It occurred to me the other day that whilst I rabbit on fairly frequently about the value of good content marketing and blogging, I haven’t really given much away as to what actually makes a decent blog.
Whilst it’s great if you’re publishing new content out every week, if it’s not offering any value or is poorly written, it'll do more damage than good.
So, here are my top tips for keeping your recruitment blogs sweet:
1. Watch your word count
This is definitely one of the most important factors when it comes to blogging, and one which a lot of newbie bloggers can really struggle with. As a ballpark, blogs should be roughly 600-800 words long. No-one’s going to come and shoot you down in flames for being slightly under or over, but it’s a good window to aim for.
The only thing you really need to be weary of if having any pages that have a word count of less than 300 words. These will be flagged to search engines as not providing valua to readers (even if those 299 words are the best you've ever written), so don't fall prey to this.
If there's one thing to take on board, it's that too long is definitely better than too short: rumours have it that a blog of 2000 words won't even offend the Google Gods anymore, so if you've got a lot to say on a topic that's of interest to your audience - say it!
2. Use a decent title
Too often the title is an afterthought, rather than the driving force behind the blog itself.
If your title isn’t selling your blog, no one will ever read it, no matter how good it may be. So give your title a bit of thought, and make it as catchy as you can. We always use this really handy blog title analyser tool when coming up with blog headers, and it works a treat!
Best practise is that your title is no longer than 70 characters long, as anything longer can often be chopped by the search engines, so keep it short and sweet.
3. Make it readable/scannable
No reader is naturally drawn to reading massive blocks of text. Even if the text itself is bang on the money, people will be put off your blog if there's no breathing space between and probably bail.
So make sure your post is broken up into relevant paragraphs with enticing sub-headers that sell what each paragraph is all about (and that these headers at least try to have some SEO value), and that you include some images in it too to break up the text.
4. Include an author bio
People like to know who they're taking their information from and whose voice it is they're reading. So including a short Author bio with your name, what you do and a little bit about yourself works well when you're creating blog content.
It lets current clients and candidates know who you are, allows potential clients and customers to warm up to you a bit and bumps up your credibility!
6. Avoid duplicate content
Google hates duplicate content, so make sure you don’t publish your blog in more than one place. Much better is to publish your blog on your own recruitment website, and then share the link all over social media so the traffic is all coming straight back to you.
Similarly, don’t publish a blog on your website that’s already been published elsewhere. Google will know (they always know!) and will punish you for nicking someone else’s content, even if it was obtained honestly!
With some experience and a little bit of practise, creating great content should get easier and easier over time. All you have to do is get started!
