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How many blogs, articles or social media posts have you seen today? Did you find them useful or even loved the content? But you probably didn't like them, leave a comment or share anything. Chances are this applies to almost 100% of the content you have seen today. I'm guilty of it too! For your blog posts and content to be seen by more people, it is vital to get shares, comments and the most coveted... backlinks. Most people are happy to help out if they can, but you have to make it easy for them.
Liking, sharing and commenting is free, so why don't we do it more often? Probably because we're not asked to, therefore, it doesn't cross our minds. We usually only take action when something is a direct benefit to ourselves, but, what if I told you that promoting other people's content does have a direct benefit to you? It is the reason you do what you do, no matter the industry you work in, you create content because you want people to see it, and so does everyone else.
Liking, commenting on and sharing other people's content can benefit you in many ways, we'll take a look at the benefits later on.
So here's the first step... Will you like this blog post and leave a comment? Ok, so it's a little early for me to be asking you this, you are still reading the introduction after all. I will ask you again later, let's see if I can inspire you to take action. Timing matters when you are asking someone to take action.
Let's jump into some ideas and strategies for creating share-worthy content and asking people to get it out there for you.
Contents:
The benefits of liking, commenting and sharing other people's content
When you take the time to like, comment on or share someone else's content, you are not just doing them a favour, you are building connections and a community within your industry. You are helping to get their content in front of more people and that can lead to all sorts of good things for them. When you help others, they are likely to help you in return.
There are plenty of benefits to be had when you put a little effort into liking, commenting and sharing other people's content. Let's take a look at some of the most important ones:
Building relationships with other bloggers and content creators.
Help others get their content in front of more people.
Making it easier for others to like, comment and share your content.
Learning new things from others in your industry.
Become known as an expert in your field.
You found them and their content, whether you happened to come across it while you were looking for something else, or you specifically went looking for information on that topic. The author of the content you found, put a lot of time and effort into creating that content and making sure it was in the right places for you to find it, the same way that you do with yours. They will be watching for likes, comments and shares, and they will notice if you take action because of their work. Quite often replying to your comment, clicking your link or page to see who you are, and maybe viewing some of your content and then leaving a comment, like or share themselves.
It doesn't stop with this one-to-one interaction either. Their content is out there for everyone to see, other people just like you will be reading it. If you leave well-written comments that contribute to the blog or social post with your point of view, then other readers will see this too. In time, you will be seen as an active member of your online community and possibly become known as an expert, an authoritative figure and someone worth listening to and interacting with.
How to write headlines that get attention
The first thing you have to do is to get someone to read your content.
Creating attention-grabbing headlines is the most important aspect of getting your content seen. If people don't even click on the link to read your post, you have already lost. So, how do you create a headline that will get attention?
There are a few things to keep in mind when writing headlines
The headline should be relevant to the topic of the article
It should be catchy and interesting
The headline should tease the reader and make them want to know more
There are many different formulas that can help you come up with attention-grabbing headlines. You can use listicles, questions or numbers in your headlines to make them stand out. The most important rule is to leave the reader wondering what the answer to the question is. If they want to know the answer, the only option is to read your content. Make sure the headline is relevant to the content of your piece, or you will lose them early on.
How to create content that's worth sharing
Creating written content that is worth sharing can be a challenge, especially if you don't enjoy writing content.
Your content must be interesting and provide value to the reader, but you also want to make sure that it is written in a way that makes it easy to read and identify with. Talk to your reader as if they are the only person you are talking to. Write in a way that is informal and approachable, just like you are having a conversation with them. This will make your content more relatable.
Make your content unique!
It should be all your own ideas, simply finding something interesting and rewriting it in your own words isn't going to cut it in this day and age. The latest update from Google, the 2022 Helpful Content update, now means that if you write content that is already available from other sources, with no new insights, expertise or perspective, the chances are it will never get indexed, and Google won't be showing it to anyone.
If you struggle to create well-written, readable content, you are not alone! You could consider outsourcing, here at NX Digital, we offer copywriting services, or if you don't have the budget to stretch to hiring a pro copywriter, you could try using some AI writing software like Jasper, they have all sorts of really cool tools that literally write entire blog posts with just the click of a button!
Use images and infographics that no one has ever seen before
Images and infographics are great ways to break up your text and make your content more visually appealing. But, everyone uses images, so how do you make yours stand out?
Find unique images that no one has ever seen before. This could be an original photo that you have taken yourself or an infographic that you have designed. If you use someone else's image, make sure you have permission to do so and that you credit the source.
If you want to get really creative, you could create a video instead of using images. Videos are great for social media and can be a really fun way to engage with your audience.
Asking for your reader to like your content
Did you hit that ♡ like button for this post yet? Now is the time!
Ok, so I may still be a little early to ask this. You are well into the content of this post now, and I wouldn't expect you to stop reading, scroll to the end and like the post. However, by now you probably have decided that you are going to like the post and leave a comment. I will take the chance again near the end of the post to ask you again.
When it comes to blogs and social media, likes are everything. If you want your content to be seen by more people, you need to ask for likes. Popular content gets shown to more people. This applies to Google and is part of your SEO efforts. on social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, the more popular your content is, the more people it will get shown to. How do they measure if your content is popular? You guessed it, through the interactions that your post has attracted.
Many people think that simply posting their content and hoping for the best is the best way to go, but this isn't actually the case. You need to actively promote your content if you want people to see it. This means asking for likes, shares, and comments.
There are a few different ways that you can go about asking for likes. You can post a call-to-action (CTA) in your post or add a CTA button to your website or blog.
If you want people to like your content, you have to make it easy for them.
Asking for shares
Asking for shares is a great way to get your content seen by more people. When you ask for shares, you are asking your readers to help you spread the word about your content. This can be a great way to get more exposure for your blog or website and can help you to reach a larger audience.
There are a few different ways for people to share your content. For example, in this blog post, if you are reading on my website, you can simply highlight text and Tweet it. If you hover over the images, you can see the option to share them on Pinterest. I have made it easy for people to share the content.
But that doesn't mean they will. Again, you need to ask people to share your content if you want them to. So will you? This blog post is informative and engaging, and maybe some of your followers and friends will find it useful. You can simply take the URL and post it to your social media, and tell your friends to read it. You are showing that you have an interest in content creation, sharing industry opinions and using it as a tool to engage with your own followers. It is an opportunity for you to ask them to like, comment on and share the content that you are sharing. And best of all, it doesn't cost you anything and takes less than 2 minutes to do.
(The reason I say "if you are reading on my website", is simply because I share my content around to several places, and you might be reading my content through a third-party publishing app or something similar. You can view the original copy of this post here on my website.)
Getting backlinks to your content
Getting backlinks to your content is an important part of SEO, in fact, good-quality backlinks are probably the number one contributing factor to your rankings. When other websites link back to your content, it tells Google that your content is valuable and worth linking to. This can help to improve your ranking in search results and can help you to reach a larger audience. Most backlinks you get for your website will link to your homepage. That's fine, and as long as you have a good linking structure in place on your site, the 'Link-Juice' will flow through to your other pages. If you can, however, secure backlinks to a specific page of your website, or a specific blog post, that will tell search engines that this is great content. In turn, this will boost your position in the search engine rankings.
There are a few different ways that you can go about getting backlinks to your content.
Buying Backlinks
In SEO there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. Buying backlinks is definitely the wrong way. Apart from it being strictly against the rules of Google, the effect they will have on your site is practically zero and could even result in a loss of rankings, or even de-indexing.
When you buy backlinks, you are paying for links that are pointing back to your website from another website. More often than not, they come from Private Blog Networks (PBNs), of which, Google is fully aware. They simply ignore these links, or in the worse case, if they are particularly spammy, they could down-rank or de-index you. In the end, you have paid for nothing. Yes, they will show up in the stats of your SEO tool and backlink checker, and they may even increase your Domain Authority (DA) score, which by the way, also means nothing to Google, but that's where it ends, and the actual real-world results of paid-for backlinks, is likely to be zero.
So, if you are thinking about buying backlinks, don't. Just don't do it.
Guest Posting for Backlinks
I'm sure you have heard this over a thousand times already, but guest posting gets you good backlinks. The standard advice that you will read everywhere is to find other sites in your niche and cold email them offering your services as a guest post writer. This rarely works, and probably isn't worth wasting your time on. So, how else can you secure guest posts?
Ask people you already know in your own network. This brings us almost back to the start, the benefits of liking, commenting and sharing other people's work. If you do that, you start to build relationships and networking opportunities with other website owners in your industry. The most important thing to do is tell them. Tell them that you write guest posts and you are happy to do it for them.
I write guest posts all the time for other blogs and I would probably happily do it for your blog. I write about tech, marketing, websites, SEO, eCommerce, graphic design and content creation, because that's what I am an expert in. It would be pretty useless for me to write a guest post if your niche is photography, and the backlink wouldn't be worth anything anyway.
Do you see what I have just done? I have explicitly told you that I write guest posts and I have told you the subjects I am looking to write about. Now you have this information, it is up to you if you reach out to me. But the main point here is that before I told you, you had no idea that I write guest posts. Now you do know because I told you. If you want people to like, comment on and share your content, you have to ask them. If you want people to give you backlinks, you have to ask them!
You can apply this logic to your content, add your requests to your captions or comments and see what sort of results you get.
Now, you need to be a little cautious when it comes to guest posting. Simply striking a deal with another blogger or website owner to write content for each other's posts is known as reciprocal linking, another practice that is frowned upon by search engines. The best and only way to guest post successfully is to secure one-way links. You provide them with great content for their website, for free, and they provide you with a backlink. It's a win-win situation.
Asking people to like, comment and share your content is a great way to get your content out there. When you ask people directly, they are much more likely to do so than if you just hope that they will. If you want to write guest posts and secure backlinks, you have to tell them you are willing to do so. If you want people to write guest posts for your blog, you have to ask them.
By providing information about what type of content you publish, you make it easier for others to know whether or not they can help. Building relationships with other website owners in your industry can help you secure high-quality backlinks that will improve your ranking in search results.
So now we draw to the end of this post, and the like button is in sight. This is the right time for me to ask you to like this post. While you're there, why not write a quick comment? You might share your opinion on the contents of this post, or you might want to share your niche and see if you can connect with other like-minded website owners and start building a professional relationship or you might simply want to comment on my writing style. All and any comments are welcome!
Of course, I'm also going to ask you to share this post on your social media. You have read this far, so you obviously find it useful, I bet your friends and followers will too.
Will I go all the way and ask you to backlink to this post too? Yes, you can bet that I will! Because, as the title of the post says "You have to ask for them!". Why not draw inspiration from this post, and write your own version, publish your thoughts about liking, commenting and sharing content, and make it clear to your readers and followers that you are asking them to share your content, to show you some love and to help you grow your website and business. Make sure somewhere in your post you add a link to this article, there, I just asked you for a backlink.
So, join in the conversation and contribute to someone else's success, everything always comes full circle in life, and you get back what you give. Even if you decide not to interact with this content, just keep it in mind and make an extra effort with your friends, colleagues and business network to give them a little boost whenever they publish new content.
Don't forget to Like, Comment and Share 😊❤️