Last updated on October 8th, 2021
Blogs bring to the fore almost all of social, personal and commercial issues. But not all the blogs are successful in interacting with a larger audience. In fact, many of them go unnoticed. Only select few of them are subscribed by increasing number of readers. So, what are the parameters to identify a good blog?
A common factor that separates a successful blog from a failed one is credibility. Readers visit a blog to get some valuable fresh information to add to their knowledge on an issue.
They must get the satisfaction of learning something new from the site. A blog gets an increasing number of visitors from its credibility of providing updated information every time.
However, a blogger must have an authentic tone while discussing an issue. The readers get an assurance about the genuineness of content if it comes from an expert. So, the blogger should present himself as an expert on the issue being discussed.
The expertise comes from having a first-hand experience of handling a problem to provide a solution. At the same time, language and presentation of the information also should create an image of the blogger is an expert. This means that regular contribution of content is crucial to a trustworthy blog.
But what noticeable factors are responsible for lending credibility to blogs. In a survey conducted by a website, 68.52% readers believed that blogs added credibility to websites. And, 30% of the surveyed readers believed that quality content is the main reason behind credibility of a blog.
According to the survey, regular publication of content is the second biggest factor for a blog’s credibility. Good blog design was seen as the third major contributing factor for the trustworthiness while others included good social media presence, good authors as well as positive testimonials references, number of comments, number of visitors and high number of subscribers. A blogger should pay attention to all of them.
What type of content lends credibility to blog? When survey asked this question to the readers, a majority of 44.44% favored written article. Also, 19.44% of them cited eBooks such as white papers, guides and reports contributing to the credibility factor.
Visuals such as infographics as well as audio and video, webinars, portfolios and slides are also important for truthfulness of blogs.
Another parameter to judge credibility of a blog is its presence in social media. More than 41% readers rate a blog higher if its blog posts receive more social media shares and 31.48% rate the blog higher if it gets increasing number of followers.
Social media mentions, score on social influence measuring tools and social media updates were cited by the readers in the survey as other reasons for credibility of a blog. This implies that you must display add and share buttons on your blog post. Also, make sure to mention the number of times the post has been shared.
Credibility of a blog can also be assessed on its author’s profile. A majority of the readers in the survey say that blogs having multiple authors in its fold are more trustworthy than the blogs with singly authors.
Similarly, guest posts are also cited a big reason to maintain quality of content and to build relationship with the audience. So, the lesson here is to invite multiple authors to write for your blog.
In terms of category of content, 36.11% of the surveyed readers rated the blogs hire due to case studies and 27.78% for ‘How-to’ content type. News, stories, interviews and reviews were also responsible for good rating of a blog for making it credible.
The survey results surely give you an insight in building creditability of your blog.
