“We become what we repeatedly do.”

― Sean Covey, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People

If you are just getting started with blogging, then you are probably wondering what are the best blogging habits to develop that will lead to long-term success. After you master the basics of setting up your blog, identifying your niche and creating content, you will want to create solid blogging habits that will lead to increased traffic and growth of your blog.

Here Are The 8 Habits That Most Successful Bloggers Possess:

1) Successful Bloggers Do SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a set of tactics for attracting the attention of search engines such as Google and Bing. There are many ways of bringing people to your blog, but one of the best ways is through search engines.

94% of search traffic goes to the results on the 1st page and only 6% goes to the 2nd page.

Millions of people are out there each day using search engines to find information. When a person types a keyword into a search engine that is relevant to your niche, you want to make sure that your blog is prominently displayed in the search results. If your site cannot be found on the search engines, it is highly unlikely that many people will see it.

Search engines are computer programs that evaluate and rank all the sites on the Internet. SEO plugins such as SEOPressor understands the algorithms employed by search engine and take advantage of them in order to create content that search engines will like. This usually involves adjusting different factors on your blog’s pages. It also involves earning links to your blog from other authoritative sources.

The explosion of content is also one of the reasons why all bloggers need to do SEO. Every day, there are millions of content being posted up on the internet. Just look at the infographic below to have an idea how much data is being published every minute.

Blogging is no longer just about creating good, high-quality content. You’ll also need to make sure you blog posts are search engine optimized in order to gain any traffic, otherwise, your content (regardless of how good it is) will just be another piece of content buried deep under the search engine pages.

If you are not doing much in the way of SEO right now, then you should start trying to learn some of the basics and implementing them on your blog.

2) Successful Bloggers Pay Attention to Data and Analytics

If you want get your message out and grow the audience for your blog, then you will want to measure the effects of any strategies that you deploy to do this. You can utilize Google Analytics to find out valuable information about the traffic on your site.

You can find all sorts of data on Google Analytics that will help you understand both your website and your audience’s behaviour

Tools like BiQ can help you keep track of all your website’s keyword rankings over time and also help you find out all of the keywords that it is ranking for. And, you can also do the same for your competitor’s website, which will give you valuable insights and advantage over them.

You are probably paying attention to the number of visits to your blog; however, you can drill down even deeper here and look at the number of visits to each page. This can give you an idea of what content is most popular with your audience. Then you can focus more on that particular content.

Looking at your bounce rate can tell you whether you need to improve the quality of your content in order to keep people on your blog for a longer duration.

If you are trying to build a subscriber list, analytics like the click-through rate are important.

Successful bloggers study their analytics to try to improve the quality of their blog and achieve their marketing and monetization goals. If you want to reach a larger audience, then you need to learn how to interpret the traffic data for your blog.

3) Successful Bloggers Are Tuned In To Trending Topics

There are always current events and new stories in any field that attract attention for a short period of time. Successful bloggers take advantage of these trending topics to attract traffic to their blogs.

For example, if you have a blog on Internet marketing, and you know that Google is releasing an algorithm update, you may want to post something on this new Google update. This topic is likely to get increased search traffic in the short-term, so you want to have a post on it to attract new visitors.

You can also pay attention to seasonal trends. A blog on consumer technology might post a review of great technology gifts in the weeks before Christmas to attract new visitors looking for gift ideas. New Years is a great time for health and fitness blogs to post about the best ways to get in shape for the coming year.

The key is to anticipate likely trends and quickly develop a post on this topic. If you can put together an effective and informative post about a trending topic, you can draw more visitors to your site based on their interest in the topic. Some of these visitors will convert into regular readers and subscribers.

Guide in Becoming The Perfect Inbound Marketer

• 10 must-have qualities of a perfect inbound marketer.
• Proven examples on applying the best inbound marketing techniques.
• Compact guide with less fluff!

4) Successful Bloggers Are Authentic

You need to be passionate about your niche in order to attract visitors.

Your posts should express your authentic interests and perspective on your niche. Don’t just start a blog on craft beer and home brewing just because you think it is popular. People will sense that you don’t really care about the niche. Make sure your blog is about something that you enjoy.

5) Successful Bloggers Build Relationships

The people who read your blog are looking for more than just something to read. They are looking for a community to be a part of and interact with.

Great bloggers are responsive to the community that forms around the blog. They can personalize content by creating blog posts around the comments and questions of the readers. This helps readers feel involved with the blog. Bloggers should also be active in responding in comments to blog posts and on social media.

In addition, successful bloggers develop relationships with other bloggers within their niche. Good bloggers take part in an ongoing conversation about the relevant issues in the field. Having good relationships with bloggers in your field and related fields allows you to develop your ideas and promote your blog.

6) Successful Bloggers Go for Depth

There is a lot of fluff floating around the Internet. The same basic advice is repeated again and again. Successful bloggers have to move beyond the obvious to develop unique and useful content for their readers. If you just re-hash what everyone else is saying, no one is going to spend time reading your blog.

When you are thinking about a blog post, do a Google search to find out what other people have already said. Then you can position your post as a unique perspective on the issue. If a lot of introductory materials have been posted, you can take it to the next level for your audience.

You could even survey your audience to see if they have any particular questions or concerns that they would like you to address. This will help you to keep a fresh stream of content flowing on your blog.

7) Successful Bloggers Are Consistent and Focused

The first step to successful blogging is posting consistently. Set a reasonable schedule for posting that you can keep. If you promise that you are going to post 3 times a week, make sure you do. You don’t want to post 10 posts one week, and then nothing for a month. Your audience will not be loyal if you are erratic.

You also want to stay focused on your topic. If your blog is about gardening, then you should not write a review of your favorite cell phone. If you want to post on another topic, then start another blog.

You also want a consistent tone. If your tone is detached and professional then you need to maintain this in all your blog posts. If your tone is conversational, keep it that way for all your posts.

8) Successful Bloggers Are Always Learning

One key to successful blogging is curiosity that drives ongoing learning. Bloggers are always looking to cultivate their knowledge both in and outside of their niche. They are constantly reading in order to have the latest information. This helps them to generate the ideas that they need to create new content regularly.

You want to be well read in your niche and areas related to your niche. In addition, you want to read books about Internet marketing, blogging and social media so that you are in on the latest developments. Then you want to read widely about subjects that interest you.

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In A Nutshell

Develop these 8 blogging habits and you will start to see the traffic to your blog increase. And as your audience grows, so does your capacity to monetize your blog. You will be on the path of becoming a highly successful blogger by adopting these 8 blogging habits.

Related Links:

• The 10 Qualities Of A Good Inbound Marketer [Infographic]
• How to Quickly Fix These 11 Major Blogging Mistakes Made By Newbies
• Blogging Tip: Write In Conversational Tone To Increase Readership
• 10 Blogging Tools That Will Make You A Better Blogger

[This blog post was originally written and published by Zhi Yuan on May 8, 2015. It is most recently updated by Allysa on Jun 02, 2020]

Guide in Becoming The Perfect Inbound Marketer

• 10 must-have qualities of a perfect inbound marketer.
• Proven examples on applying the best inbound marketing techniques.
• Compact guide with less fluff!

Updated: 20 November 2024

About Allysa

Allysa is always eager to learn something new whenever she got some free time and that includes SEO and inbound marketing. She also has a passion for traveling and discovering the unknowns.