How do you measure how successful your blog is? It could be by how frequently your posts are being shared or by the traffic going to your website.

There are a number of factors that contribute to making a blog successful. Here are some of the features we think are most important.

1. Good Content

You want to write about topics that are interesting to your audience. Think about who your audience is and how the content could benefit them. Creating valuable content will entice others to share your blog posts and in turn drive more traffic to your website.

Here are a few examples of great blog topics by Unbounce.

2. Organization & Formatting

Sometimes the reader will skim your blog post prior to reading it. Make sure your blog isn’t incredibly long and that it has subheadings for important points. If your reader doesn’t have time to read the blog post from top to bottom they should still be able to get a general understanding about what the blog is about by skimming the subheadings.

Here is an example of how Marketo formatted one of their blog posts with easy to read headings.

3. Linking to Other Content

To improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) make sure you are linking to other relevant articles within your blog post. This content could be from either your website or third party websites. Not only will you be improving your SEO, you will also increase the chances of your content being found by others. It will also help your reader to find other content that could be useful to them.

Check out our blog entitled, The Perfect Post, to see how we, at VA Partners link to useful content within our blog posts.

4. Images

People love images, so make sure to include a couple within your blog post. This can include stock images, screenshots or images you have created. You also want to make sure that that thumbnail image that links to your blog post is eye catching to draw readers in.

Here is an example of a blog post HubSpot posted recently. They have taken advantage of using an infographic to help clearly illustrate their message.

5. Call-to-Action

One of the most important features of a blog post is the call-to-action. This is usually located at the bottom of your blog post and helps your reader to take the next step. Your call-to-action can include anything from a newsletter sign-up, white paper download or a sign-up for an upcoming webinar or Twitter chat.

This is an example of how HubSpot uses their call-to-action to generate inbound leads.

6. Social Sharing

Don’t forget to share your blog posts on social media. If people don’t know you exist, how are they going to find your website? By adding social sharing buttons to your blog posts you are allowing others to share your content easily.

An example is how Unbounce has used a Facebook and Twitter button directly below their blog post. This makes it easy for readers to share the content with others via social media.

Take a look at our website every Tuesday and Thursday for new blog posts. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.