Many people believe that blogging is easy, but difficult to know what to blog about. After all, most of us have a wealth of knowledge on our minds and would love to share it with the world. One of the advantages of being a blogger is the ability to do so. The hard part, however, is knowing what to say and when to say it. Most seasoned bloggers go through this phase, but they also learn to overcome these obstacles. In this article, we are going to discuss exactly that, including:
- Sources of fresh blog ideas
- Reasons to approach blog strategically
- Unexpected ideas of what to write about
- Ways to source ideas from internet
- Hidden gems in keyword research
My experience here is that the easiest way to know what to blog about is to strategically plan each post. While it isn’t created overnight, the best bloggers have a yearly content calendar to draw from. With the help of these instructions, you will always know which topic is coming up next. Here is my wisdom on how to create your content calendar that should be both strategic and coherent.
Blogging should be strategic
As a rule, deciding what to blog about should involve strategic decisions. One reason for this is that you need the blog to complement other aspects of your overall marketing endeavors. Another reason is that your blog should be a place that customers and decision-makers love to visit. However, designing your blogging strategy is relatively easy if you consider the following questions.
What role does your blog play in your business?
One of the most important strategic questions is what a blog can do to fulfill its strategic role. For example, some company blogs are mostly about company news.
This often happens with a view to shareholder and public relations work. This is where most of the blog posts are designed to have the company look human and be a place for people. This is one of the reasons blogging isn’t dead.
Similarly, many blogs are used for consumer education. Content marketing is an important aspect of corporate communications, and one of the best forms of it is teaching people how to make better use of your products and services.
When decision-makers are looking for a potential purchase, they want to know if your offer is the best fit for their business. So knowing what to blog about is first and foremost knowing why to blog.
What are you trying to sell or promote?
For most brands, the answer is they’re trying to sell products, promote their business or both. The topics for your blog should reflect the nature of your business.
For example, a makeup brand could blog about usage tips and showcase its products. Or a building materials company can discuss when which of its products should be used.
Service-minded companies can talk about the benefits of the services they offer. Each sector may want to discuss industry news and developments, and similar topics to blog about.
Who is your target audience for your blog?
To know what to blog about, you need to know your target audience. The aim of the cosmetics company could be marketing to makeup artists and film studios. Building materials suppliers can target homeowners or contractors, etc. Your blog topics should reflect your audience, but also the way each post is written.
Build your blog content strategy for 2022
Now that you’ve set your goals and audience, it’s time to formulate your strategy. Search engine optimization (SEO) comes first. Although most established blogs and websites have regular readers visiting them every week, finding new readers is important.
And the best way to do this is with good SEO practices: most people don’t read past the first or second page of results. My blog confirms this: According to my analytics numbers, search traffic generates 82% of the traffic for ContenTime.com
To achieve optimal SEO, determine the keywords that your target customers would use to find your product or service. There are various SEO tools like SEMrush that can help you research relevant keywords in your industry. Ideally, you will tailor both general and more specific keywords.
In addition, selected keywords must have a significant search volume. Finally, make sure that your chosen keywords are not competing so much that you will struggle to rank well. This will bury your content in results.
Create your editorial calendar for one year
Equipped with relevant keywords, it is easy for you to decide what to blog about. I usually recommend starting blogging weekly. Writing a blog post takes time and planning, so working hours should be considered.
The easiest way to choose topics is to list the 52 most important keywords that you find that match the relevance of the offer, the search volume, and the ranking difficulty of your company compared to the competition. Then you write on a different topic every week.
While you might find inspiration from bloggers who post multiple times a week, this is not a good place to start. In fact, it has been suggested that the biggest problem that kills 95% of blogs is when the writer makes 5 or 6 posts too fast and then runs out of breath.
Another reason to pick up your pace is as domain authority builds over time. To do this, start with the least difficult post in terms of competition and later work your way up blogging the more competitive ones. As soon as more competitive keywords start popping up on your calendar, you’ll have a track record with search engines.
What to blog about for each keyword
Of course, one keyword isn’t quite enough to know what to blog about. Rather, it is a starting point that determines where you should compete. Narrow down your topic by looking at the top 10 search results and understanding what is ranking well. This way you can confirm the search intent.
Then, research your competition and use their posts to understand what a searcher is looking for. You must defeat these existing posts to achieve a high level of authority.
When writing, it’s important to give the subject its own unique treatment. This means understanding what information the competition is missing from their posts. Give them this information and more with your own unique perspective and experience.
The idea is that people will find things on your website or blog that will not appear anywhere else. Over time, this will help attract returning visitors and build a following.
As you write, think about what type of blog or other material you want to read. Is it dry and boring, or does it show the author’s personality?
If you’re like most people, reading the same old dry material isn’t your idea of fun. Be creative and focus on the topic in a branded and personable way that general blog writers don’t. It is almost as important to use data sources, talk about your experiences, and insert pictures or videos. This way your material will be remembered.
One blogger found that writing conversations increased the time people spent on their website by 22.7%.
Where to find ideas for new blog posts
Sometimes it’s okay to write something similar to everyone else’s material, but you don’t want to do it all the time. Nobody likes a “Me Too” blog, and it doesn’t build your domain authority. Hence, you need to come up with new ideas for your keywords.
One way is to see which topics tend to get more views or conversions and do more keyword research to find more content ideas. In other words, you are looking for the “holes” in the content that are just waiting to be filled.
At the same time, be sure to check your keyword search volume SEO tool regularly as trends change regularly. Therefore, you should consider doing these reviews quarterly or even monthly.
You may find that customers are looking for specific information in your industry, or that your company has a solution to frequently asked questions. This gives you the option of revising your content calendar or adapting a keyword to different questions.
Over time, your search engine rankings should increase. Keep this in mind and over time you may find yourself targeting more competitive keywords with higher search volume. This works well because ranking higher on certain topics increases your “domain authority”.
Finally, as your business grows or adds new products and services, you should start looking for new strategic keywords. Add them as needed to keep your content calendar competitive. Being at the forefront of a discussion is a huge benefit.
Other places to find new blog ideas
Browsing the web and doing some keyword searches isn’t the only way to decide what to blog about. In fact, relying too heavily on the same sources over and over again can make the blog boring. We definitely don’t want that!
By being the most interesting or informative blog in your industry, you can gain a significant competitive advantage. Fortunately, this is not rocket science. Here are some more sources of inspiration.
Blog about questions from readers and customers
People in each of these categories are already interested in your blog, products, and services, or both. For reader questions, consider something that suggests some insight on the part of the questioner. A common example would be automotive blogs, where someone could request insights into a particular make of a car.
Customers and sales managers also ask questions about your products and services. If any of these topics come up often enough, it’s time for a customer training position.
Look at topics in the blogs that you read that you find interesting
Sometimes being better than another blogger isn’t the only reason. While this is less common with corporate blogs, the principle is the same: borrowing other people’s topics and interacting with them can be very useful. Bonus points if you get backlinks in the process!
Blog about what people are looking for on your website
Here you just use google analytics (make sure you have GA Site Search set up) and whatever other tools you use to see what people are looking for. If they find it, consider broadening your treatment of this subject. A neglected topic should be overwritten as soon as possible.
What questions do people ask in Quora?
For the uninitiated, Quora is a social questions platform that is similar to Reddit. Find sections that are relevant to your niche and see what people are talking about. Then write a post that answers these questions.
Find popular posts on your competitor’s blogs
An equally valuable resource for what people want to know is competing websites. Many blogs have widgets that show which posts are popular. Occasionally, this is what you should look for information about what people are reading. Popular websites in your niche are also great sources. Knowing what to blog about is even easier when multiple sources of information are considered.
Don’t be afraid to republish blog posts
There’s no question that some blog posts are only good for a short time. Articles of this type include staff change announcements and other company news. However, much of what is written on a blog will be useful long into the future. To make sure the blog post stays current, revising and republishing old blog posts may be a good option. During the revision, make sure the keywords are updated accordingly.
However, revisions can mean more than just changing keywords. Done right, revisions will often add content to make the post more valuable than before. At the same time, you will find it easier to keep up with the competition.
Same as products and services, blogs are subject to competitive pressure. And people go where they find the information provided to be more valuable.
Final thoughts
There is no question that deciding what to blog about can be a challenge. Consumer demand changes, products change, and competition varies. As part of this competition, everyone competes for the best search engine results and regular readers.
Fortunately, if you follow my suggestions, you will have a great content calendar filled with content for 2022 and many years to come in no time.
Hopefully, you’re not still looking for ideas on what to blog about right now, are you?