5 of the Spookiest Mistakes You Could Make With Your Blog Content
I love spooky season, but one place I’m not willing to have a fright? My blog! Especially since it’s the key marketing channel that the rest of my content flows from.
(I explain the content marketing funnel that I follow and teach here!)
If you have a blog for your business or brand, you want to make sure it’s working for YOU. And there’s a few (easy) things you can do to make sure that happens.
In this blog post, I’m sharing 5 of the spookiest mistakes you could make with your blog content so that you can avoid these tricks and stack up alllll the treats this Halloween. 🎃👻🍫🍭
5 Spooky Mistakes To Avoid With Your Blog Content
Not promoting your blog posts after you publish them 🤳🏼
You often hear people say that having blogs as a key part of your content marketing strategy means you will boost your SEO and rank higher on Google, thus generating more traffic to your website.
And while blogs are definitely a key factor in boosting your SEO, if you’re *only* blogging for this reason, you’re missing out on so many opportunities with your CURRENT audience.
As a blog writer and strategist for creative business owners and service providers, I never want someone to believe that simply posting blogs is the magic pill for more traffic to your website.
As you consistently publish blogs on your website, yes you will likely improve your SEO rankings, but I believe that blogs are for WAYYYY more than just that.
If you’re spending your time and energy writing and publishing blog posts in your business and not TELLING your people about it, you’re missing out.
Writing and posting your blog post is only one piece of the puzzle! The other piece is intentionally and strategically driving your audience to your blog to receive the ultimate value that you have to offer.
If promoting your blog posts after you press “publish” tends to be a struggle for you, here’s 3 main ways I would encourage you to do this.
Not having a search bar on your blog page 🔍
One of the easiest (and possibly most overlooked) ways to make your blog page more user friendly is by adding a search bar.
This is one of the most common things that I tell my clients to add to their blog page because a search bar makes it easier for users to find specific content quickly, especially if your blog has a substantial archive.
With a search bar, your audience can enter keywords or phrases related to the content they’re looking for, helping them bypass the need to scroll through numerous pages or categories.
This feature also gives your website visitors a sense of control and efficiency, reducing frustration and saving them time.
When users can find what they're looking for with ease, they are more likely to stay engaged with your website and continue coming back for more on a regular basis.
THIS functionality on your blog page is one of the main reasons that I encourage people to house their best content on their website (versus social media) because if someone resonates with one of your posts and wants to refer back to it again and again, they can do so with ease via your blog – but we can’t say the same with Instagram.
Not backlinking to other relevant blogs on your website 🔗
I recently received an email from someone that said, “I love all the backlinks in your blogs and emails. I was clicking on everything before I sent you the last message. I was up until 1 am indulging. Probably about two hours, following all those backlinks around.”
When I read that I admittedly did a little happy dance because it told me one thing: my content is bingeable.
If you want your content to be bingeable like someone’s favorite Netflix show, one of the best things you can do is make sure that you’re including strategic backlinks throughout your content.
Backlinks are simply hyperlinks that connect one webpage to another and when it comes to your blog content, there’s two main ways that you can backlink:
Internally – these are the links that I’m talking about here! Internal backlinks connect pages within the same website. These help guide readers to related content on your site and improve your website’s structure for search engines, boosting SEO.
Externally – external backlinks, on the other hand, link content from outside websites that point to a page on your website. For instance, if another blog links to your "Top SEO Tips" post because it finds your content helpful, that’s an external backlink. These are valuable because search engines see them as “votes of confidence” from other sites, increasing your page’s credibility and visibility in search results.
In addition to making your content feel bingeable, backlinking is also a powerful tool for boosting your SEO. By linking to other related content, you help search engines better understand your website’s structure and give your readers an easy path to dive deeper into topics they’re interested in.
Without backlinking, your blog posts miss the chance to work together, support each other, and keep your audience reading more.
NOTE: in order to backlink your blog posts strategically, you of course have to build your blog content bank! This takes time which is why my biggest tip is to BLOG CONSISTENTLY!
You can decide what that consistency looks like for you, but the point is that you’re publishing blog content frequently and you’re writing topics that support each other so that you can strategically backlink and create a bingeable blog overall.
Not having blog content pillars 🪣
Blog content pillars are foundational topics or themes that your blog’s content strategy is built around.
They represent the main categories or key areas that your blog covers and give you an easy way to organize and structure your content, so that your audience can easily find what they need at any given time!
You could also call these content buckets or content themes.
This is one of the main reasons that I sing blog praises over and over again. Because here’s the thing: you could have the most FIRE content on social media, but after the initial posting, it’s unlikely that one of your followers will be able to find that post again.
And that’s not your fault – it’s just the nature of social media. Social media platforms weren’t made to be organized and searchable. But your blog CAN!
For a closer look at the purpose of blog content pillars and how to create yours, click here!
Not planning your blog content strategically 🗓️
I’ve been called the CEO of quarterly planning and that’s a title I simply can’t argue with.
If you’re in my world at all, at the beginning of every quarter, you’ll probably see content from me that talks about planning your blog content strategically.
I teach and follow a quarterly planning system and while it might seem crazy to plan your blog content 3 months in advance, there’s a few reasons that I recommend this – 5 reasons really. And they’re listed here!
The short of it is this:
When you plan your blog content quarterly, you’re able to zoom out, look at a calendar for the next three months and align your blog content strategically and intentionally with what’s going on in the world AND in your business.
For example, if you’re launching a new course in September, you can ensure that you have pre-launch blog content planned that prepares your audience for what’s to come.
Additionally, you can look ahead and ensure that your content aligns with important events, holidays or industry trends that keeps you timely and relevant in the eyes of your audience and maximizes your engagement.
When planning content for myself or my clients, I always ask these 4 questions and I follow this process. This is also what I teach to my Writer’s Room members and each quarter – we do this together with our Quarterly Blog Content Planning Parties.
If planning your blog content quarterly feels overwhelming, I’m here to help! Click here for all of my quarterly planning resources and if you don’t want to do it alone, make sure you’re on the Writer’s Room waitlist so you can do it with a group of people each time.
Want ongoing support with your blog efforts in your business?
If you liked these blog writing tips and you’re in search of a place for ongoing support with your blogging efforts in your business, The Writer’s Room was created with you in mind!
The Writer’s Room is a writing membership for creative business owners & service providers who want blogs to be a core part of their marketing WITHOUT having to spend hours on it.
It’s the place where you can:
✔️show up WEEKLY to create long form content for your business with a community of other people doing the exact same thing right alongside you.
✔️go when writer’s block strikes and you need some inspiration, motivation, or maybe even a tip or two to get you unstuck.
✔️ask for feedback on content that you aren’t so sure about so that you feel really freaking confident to finally press publish.
Your membership enrollment includes:
Bi-monthly trainings with Headmaster Natty (centered around marketing, blogging, email marketing, and more) 💻
Quarterly Guest expert calls (featuring industry adjacent guests that I personally know, work with, and trust) 👩🏻💻
Weekly Co-writing Wednesdays (to lean into the power of body doubling and hold you accountable for consistent writing in your business) ✍🏼
Quarterly Blog Content Planning Parties (so you can have a strategic blog plan ready to implement) 🎉
Writing Resource Vault (all of my best writing resources in one place that you can access anytime you need) 🔐
Weekly Feedback Accessibility (so you can feel confident in your content creation before you press publish) 📝
Slack Community (for access to your own personal hype squad where you can connect and collab with other members) 👥