19 blogging best practices to attract new clients

19 blogging best practices to attract new clients Whether you have a new or established business, finding clients can be challenging. We love blogging because it’s a brilliant way to attract people who want to work with you. A great blog will let you sit back and watch as you attract leads instead of chasing them. There is an art to blogging this way, though. We’ve put together 19 blogging best practices to follow if you want to attract new clients. Jump to blogging best practices in this guide: 1. Define your audience. 2. Use keywords. 3. Blog every week. 4. Create a content calendar. 5. Define the topic of every blog post. 6. Include robust, engaging information. 7. Include relevant, recent statistics. 8. Include internal links. 9. Make sentences short and easy to read. 10. Keep language clear and basic. 11. Structure your blog posts. 12. Use header tags effectively. 13. Include calls to action (CTAs). 14. Proofread your blog posts. 15. Ensure links open in a new window. 16. Optimise images. 17. Categorise your blog posts. 18. Optimise metadata. 19. Promote your blog. 1. Define your audience Identifying who you want to support via your blog is the first step to attracting clients. Imagine a blog post is the bait on a fishing line you cast into ‘Lake Google.’ To attract the right people, you need the right bait. You’ll struggle to attract dream clients with content they’re not looking for. (Just like you’d have a hard time catching a fish with a screwdriver instead of a worm… fish just aren’t searching for screwdrivers.) Your blog audience should be the same as your business’ target audience. For example, if your ideal clients are busy mums who need help finding their fashion style, you should write blogs those people want to read. 2. Use keywords When we have a question that needs answering, most of us turn to Google. (There are 5.9 million Google searches every minute.) Google tries to find us relevant solutions by matching the words and phrases we’ve searched with similar words and phrases on web pages and blog posts from around the internet. These words and phrases are keywords. Using the right keywords in your blog posts is a vital blogging best practice that can get your business in front of the right people. For instance, a dog trainer could include ‘friendly dog trainer’ in their blog posts. Most people Googling ‘friendly dog trainer’ (10 people every month – we checked) are probably looking for just that. So, using the keyword increases the trainer’s chances of attracting new clients. How do you find out what keywords your ideal clients are searching? Try free tools like Ubersuggest or Google Ads Keyword Planner. We use these and other tools to conduct keyword research for our Finer Blog Copy package clients. (Although we use the paid version of Ubersuggest to get as much data as poss.) Blogging best practice hot tip: Choose a ‘primary keyword’ and use this throughout your blog post at a density of 1–2% (use a percentage calculator to check this). 3. Blog every week You’ll need to post at least once a week to attract new clients to your blog and business. Posting less often than that (or posting inconsistently) is a major blogging mistake to avoid. This is because it’s difficult for your blog posts to show up consistently against competitors who are putting out three times the amount of content (or more). Posting weekly also lets Google know that your website is active. This matters because Google may crawl an inactive site less often. This could impact your rankings in Google results pages. Businesses that ignore this blogging best practice often start posting regularly and then abandon their blog a few months in. Commit to blogging weekly and, in time, more and more people will discover your posts in search results. 4. Create a content calendar If you struggle to post regularly, make a content calendar that lists weekly blog topics. A content calendar will help you keep your blogging schedule on track and stop you from running out of ideas. Blogging best practice hot tip: List all those keywords you found using the tools we suggested earlier. Write a blog post each week using one keyword as the main topic. Ta-da! You’ve got an instant content calendar. 5. Define the topic of every blog post You don’t want to confuse readers with vague, rambling content. This content turns readers off in seconds. To avoid this, define the topic of every blog post by: Writing content that reflects the statement you’ve made or question you’ve posed in your title. Staying on-topic and not drifting off on tangents. Always returning to the main point you’re making. 6. Include robust, engaging information Creating quality content is an essential blogging best practice if you want to attract new clients to your blog. Focus on writing robust, insightful, engaging information rather than trying to hit a specific word count. Suppose you’re reading two blog posts on the same topic from different businesses. One is over 2,000 words and hardly says anything of value. The other is just 500 words but packed with handy info. Which business are you more likely to work with? That’s not to say you shouldn’t write long-form content. But if you do, every word should count. Ensure you’re writing quality posts by: Including new information or genuinely valuable insights. Incorporating relevant facts and research. Cutting out any fluffy, repetitive sections. 7. Include relevant, recent statistics Back up your argument and strengthen your content with relevant statistics from trustworthy sources. Linking to authoritative sites can show readers that your blog is a reliable source of sound information. This will also tell Google that you’re using high-quality sources, which can help with your search rankings. Avoid using sources that are more than five years old. Ancient research can make stats (and your blog posts) feel outdated. On the contrary, lacing new research through…