Presentation guide to blogging. Derivative of 5 Ways To Blog Better - takes techniques indepth to show how to create a blogging strategy that is mindful of content, presentation and SEO strategies.

1. 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog
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2. 1. Don’t Overlook the Fundamentals
A good lecturer will cover the basics, either by providing you
with additional reading materials or at the start of their talk
or series. As a blogger, covering the fundamentals is
important because it provides you with varied
content, enabling you to answer more questions, while
creating longer lasting impressions in Google.
Think about it, a quality article on a topic that people will always
have to research out of interest for your field will drive
traffic to your blog for much longer, and more consistently
than a topical piece will.
*Fundamentals will vary, but every field has it’s basics. E.g as a
Christina Aguilera went Back to Basics once, and food retailer, the basics of food include recipes, histories of
today she’s known as “The Voice”
recipes, explanations of spices etc.

3. Incorporating the Fundamentals
The Presentation Aspect
By running a concentrated series on your blog dedicated to
fundamentals, you are giving yourself room to play, design
wise. Dedicating a particular style to different articles or
entries on fundamentals will provide visual variety to your
blog, which could add to it’s overall appeal.
Remember, that new opinions are rarely needed on old topics
and that makes it okay to be concise.
Shorter articles and list entries will make your blog appear
easier to read, while having the added advantage of making
your words more accessible to different kinds of readers.

4. Incorporating the Fundamentals
Where’s the SEO?
Feeding search engines with links from your site is part of the
reason having a blog is so important to your over-all online
strategy. One way, which Google ranks your website is by
checking the number of links available, as well as the quality
of content on the pages.
This means that well written, useful blogs on highly searched
topics will add to the strength of your blog or website.
To take full advantage of this, double check your fundamentals
against search patterns by making use of Google’s free
Keyword tool.
*Your ultimate targets are high volume keywords and phrases
with low competition.

5. Incorporating the Fundamentals
Covering Content
Introducing fundamentals into your blog gives your content a
greater chance to attract attention, even from the most
zealous of researchers.

6. 2. Stay Current
A good lecturer will draw your attention back to on-going issues
with topical examples and use the news to highlight potential
problems, hypotheses and solutions.
Being topical can increase your SEO ranking in the short term by
driving high volumes of traffic to your site, for shorter periods of
time.
Got budget? Try hiring an extra copy-writer just to produce
news and opinion articles and commentary. If publishing in high
volumes doesn’t meet your strategy then aim for striking a
healthy balance between topical and fundamental pieces in
your publishing schedule. (Aim for one of each a month)
Think like Madonna. She’s been current for years Keeping up to date with current news and trends drives more
traffic because it provides opportunities to be more vocal on
social networks and make your blog appear relevant.

7. The Science of Staying Current
The Presentation Aspect
As with fundamentals you’ll want to pick a style for this type
of article and stick with it.
Various styles that should be considered for this type of blog
are: news articles and round-ups, commentary and opinion
pieces.

8. The Science of Staying Current
Where’s the SEO?
One thing search engines measure is the volume of traffic to a
link or page; spikes in visits to a particular page or article on
your blog will help it to appear in search for longer and give it
a higher ranking on search (depending on the strength of your
competition).
Introducing a weekly commentary piece that is published
consistently is a great way to attract high volumes of attention
on a specific day.

9. The Science of Staying Current
Covering Content
Try as you might, you can’t control (all) the news – it’s
unpredictable in nature. That’s why including topical content
on your blog will help with your goal of producing varied
content.

10. 3. Establish and Maintain an Expertise
Take a good look back to your university days and you’ll
probably remember that most of your lecturers had a specialty.
They spent time researching a particular area, perhaps
publishing books and articles on the topic, establishing
themselves as experts.
One thing that you can do for the good of your blog is to find a
niche area (or two) of expertise. This is, in marketing speak your
blog’s “Unique Selling Point” or USP. What you’re really doing, is
shaping your blog’s “persona” and can help to cultivate a loyal
audience for your blog.
Steven Seagal, for example, is an expert bad ass!
Establishing your brand as an expert at ‘YXZ’ is a reputation
building exercise that shouldn’t be overlooked and can help
dictate everything on your blog, from appearance to style and
tone.

11. Establishing and Maintaining Expertise
The Presentation Aspect
If you’re trying to hammer a point home with blogs in this
particular area of expertise, then consider creating a separate
category for it and dedicating a page on your blog to the
category.
One other aspect of presentation to be considered here is
how much distinguishing features you’d like to add to blogs of
this species (if any at all); these include sticking it to the front
of the page and using a different type font or colour.
You can consider presenting these articles in various
styles, from commentary to lists and educational articles.

12. Establishing and Maintaining Expertise
Where’s the SEO?
Defining a niche or area of expertise can have huge
ramifications on your SEO strategy by allowing you to focus
heavily and consistently on certain keywords or phrases.
That’s why it’s important to do your research into consumer
search behaviour and trends. It will save you from embarking
on a long, yet fruitless journey to becoming the internet’s
leading expert on a subject that’s either already inundated
with content or that no one cares about.
The aforementioned Keyword Search Tool from Google will
help with your search needs immensely.

13. Establishing and Maintaining Expertise
Covering Content
This is an opportunity to align your brand with a particular
type of content – don’t squander it.

14. 4. Travel (Be a Guest Blogger)
You’ve probably attended a guest lecture or two in your life, or
at least heard the expression “the lecture circuit”. That’s
because experts travel and spread the word... you should do the
same.
You should really consider writing for other online publishers in
order to strengthen your brand name, and your appearance on
search.
No one’s asking you to contribute?
Steve Carrell’s character took his sales expertise on
the lecture circuit in The Office.
Then write column pitches to other blogs, targeted
websites, and even offline publications in order to spread your
word further. Choose your subject matters and target
wisely, and you will lend your blog additional credence and
reach.

15. Breaking Down the Travel Approach
The Presentation Aspect
This has no shape on your own blog’s presentation, however
you might consider adding a page for external publications to
your blog so that you can add excerpts from and links to any
off-site activity.

16. Breaking Down the Travel Approach
Where’s the SEO?
As we mentioned before, Google measures the number of
links back to your site; these are called back links and each
one counts towards your overall search ranking. Once you
ensure that each online publication containing your work
provides a link back to your blog, you have created one back-
link.

17. 5. Integrate Media
An entertaining lecture will incorporate various types of media.
The same is true for blogs. You will be much more interesting
and attract more attention by publishing content that is
accessible to everyone.
Web comics, video series, infographics and charts are all
compelling ways to communicate ideas and can be used to
cultivate presences on other digital channels and create cross-
promotion opportunities between your blog and other
channels.
Mix media for better results.

18. Mixing Media to Provide Better Results
The Presentation Aspect
Your blog will become less wordy, the more that you mix
media. This can help a blog to appear more friendly and easy
to use.
It will also make it more appealing to a greater variety of
content consumers, since some purely consume video or are
looking for infographics as opposed to pure text.

19. Mixing Media to Provide Better Results
Where’s the SEO?
Just as Google allows you to search for images, blogs or
videos, it also classifies these separately as links to your site.
We cannot stress enough the importance of extra links to your
site, but we will point out that these various forms of media
encourage increased traffic by giving you access to different
types of consumers such as those who are using search to
access videos or images.
Ensure that you tag (title and describe) videos and photos
adequately to give you the best shot at search.

20. Mixing Media to Provide Better Results
Covering Content
You can cover various forms of content more adequately
when you incorporate various forms of media. Some
information is best presented in charts or infographics than in
word form, and some might be covered more adequately with
the use of videos or pictures.