Are you wondering how to start a blog in 2022 or should I say a successful blog then continue reading and I will cover some of the basic steps to get you on your ways!
How do you Start a Blog?
To start a blog in 2022, there are a few steps you need to follow for a successful outcome:
- Pick a niche
- Get a domain name
- Sign up for a webhosting plan
- Install WordPress
- Setup your home page
- Start writing articles based on keyword research
- Use SEO on your articles
Pick a Niche for Your Blog
This is something you want to spend time on researching to make sure the field in not overly saturated so make sure to perform keyword research. Your niche should not too small or too broad but just the right size where you have plenty of content to write about. You do not want to pigeonhole yourself into a small niche that after a few articles you cannot find any topics to write about. Then on the flip side if your niche is too broad and you are writing about different things that are not related to one another then your viewers won’t know what your brand stands for and would not follow your blog.
Decide on a Domain Name
When choosing a domain name, you want to make sure it relates to your blog content or you’re branding if that is the route you want to go down. From my experience it is always best to go with a .com domain so people feel you are more serious when you srat a blog.
Some good recommendations are to go with reputable companies like Godaddy.com or NameCheap.com.
Try to avoid long domain name or three words or more, unless finding one proves to be too difficult. Try never to use dashes or number if possible. An example of a bad domain could be “apple-pie-store.com” but maybe acceptable to use “applepiestore.com”.
When You Start a Blog, You Need to Sign up for Webhosting
There are a lot of webhosting companies out there and some are better than others so research who is hot at the time. It seems there are many companies that are merging so check out the news and try to find the ones that other the most. There are several different types of webhosting out there and all-in-one companies, so find what best suites your technical requirements.
When looking at web hosting there are a few things to consider:
- Does it have SSL included? This is key if you want to have a secure site and be able to rank on search engines like Google.
- Does it include a domain name? This saves you money initially but bare in mind they usually are only included for the first year and you have to pay after that.
- What is the monthly rate? There are many webhosting offers out there and some can be cheap for the first year or two but be aware of the renewal costs after that.
Basic webhosting is a webhosting service that requires the most amount of technical skills. These sites are just what it says webhosting for all different types of web applications where you have to install everything from scratch to get them to the level you want.
WordPress hosting site offer the most tools for blogging because like the name says it is WordPress hosting. These sites tend to have more out-of-the-box WordPress tools and optimization build right in so you can get started with no effort. These sites also feature a one click install process that installs all the blog application without having to go and install all the addons yourself.
Now there are other blog sites that are geared to the non-technical person that just want to deploy a blog with drag and drop. Sites like SquareSpace and Weebly, however the are good they are not as customizable as a WordPress site. These sites tend to be a bit more expensive and if you are on a budget maybe that won’t work for you.
Install WordPress
Like I previously stated, if you go with a webhosting plan there will be some additional work but WordPress hosting is a bit similar to start with. Either service will offer a dashboard of some sorts and installing WordPress will be easy as you just have to click install and put in the website name and admin account information. If a domain name is included, it should already be pointed at your new website however if using an outside party like Godaddy you will have to go and point your domain name at your domain name services (DNS) on your hosting plan.
Okay, now you have installed Wordpess what to do now. Well there is still work to be done before you can start a blog, you need to install a number of WordPress plugins to provide the features you want on your blog site. Maybe even install a page builder for ease of setting up your blog site, however on the newest version of WordPress it has its own page builder.
I would suggest researching what are the top WordPress plugins to install on your new site. I would start with a good SEO plugin, maybe all-in-one Yoast SEO and a security plugin like Wordfence at a minimum.
Setup Your Home Page
Now that your Worpress site is all setup, here comes the difficult part. You want to make sure your Home Page is good because this is the face of your brand. You want a brief description of who you are and what your brand is.
You want to make sure that your blog is simple to navigate so make sure to use menus with clear descriptions.
On the Home Page it is also a good idea to post either your “Recent Posts” or “Featured Posts” so your audience can easily find what you want them to see.
Think of your Home Page as more of a landing page, ultimately this is where people initially come but you want to drive them to more of your content, so not too much clutter.
Now it is Time to Start Writing Articles or Posts
When writing a post, you need to base them on keyword research. Unfortunately, if you want to get organic traffic to your site it is not always about writing a great article but a great SEO article.
When you start a blog, you want to make sure to post a minimum of 2 articles per week but 4-5 is better when getting started. In order to rank in the search engines, they need to see that you are posting regularly when they crawl your sites.
Now you want to make sure to follows these steps when writing a blog post:
- Write a headline that’s clear and compelling
- Keep your introduction short and powerful
- Use subheadings to organize the rest of your post
- Blog Post Layout is important
- Add an eye-catching visual, like a photo or infographic
- Put together an SEO-friendly URL
- Make sure you proofread before you hit publish!
Use SEO on Your Articles
Make sure your blog post is SEO friendly, meaning that you need to follow the SEO steps above and research keywords. Make sure your keyword density is good on the article and in the headings.
For good SEO you want to make sure to use “alt text” in your pictures. It is also critical to have a good “Meta Description” with keywords because when people are searching for similar content the meta descripting is what they see in the search engines.
A good rule of thumb is to link to at least 2 outside links on the web, for example someone else’s article/post of an affiliate link. Also you want to link to at least 1 link within your blog website, maybe a affiliate offer or another post, but make sure it is relevant to the content within the post itself.
Alternatively, How to Start a Blog for Free
There are free webhosting services out there you can use but not ideal to start a blog. You might end paying more, if they don’t include an ssl certificate or a domain name.
WordPress.com and Wix.com have a free webhosting that might be worth looking into, I know you can run WordPress within them I don’t believe they come with a domain name.
Starting a Blog is Easier Than You Think!
Starting a blog is simple all you need is an idea and some passion.
In this guide, you’ve learned exactly how to start a blog and how to perform SEO that will rank your content in the search engines. Now Let’s go!
