Last time, I sent you to my blog and asked you to lay out the elements of a good blog post. Now I’m going to give you the answers.
1. There are images. Lots of them. And they all have an alternate attribute, which is the title of the post. Hence if the images don’t load, for any reason, or if a blind person is using a reader to read the blog post, they’ll get the title again.
2. The title, which is also repeated as the first header in the post, also acts as the main keyword phrase. That phrase is also repeated in the page URL. This is telling Google what the post is about, and reinforces it. All of that is good for SEO.
3. There are a number of links within the post. Some direct the reader to elsewhere on the blog. Others direct the reader to other sites. However, all of the links taking the reader away from the blog will open up a new tab. This keeps the reader on the blog longer.
4. There is embedded media (the Tori Amos video). Again, this is to keep the reader on the blog page longer.
5. There are a ton of categories and tags, all organizing this content. There are many ways to get to this page from elsewhere on the blog. Some of the tags are keyword phrases where I know my work ranks well (e. g. Star Trek in between days). I do my research and I check to see if I can capture a phrase and rank well in it. If that’s possible, and if it makes sense otherwise to do so, I may change tags. I’m a lot less likely to change or add to categories, which are meant to be larger.
Those are all specific to that blog post. Now let’s look at the blog in general.
1. There are rotating header images, related to the overall theme. These provide visual interest for the reader.
2. Just below search, the subscribe button is front and center.
3. Just below it are share buttons and then a blurb about who I am. I make the content easy to share and give the reader another reason to share it.
4. Just below that are recent posts and then character quotes. All of these are links to other parts of the blog, encouraging the reader to click and explore. If a site (not just blogs) only attracts a reader to one page, and then the reader leaves the site, that’s called a Bounce. It doesn’t matter how long the reader was onsite. It only matters that the reader only went to one page. High Bounce Rates are not good. By giving the reader interesting internal content to click on, this is an effort to reduce Bounce Rate and make the rest of the site more attractive to the reader to click on.
5. Moving down, we have categories (more links to click) and a nice drawing done about one of my best-developed characters. That image is yet another internal link that can be clicked.
6. Then there is a list of links which all will take the reader off the site.
7. Below those are lists of links to friends’ blogs, to support our small Star Trek fan fiction blogging community. Most of them have reciprocally linked back to me.
8. The footer contains more share buttons, the most recent comments, a tag cloud, links to the top comments, some administrative links, a calendar showing when I have posted, and a small blurb about my being a Google Verified Author.
The attached media is the same as last time, in order to refresh your memory. The link is to my blog post. The image is from the blog post. The YouTube video is also from the blog post.
Did this chapter help you? Did it hold your interest? Do you want to see more? Then please vote! You know the puppy wants you to. ;)
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