Blogging is not anything new. The blogging landscape, however, is dynamic and everchanging.
Blog posts, for example, have evolved from long and boring blocks of text to engaging, visual, and interactive content gems. Blogs now are not limited to diary-entry like format but cover a range of useful information on a variety of topics.
Amid this changing landscape, it is important to stay informed about the latest blogging trends to stay competitive and relevant. That is why we have curated this list of five of the hottest blogging trends of 2024.
Read this post to find out what these trends are and how they can benefit you.
Mobile-Friendly Blogs Rule
Mobile devices now account for a majority of web traffic and this share will grow further in the future. More and more people are using mobile phones for online browsing on-the-go.
What’s more?
A lot of people open a blog post from a link shared on social media or messenger apps. And, as people use these apps primarily on their mobile phones, they also access the blog posts via mobile.
This means that it has become important for bloggers to make their blogs mobile-friendly.
If your blog is not optimized for mobile, then it will load slowly or images might get distorted. This will cause a negative browsing experience for your audience and they might just leave.
After all, no one has the patience or attention span to wait for a blog post to load. They can very easily go back to social media or their search results and keep browsing for other content.
Therefore, many bloggers are now taking measures to optimize their blogs for mobile devices, and so should you.
Video and Other Visual Content Continue to Dominate
Video is the most engaging form of content and its use has grown quickly in recent years. This also includes the use of videos in blog posts and on your website’s landing pages to get more engagement.
In fact, many content marketers swear by the effectiveness of video content and incorporate it into their content mix.
HubSpot surveyed 3,400 global marketers and found out that video content is the most important component of their content strategies.
Given how important videos are, it is time for you to start using them in your blog posts right now. You can create tutorial videos or product reviews or use videos as examples to explain the points in your blog post.
Find innovative ways to use video content on your blog and improve your audience engagement.
The use of infographics, GIFs, and other visual content is also effective for increasing audience engagement. You can use tools like Gifographics.co to create engaging visual content for your blog.
Increase in Use of Topic Clusters
Bloggers are realizing the value of using topic clusters and are increasingly adopting this trend.
Topic clusters are very effective for engaging readers.
How? You can use internal linking to direct your readers to related content on your website.
This increases the time that they spend on your website, thus signaling to the search engines that users find your website useful and relevant. It also helps establish your website as an authoritative one in your blog niche.
Using topic clusters also improves your organic traffic and search rankings. According to previously-cited research by HubSpot, the use of topic clusters helped them increase their organic traffic by 25% YoY. It also helped them rank higher for 2 million keywords.
Therefore, use topic clusters to keep your website visitors engaged for a longer duration of time and improve your chances of ranking higher on the Google SERPs.
Frequency Matters
One of the latest trends that has emerged is that bloggers are increasing their frequency of posting to stay competitive. There is a sea of content online and it is extremely difficult to get noticed. Posting high-quality, relevant content frequently is one way around it.
According to research by HubSpot, the optimal posting frequency for small blogs is 3-4 times a week and for large blogs, 4-5 times a week. This is the frequency at which you can get the maximum organic traffic.
In general, the higher your posting frequency, the more organic traffic you will get. This means that if you have the capability to post daily or more frequently, then go ahead and do that.
However, this does not mean that you should compromise on quality and just focus on quantity. That, for sure, is not going to work.
What you need to do is to come up with a content plan that maintains a good balance between quality and quantity. Think about how many blog posts you can realistically create and post in a week, depending on your current resources. Make a plan and then stick to it.
Also, don’t forget to promote your blog and don’t expect people to just find it via organic search. It is good to get organic search traffic, but you can’t rely on it alone.
Listicles and How-To Content Remain Popular
When it comes to the best types of posts, listicles (articles with numbered lists) and how-to posts are definite winners.
The reason why people like lists is that this type of posts is highly scannable. You can simply go through the headings without having to read the entire post.
Listicles are easy-to-read, provide actionable insights, and make a specific promise. Even before reading a listicle, you know exactly how many points, tips, names, etc. you will get.
This kind of assurance makes people click on listicles first over lengthy, text-heavy articles.
How-to guides, on the other hand, work because of their usefulness. They teach something specific and cater to a specific audience.
Anyone who wants to learn a process or way of doing something will find such guides useful. They will also use search queries that will lead them to such content.
What you can do to stand out is to make your how-to guides as easy-to-read and scannable as possible. Use a numbered, step-by-step process with images wherever possible.
Divide it into proper sections and subsections, use bullet points, and add lots of visuals.
You can leverage writing tools to optimize your content and get more engagement on your posts.
Conclusion
Keeping up with the latest trends in your field is important for everyone, including bloggers. This post covers five of the latest blogging trends for 2024.
Leverage these trends for your blog and increase your blog traffic and engagement rate.
