You’ve taken some marketing advice and added a blog section to your website. You have learned all about keywords and how they work. Now you need interesting topics to explore to keep your content relevant for search engines. All this information might be overwhelming, after all, perfect SEO strategy is a numbers game and isn’t exactly conducive for getting your creative juices flowing, at least not at first. Coming up with new, exciting blog post ideas can be tough, especially when you’re struggling to stay original and avoid plagiarism. It’s easy to fall into the trap of rehashing old topics or directly copying other bloggers but that’s not going to help your blog grow. Here are some simple tricks for organically generating new and interesting blog post ideas to keep your blog’s content fresh and your readers engaged.
One quick tip is to research your own interests. Get inspiration from people who are writing about the same subjects you are excited to learn about in your field. Go down some rabbit holes. It doesn’t always have to be directly related to a topic you think is timely or relevant at the moment (though that can help if you’re really stuck), you can find ways to relate anything in your copy with practice. This makes it easier to create evergreen content. Evergreen content refers to anything published that can be viewed for a long time and stay relevant to the reader in some way. This is great for SEO because older posts can continue to provide value and introduce people to your blog and therefore your website as a whole. This post is an example of evergreen content, by the way.
A second way to get inspired to write something new is by looking at other blogs in your industry and checking out what topics they’re covering. Listen to podcasts for side notes for inspiration you can explore and turn into larger, unique stories. Review posts that have resonated with you before and think of ways you can add something original to the conversation. You can also search Twitter and other social media platforms by hashtag to see what people are talking about in your realm. You may be surprised at the inspiration you can find when you look beyond your own ideas of how you should be getting it. If people are having conversations about it on social media, then it is usually relevant enough to warrant a whole post. And you won’t need to copy anyone, give your own take on the things being discussed and cite your sources as needed.
Another way to get fresh blog post ideas is by looking for data related to your topic. Data can provide insights into trends, help guide decision-making, or even just provide a good story to tell. You can search the internet for relevant studies or even do your own survey of people in your industry on your Linkedin page. Use the results scaffolding to craft an interesting narrative that will engage readers and lead them to take action.
Finally, keep track of all of your ideas in a running list so you don’t forget any of them. Brainstorm regularly and keep your list organized so that you can refer back to it when you’re looking for new ideas. You never know when an old concept might spark a fresh idea or lead to something completely new and original.
Like any other skill, it takes practice to hone your ability to come up with original topics but if you start making a habit of casually researching and brainstorming on a regular basis, in no time at all you’ll have a steady stream of blog post ideas to choose from.