Today’s internet is dominated by the production of content. Businesses and organizations that once relied upon a strong storefront or other such landing points as their sole presence on the web have turned to attach forums, blogs, and other content engines to themselves in an effort to curry the favor of search engine algorithms.
This, in turn, drives site traffic, and site traffic drives sales. For those who do not have anything to sell, having more sets of eyes on opinions, artwork, and the like is its own reward. To that end, regardless of the final goal of that site, a site’s traffic is directly proportional to the success of that site.
Though others will certainly tell you otherwise, there really is no true formula for a perfect blog post. The more complex a build, the more brittle it is in a changing environment. As such, following a step-by-step guide that sets forth an exact, optimal format is akin to signing your blog’s death certificate six months in advance.
Longevity and future-proofing are key here. With every change made by the search engines, the preferred content has become more organic. To that end, simply head the search engines off at the pass by writing each post, and, by extension, your blog as a whole, in an organic fashion today.
Here’s how!
Blog about your passion
Search engine algorithms are quickly progressing to the point where authoritative content can be readily determined by the machine itself. As such, it is vitally important that passion be behind absolutely everything that you write.
Those who are at the top of their respective fields tend to love what it is they do. With passion comes the desire to take the time to fully flesh out your blog posts, thus giving them the content that the search engines will favour in the coming years.
Use your own voice
Various applications already have the capability to sniff out redundant wording used throughout the internet. In an effort to avoid this, don’t be derivative and allow your own voice to shine through. By speaking in your own voice rather than somebody else’s voice, your blog will both exude more passion and not throw exceptions for possible plagiarism.
Have your own angle
Yet another Twilight blog will certainly find itself lost within the blogosphere and never have the chance to live in anything but the shadow of existing Twilight blogs. Combine things and twist things to create something new and, therefore, a stir. Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1 shows us that Jews in Space would have been a fantastic idea.
Further, by staging the content of their classic animated films on ice, Disney has revitalized interest in what was already, in many cases, derivative work. Team Starkid of A Very Potter Musical fame shows us that by making what would have otherwise been another Harry Potter fan fiction into a musical, they were able to take an entire fandom by storm. Develop that angle, make sure it’s unique, and go with it. This, more than anything else, will draw visitors en masse by word of mouth alone.
By ignoring the overly-specific blog “recipes of the week” produced time and time again by marketers who work to optimize against the current algorithm and by building a blog with a unique premise in an organic fashion in the voice with which you are most proficient, your own, you may not get the most traffic today,
but you will still be humming along a year from now. What’s more, by building a blog in this way, your visitors will be converts to your website’s end goal at a higher rate than would otherwise be expected. Why? Your blog has a soul.