8 Blogging Best Practices to Convert Visitors into Leads

Blogging can be a valuable tool to your business. By helping build creditable and trust with your website visitors, your content can ultimately concert those visitors into leads.

However, running a successful blog is easier said than done, and it certainly takes effort than purchasing a domain name. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to boost your performance, the following checklist will help you see better results.

8 Blogging Best Practices to Convert Visitors into Leads

1) Pick the right topic

• Start by understanding who your audience is based on who your target buyer personas are.
• Do keyword research to understand what topics drive search demand.
• Keep the focus of your content services and/or product neutral. No one wants to be sold to. Instead keep it educational and helpful.
• Don’t make it “me” focused. This is not your chance to go on a personal rant.

2) Create a catchy blog title

• Title case capitalization (e.g., “Responsive Web Design Basics” not “Responsive web design basics”).
• Use imperative verbs when possible (e.g., “Set goals” not “Setting goals”).
• Focus on having the title be 4-9 words in length. The goal is to optimize your blog posts for the “long tail” which is how those users will find you to begin with.
• Brainstorm at least 3 title options and then select your final title.
• Write about “how to’s”, “top X”, or “X ways to do this or that”. These posts historically attract the most traffic.
• Keep your titles practical rather than witty.

3) Watch your tone of voice

• Use an active, rather than passive voice.
• Use present tense, unless referring to a future event.
• Use informal pronouns and abbreviations, when it simplifies text, but don’t over-use.
• Avoid unnecessary adjectives.
• Note: your tone of voice may very from author to author, as each will have their own personality, and that’s ok.

4) Have headlines within articles

• Include multiple headers, numbered or bulleted items, and/or bolded text as ways to visually break up your content and to make it easier to digest, especially if you tend to write longer posts.
• Sentence case headlines in articles: “Use placeholders for images”.
• Use imperative verbs when possible (e.g., “Set goals” not “Setting goals”).

5) Use images that pop

• Purchase a copy right to images or make sure to give original source credit
• Source: hyperlink to original image source at the very bottom of your post.
• Float image at the top right of post.
• Get creative with your image. It doesn’t have to be a literal representation of your content.

For more, see our Beginner’s Guide to Stunning Visual Content

6) Utilize call to actions

• Create a backlog of CTAs (call to actions buttons or images) to use and reuse in blog posts.
• An offer (i.e. eBook, whitepaper, template etc) should relate to the content of the article.
• Have one primary offer for each blog post.
• Place the CTA for that offer at bottom the each post.

7) Link to other articles

• Link to content topically related to the article.
• Link to sources that explain stats, facts or provide more information on a topic.
• Link to other authority or reference sites.
• Set links to open in a new window.
• Don’t just lean on external resources; bring content into your article when necessary.
• Link to other internal resources (other blog posts) when possible too.
• Don’t over-link in content.
• Use broad anchor texts not just specific keywords for linking.

8) Consider article length

• One key “concept” per article
• At least 500 words per post

Every post you write should incorporate these best practices. What makes a great post is the combination of these eight best blogging practices, not just one isolated practice. Be consistent. And you’ll start to see results.

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Photo by: Jonathan Kos-Read