The ideal content strategy for the first 90 days of your blog

Every new blogger starts a blog and hopes to quickly get a lot of traffic. Then reality strikes and bloggers learn the actual work it takes to get a regular stream of traffic to a website.

Over 4 million blog posts are published everyday. That is more than 4 million blog posts vying for attention through long-form textual content. It is nearly impossible for a new blog to suddenly command a large stream of traffic in this type of competition.

How can a new blog then get traffic when there is so much competition? There is no objective recipe for success when it comes to bringing traffic to a blog. The only common element behind the success of any given blog is content.

Good content can alone drive traffic to a blog. Even non-content practices like link building can happen automatically if the content of a blog is good enough.

How many times have you heard of Wikipedia authors approaching websites for backlinks? Not often because most blogs and websites refer to Wikipedia automatically because of the authoritative nature of its content.

A new blog can also succeed provided it is home to truly unique and engaging content. In this article, we will cover the specifics of an ideal content strategy for your blog.

Furthermore, we will provide readers insights into expanding the reach of their blog by creating a native app using a free Android app maker.

#1 – Get the content schedule right

Most new bloggers understand the importance of posting good content. The real challenge is getting the frequency of blog posts right.

The primary source of traffic for a website in the long run comes from search engines. Google, the foremost search engine online, crawls and indexes every website and webpage in its database. Since there are too many websites to crawl and index, it generally has a preference for the websites it crawls and indexes more often.

A blog which is regularly updated with more content is more likely to be crawled and indexed often. New published content gives search engine crawlers a reason to regularly visit a website.

For a new blog, the mandate is clear. Publishing blog posts regularly can significantly enhance the number of times a blog is crawled over a period of time. Higher crawling frequency naturally increases the chances of a website getting high rankings on relevant keywords.

Here are a few points bloggers must remember regarding a content schedule.

• Post at least one blog a week. This is a minimum requirement. Ideally, one blog post every day for a period of ninety days is the best way to quickly create a sizable organic presence

• Post at the same time of the day. If you start posting content at nine in the morning, try to publish blog posts at the same time as well. This will eventually train crawlers to arrive on your blog at a given time

• Keep a backup supply of content in case you’re not able to write content on a given day. This will ensure you don’t mess up your general posting schedule

#2 – Topic clustering

You naturally have to consider a lot of factors when deciding the exact topics you will cover in your blog post. Bloggers generally do their due diligence and identify the keywords they want to rank for. Then, they write blog posts covering such keywords and expect their content to be ranked.

This process can work. However, high volume keywords with a lot of competition cannot be scaled with a blog post. Bloggers need to create a serious body of work to rank for such keywords.

Let’s take an example. Assume you have started a new travel blog. You identify ‘places to visit in Venice’ as your primary keyword. You write a long and informative article describing all the wonderful places tourists can visit when holidaying in Venice.

Is such a blog post enough to rank for your target keyword? The answer is probably no. There are literally hundreds of thousands of blog posts that have possibly covered the same topic.

What is the solution in such a case? The solution is to not stop at one article and write more and more content related to the same keyword. In other words, you cover all other subtopics related to your main keyword. Then you add internal links to the blog post to your main content. 

Topic clusters for the keyword ‘places to visit in Venice’

The main content you wish to rank for is also known as the pillar content. Cover all topics related to your pillar content in other blog posts and link them back internally. This strategy of creating content is known as topic clustering.

The number of supporting articles you have to write for a pillar content article depends on the keyword. In some cases, you may even have to write thirty or forty blog posts related to your pillar content. The diagram above shows eight related blog posts to one pillar content article. You can add supporting blog posts depending on the competition

Repeat the same process of creating topic clusters for other niches. You can create a successful food blog as well using the same principles covered here.

#3 – Focus your efforts on specific channels

Many bloggers try to get traffic from many avenues in the early days of their blog. They create social media handles for their website and try to grow their followers to eventually get traffic.

There is merit in targeting social media platforms to get traffic. New bloggers who wish to get their content out there naturally feel the urge to share content on social media and get some traction.

The only problem in trying to grow social media presence is the amount of work bloggers take upon themselves. The first ninety days of a blog should be devoted to growing visibility on select platforms. Most bloggers choose search engines as their primary source of traffic. It is thus wise to focus on SEO rather than social media for the first ninety days.

This again depends on the niche of a blog. If there is a good chance that a blog would do well on social media, bloggers should focus their efforts there. Recognize the platforms that promise visibility and try to grow a presence on them. It is futile jumping across different channels to get traffic in the initial 90 days of a blog.

#4 – Turn to mobile apps for long-term success

Finally, blogs are not the only destination for users these days. Mobile app usage has also grown. Bloggers need to keep an eye on the future are create a native app for their blog.

App builders enable bloggers and entrepreneurs who don’t have knowledge of coding to turn their blogs and website into a native app. Tools like AppMySite enable users to turn WordPress into mobile app without coding.

This trend is not restricted to bloggers alone. Even ecommerce marketers can sell their products with the help of an online app. For instance, using any prominent WooCommerce app builder for iOS and Android is a simple way of creating an ecommerce app.

Creating a real mobile alternative with a native app can help bloggers prepare for the future and build another avenue for traffic and impressions.

In conclusion

Content is the heartbeat of any given blog. There is no point in creating a blog without having the resources to write top draw content.

This piece provides four crucial points on setting up the ideal content strategy for the first 90 days of a blog. Readers can learn and imbibe the concepts covered here and grow their blog into a real traffic magnet.