Here are the tips and stats to help you create blog posts that get more shares, backlinks and views.
URL
Use Keywords: Use relevant keywords in your URL.
Short Works Best: Keep the URL short.
Headline
Keep it short: Restrict the headline to less than 60 characters as most search engines cut out the headline after that. Also use keywords.
Power of Negativity: Use negative superlatives as the click through rate on headlines with negative superlatives is 63% higher than those with positive superlatives and 30% higher than those with neither positive nor negative superlatives.
Use numbers: Headlines with numbers perform the best. Lists with 10 items receive the most social media shares, an average of 10,621. Other popular numbers are 23, 16 and 24.
Add meta title: A 60 character meta title with strategically placed keywords can improve search engine performance.
Body Copy
Write longer blog posts: Posts that are between 3,000 and 10,000 words perform the best. They get an average of 8,859 shares. Posts between 2,000 and 3,000 words also perform well, obtaining around 8,000 shares. Articles that appear in the top 10 results on Google are over 2,000 words long, with the top 2 being more than 2,450 words on average. Longer posts also get more backlinks.
Use keywords throughout: Strategically place keywords throughout the blog post to boost search engine performance. Keep keyword density below 3%.
Use visual: Posts with at least one image get 2X more shares on Facebook and Twitter than those without images. Blog posts with image attract more backlinks. Infographics and list posts are the most popular and get more than 10,000 shares on average.
Be helpful: Posts that offer practical value get emailed a lot.
Add meta data: Write curiosity generating meta data with relevant keywords. Keep it less than 160 characters, as this is what most search engines display.
Get emotional: Posts that trigger the emotions awe and laughter get shared the most.
Link, link, link: Link both internally and externally to other posts and pages to boost SEO and reduce bounce rate.
Focus on quality: 30% of people believe that quality content is the most important factor that adds credibility to a blog.
Use a Call to Action: Add a call to action at the end that links to a landing page which can help convert visitors into leads.
Related Posts
Display related posts: Displaying related posts can reduce bounce rate by 7.75%.
Bio box
Get guest posts: 62.96% people feel that multiple authors add more credibility to a blog. So publish more guest posts and display their bio at the end to increase social shares.
More about you: A bio can boost a blog post’s Google+ shares by 42%, Linkedin shares by 23% and Twitter tweets by 21%.
Sign up form
Get more subscribers: Place a sign up form below the post to get more blog subscribers.
A few more tips
Time it perfectly: Posts published on Tuesdays get the most shares and blogs usually get the highest traffic on Monday mornings. So publish posts on one or both of these days.
Install share button: Add share buttons, as posts with share buttons get shared more, it can increase overall sharing by 140%.
Analyse posts: Use analytics and keyword tools to create posts people want to read.
Don’t ignore design: Ensure your blog is well designed as people believe that it is one of the top 2 factors that boost blog credibility, the other being quality content.
Build a social media following: Blogs with more social media followers attract more backlinks and traffic.
