Blogging is more difficult than people first assume. If you actually want people to read your posts, you have to put in more effort than simply picking a random topic and writing about it. Don’t consider only your own interests, because they might not resonate with the interests of your readers; after all, you are not the intended reader.

If you’re looking to start a blog from home this can still be a great way to create a hobby or viable business, but it does take work and often a little extra on the job training.

Having an overall strategy is important and aligning your posts with the overall growth goals of your blog will mean you see quicker growth. I have teamed up with an SEO agency to provide some tips for beginner bloggers on how to improve your writing and attract a wider audience.

1. Carry Out Keyword Research

If you want to rank well in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), keyword research should always be your first step. It will help you figure out what people are actually typing into search engines, like Google or Bing. If a keyword or phrase has very limited search volume, there’s little point in writing about it, because people aren’t actually interested in that particular topic.

With that said, words or phrases with huge search volumes will be more competitive, so it’s all about striking the right balance. Once you have determined a keyword that you’d like to target, be sure to include it in your H1 and H2 headers, and naturally throughout the text.

2. Be Consistent

You are far more likely to gain a dedicated readership if you post articles consistently, as opposed to once every few months. If you reliably post once a week on a Friday morning, your existing readers will start to become familiar with your posting schedule and will be ready and waiting to catch your latest article. On the other hand, if you post sporadically, you might get forgotten about.

3. Structure Your Articles

Your writing should never be a brain dump. People are generally quite lazy and don’t tend to want to read huge chunks of text with no structure. Instead, try to add subheadings, bullet pointed lists and images to break up your text and make it easier to scan. Plus, as mentioned above, subheadings are great for incorporating your keywords and boosting your rankings.

4. Build an Email List

It’s wise to incorporate functionality onto your blog that allows readers to sign-up to an email list, so that you can alert them when you post something new. It’s a great tactic because it allows you to directly reach your readership, rather than worrying about obstacles such as SEO.

5. Write Guest Posts

Try seeking out opportunities to write guest posts for other bloggers and website owners, including a link back to your own blog. External links are a great way to build up your blog’s domain authority, which will likely lead to more paid opportunities and also improve your SERP rankings.

**This is a collaborative post.**