Want a successful blog? Me too, pal. Me too. I have a lot of things on my plate and zero time to waste fiddle farting around with… well anything, but especially blogging tips that don’t work. And while we (read, me) are all tempted to skip the foundational stuff- let me remind you– it doesn’t usually end well when we do.

Case in point- have you ever started to put together a toy, appliance, or any other thing you just pulled out of a box? You toss the instructions aside and just dig in…. Only to look up and have leftover parts and a not-quite-right appliance or toy? BEEN THERE done that. It. Is. ME.

However, that is what SO many of us accidentally do when we skip one of these 10 foundational elements of a successful blog! Which of course, hurts our traffic right? So here are some things that you absolutely CANNOT SKIP on your blog.

10 Don’t Miss Blogging Tips

1. Know your why

As much as we can tend to rush over this step in business, knowing your why and utilizing it to direct several aspects of your business and business growth is crucial to sustainable, authentic business growth.
In fact, this is an exercise that I often walk established business owners through in our coaching sessions with many “ah ha!” or “WOW, I never thought of it like that” moments.

Listen to Episode 66 to figure out how to find your why.

2. Find content pillars that make sense with your why (and for your business)

I am the QUEEN of wanting to talk about all.the.things. However, many of those things that I could passionately talk about for hours are not connected to my why in business, nor do they serve my ideal client. So even though I’m passionate about them, I don’t talk about them in my content.
Also, please don’t get tripped up on what to call your content pillars, these are not forward-facing. They are simply used to direct your content internally. Zero stress about finding the perfect name for your content buckets.

Read: 3 Easy Steps to Choose Content Pillars

3. Establish a servant-hearted mission

At the end of the day, business should be about using your God-given gifts to help people. When you focus on THAT, many other aspects of business, blogging, and SEO fall in line.
A few quick tips to check if you’re on the right track:

• Is this going to get people WINS
• Is this TRULY helpful?
• Is this going to meet them where they are and meet their current needs?
• Is this too far over their heads to be helpful?

4. Stick with your EEAT aka “Street Cred” areas

EEAT stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Probably my TOP blogging tip: please, for the love, know what you’re talking about before you go teaching! Blogs are by nature didactic (teaching), so I could in theory build an entire brand and blog around knitting tiny woodland creatures. But I, Faith Hanan, do, in fact, have ZERO experience knitting. Never done it and not planning on doing it. So that means I will never have a blog about knitting tiny woodland creatures. Stick to writing about what you KNOW.

5. Find your position in the market

We like to think about this for physical products, but it holds true for digital marketing as well. Are you top of the line? If so, why? Do you serve as a middleman? Great! Do you have a super niche market that you cater to? Tricky, but awesome! Whatever your position in the market is, know it and embrace it in your content.
If you are running a personal brand, don’t be scared to show some personality. If it’s NOT a personal brand, that’s fine, but you still need to establish your brand voice and brand values.

Learn better by listening/ want a more in-depth explanation? Listen to 10 Must Have Foundational Elements for a Successful Blog part 1 on the podcast here. (ep 154)

6. Get an SEO-friendly strategy

Again- if nobody can find you, nobody can PAYYY you! If you’re thinking, “Well I just wanted to write about” or “I think it’s cuter to say it like_____,” that’s cool and all but your blog won’t catch traffic or drive up revenue. Know your main GOAL keywords overall. Each blog will be “going for” a long tail keyword (aka a smaller fish), but overall keywords are for what YOU want to be found and known for.

7. Build on a platform that’s SEO-friendly

Set yourself up for success here. You’re really bucking the system if you try to build a website on a platform that’s not TRULY built with SEO in mind. Lots of people like WordPress, but I think it’s a pain in the butt compared to Showit! I love it so much, I’ve got a discount code for ya! But really, do your research and find a website building platform that keeps SEO in mind.

8. Use real, HUMAN created, story content

If there’s one thing to do that will set your content apart, it is to make it personal. Use STORIES to connect and stories to sell. Stories are now one of the biggest factors that set human-created or “human-generated” content apart from AI content. If people know they are reading a true story, they will want to buy from a real person.

9. Find a good keyword research tool that you know how to use (and will actually use)

Even the BEST keyword research tool in the world is useless if you don’t know how to use it, or just don’t use it. I’m a longtime fan and user of Ubersuggest but whatever tool that you like- that gives accurate data-that you’ll actually use is the best tool!

Use These Blogging Tips and See Your Blog Succeed!

Ultimately, several elements make up a successful blog- niche, content, SEO, timing, trends, the size of your audience, etc, etc. But without these 10 elements of a successful blog, you truly are setting yourself up for failure. So take a few minutes in your workflow this week and evaluate. Are you on the right track? Can you make some simple adjustments? Or is it time to learn from those who have gone before you (Link to the OMF) or have some private 1:1 help?

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