Most of us run some kind of blogging platform to put content on our websites. Here’s five powerful ways that can improve your blog content almost overnight.
Hi there. My name is Paul Barrs. Hello and welcome to today’s YouTube update. A very quick, a very simple topic for today, which is relevant to most, five simple ways that you can improve your blog content, your blog’s performance, more importantly its conversions, almost overnight.
Number one, always include a call to action
Number one, if you haven’t done this already, I’ve seen it on a number of the larger blogs and that is to include some kind of CTA, a call to action, at the end of each post. Now you don’t just have to be limited to your posts. You could also include your important pages or in fact any page that you know people are coming to, looking at, and reading. How do you know this? You use your analytics. It’s really very, very simple.
Now I then suggest that you put together, just for example, an image of some sort, which has your call to action, that they can press on and it takes them to the call to action page. It could be for social sharing. It could be for a subscription of some sort. It could be to purchase a product. Although I have to say from personal experience, it is much better to have them in some kind of database where they’re following you or receiving email from you on a regular basis that they get to know you. They are more likely, then, to purchase your product.
That is a very simple, very quick idea. So create your call to action pages, perhaps two or three, to test different results and then some kind of image at the bottom the posts and pages that they click on and it takes them through.
Number two, internal tracking links
Number two, of course, follows that, and that is to use some kind of internal tracking links. Now depending on how you’re measuring this, perhaps if you’re using Google Analytics, you may also like to use the Google URL Builder, where you can put together a campaign and a tracking link for your call to actions, then through to the subscription page, then through to the thank you page afterwards. You may just set it up more simply using goals in Analytics. Or you could use, if you’re using WordPress as I do, a combination of both with an incredible little plugin called Redirection. I love the WordPress plugin Redirection. It always me to create tracking links amongst a whole bunch of different things. Plus should I ever change the name or the URL of one of my pages or posts, it will redirect for me as well so that I don’t lose customers along the way.
Whatever it is that you choose to do, you must do it though. Tracking and measuring our traffic and our conversions is a vital part of any business’
success.
Number three, use quality images
Number three, this is really quick, very easy as well. I mentioned in a recent YouTube update how important it was to use quality images, especially if we look at some of the more recent changes within the Facebook business page algorithm, that images are more well-received. Mind you, we’ve known that with all the fluffy cats that are out there anyway, haven’t we? But why not, when you add an image, make it a really good image, not just a stock photo with nothing on it? A stock photo perhaps with a quote from the article and then an actual mini call to action underneath that saying, “Pin this one to your Facebook page,” “Post it to Facebook,” or “Put it up on Pinterest,” or some kind of call to action depending on your marketplace and your users and where you know that your customers are.
So that’s a fantastic, quick, simple, little idea. Then, of course, if you tag that with a link where they can do it straight away, much, much easier for the customer.
Number four, register with Google Authorship
My fourth quick idea, if you haven’t done this yet for your blog, is to make sure you and your site are registered with Google Authorship. Now if you haven’t noticed yet, when you go searching in Google, many times, often as many as half of all the results on the page now have a little image, somebody’s picture, something like that along with the article content, or maybe they’re looking into rich media snippets, various things, another area. But the Google Authorship allows you to be marked as the author and have your image from your Plus profile come up alongside your article.
Now how does that help you? Simply this, it makes it look better. So if you’re going to do the work to target some kind of keyword topic or theme with your articles and with your blog posts, then you certainly want people to find them with the search engines and then click on them. It’s all about conversions. Remember conversions. Of course, when they come through to the bottom of your site and they have a call to action, because it’s a good quality article, they’ve read it through, there’s a call to action to subscribe, buy now, whatever. That’s the through line process.
Number Five, social media sharing
Lastly, if you haven’t done this, you absolutely must have some kind of social sharing on your website. We want people to share it. We want people to get it out there. You have to make it easy for them.
Now I use, with my own website, a very simple, quick plugin called Shareaholic, and I’m happy to give them a shout out because I recently needed some help through customer service and their service was brilliant, absolutely perfect, helped me solve my problem. And isn’t that what business is all about?
So there’s five quick tips that you can put into action literally overnight. Make sure that you have some kind of call to action to do something, perhaps a social share, perhaps a subscription, perhaps sharing the link, whatever it is with each page, with each post. Use tracking links, such as WordPress plugin Redirection, easy to use, or goals in Analytics. Make sure that you create some good, good images. Let me repeat that, good quality images with maybe a quote from the article, an invite, ask people to share and repin those images.
Sign yourself up with Google Authorship. If you haven’t done that yet, just Google it. Authorship, it’s a 30 second thing, as long as you, of course, already have your Google+ profile set up. And make sure you do have social sharing on your website.
Five quick tips to power your website, to power your blog, and increase conversions almost overnight. My name is Paul Barrs from PaulBarrs.com, Internet Business Training. I hope you’ll come and join with me. I’d love to share with you some of the special reports I’ve written that can help you increase your results, your conversions, and your sales on your own business website.
Talk to you then. Bye-bye.
