The value of writing Engaging College Blog Posts goes beyond campus activities and students. Blogging is also one of the most cost-effective SEO activities for increasing online visibility. Starting a blog may be daunting if you do not have someone assigned to write or are unfamiliar with your CMS. That is why deciding on these two aspects before launching your blog is essential.
Here are 10 quick steps to start writing Engaging College Blog Posts:
1. Pick your topic: Although your blog posts should include news about your programs and what is happening at your school, do not make the same mistake many schools make by pushing their content and making their blog a blatant marketing tool that only serves the Marketing department. Whether your career college specializes in dentistry or your community college is reputed for its business programs, make sure your posts are useful to students and prospects: news about the industry, about community partners, about alumni succeeding in the career path your current students have chosen, etc. Create a list of blog topics. Your posts can be news-based or more research-based, but they must be relevant. Listen to your current students to learn what is on their minds and what may attract other students to your school. Use an editorial calendar or this blog sheet (DOC) to help define monthly themes and make content creation and coordination easier within your team.
2. Pick your keywords: A tool like Google Analytics will allow you to see how your college or university ranks concerning specific keywords. It also shows you variants of your keywords that are being used online and for which you can choose to try and rank. Remember that keyword ranking depends on several factors, including SEO, PPC, and web development. Regarding the blog, be sure you use at least one of these keywords in each post and that they appear in the link’s anchor text.
3. Do your research: The goal of a college or university blog should be to present unique perspectives on matters of interest. Your research will help you determine what has been written on the topic and what you can add to it. It is also a way to gather useful references for your posts. These references are what you will use to create links in your blog.
4. Write, write, write: Blog posts do not have to be a specific length, but typically, you should aim for your posts to run between 500 and 700 words. We’ll leave the brilliant ideas and perspectives up to you, but as far as form and structure go, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Craft a key-rich title that will pique your reader’s curiosity: a question, an intriguing statement about their industry, something most of your students are doing wrong (3 Deadly Sins of College Freshmen), or are doing well (5 Secrets of Successful Chiropractic Students).
- Make your points scannable: Make it easy for your readers to know what the article is about by simply scanning through your bullet points. Bullet points will also ensure you stay to the point throughout the drafting process.
- Optimize your blogs for search engine crawlers (https://www.higher-education-marketing.com/blog/writing-web): Your blogs have a secondary, but just as important, audience to satisfy: search engine crawlers. Optimizing your blog posts will help search engines position your content.
- Call to action: Ensure you end each post with a call to action. Invite your readers to comment and interact with you. “Tell us what you think about…” is a good conversation starter.
5. Add links: Your blog posts should include 2 or 3 links: 1 should be an entering link (going to one of your website’s main pages), and the others can be external links. Some posts will demand more links than others, but try to hover around a maximum of 1 link for every 200 words.
6. Add a visual: Make sure each post is visually appealing. You can find great visuals online or create your own. Pixlr, http://pixlr.com, is one of the tools we use regularly. It is excellent for adding text or editing some visuals within 15 minutes. Here are other free tools to create visuals or have fun with: Add links to visuals.
7. Post your blog post: Always fill in the category, description, tags, and meta-tag sections on the Dashboard. The more fields you can fill, the better it will be for SEO. 
8. Measure and optimize: As with any marketing activity, measuring is key to knowing what works and where to make tweaks. Google Analytics metrics will help you see which posts are most popular and what your audience cares about.
9. Share your content on social bookmarking sites: Social bookmarking is a great way to give visibility to your blog posts while building links, another pillar of SEO for Higher Education. All you need is to create an account for your school on social bookmarking sites and share your content there. Stumble Upon, Reddit, and Delicious are some of the ones we use most often, but hundreds are out there. Find those where your students are, Share with them, follow them, and respond to their comments.
10. Create a newsletter: After a few months of blogging, you can set up a newsletter depending on your posting frequency. A newsletter is a great way for your college or university to stay in the minds of prospects, future students, etc. The more engaging content you have to share, the more you can pluck out for your newsletter. You can add a button to have everyone on your blog long enough to sign up for your newsletter.
Here’s a helpful overview of blogging best practices from firstsiteguide.
Have you been blogging for your school? Please share any tips for making posts more engaging and visible!
FAQ To Consider
How do you start an engaging blog post?
Pick your topic: Although your blog posts should include news about your programs and what is happening at your school, do not make the same mistake many schools make by pushing their content and making their blog a blatant marketing tool that only serves the Marketing department.
