"Leveling Up" Your Blog: 6 Key Strategies to Implement

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Updated 5 years ago

Got a blog started but looking to take it to the next level?

There are several key things needed to be implemented on your website in order to improve its overall quality and get people to think to themselves, "Now that's a great article worth sharing!"

However, in my experience having brought my own website from virtually no traffic to 3,000+ organic visitors monthly, these were the top 4 highest-impact strategies I put into place that made Google fall head-over-heels in love with my site:

1. Get a Professional Logo

Having a logo on your website helps differentiate you from other websites by having a unique branding that's exclusive to you and your site.

It also helps establish your credibility and makes your site look much more authoritative and professionally built.

Pick an appropriate color scheme that fits with your brand, and you can either try your hand at creating one yourself (which I don't recommend if you're not a designer) or using services like Fiverr or UpWork to have one professionally designed for you.

Personally, I use Fiverr for all of my logo design needs because I found a specific designer that I like, so they get my repeat business at a very affordable price.

2. Purchase a High-Quality Theme

While SiteRubix does offer some pretty killer free themes, premium themes tend to have a lot more customization and tend look a lot nicer.

Having a higher-quality, better looking website will help curb your bounce rate and make people want to see what else you have to offer.

I personally use Themeforest.net for all of my WordPress theme needs, and their themes are pretty reasonably priced around $50-60.

Also, in my experience, all the themes that I've purchased I've been able to use on multiple websites, so you can reuse a premium theme on a new site you plan on building.

3. Make Your Content Easier to Read

Let's do run a test real quick...

Which paragraph do you find easier to read?

This one:

Or this one:

Most people will find the second example easier to read.

This is proved by the fact that this page on my site has a 5 minute+ average time on page since people are actually staying and reading the content:

Simply put, if you want people to stay and read your content you have to embrace the line break.

Try making your paragraphs short and straight to the point while adding a line break after every 1-2 sentences.

This makes your content more scannable and easier to digest by your audience.

4. Include Relevant Internal & External Links within Your Content

A great way to help build your site's trust with Google is to link to other relevant, authoritative sources.

Have you ever read a news article that made a bunch of claims but didn't have reference links to back up what they were saying?

You likely didn't take what they had to say as seriously unless they had an authoritative source to back up their claim.

There have been studies that have shown that external linking is likely an important ranking factor in Google's algorithm.

So, be an authoritative source and add a couple links to relevant sites that can help back up what you're saying in your articles.

Don't go overboard with your linking, just add 2-3 per article if it's around 500-1000 words and maybe try adding an additional link every additional 500-700 words.

Similarly, it's just as important to have relevant internal links within your content.

An internal link is a link from one of your articles to another (similar to what I did in the beginning of this article by linking to my previous blog post on WA).

This powerful method is great for spreading link equity throughout your site as well as promoting good site architecture.

Essentially, internal links work similarly to the way backlinks work for your site - they are "votes" for your content to Google which can help your rankings.

Try adding a few internal links (1-2) where relevant in your articles.

5. Write Helpful, Longform Content

Content is king.

We all know that, but longform content tends to perform better.

This doesn't mean that you have to pump out 10,000 word articles every week, but it does mean that the more information you can provide on a specific topic the better.

My recommendation is to ensure all of your content is, at minimum, 500 words.

For longform content, try your hand at writing between 2,000-3,000 words.

6. Target "Best" and Question Keywords

My blog really started to take off when I wrote content based around question keywords I found through research.

I even managed to snag the "result zero" ranking in Google for one of my articles:

Question keywords that start with question phrases like who, what, where, when, why, and how are perfect examples of article topics you can write about.

These topics will help establish yourself as an authority within your niche since you'll be helping your audience with their queries.

"Best" keywords are also great to target because they are long-tail, meaning they're typically easier to rank for, and usually have buyer intent.

Creating a "best" article for products you're promoting can prove to be an effective blogging strategy that will bring in targetted organic traffic.

Lay the Proper Foundation First

If you're just starting out with learning blogging, WordPress, etc. then I recommend sticking to the training offered here until you get a good grip of things.

Then, once you're ready to "level up", you can try your hand at some of these strategies.

Keep taking action, and I wish you all the best!