VIP days are a really great fit if the client is excited and aligned with my previous work. I especially love VIP days for past branding clients. Ones who need collateral or additional design services after we’ve worked together on a full brand project.

VIP Days are a popular way to offer design services that can be around 1-2 days. These intensives can be intimidating and overwhelming for clients. The best way I’ve found to keep myself and my client happy is to have a system set up and ready for the day. We use Dubsado to help manage the back end in every step of the process for our VIP Days.

In this blog post, we will explore how to use Dubsado to set up workflows for VIP Days, create a schedule for your VIP clients, and set up follow-ups.

Set up workflows for VIP Days

Once clients book a VIP day and pay the initial deposit, they get a VIP day workflow added to their profile inside of Dubsado. To create a VIP Day workflow:

• Go to your Dubsado dashboard. Click “Templates” and then “Workflows” from the side navigation menu.
• Click “Add Workflow” and name your workflow VIP Day
• Choose the actions you want to automate in the workflow. Such as sending contracts, emails, internal to-do lists, collecting payments, scheduling calls, sending deliverables, and requesting feedback.

Once you have set up your VIP Day workflow, Dubsado will automatically perform your chosen actions. Add when these tasks need to be completed. Make sure you have all the necessary parts, information, and payment before their VIP day. Set it up as a relative amount of time (3 days after they sign their contract) or a fixed day (2 days before their VIP Day).

Set a Schedule

To keep your VIP Day on track and ensure that your client stays on top of what they need to know and do on the VIP Day it is important to set a schedule. Dubsado can help you do this in several ways:

• Create a detailed itinerary of the day: I like to break down by each hour what the process will be like. Using the Notes feature in Dubsado, you can create a detailed itinerary for your VIP Day, including the topics you will cover and the times for breaks and meals.
• Use the Calendar: Dubsado’s calendar feature can help you schedule your VIP Day and ensure that you stay on track. You can create appointments, set reminders, and invite your client to the calendar event so that they know precisely when to show up.
• Send reminders: Dubsado can automatically send reminder emails to your client to remind them of the VIP Day and ensure that they are prepared.

Set up follow-ups

After your VIP Day, I like to set up a follow-up schedule as part of the workflow. I do this to thank the client again for hiring me and to get any feedback they may have about the day. You can create a follow-up workflow in Dubsado that automatically sends your client a follow-up email. You can schedule it for 3 days after or 30 days after the VIP day.

Do you have VIP days as one of your services? What systems do you use to keep the day flowing? If you’ve been thinking about adding VIP Days Start by doing a trial run VIP day. Make note of every repeatable step in your process. Then, put all those steps into Dubsado and start mapping out your workflow. This will help make the day go as smoothly as possible from the start!

A heads-up that this blog post includes affiliate links. All the words are my own and I only recommend products that I use and love.

The post How I Keep My VIP Day on Track appeared first on quillandco.design.

Keeping your newsletter design on brand is an important part of creating a cohesive and professional look for your business. Here are a few ways to help you achieve this:

Use a consistent color palette

Use the same colors throughout your designs to ensure a cohesive look and feel. We use the same link and button colors in our newsletter that we use in our branding. There are a few different places inside Flodesk to do this. Under ‘Account’, and then ‘Branding’ You can upload your brand colors here.

These 5 colors will then show up in every email. Simply choose ‘font color’ and they will show up as your options. No need to remember hex codes!

Another way to maintain a consistent color palette is by using a ‘global style’ in your emails. This ensures that the font color, link color, and background color remain consistent across all your emails, making the process seamless and repeatable.

Use the same font throughout

Choose a font that is legible while reflecting your brand’s personality. You can now add custom fonts in Flodesk. Click on ‘Account’, and then ‘Branding’. From here, you can upload your custom font.

Incorporate your logo

Incorporating your logo throughout your newsletter will help to reinforce your branding. Keeping this consistent also helps when a subscriber opens your email with a quick reminder of who they are receiving it from.

Incorporate your brand elements

Use your brand’s graphics, patterns, and other elements throughout your designs to create a unified look. Flodesk has many pre-designed layout templates. You can pick a few that work for you and repeatedly use them to make your emails feel more on brand.

Incorporate your brand’s voice

Your newsletter should reflect the tone and language of your brand but also this is a place to show a more casual and intimate part of you and your business. I keep a list inside of Notion of words, phrases, and overall tone that are “on brand” for Quill & Co. As well as words and phrases that are not. This keeps me and my employees all on the same page regarding our brand voice

A feature we like inside of Flodesk is that you can infuse your branding into your first email, and repeat the process every time you send another newsletter. Your brand’s fonts, colors, branding, logo, signature, and more can be used every time to create a cohesive look and to reinforce who your audience is receiving an email from. Flodesk is quick and easy to get set up and start designing a newsletter that is on brand and reflects the look and feel of your business.

A heads-up that this blog post includes affiliate links. All the words are my own and I only recommend products that I use and love.

The post How to keep your newsletter design “on brand” appeared first on quillandco.design.

Create a Follow-Up Schedule

The first step in creating a follow-up schedule is to decide how frequently you want to follow up. The goal is to stay in touch without overwhelming your clients.

Consider how often you want to follow up and the best way to do so. For example, you might send an email every three months or a personal note on their “anniversary” date of when you completed their work.

Create Feedback Forms

Getting feedback from clients helps you know how your process is being received to help improve for the next client. And it’s also a great way to get testimonials.

Dubsado’s feedback forms are great for this.

I recommend including questions about:

• How they felt about your work
• Their experience working with you,
• Why they chose to invest in you in the first place
• Tangible results they have gotten from working with you
• Any suggestions they may have for improvement

Set Up an Email Schedule

Setting up an email schedule can help you stay top of mind and the services you offer.

Create a series of emails to send at specific intervals. For example, you might send an email after a project is complete. A follow-up email three months later to check in. And then an email every six months to see if they need any ongoing design work or updates.

Inside Dubsado, you can easily add questionnaire forms and a workflow to your clients on a certain schedule that works for you. We like to use a 3-month, and a 6-month feedback form and have these emails scheduled out so we don’t forget. We also have separate questionnaire forms for each of these so we can get even more specific feedback from our clients.

Make sure each email is personalized, addresses their specific needs, and includes a call-to-action, such as working together on a retainer or asking for referrals.

Ask for Retainer Work and Referrals

Truth be told, asking for retainer work from past clients or referrals can be awkward. Even so, getting work from someone who has already experienced working with you and your style is easier than finding brand-new clients and having to start from zero.

Include a call to action in your follow-up emails. It can be as simple as “I wanted to thank you again for letting me work on your project. I loved working with you and you’re my ideal client! If you ever need future design services or know of anyone who would be a good fit, I’d love a referral. “

Creating a follow-up schedule for past clients is an effective way to stay in touch, gather feedback, and generate new business. By creating feedback forms, setting up an email schedule, and asking for retainer work and referrals, you can maintain strong relationships with your past clients and ensure a steady flow of work.

A heads-up that this blog post includes affiliate links. All the words are my own and I only recommend products that I use and love.

The post Maximizing Repeat Business: A Simple Guide to Creating an Effective Follow-Up Schedule with Your Design Clients appeared first on quillandco.design.

It has dramatically changed my client process. For each new client, I use Notion as my back-and-forth, all-in-one spot for client communication and deliverables. This ensures that there are no lost emails or forgotten deadlines. It helps everyone feel at ease when the process is seamless.

Here’s why I love using Notion as a client dashboard and communication tool for projects:

1. It keeps all communication and resources in one place, setting boundaries for communication

I start every project by letting my client know that we will communicate within their Notion dashboard. This benefits both of us. You and your client don’t have to search through past emails, DMs, texts, and so on to find resources or to remember what they wrote about their new brand design. Questions and feedback are stored on each item within the process, so both parties know where to find past communications as the project moves forward. Additionally, many of the client’s questions can be answered within the dashboard.

2. Putting all the information they need in one place keeps the project moving:

Inside the client dashboard, I provide a link to their Google Drive, a link to their Pinterest board, their contract, the timeline for their project with specific dates, resources for copy, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) they might have about the process. I also start each dashboard with a “Start Here” section that I’ve developed and refined over time to help clients understand exactly how their project with me will progress.

3. Organized deliverables:

Based on the project, I use different pages within their client dashboard for deliverables. This helps clients know where to find their brand identity, web design, brand strategy, and so on.

4. Keep a project on the set timeline:

I map out each piece of the project and set up a calendar view on their dashboard. This way they can see when my to-do dates are and when they need to complete theirs. If they go over or past their due date, they will no it was because of them and not something I missed.

5. Repeatable!

Notion can turn any repeatable task into a template. Now, when onboarding a new client, I create a new project for them based on the template, make tweaks to the dates and timeline, update with their specific Google Drive and Pinterest board, and then I’m done!

And the cherry on top of creating a stress-free project for you and your client? It elevates you as a designer. Clients take note of how they feel during the process, and the more at ease a client feels, the more likely they are to work with you again.

Interested in using Notion for your design business? Click here to test it out and let me know what you think and how you use it to streamline your project management!

A heads-up that this blog post includes affiliate links. All the words are my own and I only recommend products that I use and love.

Interested in learning more about how to use Notion for your design business? Sign up to be the first to know when my new Notion for Designers course launches!

The post Creating an elevated, and more streamlined, system for your clients in Notion appeared first on quillandco.design.

Comparison is the thief of joy

As designers it can easily become an unhealthy obsession to know what other designers are doing and how they’re doing it. Sourcing any and all details about other designers to compare yourself to them. It’s natural to feel the need to compare yourself to someone else (to a point) and as designers it almost feels necessary to. But here’s what I’ve learned since then, you don’t know that person’s circumstance.

You don’t know their time commitment.

Maybe they are working part time and can only take on 3 projects a year. Maybe they are also tasked with doing home learning and have to split their time between work and home life. Maybe they’re battling with mental health and need more space in their calendar and are cutting back on taking client projects.

You don’t know if they’re profitable

Sure, I could charge $200 for a website and I bet I could fill a calendar up pretty freaking quickly. But then I’d be burnt out and broke. In the early days of Quill & Co when my prices where much lower I had a really high conversion rate from sales call to booking and I booked my calendar out much faster. Once I started to raise my prices, my booking rate slowed down drastically. It seemed like no one was booking me and this sent my ego spiraling. I saw everyone else around me working on so many different projects and showcasing dozens of projects in their end of year recap. I thought I was failing but when I really looked at my numbers I was making a lot more money than I had before by taking on a lot less clients.

Which brings me to my point of:

Why I don’t want to be “booked out”

No room for growth

If you’re booked out it means you’re at capacity. Which means there is no more room for growth and scaling – you’ve already hit your max. And while you absolutely don’t always need to be growing or scaling your business if you’re starting to notice that you’re getting “booked out” it might be time to reevaluate your business model. If you’re “booked out” you’re leaving money on the table and it’s time to think about building a team.

No room for surprise dream projects

These could be dream projects that you want to work on in your own business or it could be dream clients that pop-up. If your books are full and a dream client comes along, you don’t want to tell them that they’re going to have to wait months to work with you. As well as if an opportunity presents its self, or you want to implement new things that would help your business, you’re going to need room on your calendar to make these things happen.

No space on your calendar

I’m a big planner and often complain to Danny (my fiance) that I’m always living three months ahead of where we currently are living in time. I love to know what I’m currently working towards which means I have things plotted on my calendar. When you’re booked out months and months in advance though it makes it much harder to take a spur of the moment vacation or for unplanned things to come up (life happens). While I love to plan, I get stressed out when my calendar is filling up months out in advance because it takes away room for spontaneity.

If you’re feeling shackled to your calendar or like you can’t take time off from your business without losing income it’s probably time to reevaluate.

Wrapping up:

It’s important to keep in mind that this system and thought process is what I have found to work best for me. You may find that having your books full makes you feel secure for the next year or so and find my points to be irrelevant to you and your business. That’s perfectly fine! Make your calendar fit your needs, take what may apply to you and leave the rest.

If you’d like to learn more about how I plan my year to make space to work with my dream clients check out this blog post. Or if your calendar is looking a little too sparse at the moment check out this blog post on how to find clients.

The post Why I Never Want to be “Booked Out” appeared first on quillandco.design.

As a designer, I see it all the time. Designers struggling to keep their website projects on task because they’re spending so much time chasing down clients to get their content on time. And I get it! Not getting content quickly can be incredibly frustrating and can be a huge hurdle in any website project.

Not getting content on time can lead to:

• missed deadlines and projects running into each other
• lost time spent emailing clients repeatedly trying to chase them down for their content
• timelines getting messy and adding extra unneeded stress

Totally frustrating, right?! Here’s a few ways to get content on time from your clients:

Set Expectations

Make it clear from the very beginning what your expectations are for the project and of the client. Let your client know ahead of time that they’ll need to provide content for their website. Talk about it during the sales call. During this first mention of the content, ask if they’ll be writing their own copy or plan to work with a copywriter. This will set you up to know what process they will be going through and give them some urgency to get started on it. To ensure that the process gets started, let them know your start date for the project and ask them if that gives them enough time to get their content together. I also like to encourage them to keep me in the loop on where the process is at as the start date approaches. This is so that I am not in the dark just hoping that the process is moving along and will be ready in time.

When setting expectations also give specific due-dates. This could be in your contract, welcome guide, and in your project management systems. Having these due-dates appear in multiple areas will leave no question about this expectation.

Set clear expectations on what happens if you don’t get the content on time. This could be delayed project timelines, late fees, paused projects or even canceling the project all together. These may seem harsh and scary to implement, but enforcing these are necessary for maintaining your boundaries, keeping projects moving, and ensuring your project stays profitable. Though nobody wants for these to happen it is important to have a plan set and in place to protect yourself and your time just in case any sticky situations do come up.

Set Reminders

If you’re using a project management system to keep your project organized, set up reminder notifications for you client for when content is due. This way you can clear some brain space and you don’t have to manually send nagging emails to them. These reminders can be straight to the point and professional without any stress or time wasted on your end.

Guide Them

If your client is choosing to write their copy instead of outsourcing it to a copywriter, you can choose to guide them in the process. Writing copy for yourself can be really hard! Which is why I’ve created a little something to help out. The Prompt Copy Workbook is the done-for-you template for any designer who wants to get copy quickly from their client without having to send another nagging email. The template is perfect if you are working with service providers and includes prompts for Homepage, About, Services, Blog, Contact, and FAQs.

Wrapping Up

Navigating project timelines can take some time and practice, so don’t give up! You’ll find that with each new project it comes more and more naturally. Plus it will save you time and a headache. If you want to learn about my secret to nailing any sales call, check out this blog post. Or if your client isn’t quite understanding just how important brand photos are for a strong website, check out this blog post. But most importantly, check out the Prompt Copy Workbook as a resource to obtain the content that you need to keep all your website projects on track.

The post How to Get Website Content Quicker from Your Client appeared first on quillandco.design.

Reflecting on the last year

In order to make the best decisions for the future it’s best to reflect on the past. Here’s a few questions I ask myself for reflecting.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. What’s the most important lesson I learned last year?
2. What went really well last year?
3. What did I enjoy the most? What do I want to call in more of?
4. What could I release from last year?

After you’ve taken account of what you want to release and what you want to keep, now you can start to plan to make sure everything is within alignment.

Setting intentions for the next year

As far as setting intentions goes, it’s important to determine what your wants/goals are and focus on them in a positive way. When you focus on a particular thing or person, you create a vibrational pull that attracts it or them toward you. I know it may sound a little woo-woo, and whether you believe in manifesting or the law of attraction, it never hurts to think positively and set goals. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution of sorts.

Big Picture Goals

For me, setting goals for a new year can feel really overwhelming. So first I like to think really big picture when setting goals and intentions for the future.

When I start planning, I like to think about big picture things, like how I want to feel in a new year or I like to pick an over-arching theme for the year (kind of like picking a word of the year).

For example, last year I wanted to end the year feeling more peaceful, relaxed, and I just wanted life to feel easier in general. And for me, that sounded like such a luxury! So my general theme for the year was “luxury” – and not in a way where it was an excuse to buy expensive things. So for the year, I would ask myself when making decisions “does this make my life feel more luxurious.”

Quarterly and Monthly Goals

This is usually when I start planning out my financial goals. I like to set a good, better, and best goal for my revenue for the year. These numbers can and SHOULD feel reallly freaking scary. But I truly believe that in order to reach your goals you first have to be 100% sure that it’s possible to actually reach them. If you have a shred of doubt that it won’t happen, you may end up self sabotaging.

So to make sure that I believe that these numbers are even possible, I divide my “best” goal by 4. This gives me the number that I general need to strive for each quarter. And from there I break it into monthly goals to make it even more attainable. From there I can plan out my marketing events, launches, or what I need to book that month in order to reach that goal.

Daily Goals

Now that you know what you need to be working towards each month, you can plan for what kind of actions you need to take each day.

Let’s say your goal is to hit a million dollars in revenue this year. You may be asking yourself, what kind of actions would “millionaire me” take each day? How would she show up? What kind of routines and behaviors would she have? Stepping into and “being” the person who has/does/achieves what you are hoping to do actively helps you become that person and make aligned decisions.

So if you were already hitting your goals, what would you be doing?

Getting clear on your goals in order to achieve them

Once you are crystal clear on the goals that you want to achieve the universe just seems to have a way of presenting them to you. It may sounds super woo-woo but I promise you- you just need to know exactly what you want, and ask for it. This can look like journaling, visualizing, or creating a vision board.

For me, personally, I do a lot of visualizing and writing down my goals. For example, I have a spreadsheet that I use to track all incoming revenue. On that spreadsheet I keep track of what is already accounted for and coming in, but I also mark down in that spreadsheet spaces for dream clients and the exact amount I want to book them for. Getting super clear on this helps me create the space and intentions for them to find me. It always help you narrow in on your marketing to attract those right fit clients as well as being more empowered to saying no to wrong-fit clients.

Practicing gratitude

The way to bring in more of what you want in your life is by practicing gratitude for what you already have. For me, manifesting or reaching your goals, isn’t just about getting MORE, it’s also about allowing yourself to experience joy for your current situation too. For me, being thankful for my past and current self for bringing me to who my future self will be is a BIG part of it.

Practicing gratitude for what you have right now can look like:

• Keeping a gratitude journal where you keep track of all of the things that you are grateful for
• Saying “thank you” to the universe for every thing that you receive whether its big or small
• Showing generosity to others. Letting the universe know that you have plenty to give opens you up to receiving more

Wrapping up

Overall being in a position of knowing what you want and working towards making those things happen and reserving space to welcome in those big dreams will always set you up for success. It will take time, patience, and a lot of work so don’t get frustrated when things take time. Focus on staying positive and practicing gratitude for everything that you have in your life currently and before you know it you’ll be hitting your milestones.

To find out more about milestone I was able to hit using this method check out our Year in Review: 2021.

The post How to Plan Your Year to Work with Dream Clients appeared first on quillandco.design.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a designer as ‘a person who imagines how something could be made, or what it would look like, and makes plans for it.’ I found this definition to be interesting because a designer is so much more than that. And it got me thinking of all the hidden skills that a person needs in order to be a strong designer. What does it take to properly plan and bring something to life? What makes someone a better designer than another?

I could talk about this topic all day, but to keep things under control let’s explore what I would consider to be the top three unexpected skills a person should have to be a designer.

Ask Better Questions

I think a lot in life could become better by asking questions and design is no different.

Good design is about asking the right questions and not necessarily about having the right answers.

One thing that can keep us from our best work is our own assumptions. Assumptions about what the clients likes, who the client’s audience is, how the design assets will be used – the list goes on.

And the only way to get away from our own assumptions is to ask questions.

The best way, that I have personally found, to create space for questions and curiosity is by hosting brand strategy workshops with clients. During this two hour workshop I meet with the client and ask them a series of questions, follow up questions, and do a few activities to uncover what the best design solution is going to be for their goals. You can learn more about these brand strategy workshops here.

How to ask better questions? (For design and in life)

1. Keep your questions open ended. Steer away from yes or no questions – these types of questions don’t create space for conversation and quickly shut down the conversation.
2. Ask one question at a time. This keeps things focused and less confusing and create the ability to ask follow up questions
3. Be okay with silence. In many cultures, people become uncomfortable after just four second of silence according to this article. But silence gives people the space to think and linger on thoughts.
4. Don’t disguise answers in your questions. Often times people can hide their bias or opinion in their questions like “Don’t you think it would be better if we didn’t do it that way”. This can be a subtle form of manipulation and people can quickly pick up on. And it certainly doesn’t help you uncover anything from your client.

Don’t be afraid to fail – Dare to Suck

Being creative is hard and vulnerable. So we can often mimic what we see around us because we know that it looks good, it’s not as risky and there is less room for failure.

This keeps us safe.

But it means we don’t experiment and end up recycling trends and creating same-same work.

By keeping or selves safe from failing or making bad work, we ultimately never make anything really great either.

I first heard the phrase “Dare to Suck” when I read that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith would hold weekly meetings with the band. The meetings were called “Dare to Suck”. At this meeting each person would bring one possibly terrible, maybe even embarrassing idea and present it to everyone else. Tyler says, “And nine times out of ten, the idea is actually terrible. But one time out of ten you get Dude Looks Like a Lady or Love in an Elevator.’

I love this idea of fearlessly creating. So what if our ideas are bad? What if we created more from a space of recklessness in order to create something really great.

Patience

Patience with yourself

Living in the age of Amazon, streaming, and the internet we often expect immediate gratification. But becoming a better designer takes A LOT of time. Maybe you have heard the 10,000 hour rule? Popularized by Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers, it’s the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to master a complex skill.

While I doubt this number is totally scientific, it drives the point that getting good at something takes a really freaking long time.

So keep practicing and stay patient.

Patience with others

Whether you design in house or freelance, design is often a collaborative project either between yourself and the client or yourself and teammates.

Patience comes in when truly listening to your clients’ or teammate’s opinions or feedback on a project.

Wrapping it up…

Design is a complex, empathetic, strategic, experimental, and vulnerable. And maybe it’s not meant to be defined by a few words in a dictionary. Because every designer is just a person, with different skills, strengths, and weaknesses. The skills I associate with a good designer also make up a good person. Having these skills won’t only help you to become a better designer but also a well rounded person.

I know you probably opened this blog post thinking I was going to talk about coding or some other complex skill to add to your list of courses you’ve already paid for to keep up with everyone around you.

But this is your reminder that you’re human, and you’re allowed to live your life and learn from the experiences you have on a daily basis because those life lessons are important too.

Okay, cheesiness over.

In case you really did come here looking for complex ways to strengthen your design skills, check out this blog post about all things brand strategy, or this blog post about how I learned to properly ask questions.

The post Unexpected Skills to Work on to Become a Better Designer appeared first on quillandco.design.

1. Is your title tag compelling?

A title tag lets the search engine and the visitors know what your blog post is about, pushing your link to the top and encouraging the viewer to visit your webpage. Your title tag has to be well thought out in order to fit what someone would search for when looking for this type of content, that way the search engine recommends it to them.

It is also very important that your title tag is short and sweet. It should be less than 60 characters long. If extended past the amount of characters/pixels that the search engine allows it will begin to cut it off, known as title tag truncation.

Example

If I were to make a title tag for this blog post a good example may look like:

How to Optimize Your Content for Search Engines | Blog Post

While a bad example (title tag truncation) may look like:

How to Optimize Your Content for Search Engines and Socia…

Notice how in this second example the title tag gets cut off and isn’t nearly as compelling as the first example. A helpful tool to use when creating title tags is the Pixel Width Checker for Page Meta Titles & Descriptions, this site will allow you to test title tags to find the perfect length. A table will be created like the one shown below showing how many characters / pixels you have left to use before crossing into creating a title tag truncation.

2. Is the meta description encouraging the searcher to read more?

A meta description appears under the title tag in the search engine result and is a short description of the blog post letting the searcher know what the post is about. This description should be intriguing enough to entice the reader to click and read more. The meta description should be less than 300 characters and should include keywords, readable copy, and a rich snippet into the content.

Example

Use this checklist to ensure that your content has everything needed to successfully optimize for search engines and social media. Are you using a compelling title tag, meta description, subheadings, links to related content…

You’ll notice that in this example it is okay for the meta description to get cut off unlike the title tag. This is because this content is longer and pulls the reader in, once the description is cut off it will encourage the reader to click in and continue reading more.

Like the title tag Pixel Width Checker for Page Meta Titles & Descriptions is a great tool to use in order to get the length of the meta description just right. A similar table will be created with the adjusted character / pixel lengths.

3. Are you organizing information with subheadings?

Make sure to break your blog post up with relevant headings, you should have three heading variations to establish hierarchy throughout your post.

Your headings should be formatted as so: Heading one (H1) This should be the largest and most bold heading (used for the main title), Heading two (H2) This should be midsized and less attention grabbing than H1 (used to title sections), Heading three (H3) This should be the smallest heading yet should have hierarchy over the body of the post (used to break up the text).

Once you have your subheadings established be sure to use H1, H2, H3 headings where they’re most applicable. Not only do these help to visually break up your text making it easier on the eyes, but they also help Google read your post and can help you rank higher in search engines.

Example

To see a good example of these subheadings being used properly, simply take a look at how this post is formatted, you’ll find H1 used on the title at the very top laid over an image, find H2 to identity the key points of the checklist and H3 throughout the body to identify examples of each key point.

4. Are you using links to related content?

Throughout your post, it is important to add links to related content and information that may be useful to the reader to gain a better understanding of the subject or to use it as a tool to make the process easier. While it is great to link to more of your own content, it is also very helpful to link to other sources of the information. Overall you want to provide your reader with as much information and content as necessary. Don’t overdo it by littering your text with a million links to everything remotely connected, to the topic, simply pick the most relevant and reliable sources and link to those.

Example

Notice how this post has links to a few helpful tools and a related blog post. This is all the necessary information needed to support this topic. But keep in mind depending on the length and complexity of your topic you will want to sprinkle in different amounts of information.

5. Are the Alt tags accurately describing the images?

An Alt tag is a detailed description of an image that helps the search engine recognize it. Therefore helps with the overall optimization of your blog post. Ensure that your images are being described accurately by including the following: describe your image in specifics but don’t over-explain, if the image includes any text be sure to include it, use keywords quite sparingly, focus on describing what you see.

What not to include:

DON’T start out by saying “picture of…:” or “image of…”
DON’T repeat yourself
DON’T stuff your alt tags with unrelated keywords

Example

If I were to make an alt tag for this image it may look something like this:

an iPad and an apple pencil resting on a white sheet alongside three clementines with leaves attached

Notice that I simply described what I was looking at, I was specific but didn’t describe every tiny detail. You’re simply letting the search engine know what the image is of.

6. Are the images properly sized?

Unoptimized images with large file sizes can dramatically slow down your site. Finding the balance between quality and file size is key. I’ve found that for large banner images, keeping the image between 1200 – 1900 px wide with file size below 1M has been the sweet spot. For images that won’t be spanning the width of the website, you can use smaller dimensions and lower file sizes. If you have access to Lightroom you can quickly bulk-optimize your images. Read the tutorial here. If you don’t have access to Lightroom, Adobe has a free resource you can use here.

Ensure that you are always using high-quality images with your content. If you don’t have access to high-quality images of your own. Check out any of these sites that provide high-quality stock photos: Pexels, Depositphotos, or Unsplash.

7. Did you include a customized og:description?

An og: description is incredibly similar to the meta description, but rather than appearing in a search result it will appear under a social media post (most commonly Facebook). Though the location of this description is different the purpose remains the same, to entice the reader to click and read more. This description should be less than 200 characters, and can simply be a shorter version of the meta description.

Example:

“Use this checklist to ensure that your content has everything needed to successfully optimize for search engines and social media.”

Notice how this is simply a shorter version of the meta description. This description should be quite easy to create but is important to include for your social media posts.

Summing It Up

By checking off ALL of these important steps to optimizing your blog post you’ll bring more traffic to your webpage. Once you have Google’s eyes on you who knows what visitors it’ll bring in! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to bring in your next client!

Looking for more tips on how to optimize your content? Check out The Ultimate Checklist to Optimize Your Showit Blog: here!

The post How to Make Sure Your Blog Post is Optimized for Search Engines appeared first on quillandco.design.