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If you’ve created a WordPress blog, one of your objectives is probably maximizing its shares so that your content gets seen and shared by your audience. Without your blog posts getting enough attention, you won’t be able to receive the highest conversions and engagement possible, and this is essential if it’s going to be a success.
Why should you optimize your blog?
Optimizing your blog means a lot of different things, but essentially what you want is for your target audience to be able to easily get their hands on your content rather than your competitor’s. There are different steps you can take to ensure that your blog serves your audience better than another’s, and it’s those steps that will help you increase the number of shares you get on posts.
Optimizing your blog content will improve the UX you provide your audience so they’re invested in your brand and keep coming back. It also allows you to capture leads so you can grow your email list and stay in tune with your readers.
Increase site speed
With attention spans running shorter than ever before, you can’t expect that having a blog that lags is going to retain users’ attention and keep them on the page. Unfortunately, no matter how solid your content may be, it simply isn’t enough to appease impatient people who want what they want right now.
According to Google, after five seconds, the probability of users bouncing increases by 90 percent. If your content doesn’t load within just five seconds, you can bet your bounce rate will skyrocket and your blog post recognition will fall. This will only hurt the number of shares your blog posts receive and will hurt how you rank in search engines.
Make sure to compress all images included in your posts using tools like TinyJPG or Kraken. If you aren’t already, you need to regularly test your blog’s site speed to make sure it’s up to Google’s standards. Google’s PageSpeed Insights gives your website a score so you can gauge how it’s performing for users and either hurting or helping their UX.
Publish compelling content
If your niche is in home and gardening, yet you decide to randomly post a cheesecake recipe, you can bet it’ll confuse users. Not only is posting sporadic, random content confusing for readers, but it also doesn’t align with the needs and interests of your target audience. This alone will cause you to lose subscribers and loyal readers and you’ll see a decline in traffic.
You need to publish relevant, compelling content. To do this, you must first know your audience like the back of your hand. They are the ones who keep your blog successful by spreading the word and being consistently interested in what you post. It’s essential to frame your content around what they want to see rather than what you’d like to publish.
The best way to get to know your audience, all segments of it, is by creating buyer personas. These are customer profiles that lay out important details that tell you what your audience needs, wants, is interested in so you can cater to their needs and have blog content that succeeds and receives shares.
Some important details you might want to include in your buyer persona are:
- Age
- Location
- Occupation
- Income level
- Buying behaviors
- Pain points
- Motivation behind purchasing
Conduct keyword research
If your content is going to get shared, it’s an absolute must that it’s optimized for SEO. Without search engine optimization, your content has no way of being seen by your target audience and other thought leaders in your industry who can then share and distribute your blog posts. The further back your website appears in SERPs, the lesser chance it stands among all the competition.
To make sure your target market is getting ahold of your content, you first must conduct keyword research to ensure it’s the kind of stuff they want to consume in the first place. This means looking up specific short and long-tail keywords searched by your target market to see what they’ve been researching and what they’re currently interested in.
Google Keyword Planner is a good tool for researching keywords currently trending on Google. Brainstorm different search terms looked up by your audience and compile them into a list. Search these keywords in Google and pay attention to the related keywords that pop up because these are also indicators of what your audience is searching and wants to know more about.
For example, if you search “running shoes for women” and scroll down, a list of different questions that users have previously searched show up which you can then use to create content that helps your target market.
By collecting important keywords, you’re able to curate content relevant and interesting to your audience so you can maximize the number of shares your blog posts receive.
Optimize for international users
The world wide web allows users from all around the globe to have access to your content and consume your blog posts. However, if they don’t speak the same language as you, how will you reach those in your target market from different areas? It’s essential to include them in your conversion strategy so you can boost your blog and maximize its shares.
The goal is to provide the best user experience for your readers possible. Without optimizing your content for international users, you’re ignoring a huge portion of your target audience that could benefit from your content while you can benefit from the actions they take on your website.
You can hire a translator, use AI technology to communicate with users, or install a plugin to provide multilanguage options for your audience. It really depends on the blog and its niche.
Google’s Website Translator plugin translates content right on the webpage:
Include shareable buttons
If your content is any good, you can bet your readers will want to share it on their own social media to spread the word about what they liked. You also might have readers who want to offer a different take on your idea and share their input. Whatever the case may be, you need to make your content shareable so it has the chance to spread like wildfire. If not, your blog posts will stay sitting on your website where no one but your usual audience has access to them.
Be sure to install and activate a shareable content button on every blog post so users never miss out on the chance to spread the word on their social media or email.
Add video
If you aren’t already adding visual content into your content marketing strategy, now’s a good time to start. Whether it’s images, videos, infographics, or another type of visual content, studies show that this enhances your blog posts and increases the likelihood of them getting shared.
According to WyzOwl, 84 percent of marketers agree that video has helped them increase traffic to their website. The more traffic you get, the higher the possibility there is of your content receiving optimal engagement. Video is also a great way to break the monotony of walls of text so that users have something interesting to look at and watch. Whatever helps you captivate and keep the attention of your audience is what’s going to increase user engagement rates and lead readers closer to sharing.
Over to you
There are endless ways to optimize your WordPress blog so that it gets the shares, likes, and comments it deserves. It’s important to always keep your audience in mind so you know ultimately what kind of content they crave. This will lead you to create blog posts that keep their interests and resolves their pain points so they stay loyal to your brand and keep coming back. How will you optimize your blog?
