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Beginning any blog takes time and dedication. Unfortunately, starting a successful beauty blog will take more than usual. Because of 600 million active blogs, there is some stiff competition out there. Not only are there multiple well-known and established sites already, yet you will have to compete with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook influencers like Kim Kardashian. While that’s a challenge, it’s not impossible with the following tips.
Locate a Niche from Within
One of the critical factors when developing a blog of any kind is identifying a niche with which you can work. In a nutshell, a niche is the focal topic of your site. While it’s easy to think of a niche, such as beauty, for example, you will have a hard time ranking with such a broad term.
This is because there are so many established quality beauty sites out there. So instead, you need to drill down into a category and develop a blog based on a specific sub-category.
Using this method, it is unlikely there is much competition:
- First, identify a category: we will use “beauty” as an example.
- Next, choose a large online retailer: Go to Amazon.
- Use the existing types: Go to the beauty department.
- Next, pick a sub-category: Let’s say, Hair Care.
- Then a product niche: Hair extensions and wigs are a bit off-beat.
Here, hair extensions and wigs are the niche market. While many online sites offer hair extensions and wigs, there are likely not many bloggers writing about the subject. You could even go further and focus your niche on human hair wigs or something similar.
However, you should also ensure there is a market for your niche. It’s no good writing about something nobody searches for. You can use keyword tools like SemRush, Jaaxy and UberSuggest to ding niche-related keywords.
Focus on Relevant Content
Of course, a blog is nothing if its content doesn’t stack up. As a blogger, you need to focus on developing quality content that is related to your niche. Another specific niche could be “makeup for busy mothers”, for example. Unfortunately, many new bloggers make the mistake of writing as much as possible to fill out their blogroll without thinking of quality. This will only hurt your ranking rather than help boost it.
Some excellent post examples for the chosen niche of makeup for busy mothers could be “Top 5 Tips to Get Makeup on Before the Kids Get Up” or “Lipsticks that Last all Day”.
The list is almost endless, and if you focus on your niche, you are likely to rank for that subject. Yet coming up with titles and content is only part of the process. You also need to identify keywords.
You can use keyword research tools for this, and once identified, you can insert them into your posts as follow:
- 1 focus keyword: use in title, description, first paragraph and URL.
- 3 support keywords: use each no more than times throughout your text.
- Relevant links: 1 internal, 1 to 2 external.
Using keywords this way ensures a search engine has a better idea about your posts. And they won’t be seen as subject to keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing tries to boost ranking by overusing specific keywords throughout the irrelevant or poorly written content.
Supplement Your Blog
One of the most misunderstood things about the way the web works is its flow. This means the flow of links and other relevant content which weaves throughout posts and sites. So, for example, you can build what is known as “link juice” to boost your rankings by using backlinks. Backlinks are relevant links to your content from external sites. In turn, you can do the same for others by including external links to their content from your relevant posts.
In addition, you should try to place images, and video embeds in your posts where possible. Your site can rank using images. However, they should be used when relevant, and you need to set image alt attributes accordingly. For example, always use a keyword in the URL of the image, the image Alt tag and its name, as well as a meaningful description:
- URL name: makeup-tips-busy-mums
- Image SEO name: Essential Makeup Tips for Busy Mums
- Alt: Picture of a middle-aged mother applying foundation to the left side of her face..
Always make sure you have the necessary rights to use an image or use freely sourced content from sites like Pixabay and Pexels unless the image belongs to you. Using unlicensed photos can get you in serious trouble, and your site might be shut down due to a cease and desist order.