9 Top Content Writing Tools for SEO every blogger needs – SARMLife

Living in an era where content is the new black or orange has placed content writers in high demand. While we are still trying to maintain quality, the increased workload has made it almost impossible for us to avoid using content writing tools for SEO purposes.

This blog post is dedicated to all hardworking content writers who need content writing tools for SEO to improve the quality of their content and meet deadlines. The reward for us is when we see those blog posts that we write ranking on the first page of Google’s SERPs.

This blog post is dedicated to all hardworking content writers who need content writing tools for SEO to improve the quality of their content and meet deadlines.

What is content writing?

Content writing is the entire process of planning, writing, and publishing content in written formats. These pieces of content take various forms, but whatever form they take, the endpoint is usually to convey a message to a particular audience. 

Depending on the quality of your content, it has the ability to convert your audience into paying and returning clients.

Types of content

There are several types of content, including:

  • Blog posts
  • Podcasts
  • eBooks
  • Landing pages
  • Product Description
  • Social media contents
  • Video
  • Infographics
  • Newsletters
  • Article
  • Audiobook
  • PDFs
A close-up of hands typing on a computer

Description automatically generated
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

The importance of SEO in content writing

The importance of SEO in content writing includes:

Visibility

No matter the platform you are writing for, the end game for every writer is to be able to showcase their work in front of an audience.

For example, when you write content for blogs, you want to see it show up on the first page of a SERP for its focus keyword. When you write content for social media, you want to see it get the needed engagement and traction.

Whatever content you write, what makes your efforts worthwhile is when it is visible to your target audience. What better way to do this than through SEO?

SEO allows your content to be visible to people who are searching for it.

Engagement

Due to the fact that SEO is based on research, it allows you to discover what people want to read about in the exact format that they want.

This lets you create personalized content, which promotes engagement.

Brand building

When your visibility increases, it helps you develop a strong online presence, which is advantageous to your brand.

As more people engage with your content, they become familiar with your brand, its values, and its offerings, fostering a positive brand reputation.

Builds credibility

When you consistently produce high-quality content that is optimized for search engines and users, earn quality backlinks from reputable websites, and optimize your website to enhance user experience, it will help to build your credibility as an authority in your niche.

Niche relevance

SEO-driven content ensures that your brand is associated with specific keywords and topics that are relevant to your target audience. By incorporating relevant keywords into your content, you align your website with the search queries that your audience is using. This targeted approach effectively positions your brand as a relevant resource for users seeking information or solutions within your niche.

Free marketing

Organic traffic is the icing on the cake when it comes to SEO. Unlike other paid marketing options, SEO is more long-term and rewards consistent, quality content with adequate research and cost-effective strategies.

How to choose the best content writing tools.

Selecting your most suitable content writing tools for SEO requires careful consideration of various factors to optimize your content creation process and achieve your SEO goals effectively.

Here are some factors to consider when choosing the best content writing tools for SEO:

Your Content Needs and Requirements

Assess your content writing needs and identify the specific tasks you want to automate or enhance with the use of these tools. Consider whether you need tools for keyword research, content optimization, plagiarism checking, grammar assistance, or a tool that combines these functionalities.

Ease of Use and Good User Interface

Prioritize content writing tools for SEO that offer a user-friendly interface and easy navigation, especially if you are a beginner. This little factor can significantly affect your workflow and productivity.

Accuracy and Reliability

Ensure that the content writing tools for SEO that you choose provide you with accurate and reliable data. This is crucial for making informed decisions about your content strategy and optimizing your content for search engines.

Pricing and Budget

Evaluate the pricing plans of these tools and compare the functionalities offered by different plans. Select tools that align with your budget and provide the features and functionalities you need without breaking the bank.

Free Trials or Demos

Take advantage of the free trials or demos offered by many content writing tools for SEO. This allows you to experiment with the tool’s functionalities before making a purchase.

Integrations with Existing Tools

Consider how well the tools you choose integrate with your existing content management system (CMS), analytics platform, and other relevant tools. It needs to have seamless and hitch-free integration with your existing tools for overall efficiency.

Customer Support and Resources

You need to consider the level of customer support provided by the developer. Access to comprehensive tutorials and responsive customer support can be your saving grace when troubleshooting issues arise.

Content Writing Tools for SEO Writing

Grammarly

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

If you are a content writer, I am absolutely sure you’ve heard of Grammarly at least once. This is because it is one of the best content-writing tools available. 

The essential features of Grammarly cover spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but it doesn’t stop there. When you upgrade to the paid plan, you get plagiarism checks, vocabulary, and even sentence tone checkers.

One thing that distinguishes Grammarly is that it uses AI systems to detect subtle writing errors, making its reviews and feedback very accurate and spot on.

Although AI systems have certain disadvantages, including the inability to identify word structures outside of their programming, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. You can manually correct your writing where you deem appropriate.

The free version of Grammarly, though limited, is far better than most spellcheckers and editing tools as it offers a variety of features, including:

  • Integration with several browsers
  • Integration with Google Docs
  • AI system for spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors
  • Availability on mobile devices
  • Readability metrics

As expected, the premium version offers far more value than the free version and gives writers literally all the features needed to have a WOW effect on readers. It goes beyond the basic suggestions and checks word tone, style, ineffective word usage, and plagiarism. Another feature of the premium version is outsourcing your writing to an actual human proofreader, although this comes at an additional cost.

Grammarly Premium makes sure your writing has clarity and emotional appeal and is free from plagiarism.

Pricing starts at $12 per month for the Grammarly premium and $15 per month for the Grammarly Business.

SEMRush Writing Assistant (SWA)

SEMRush - This blog post is dedicated to all hardworking content writers who need content writing tools for SEO to improve the quality of their content and meet deadlines.

Developed by SEMRush, this writing assistant has all the features necessary for content optimization, and the good news is that these features are automated. Unlike other content writing tools for SEO, the features are not exactly embedded in the tool but come from various integrations, including all the SEMRush tools.

I like this tool because it shows you recommendations and gives you feedback as you write. This means that you don’t have to wait till you’re done writing to make necessary corrections. You also get to finish your work faster and learn on the go.

The SEMRush Writing Assistant offers:

  • SEO suggestions
  • Real-time feedbacks
  • Google Docs integration
  • Integration with other SEMRush tools
  • It can be used as a WordPress plugin

The limitation of the SWA is that you cannot access it unless you have an active SEMRush subscription which starts at $120 per month. 

There are several ways you can use the SEMRush Writing Assistant:

  • Inside SEMRush: This allows you to check the viability of your content right from the SEMRush platform, although this prevents you from styling options or image insertion.
  • As a Google Docs Plugin: More preferable than the first option, although you need to have a Google Workspace account. Then you have to install the plugin to your Google docs from the GSuite Workspace market, after which you enable the add-on via your Google Docs.
  • As a WordPress plugin: This is the most preferred option as it is easy to use with more available options. All you need to do is go to your WordPress plugin page, search for the SWA, and install and activate. Click on the ‘Flat mode’ in your post editor, log in to your account, and your SWA is ready for work.

Answerthepublic

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

For any content creator or writer, answerthepublic gives you insight into your customer’s minds. It compiles a list of search queries based on specific keywords. It then categorizes these queries into several forms, including:

  • Questions like why, where, how, who, what, can will, etc
  • Prepositions like without, near, with, to, without, etc.
  • Comparisons like versus, and, or, like, etc
  • Alphabetical: displays results in alphabetical order
  • Related

 and presents it in an appealing visual format.

This tool is best for researching market trends and observing queries around specific keywords in any niche. These keywords are predictions of what your audience will search for, and it is an accurate analysis as these data are updated frequently.

The free version offers you search insights and allows you to download the displayed data, although you have a limited number of searches per day.

The paid version allows you access to unlimited daily searches, unlimited users, data comparison, and CSV export.

There is no free trial for answerthepublic, and the pro plan starts at $99 monthly with a 20% discount if you want to pay for an entire year.

Google Docs

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Initially, when I started writing, I always loved using Microsoft Word for all of my writing until I discovered Google Docs. 

Besides the fact that Google Docs automatically saves your writings to your drive or device to prevent the risk of losing your writing, it also allows you to add plugins that can help your content writing process. 

Working with a team allows you to collaborate on a document and automatically syncs all inputs.

When writing blog posts, I always use Google Docs, and it’s incredible how I can highlight a particular phrase or word, search the internet for related posts, and automatically insert the links. This saves you the stress of having to insert URLs or add related links to your writings manually.

If you are using WordPress as your blogging platform, what you see on your Google Docs is what you will see at the backend of your website, so you hardly have to edit your texts.

If you aren’t using Google Docs as a blogger or writer, you should try it!

Ubersuggest

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Possibly the best keyword tool for SEO writers, Ubersuggest brings all your SEO needs to fulfillment. Developed by Neil Patel, it offers insight into keywords, content analysis, website analysis, competitor analysis, link tracking, and many other features.

It has a reliable and vast database of keywords and uses the API (Application Programming Interface) for Adwords, specifically Google Keyword Planner and Google Suggest, to get its data. This gives its users insights that help their SEO strategies and ranks them better in search engines.

If you are looking for an SEO tool that covers all the aspects of SEO, then this has got you covered. The free version offers you limited access to keyword analysis and content analysis. There is also a 7-day free trial that gives you a preview of what you can have access to in the premium version.

There are three categories of the paid version:

  • Individual: $12 monthly or a $ 120-lifetime access
  • Business: $20 monthly or a $ 200-lifetime access
  • Enterprise: $40 monthly or a $ 400-lifetime access

Hemingway Editor

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

One of the best tools is the Hemingway editor when it comes to streamlining writing styles and writing clarity. Perfect for writing concision and word phrasing, it shows the readability of the article and aspects of the writing that need corrections by using different color codes.

  • Yellow: Phrases highlighted in yellow indicate long, complex sentences.
  • Blue: Highlighted blue phrases show weak verbs and phrases. You might want to edit these phrases with context words and more impactful verbs.
  • Green: Green highlights are indicative of passive voice.
  • Red: Red highlights show that the highlighted phrase is difficult to read, and the readers will likely not get its meaning.
  • Purple: Phrases highlighted with purple usually indicate that you can shorten the selected phrase or that the highlighted word has a simpler alternative.

There are two ways to use the Hemingway editor. You can use it as a free tool online or download it as an app. The online Hemingway editor is entirely free, but the App version comes with a one-time fee of $19.99. 

Although the features for both the online and app versions are the same, a significant difference is that you cannot download or upload your corrected work using the online version, but you can do that via the app. The app also gives you download options, including HTML, Markdown, or Word document.

The app version also allows you to use it without an internet connection, while an internet connection is necessary for the online version.

Jasper AI

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

This makes it to my list because it is one of the few AI tools that can actually help you with SEO. The Jasper AI has integration with Surfer SEO to help writers and bloggers with on-page SEO.

What is Jasper AI?

Jasper AI is a GPT-3 (Third-generation generative Pre-trained Transformer) content writing tool that helps you create and edit content. The fact that it is a GPT-3 tool means that it can use a small amount of input text to generate large amounts of relevant texts using the internet data, making it a perfect choice for long-form and short-form content.

Another reason you will love this tool is that it offers a lot of templates:

  • Long-form assistant: to write long articles from start to finish.
  • AIDA Framework: Utilizes the AIDA model for copywriters (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action)
  • Content Improver: To copy and paste pieces of your writing to make it better.
  • Facebook Ad Primary Text: Create highly converting copy for the ‘primary text’ section of your Facebook ads.
  • Google Ads Headline: To create highly converting copy for your Google Ads’ headline section.
  • Marketing angles: To add vibrancy to your marketing by researching different angles.
  • Video description: To create unique descriptions in your YouTube videos.
  • Email Subject Line: For compelling subject lines to get readers to open your mail.
  • Real Estate Listing – Residential: Creating enticing real estate listings that sell homes fast.
  • PAS Framework: For creating new marketing ideas using the PAS framework (Problem-Agitate-Solution)

Pricing for Jasper AI. starts at $29 per month for the starter plan and $59 per month for the Boss mode. There is an option to pay yearly with 2-month payments off.

Canva

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Do content writers need Canva? 

Well, if you have an app that allows you to make amazing graphics for your content in record time and offer millions of templates, then maybe you don’t need Canva.

Visual content is just as important as written content. In fact, your written content is not complete without pictures, infographics, or short videos. Canva makes it easier for content creators to develop graphics they can use to hook their readers. 

With millions of templates ranging from infographics, websites, concept maps, planners, posters, invoices, ebook covers, YouTube intro, blog graphics, Instagram posts, videos, and the list goes on! It is a must-have for all content writers and bloggers.

Pricing: The free version is available and has a lot of templates from which you can select.

The paid version is valued at $13 per month.

Hubspot’s blog topic generator

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

As the name implies, this tool majorly helps generate topic ideas for your writing. This is the tool for you if you are continually hitting a creative block or running out of topics.

When you open the site, you get to add a noun that best describes what you want to talk about. Hubspot allows you to add up to five nouns, and it gives you days, weeks, or months’ worth of blog topic ideas that you can use.

You can access more ideas when you sign in to the platform using your website’s URL. 

The Hubspot blog topic generator is completely free.

Why you need SEO content writing tools.

A tabletop view of a female typing on a laptop.
Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash
  • Improve your writing: In less than a month of using appropriate tools, the quality of your writing is sure to increase. As the tool makes corrections, you also learn aspects of your writing that need improvement.
  • Improve reader experience: One of the benefits of most content writing tools for SEO is that they optimize your content to be reader-friendly. These include paragraphing and flowing sentences.
  • Optimize for search engines: Yes, your content gets to go through SEO scrutiny and editing—keyword stuffing, paragraph length, keyword research, word count, etc.
  • Organize your content: Content writing tools help organize your content layout and make it visually appealing to your readers.
  • Professional content: After editing and revising your content, the final product is usually professional.
  • Instant feedback: Most tools instantly revise your content as you write and make suggestions where necessary.

My content SEO Tools: top picks

These content writing tools for SEO have a lot of advantages, and they are sure to improve your writing quality and optimize for search engines.

My top picks from these tools would be

  1. AnswerThePublic,
  2. UberSuggest,
  3. Google Docs,
  4. Grammarly, and
  5. Canva

What tools have you tried out? Do you think they help improve your writing skills? Did I fail to include your go-to content-writing tool?

BENEFITS OF BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS IN 2025: Why you should start now!

According to the Search Engine Journal, blog posts have long-term effects after being uploaded on the internet. This is one of the many benefits of blogging for business; it creates sustainability and serves as an added source of income for business bloggers. 

In a blog post analysis done by HubSpot, they discovered that 76% of their monthly blog views came from posts published before that month, and 92% of their monthly blog leads also came from these posts.

This survey shows that incorporating blogging as a marketing strategy for businesses can provide a business with ways to consistently serve new customers with relevant content while uploading content to engage an existing audience. 

Did you know that producing content for your blogs costs 60% less than when you engage in other traditional marketing strategies? It also increases the leads by at least 3x!

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida
Photo by Suomy on Pixabay

Business blogging is your best bet for increased lead generation, low marketing costs, and excellent results. It also gives you insight into the customers’ persona and puts you as an authority in your niche.

Why do you need a blog for your business? How do you start blogging for business? 

These are questions that I will be answering in this blog post.

What is business blogging?

Business blogging, corporate blogging, or blogging for business is a content marketing strategy that uses a blog to drive in needed traffic and raise awareness of a particular brand. 

Using effective SEO techniques, business blogging leverages organic search and uses it to enhance blog growth and online visibility.

There are different marketing goals that blogging for businesses achieves, including lead generation and increased sales.

Benefits of blogging for business.

Blogging for business creates sustainability and serves as an added source of income for business bloggers. Incorporating blogging as a marketing strategy for businesses can provide a business with ways to consistently serve new customers with relevant content while uploading content to engage an existing audience. 
Photo by 200degrees on Pixabay.

1. Present yourself as an authority.

Blogging for business means that you are constantly creating content that caters to the needs of your target audience, which gives you more space to address controversial topics, pain points, and fears of your audience in detail. 

Little information is shared on social media, and blog posts allow you to expand on hot topics while providing clickable links to your products and services.

You educate prospects while at the same time publicizing yourself as an expert in that field.

Utilize social media as your content idea bank by observing influencers’ social media accounts, high-ranked authorities in your niche, and popular hashtags that are being used.

Blogging for business creates sustainability and serves as an added source of income for business bloggers. Incorporating blogging as a marketing strategy for businesses can provide a business with ways to consistently serve new customers with relevant content while uploading content to engage an existing audience. 

Take, for instance, as a beauty-preneur, and I follow an influencer into beauty products. One day, this influencer raises a question on the health effects of using certain beauty products. My best guess is that whoever follows this influencer will probably go online and search this query out.

I will then create a blog post about the health effects of beauty products with links to my skin’s healthy beauty products that are affordable.

  • I create a relevant content
  • With little to no cost, I use SEO to drive in organic traffic
  • I also use SEO to make sure that this traffic converts

Without a blog, this is impossible.

2. Serves as an added source of income.

There are several excellent ways to monetize a blog, asides from the normal flow of income from your products and services.

You don’t even need to have many site visitors before these monetization strategies can work. From as low as 1,000 monthly site visits, you can enjoy a constant in-flow of money without doing anything.

3. Sustainability.

Blogging is a long-term marketing strategy because anything you upload on the web stays on the web except you decide to archive or delete it from the web. Also, you can refurbish old posts to include updated offers and terms of service. 

This means that your business, products, and services are accessible anytime and anywhere.

As a business owner, you want a marketing strategy that does not get outdated, and this is as good as it gets.

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida
Photo by Tumisu on Pixabay

4. Increases conversion/sales.

How does blogging increase conversion and sales?

Think of your blog post as a sales pitch page, only that you are not directly selling. Your blog posts have a way of influencing the buyer’s purchasing decision.

As a business owner, having a blog page sends a signal to the buyer that you are knowledgeable in that niche, which automatically increases their trust in your business, products, and services.

When you add a CTA at the end of your posts, they are more likely to click on that link and convert.

Additionally, having a blog can increase your conversion rate 6x compared to not having a blog.

5. Targets audience at different stages of the sales funnel.

The goal of literally all business bloggers is to increase sales, and the truth remains that not everyone will click on your offers straight away.

The sales funnel reflects the different stages that buyers go through before purchasing. 

Blogs not only cater to those interested in making a purchase, but it also caters to curious consumers and returning customers.

6. Builds relationships with the audience.

Email marketing, social media, and consultation services are great ways to build relationships with your audience. These can be embedded in your blog posts and offer a way to communicate with your brand.

Pop-ups for email newsletters and sharing content to social media engage your audience and increase the chances of them signing up on your offers.

Blogging for business creates sustainability and serves as an added source of income for business bloggers. Incorporating blogging as a marketing strategy for businesses can provide a business with ways to consistently serve new customers with relevant content while uploading content to engage an existing audience. 
Photo by Tumisu on Pixabay

7. Free marketing.

You can have effective long-term blog marketing strategies for free. With SEO, you don’t need to pay for ads to get you the needed traffic. 

8. Retain old customers.

Your blog contents are also a way to engage new customers without losing existing customers. When you upload a new post, it is indexed by search engines, and these posts are also visible to your old customers (especially when they get notifications via mail). 

This keeps you in the mind of your existing customers and increases the chances that they will return to pick up on your new offers.

9. Gives a USP.

Blogging for business is a fast-growing strategy for business owners, but there is still a large percentage of entrepreneurs who are yet to utilize this strategy in their business.

You should make sure you have a blog for your business and ensure to utilize SEO techniques to make your blog posts stand out more on SERPs.

10. Creates shareable social media contents.

Did you know that you can automatically create shareable social media content from your blog’s content while still linking back to your blog posts?

This is amazing if you hope to increase credibility and visibility even among social media users.

How to start business blogging.

Did you know that 50% of content uploaded by enterprises is not used? This is to tell you that there are tons of contents supplied unto the world wide web, but only a half of them are being used by the consumers.

You don’t want to start a business blog that gets lost in many available contents.

Here at SARMLife, we use proven strategies to stay afloat with the competition and get online visibility consistently.

and/or BOOK a 1:1 strategy session with me to discuss the best course of action for you and your business.

Tips for business bloggers

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Photo by AbsolutVision on Pixabay

  • Write SEO-friendly contents
  • Know your target audience
  • Create helpful contents
  • Plan your contents
  • Make sure your contents are shareable
  • Use user-generated contents
  • Always add CTAs to your posts

READ ALSO: 5 Importance of Blog Marketing for Business Growth

5 REASONS WHY CONTENT MARKETING IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth.

Did you know that 82% of marketers actively use content marketing strategies that are three times more efficient in lead generation than the best outbound marketing?

I blew your mind, right? 

Imagine walking into a store for shopping only to find out that the goods are displayed in no particular order, and you get surprised at each turn.

As if that isn’t enough, you meet a robot at the cashier stand! – it’s a stretch, really, but here’s the point:

No one wants to go back to an unpredictable store where you don’t know what might happen next.

The fact that we can largely predict what’s around the corner gives us a sense of control that we don’t want to lose. We are humans, after all.

The marketing goal of any business owner is to make sales; entirely true.

But,

Content marketing keeps telling us that you can’t just walk up to a person and ask them to buy from you; you have to make them happy first!

Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth.

You have to give your audience enough space and make them feel in control of that purchasing decision.

It’s added work, but it gives a satisfactory result when done successfully.

This post aims to break down content marketing and its importance to your business.

Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing is crucial because it defines your brand, products, and services to your audience. It makes them completely aware of you and what you stand for.

It answers your audience’s questions before they are even asked, helps you build trust, develop relationships, improve conversions and generate leads. 

What is content marketing? 

Content marketing focuses on building a solid relationship with your target audience by consistently delivering high-quality content relevant to your audience. 

Notice how I said ‘building’? Because content marketing is a continuous process that involves planning, creating, sharing, and reviewing contents across various digital platforms. These contents are in multiple forms, but regardless of what form of content it is, the main goal is to increase brand visibility, engagement, and definitely sales.

Content marketing is a continuous process that contributes to retaining new or by-chance customers while also maintaining relationships with existing clients.

Another definition of content marketing would be that it is a marketing process that realizes and acknowledges that most consumers are now capable of completely disregarding the noise of the marketing efforts they are being exposed to daily. 

In other words, it is the art of communicating with your potential consumers without directly selling to them. 

In content marketing, you leverage the audience’s interests and create a content strategy that aligns with their interests, preferences, and dispositions. This makes you create and curate unique contents that your consumers will find helpful and valuable. 

Now, it’s not just about what they want but also what they need!

In contrast to other marketing methods, content marketing is a much better option because it shows that you care about your customers and their needs. 

Types of content marketing.

Content marketing types vary, but they all provide value-added content that customers want to see rather than paid-for adverts they would rather not see. 

The key to hacking the different content marketing types is to understand the benefits of the other techniques and decide which would be more effective for you.

Content marketing types.

Content marketing types are; 

  1. Blog posts.
  2. Video/YouTube posts
  3. Podcasts
  4. Social media posts
  5. Newsletters
  6. E-books
  7. Lead magnets
  8. Infographics
  9. Webinars
  10. Case studies
Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth. In creating an effective content marketing strategy, you need to keep your goals clear.

Even though most methods for content marketing have evolved over the years, the formula for great content has almost remained the same.

The key to getting people to buy your products include;

  • Push on their pain point
  • Agitate that pain point
  • Solve the problem.

For example; “A quick guide to solving your blogging struggle 

Hi, I am Ruth Adeyemi, an SEO and blogging coach. I am also the founder of SARMLife.

(PROBLEM) – Over the years, as a blogging coach, I have come across bloggers who struggled with monetizing their blog and getting it to rank on the first page of Google. Trying various methods and not getting the desired results will frustrate even the strongest of bloggers – (AGITATION). 

I decided to launch a course to help bloggers struggling. In this course, you will get first-hand strategies that hundreds of bloggers and I have used to monetize our blogs successfully. (SOLUTION)

Including:

  • A 1:1 FREE consultation.
  • An online course on SEO for beginners.”

Notice how I’m not directly selling but communicating what I can do for a specific group of people.

This is an example of content that can be used for content marketing. 

Either your contents are created internally, through a third party, or are user-generated; when you make contents for your content marketing, always follow these rules:

  1. Have a defined audience
  2. Be consistent always
  3. Have a strategic plan
  4. Create educational contents
  5. Don’t sell directly
  6. Identify a pain point
  7. Offer solutions
  8. Give quality contents
  9. Focus on the audience

Let’s look at two critical terms in your content marketing strategy.

Content Mapping 

Content mapping is the process of understanding your audience so well that you can then create content for each stage of their journey towards buying your product and services. 

The fact is, very few people go straight from discovery to buying. Most of them go through a phase of discovering your website, thinking about your products, spending a few more months thinking, seeing retargeting Ads, and then buying.  

The bottom line is that people take a lot of time to buy. 

(click this link to read more about content mapping)

Content marketing goals and sales funnel

In creating an effective content marketing strategy, you must keep your goals clear. You are to ensure that you are building towards the goals you have set for the business with every content you put out. Your goals should not be isolated from your content.

You can probably start with long-term goals related to your overall brand vision before moving on to identifying your short-term goals that content marketing strategy can help accomplish.

Like I mentioned in the content mapping, no one wakes up in the morning and decides I will buy something today from this brand I met online.  

Most of them go through a journey to purchase, and that journey is referred to as the buyer’s journey. 

Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth. In creating an effective content marketing strategy, you need to keep your goals clear.

You must understand your buyer persona and their journey so that you can create content that is helpful to them. A content marketing funnel is more commonly known as a sales funnel, and it describes the different journeys a customer goes through before a purchase decision.

Your content can influence any decision this buyer is going to make.

Why content marketing is important.

Content marketing is important because:

  1. It is cost effective and productive.
  2. It helps to improve brand reputation.
  3. It advances your business through SEO.
  4. It educates and strengthens relationships with customers.
  5. You would generate more and better leads.

With everything shared so far, let’s look at these reasons in detail.

1. Content marketing is cost effective and productive.

Content marketing is not expensive! Many business owners avoid talk of marketing because they have this perception that it costs a lot of money which isn’t entirely true.

Content marketing is far less expensive than several forms of traditional marketing, and you must explore it. It is also productive even though it takes a while to see the results because content marketing is all about the long-term. 

Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth. In creating an effective content marketing strategy, you need to keep your goals clear.

If you are a small business owner looking to grow and struggle with understanding why you must use content marketing instead of traditional marketing, then this is a valid reason. You can be sure of progress and productivity after a while. 

Keep in mind that, unless you hire an agency, creating great content for marketing across various digital platforms takes time and effort. 

In fact, Social Media Examiner reports that more than 81% of marketers experienced increased traffic by investing as little as 6 hours per week in their social media content.

An easy way out is to access the types of content marketing and compare them with your availability and experience (you don’t want to be inconsistent and naive). Select the content marketing type that your level of growth – as a brand and an individual – can take.

2. Content marketing helps to improve brand reputation

In today’s world, businesses must work to build trust and loyalty with their customers.

Content marketing helps with that, and by building trust, you help your business establish a positive brand reputation. 

For instance, if a healthy drink vendor continually educates her customers on the dangers of spoilt drinks and how to identify them. 

With time, her word would carry the truth to those who love her brand, and over time it would start to reflect on the brand’s reputation.

SOME STATISTICS FROM LYFE MARKETING;

“78% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads.”

‘70% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.”

Here’s a secret, when customers read or see your content, they start to develop an opinion of your brand, and this is why content marketing can either break a brand’s reputation or improve it.

3. Content marketing advances your business through SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) has proven to be a very effective tool in content marketing and, if utilized well, can help grow the business.

Many business owners in emerging markets downplay why content marketing is important, not knowing that it is a vital aspect of their business growth.SEO (search engine optimization) has proven to be a very effective tool in content marketing and, if utilized well, can help grow the business.

SEO is one of the pillars of content marketing; it is how search engines use your content to connect you to your next customer! 

People, including buyers of your products and services, go online and use several keyword strings on search engines to look up topics of interest.

The businesses that have mastered getting to the top of search are the big winners in organic search. They’re bringing qualified traffic to their websites. So, one of the best ways to build organic traffic to your website is with great content!

SEO and Content marketing have created an incredible amount of change in the digital marketing world! You need to leverage these two digital marketing strategies to invest in keyword research, website design, content creation, and SEO writing.

Our blog post on SEO writing critically explained the content writing process that gives you optimized posts that can rank on Google’s first page!

4. Content marketing educates and strengthens relationships with customers.

If your content isn’t educating your customers, you are doing it all wrong. Gone are the days of mediocre marketing tactics; now, we focus on their pain point and try to make it easier.

Imagine a curious customer stumbling on your page and, after spending time with your contents, leaves with more questions? 

Content marketing is the best way to engage any audience and provide what they need. You can also effectively create an avenue to build a relationship with them. 

People would only consistently buy from a brand they trust. When we first started, we had to build trust with our clients using content marketing. You, too, can make your customers trust your brand through content marketing.

5. You would generate more and better leads.

Content marketing helps with generating leads. Behind every content you create is a huge demand from users for lead generation.

When you meet that need with your content marketing strategies, your users will trust you with anything you throw their way.

Likewise, different types of content will generate different numbers of leads for you. Additionally, calls-to-action (CTA) placed directly in your content can generate new leads for the business. The more content a customer is with your content, the more likely they will click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.

It is essential to note that no content marketing is effective without a content strategy. So, before you hop on content marketing, make sure you get the strategy down.

READ ALSO: 5 Importance of Blog Marketing for Business Growth

SEO writing | 11 proven tips on writing blog posts that rank on Google

“What is the use of writing great blog posts that won’t rank on the first page of Google’s SERPs and people won’t see?” – Ruth Adeyemi, founder of SARMLife.

Have you ever wondered how bloggers are now able to grow their blogs without investing in paid advertisements or how organic traffic seems to roll in after just a few posts? It’s all in SEO writing.

Beyond writing valuable content for my readers, I always ensure the content is fully optimized for search engines. To do this, I follow a strict SEO writing process that has never failed me.

Over the years, I’ve had to upgrade these processes to match Google’s algorithm updates and recent SEO changes. For example, long-form content is no longer as essential for SEO ranking as it was.

This post contains my thoroughly explained SEO writing process that will help you create fully optimized blog posts that can rank on the first page of Google.

Beyond writing valuable content to my readers, I always make sure that these contents are fully optimized for search engines using my SEO writing process.

What is a blog post?

A blog post is a single piece of published content on a blog site accessible via the World Wide Web. The content is majorly written content that may or may not be supported with images (images are a MUST for optimization, though

For instance, what you are currently reading is referred to as a blog post.

What is SEO writing?

Simply put, SEO (search engine optimization) writing is creating and writing content optimized for search engines. 

Blogspot defines SEO writing as writing content to rank on the first page of search engines such as Google.

Optimizing starts with the content creation process, from the topic ideas to the writing and the images; this content is deliberately created and organized to ensure it fits the baseline requirements of search engine optimization and even goes beyond it.

Features of an optimized blog post

The features of an SEO (search engine optimized) blog post are pretty direct but also easy to miss, especially when you are batch-creating content. We created an SEO checklist to ensure you don’t miss anything while creating optimized content for your website or clients.

For you to write what counts as an optimized blog post, it needs to have these features:

·   A good, compelling headline

The headline is the title of your blog post; it is the first sentence any searcher will see. An important tip to note when creating your headlines is that they need to give your reader a brief overview of what your post is about.

Your headline should be compelling but straight to the point. Do not use sugar-coated words, as they send a red flag to the reader.

·   A good introduction

Some blog writers are a little lax about what they put in their introductions. The introduction is the first impression your reader gets, and it also determines whether the reader will continue the blog post or leave. You want your introduction to explain to the reader exactly what value they will get from the post. It is similar to the abstract of a research paper (a concise summary of the main work).

Advisably, the words you use in your introduction should be simple, sincere, and straight.

There are different types of introductions you can use for your blog posts, as explained in one of our Instagram posts.

·   An organized, paragraphed layout

Did you know that long paragraphs reduce readability and prevent your readers from scanning through the entire post? Research has discovered that most readers scan the whole post before deciding if it is read-worthy or not. 

If your blog posts contain long paragraphs, more than half of your readers will bounce out and not likely return.

Break down your paragraphs into smaller, digestible chunks.

·   A long-enough and valuable content

The content of your blog post has to answer the reader’s questions, and this is where good research comes in. You need to identify the pain points of your target audience and give them content that is beneficial to them. Your content should also contain verified facts and visual engagements.

All these features are determined during your research, i.e., the headline, the outline, and the content.

·  Links to authority websites

You might think that having an external link in your blog post will make you lose originality, but this couldn’t be more wrong. Having external links to authority websites in your niche will make your content more credible to your readers. However, please do not make it excessive.

When you talk about verified facts and statistics, you want to ensure your readers know the source.

Plus, can I mention that it is good for your SEO?

SEO writing process

Many writers have been stuck with SEO writing, or as some people call it, SEO blog writing and the frustration can make you question your writing skills. Maybe you own a website, or you hope to take your SEO content writing game to the next level as a freelancer to land high-paying clients. 

Whichever class you belong to, I’m here to guide you step by step and show you how to write a compelling, fully optimized blog post.

The SEO writing process can be tasking, but it is achievable when you follow a laid-down template.

The SEO writing process:

  • Identify your audience
  • Know your content bucket
  • Come up with topic ideas
  • Optimize the topic ideas
  • Research the topic ideas
  • Research keywords
  • Research content around the keywords
  • Create your headline
  • Create your SEO outline
  • Write your content
  • Insert visual content 

Since SEO writing skills go beyond just blog writing, most of what makes your blog posts optimized is the research you put into it before typing away at your keypads, just like I’m doing right now.

·  Identify your audience.

I cannot emphasize this enough!

If you check out our blog post on How to make money blogging in 2024 – the ultimate guide, I wrote there that one of the most significant milestones that any blogger can cross is the ability to recognize and know their target audience. Why is this important?

Your target audience is the one interested in your content and will want to click open that blog post because it addresses either their curiosity, fears, or pains. If you don’t know your target audience, you cannot create content relevant to a specific group of people. 

You end up with no niche and no audience.

When you know your audience, you begin to find out about their pain points by doing surveys, checking out the posts of others in your niche, checking out commonly searched words, and direct interaction with people in that niche.

·  Know your content bucket.

A content bucket is a segment of the entire content you want to relay to your audience. Each content bucket should address various aspects of your business while also reflecting your overall message as a brand/business.

Content buckets are vital because they help you narrow down your ideas and distribute content across your audience.

For example, if you are a fashion blogger, your content bucket might include accessories, dresses, color combinations, or even make-up.

When you want to write a blog post, you select the content bucket and find topic ideas around it. Check out Topic ideas for different niches HERE

·  Come up with topic ideas.

This particular process might not need you to go online because you can develop topic ideas based on your experience, expertise, and interactions with people. Otherwise, you can check other similar websites and get inspiration from their content; it is entirely legal.

I recently wrote some ideas for a friend in a different niche from mine. At first, I had no idea what topics were good and not-so-good, but I ended up checking other blogs in the same niche as hers. The summary is that the content was created while also maintaining originality.

If your content bucket of choice as a relationship expert is breakups, you might think of topic ideas like:

  • Why new couples breakup
  • How to avoid a breakup
  • How to maintain long-distance relationships
  • What ladies/men do after a terrible breakup

Mind you, these are JUST ideas and have not been verified yet.

·  Optimize the topic ideas.

For search engine optimization, you want to ensure your topic ideas are relevant to people’s interests.

This is where you use https://www.answerthepublic.com 

This site gives you a compilation of all the questions people are asking about a particular keyword.

Now that you have a topic idea, log on to the site, type in your keyword of choice (1-3 words), and watch the magic!

Take, for instance, that your keyword of choice is simply ‘breakup,’ you’ll see a screen similar to this:

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Now, you have dozens of options, and all you have to do is pick one.

The above image is just a part of the result page. You don’t have to be worried about coming up with relevant topic ideas anymore. You have over a hundred ideas in a single content bucket. Imagine having up to five content buckets! Mind-blowing!

·  Research the topic ideas.

You now have a verified idea you can use. The next step is to run that idea through Google.

From answerthepublic.com, your idea might be ‘how to break up with someone you love’ – this is what you type in Google search.

Why?

You want to compare them with existing blog posts, and you do this by checking the similar keywords used by the top-ranking websites. In addition to the keywords, you also check the headline structures and the meta description.

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

From the above example, you can see that ‘break up with someone’ is the keyword frequently used by most top-ranking websites.

Let me also share a tip with you. 

One of the points in my SEO checklists is that your focus keyword should be part of your headline and URL. To fully confirm what focus keyword others use, you can check these two places and then research that keyword.

Any website with its focus keyword in both places is knowledgeable in SEO writing, and you should visit these websites for content inspiration.

Now, you have a keyword to verify.

·  Research keyword(s).

This part is so exciting! Ubersuggest is the best keyword research website out there, in my opinion.

When you upload your keyword on ubersuggest, it analyzes that word. It gives you real-time data, including search volume, cost per click, SEO difficulty, other keyword ideas, and content ideas you can use along with the keyword you entered.

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

From the above example, you’ll notice the keyword overview, which consists of:

  • Search volume
  • SEO difficulty
  • Paid difficulty
  • Cost per click

Scrolling down, you see the keyword ideas, which give you statistics on other keywords you can use.

It shows the trend for each keyword and the top-ranking websites for it, alongside the keyword overview statistics for each keyword idea.

After this is the content ideas segment, where you see existing content with that keyword; in this case, the keyword is ‘break up with someone.’ 

The fantastic thing about this content idea segment is that it shows you the monthly estimated visits to that website and the keywords that bring this organic traffic. It also shows the number of backlinks, so you know if the website is really credible, and the number of social media links (Facebook).

You know what? You get this much information for free and even more information when you subscribe to the paid version.

The paid version, among other features, provides breakdown statistics on which device generates the highest search volume (mobile or desktop).

·  Research content around the keywords.

This is the same step as researching the topic ideas from AnswerthePublic. The only difference is that you have specific keywords to type in Google search.

In this case, your focus keyword can be ‘when to break up with someone’ or ‘break up with him’ because the search volume is 1,900 and 1,600, respectively. Also, you can still go with the focus keyword ‘break up with someone,’ which has a search volume of 1,000.

Or you can use all these keywords while deciding on one focus keyword.

For example, ‘when to break up with someone’ can be my focus keyword, while the other two can be my other keywords.

Note: One of the best SEO writing tips to hold on to is using a medium tail keyword as your focus keyword and long tail keywords as your other keyword ideas. All your keywords should not be more than five (5) or less than three (3).

If your focus keyword is ‘when to break up with someone,’ you use Google search query to find content related to that query, noting the headline and content structures.

·  Create your headline.

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

From the above SERP of the focus keyword ‘when to break up with someone,’ you can see several headline structures around the keyword.

As earlier stated, you need to have a compelling headline that will make the reader want to click on your page. Sharethrough Headline Analyzer is a good, free, and accessible platform for writing a compelling headline, and you can also use it to verify the viability of your headline.

The platform analyzes your headline’s engagement and impression scores and suggests ways you can make it better. 

Before you write out a headline, note these points for SEO:

  • Your focus keyword must be in your headline with no added word(s) in between. Use any of the formats below:
  1. Prefix, (focus keyword), suffix.
  2. (Focus keyword), suffix.
  3. Prefix, (focus keyword).
  • Your headline should not be too long to avoid being cut off like the ones below.
SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida
  • Use context words.
  • Use numbers, preferably odd numbers.

Run any headlines you come up with through the headline analyzer, follow these rules, and ensure your scores are above average.

·  Create your SEO outline.

To create your outline, check out the top-ranking websites from the Google search query you carried out.

Compare at least five (5) different websites and note their content structure.

Afterward, create your outline and include a new point that is relevant to your content. OR

You can elaborate on a point mentioned briefly in other posts.

The endpoint is to ensure you give your readers added value; that will be the reason your post is preferred to others.

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida
SAMPLE SEO-OPTIMIZED OUTLINE

·  Write your content.

You have your keywords, outline, and content inspiration. All you have to do is write.

However, it is important to know that writing isn’t just writing. When it comes to an optimized post, you have to be intentional and a little bit technical, especially when it comes to the placement of your keywords, links, images, and even your subheadings.

Here are my favorite SEO content writing tips to keep in mind when writing your optimized blog posts:

  • Go straight to the point.
  • Use simple English (8th grade English).
  • Include your keywords in your sub-headings.
  • Allow sentence flow between paragraphs.
  • Build from the basics.
  • Include relevant internal and external links.
  • Use the right formatting style.
  • Use AI minimally.
  • Integrate keywords naturally.

·  Insert visual content.

Your SEO blog post isn’t complete without visuals. Make sure your images’ sizes are small to reduce your site’s loading speed.

Also, add Alt texts to your images; this is very important for SEO.

If you follow these SEO writing processes, your blog posts will be sure to make the front pages.

If you need me to assist you with your SEO writing, or you need more detailed and vocal coaching, you can set up a meeting with me HERE or check out our SEO writing services.

How to choose the best blogging platform for your blog in 2024

You are probably finding it difficult to decide on a particular blog platform to use for your website because you are swamped with several options that seem good; but, are they great? Which of these several platforms is the best blogging platform? And why?

This is what you are about to find out

Each of the platforms available come with its own perks and disadvantages. Weighing the benefit-risk ratio will enable you to determine which of these platforms is best for you. 

Each of the best blogging platforms available come with its own perks and disadvantages. Weighing the benefit-risk ratio will enable you to determine which of these platforms is best for you.

What are blogging platforms?

Blogging platforms are majorly softwares that allow you to create, manage and publish contents on a website.

These platforms are like the land on which you build a home for your website to be able to house several posts/uploads. 

It is important to be deliberate in your choice of blog platform because the platform you choose should be able to help your website grow optimally; this implies that you cannot be lax about your choice. 

The differences between these blogging platforms can range from cost, type, customizable themes to choice of ads and hosting services.

Keep in mind that your blog cannot grow past the boundaries of whichever platform you decide to use. 

I have carefully curated 10 popular blogging platforms that are trending right now and outlined the pros and cons of each of them. Out of these ten (10) platforms, you will have to narrow it down to the best according to your preferences.

10 BEST BLOGGING PLATFORMS

1.   WordPress.org

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

WordPress.org is among the popular blogging platforms in the digital space. It powers over 41% of all websites on the internet. WordPress.org is free and enables you to build the website of your choice in barely an hour. It is a self-hosted platform that gives you the liberty to choose your domain name and web hosting provider.

Building a WordPress.org website will cost you $100 to over $30,000, depending on your requirements. Although WordPress.org is free, it requires you to have a domain name that costs $14.99 per year and a self-hosting that starts with $7.99/month.

Pros:

● WordPress.org enables you to have authority over every sect of your blog.

● It grants you unlimited access to over 56,000 free WordPress plugins.

● WordPress.org is very compatible with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

● It gives you the liberty to select from thousands of free themes and customize the website of your choice.

●    WordPress.org is the best blogging platform for you to make money because it allows you to build an online store, create online courses, and have paid membership programs.

Cons:

● There is a need to garner some experience and training to manage your website effectively.

● You are solely responsible for the control of your back-ups and security.

2.   WordPress.com

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

WordPress.com, compared to WordPress.org, offers a primary blogging platform which is also simple to use and specially tailored for beginners.

WordPress.com gives you the liberty to have your hosting name. In WordPress.com, if you want to advance your site, you can purchase your custom domain name that comes with extra features, such as more storage space, an eCommerce store, more themes, and other unique features depending on the package you are paying for.

A personal plan for WordPress.com costs $4 per month, which is billed yearly. Click here WordPress price list to see the price for their other plans.

Pros:

● WordPress.com is easy to use.

● It requires no technical expertise.

● There is a guarantee for a free website that has WordPress.com as its domain.

Cons:

● Limitation of customization tools for your website.

● You cannot run your ads; instead, WordPress.com runs its own.

● Your site will be deleted if you violate its terms and services.

● The free themes available are not much; you have to.pay to get access to the others.

● You do not own a unique URL.

● Google Analytics can only be used if you upgrade to their premium plan.

● You cannot own a personal online store in WordPress.com.

3.  Blogger

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Blogger is among the oldest and free blogging platforms and is owned by Google.

Blogger is free with a blogger subdomain that ends with blogspot.com. If you want a custom domain, you need a third-party domain registrar.

Pros:

● Blogger is free, and hosting is easy.

● It requires no technical expertise to run.

Cons:

● Blogger doesn’t allow you to add extra features as your blog gains popularity.

● Google can suspend your blog anytime.

● The themes on Blogger are quite poor.

● Blogger is boring and doesn’t have advanced features to make your blogging journey enjoyable.

4.  Squarespace

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Squarespace is also among the best blogging platforms because it allows you to design your website in a few minutes. Squarespace is known for having outstanding designs that can be created in minutes. It comes with Artificial Intelligence (A.I).

Squarespace plans begin with $12 per month with unlimited storage. The pricing for its online store starts at $18 per month.

Pros:

●    Editing and customizing your blog is easy with its drag-and-drop feature.

●    It has many templates to choose from.

●    Their templates give your blog an exceptional design.

●    It is effortless to edit your pages with Squarespace.

●    Squarespace gives you marketing tools to add newsletters and eCommerce to your blog, which will result in profitability and a growing audience.

Cons:

●    There is no free plan in Squarespace.

●    Lack of expansion for the marketing tools and integrations.

●    Building a website is time-consuming.

5.  Wix

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Wix builds website platforms, but apart from using it to build a website, it is a platform to start your blog. Wix is mobile-friendly, and creating a website on Wix is easy. You do not need any technical expertise to do so.

Wix comes with a free plan, and the start paid packages begin with $4.50 per month.You can also check their other paid packages here.

Pros:

●    No technical expertise is required to create a website on Wix.

●    It is easy to manage and control your website on Wix.

●    You can customize your site to your taste because it provides templates and third-party apps to choose from.

●    Wix comes with lots of free stock images.

Cons:

●    There are limited free apps on Wix.

●    A free account comes with Wix.com subdomain plus Wix advertisements.

●    There are limited eCommerce features on Wix.

●    You can’t change any chosen template.

●    Your site cannot be migrated to another host.

6. Constant Contact Website Builder

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Constant Contact Website Builder is known for its email marketing service. It is also best known for its eCommerce platform and website building. This website builder takes you through a step-by-step process of building a website, unlike Wix. Creating a website with Constant Contact Website is easy and can be done in minutes.

Constant Contact has three price packages: a free plan, a starter plan at $10 per month, and a business plan at $20 per month.

Pros:

● There are many free plans available.

● You aren’t overwhelmed by so many features.

● They add a free SSL certificate to any plan.

● Constant Contact is easy and quick to setup.

● Ithelps in hosting your website for you.

Cons:

● Designs are flat and boring.

● The features on Constant Contact Website Builder are not advanced.

● Third-party plugins and platforms are limited.

● Exportation of your website from Constant Contact Website Builder is difficult.

● You can encounter backend problems from time to time.

7. Gator by HostGator

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Gator is a website builder created by HostGator. It includes a drag-and-drop tool for creating blogs, online stores, or even a big business website.

It costs $3.5 per month for the starter plan, and it comes with a free domain and an SSL certificate.

Pros:

● No technical knowledge or expertise to set up your website.

● They include a free domain and an SSL certificate in the starter plan.

● Easy drag-and-drop builder tools to design your website.

● HostGator handles all backups, performances, and security.

●    You can add an online store to your blog.

Cons:

● There is no free version; you are only limited to a 45-day refund policy.

● Limitation of the online store features.

● The apps and extensions are also limited.

8.  Tumblr

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform designed for short forms of blogging. It comes with social network features. This blogging platform is best for someone who takes blogging as a hobby or for personal purposes.

Pros:

● Tumblr is easy to set up and manage.

● It hosts your blog for free with tumblr.com as its sub-domain.

● It is easy to publish your images and videos with Tumblr.

● It comes with social features such as re-blogging and sharing.

● The built-in community makes you visible.

Cons:

● You cannot do extensive blog writing with Tumblr.

● You do not have control of your Tumblr site.

● Tumblr comes with limited features.

● Backup is difficult.

9. Ghost

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Ghost is a free blogging platform, and it is very similar to WordPress. The only difference between Ghost and WordPress is that Ghost Focuses on blogging, writing, and publishing.

Ghost helps you create a membership community with your blog and makes it possible to monetize your blog.

The self-hosted version of Ghost needs a custom domain for about $14.99 per year,and its web hosting starts from about $7.99 per month.

Pros:

● Ghost is self-hosted and gives you control more than any other blogging platform.

● It is easy to monetize your blog with Ghost.

● It is easy to be self-hosted with Ghost.

Cons:

● It is difficult using Ghost because it is self-hosted.

● It requires technical expertise to use Ghost.

● There are a limited number of themes.

10. Medium

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Medium is a site where you share your thoughts and ideas with a broader audience. It is mainly focused on blogging and has limited features to monetize your blog.

Pros:

● Medium enables you to focus mainly on writing instead of designing a website.

● It requires no technical knowledge to setup.

● It has a beautiful user interface.

● Medium is best for the expression of thoughts and opinions.

● It connects you to other readers and writers.

Cons:

● Medium has limited features to customize your brand.

● You cannot use your domain name unless you pay for a custom domain, which costs $5 per month or $50 per year.

● Limited marketing options for monetizing your sites.

Differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com

Do you know that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are not the same? Many people mix up the two, but they are entirely different. As a result of this confusion, many bloggers select the wrong blogging platform. It’s amazing the world of difference between ;org’ and ‘com’.

In the key points below, you will see the significant differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

1.   With WordPress.org, you can make money from your site by running your ads without sharing your earnings with anyone. However, with WordPress.com, your users see those ads, and you can’t make money from it, except you upgrade to a paid WordPress.com plan starting from $48 per year.

2.   In WordPress.org, you own your website and all its information. Your site will not be suspended or deleted, while in WordPress.com, your site can be deleted at any time if they think it violates their terms of service.

3.   WordPress.org allows you to upload WordPress plugins and applications to your website. But it is not the case with WordPress.com.

4.   In WordPress.org, you can customize your site the way you desire, while in WordPress.com, you cannot upload any free themes. Free plan users can only download from the free theme collection, while premium and business plan users can select premium themes.

5.   With WordPress.org, you can use powerful tools like Google Analytics for analytics and tracking. However, with WordPress.com, there is a restriction of statistics because you cannot add Google Analytics. Only business plan users may install Google Analytics.

6.   In WordPress.org, you can use self-hosted WordPress to create an online store to sell your digital or physical products or have a paid membership program, while WordPress.com does not offer any eCommerce plans unless you switch to the business or VIP plan.

What to look out for when choosing a platform?

First, what do you desire in a blogging platform? If you are just starting your blogging journey with little or no knowledge about blogging, you want to set up an easy-to-use and configure blog preferably with a free option.

You also want a platform that is fully optimizable for your niche as there are platforms that are more specific for a particular blog type while there are also some platforms that are configurable to suit all niches.

While you would want to start with a blogging platform that is not complicated, it is also best to think of your blog’s future in the long run. Therefore, in choosing a blogging platform,determine what is sustainable and profitable.

You don’t want to pay for something you cannot use, therefore it is best to opt for a free plan on the website of your choice where you can then transition to the paid option after getting the hang of it.

As you gain more experience, it is expected that you might want to restructure your website (like we did!); this means that you want to opt for a platform that allows you to make changes without overriding your site’s growth overtime.

Conclusion

Now, you’ve read through and seen a lot of amazing benefits that each of these platforms have and sincerely, I feel like you might be faced with a tough decision so I’ll help you out.

To decide on which of these blogging platforms is best for you, make a list of what you need your ‘future’ blogging platform to have; for instance, you might need a blogging platform that allows you to choose your own ads or one that allows you to personalize themes.

After you are done with your checklist, compare and select the platform that can check off between 90%-100% of your list (it is possible).

If you need personalized coaching or more clarity on the best blogging platform to choose, you can book a free 1:1 strategy session with us here.

Perhaps I can tell you which of these platforms I favor and why!

READ ALSO: 15 free blog topic generators for irresistible blog posts inspiration

Blogging Communities-Pinterest

TOP 19 BLOGGING COMMUNITIES FOR MASSIVE BLOG GROWTH & SUPPORT

If you’ve ever felt alone in your blogging journey, it is a sign that you need to have a community, and there are many blogging communities out there for you.

But first, what is a blogging community?

A blogging community is simply a way for bloggers to interact with and share ideas, pain points, challenges, and solutions. Consider a blogging community as a social platform for bloggers.

And having a community doesn’t mean you’re weak as a person or can’t stand on your own as a blogger. Instead, a blogging community is a place to get strength, support, help, and resources and make valuable contributions to another blogger’s progress.

I also see a blogging community as a place for potential friendships and long-term networking. 

Starting as a blogger, I struggled with the thought of quitting so many times. There were times I needed help with guest posting or for someone to comment on my blog posts because I wasn’t getting much traffic, and my blogging community always came through.

For real, wouldn’t it be great to know that you aren’t alone in your journey as a blogger?

Anyhoo! Now that you know what a blogging community is, let me share with you the top 19 blogging communities in the blogging world that YOU SHOULD JOIN ASAP.

Yes, there’s a special blogging community waiting for you at the end. Keep reading so you do not miss it!

What to look for in a blogging community?

I’ll give you quick tips on what to look for in a blogging community if you’re a little not sure. 

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Blogging Community goals: As a blogger, the first thing to look for in a community are the goals that bind it. What are the community’s mission, vision, and goals? Do the goals align with your goals and that of your blog?

A sense of accountability: Accountability is crucial for you as a blogger, so finding a blogging community with a sense of accountability is even vital. A community that just wings it is not a good choice. There is no sense of accountability if a community doesn’t have rules regarding goals and deadlines.

A desire to lift each other: There is no good in putting others down for the sake of competition, and if you find a blogging community with the desire to lift its members, you’ve found the right community. A community that desires its members’ success and progress is a community worth keeping.

The desire to grow: As a blogger, it is crucial to look for growth in a community. If a community is not growing, its members make no effort. WATCH OUT FOR THAT!

The greatest of all, love: What is a community without love? Find a community that has a love for all its members. Find a community that genuinely cares about you as an individual and blogger.

Let’s check out these ah-mah-zing communities…

TOP 19 BLOGGING COMMUNITIES

1. DoSplash

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

DoSplash is a new blogging community with consistent blog posts from different bloggers. There are different niches, so you do not have to worry about your niche fitting into the blogging community.

You also have the luxury of looking through other bloggers’ posts to develop ideas for your blog posts.

Check DoSplash out.

2. Blog Engage

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Blog Engage says everything about its community on its website. Blog Engage doesn’t only serve as a platform for bloggers to interact, but the community goes as far as promoting and marketing your posts to various platforms. Isn’t that amazing?

This blogging community has many community features, like adding like-minded bloggers to your list, commenting on other bloggers’ posts, private messaging, guest blogging, joining groups, and more. 

Check Blog Engage out.

3. Triberr

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Triberr is another blogging community with great features for its members. You get more shares, traffic, and so much more. You do not need to worry about promoting your blog posts, especially if you’re new to blogging.

Triberr helps you import your content and share it. You also get to meet notable influencers.

Check Triberr out.

4. Blokube

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Blokube is a great blogging community that supports the sharing and promotion of blog posts. When you submit your blog articles, there will be a review by those involved; then, your posts get shared on the main page. 

Check Blokube out.

5. Medium

SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

Medium isn’t just a blogging platform but a blogging community for bloggers out there. You get to read inspiring stories, and it’s a large platform to share your blog posts.

You also have the luxury of going over published blog posts for an idea of what to write.

Check Medium out.

6. BizSugar

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      BizSugar offers a unique space for individuals to share and explore diverse content related to business, marketing, technology, and other relevant topics. Users in the community can submit articles, blog posts, news, and other valuable content that can benefit the small business community.

      If you want an engaging and informative community to share your knowledge and insights, BizSugar might be the perfect platform for you and your blog.

      Check BizSugar out.

      7. BlogHer

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      BlogHer is an online community and media platform that offers a welcoming space for women to connect, share their stories, and participate in discussions on various topics ranging from lifestyle, parenting, health, food, and more.

      Whether you want to connect with like-minded individuals, share your experiences, or gain valuable insights, BlogHer is an excellent community for you.

      If you’re a woman who loves these topics, you might get an idea or two on what to write for your blog posts if you join the community.

      Check BlogHer out.

      8. Blogging Wizard

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Blogging Wizard is a community that offers valuable information, tips, and guides for bloggers and online entrepreneurs. It also covers a wide range of aspects of blogging, including content creation, website monetization, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media marketing, and email marketing. 

      If you want to take your blogging efforts to the next level, Blogging Wizard might greatly help.

      Check Blogging Wizard out.

      9. Blogging Tips

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Blogging Tips is a community dedicated to assisting bloggers in their journey by providing them with valuable advice, tips, and information. The community features many articles, guides, and tutorials from experienced bloggers and industry experts. 

      They are designed to help bloggers enhance their skills, grow their audience, and improve their overall performance.

      Check out Blogging Tips.

      10. The Blog Societies

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      The Blog Societies is a community that connects and supports lifestyle bloggers. It is an excellent platform for bloggers to share valuable resources, collaborate, and build long-lasting relationships within the blogging and influencer marketing industry. 

      If you think lifestyle blogging is for you, check out The Blog Societies.

      11. Copyblogger Academy

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Copyblogger Academy is an educational platform or community closely associated with Copyblogger, a well-known online resource for content marketing and copywriting. 

      This community offers many resources, such as informative blog articles, insightful e-books, and comprehensive courses.

      Check out Copyblogger Academy

      12. Blogging for Devs

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Blogging for Devs is a community platform that caters to the needs of tech creators, developers, and freelancers. It is a great place for those who want to showcase their writing skills and establish their presence in the tech world.

      If you’re a developer or tech creator and want to put yourself out there through your writing, this community is for you.

      Check out Blogging for Devs

      13. The Creative Academy for Writers

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      The Creative Academy for Writers community is a platform for writers to share their thoughts and get helpful advice from other writers.

      Writing is crucial in your blogging journey, so if you need to brush up on your writing skills, you can check out the Creative Academy for Writers community.

      14. Reddit

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Reddit may not be your typical blogging community, but it has several resources to help grow your blog. 

      When you join Reddit, you can subscribe to the subreddits that align with your interests and participate in discussions or share content related to the specific community.

      Check this specific subreddit for bloggers.

      15. Blogger Community on Google

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      If you are seeking answers to any of your blogging-related queries, the Blogger Community can be a great resource. 

      This community is known for its helpfulness and can assist you with any requests. Whether you have questions about blog design, content creation, or promotion, this community has a wealth of knowledge to help you achieve your blogging goals.

      Check out the Blogger Community.

      16. BlogAdda

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      BlogAdda is a blogging community for Indian bloggers to exhibit their writing skills, connect with other bloggers, and cooperate with brands for diverse campaigns and promotions. 

      It is an excellent place for bloggers to immerse themselves in the blogging world, share their opinions, experiences, and perspectives, and learn from other bloggers.

      Check out BlogAdda.

      17. Scoop.it

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Scoop.it is a platform for curating content, enabling users to discover, organize, and share content on particular subjects of interest. 

      By using this platform, individuals and organizations can collect relevant information from various sources on the internet, curate it into a well-organized collection, and then share it with their followers. 

      The platform also supports users collaborating to create content.

      Check out Scoop.it.

      18. Blogarama

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Blogarama is a platform designed to allow bloggers to submit and promote their blogs while also serving as a directory and community. 

      It offers a space for bloggers to display their content, connect with others in the blogging community, and expand their reach to a larger audience.

      Check out Blogarama.

      19. Blogit

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      Blogit is a platform that accepts writeups from bloggers. The platform promotes inclusivity and provides an opportunity for bloggers to showcase their work to a broad audience.

      It also has a community that fosters growth, and bloggers can always ask for help when needed.

      Check out Blogit.

      You know a few things about a blogging community already, so what are the benefits?

      5 BENEFITS OF BLOGGING COMMUNITIES

      1.     An additional support system: You might have friends and family members who support you, but there is nothing wrong with having an additional support system, especially those with similar goals. As a blogger, you definitely have some pain points you’re experiencing, and discussing them with your friends and family members might not be the best because they might not have the right advice to give you.

      However, sharing your pain points with your community of fellow bloggers is a better option because some of them might have also had similar experiences and how they overcame those pain points. A community provides that additional support your friends and family can’t give you. Sometimes, you need to listen to and learn from those who have been in the blogging world before you. It makes your journey easier.

      2.     An open door to access the blogging world: You keep learning, right? And having a community even helps by adding more knowledge to your bank of knowledge. Wouldn’t it be nice to be in a conference where you get to see and learn from great bloggers and influencers just because your community gives you that access? There are some instances where bloggers get the opportunity of a lifetime thanks to their blogging community.

      A community that desires to see its members grow will always find means of making sure its members get excellent opportunities. You might not get certain opportunities if you depend solely on yourself and your abilities. For instance, you might get to travel and meet new business people, especially if you’re focused on turning your blogging into a business.

      You might also get to attend business seminars and discuss all that is going on in your industry. The best part is you might even get people willing to invest in your business. Having a blogging community gives you golden access to golden opportunities.

      3.     A place where you can vent out your anger: You love your clients, readers, and customers, no doubt. However, there are times when you just want to stop all you’re doing because they are giving you a headache. A community where love reigns will be more than glad to provide you with tips on how to handle your relationships with your clients. They might even give you ideas on how to drive traffic to your business. Isn’t that great?!

      4.     Help you see the bigger picture: Sometimes, how we view certain things isn’t all there is to them. However, having a blogging community will help you with your limited vision.

      Let’s say you have an idea, but it’s pretty vague. You might be missing something. But someone else in your blogging community might see what you’re missing exactly. So, with the extra eye, you might get a clearer picture.

      5.     An opportunity to make valuable contributions: Having a community isn’t only about taking and receiving something; it is also about giving and contributing something valuable. There are things you might have learned as a blogger, and there are people in your community who desire to grow. Your duty as a member is to help others grow by contributing something of value to their lives.

      Even as you do this, you’re also making a good name for yourself and your business. You might not feel comfortable sharing all your secrets, but at least share with others your challenges, the difficulties you’ve faced, and how you overcame them. Who knows, there might be someone whose life would be blessed because of your story.

      I hope you can see the benefits of a blogging community.

      Let me also share what having a blogging community does not mean.

      WHAT A BLOGGING COMMUNITY ISN’T

      Having a blogging community DOES NOT MEAN:

      • You should not do any work, or you should depend totally on your blogging community. A community is basically there to support you.
      • You should always ask for financial help. The people in your blogging community also have their needs, so consider them.
      • You would do well as a blogger. It would be best if you also put in the effort. A community will mainly help when it sees you already have something you’re doing, a business you’re running, or an idea you’re implementing.
      • Your fellow bloggers would share all their business secrets or issues. Try to work things out by yourself. However, seek help when it gets overwhelming or confusing.
      • You should compare yourself with your fellow bloggers. Keep being the best version of yourself for yourself and your business. There is no reason to be toxic, and there is always room for everyone. Simply stand out and do your best.

      A SPECIAL BLOGGING COMMUNITY

      Guess what?!

      SARMLife has a blogging community, BlogAfriquė. BlogAfriquė is a blogging community by SARMLife created specifically for African bloggers to address issues that are specific to the African blogger.

      The community hosts a bi-annual retreat at the beginning of the year and closer to the end of the year to keep their community motivated. We allow our community members to share blogging-related posts, and Ruth shares helpful articles, freebies, and posts to keep members engaged and helped.

      We have so many discussions on professional blogging, monetization, preparing for brand partnerships, and everything else.  You can join BlogAfriquė here.

      SARMLife - Best SEO Company | Jacksonville, Florida

      As a blogger, you need a place to get strength, help, encouragement, and support.

      You’ve just read that a community can also serve that purpose. Please note that this post doesn’t support total dependence on a community because even your community can fail you.

      However, I encourage you to find a blogging community that desires your growth as an individual and a blogger. Find a blogging community that will push you to be the better version of yourself. Even as you find that community, be a contributor of something good to the lives of others.

      I am rooting for you!

      READ THIS: 5 Importance of blog marketing for business growth