I Wrote 100+ Blog Posts for the Ahrefs Blog. Here’s What I Learned.

I’ve yet deed the milestone: 100 blog posts for the Ahrefs blog.

So, I decided to bespeak connected my journey. I did 2 Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions to spot what radical wanted to know: one connected Twitter X and another connected LinkedIn. I was pleasantly amazed that truthful galore radical were interested, truthful convey you to everyone for the benignant questions.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned from crossing this milestone.

When a pupil approaches a mentor with problems, the mentor doesn’t laic retired 200+ suggestions. It’s not adjuvant and causes determination paralysis. Instead, the mentor points retired the nonstop occupation and offers 1 oregon 2 circumstantial pieces of proposal to assistance the pupil get implicit the hurdle.

I deliberation our contented should bash the aforesaid thing: place our reader’s nonstop occupation and connection the best advice—not the entirety of each advice.

For example, I could person listed each imaginable link-building strategy successful my station connected achromatic chapeau link-building. While that mightiness person been utile for some, it would person been overwhelming for most. Not to mention, determination would person been nary denotation of what works successful real life.

So, I kept it elemental and focused lone connected the tactics that SEOs vouched for.

My best-performing nonfiction is my station connected affiliate marketing. I didn’t “write” it; each I did was repurpose Sam’s video.

My worst-performing nonfiction is… I person excessively galore to count. I enactment a batch of enactment into immoderate of them. My station connected Quora marketing had maine spending clip connected the platform, but it ne'er got immoderate beardown traction. I had to motion up and punctual 39 AI penning tools for my station connected AI penning tools, but the gag ne'er landed. My favourite post—marketing skills—was written from my six years of acquisition arsenic a integer marketer but got obscurity either.

I deliberation that’s the quality of contented creation. Most things conscionable don’t work, and for those that do, you tin ne'er foretell prior.

I’m not saying to halt putting effort into your content. I’m conscionable saying there’s nary correlation betwixt however agelong you enactment connected thing versus its “success.”

But astatine the extremity of the day, if you privation to make unsocial contented oregon connection a unsocial viewpoint, you inactive request to enactment successful the work. You request to beryllium an relation (see adjacent point) oregon bash hard things.

Great penning should consciousness hard. If you tin crank retired an nonfiction by opening a fewer browser tabs, truthful tin everyone else. But interrogation someone, work a book, find an esoteric probe paper, oregon cod immoderate data… and your willingness to bash thing hard gives you an edge.

Rankings don’t past forever. That’s wherefore refreshing contented is an integral portion of our SEO contented strategy.

You tin spot however often we update our contented via Content Explorer

For example, I’ve updated the station connected affiliate selling twice. I’ve besides updated alternative hunt engines twice, SEO statistics doubly (and counting), evergreen content twice, and top Google searches countless times.

Each clip we update our posts, postulation spikes.

But it isn’t each astir SEO and gaining much integrated traffic. If you’ve learned thing caller astir the topic, you’re doing your assemblage a disservice by not telling them astir it. So, marque definite you’re consistently renewing and refreshing your existing content.

Your readers are not dumb. They tin archer erstwhile an nonfiction is simply a mishmash of scraped “theoretical” proposal oregon written from experience.

Someone penning from acquisition tin pinpoint challenges and obstacles. They volition place nuances and spot specifics. They volition person beardown opinions. They volition beryllium capable to supply evidence.

In short: They are believable.

If you privation to beryllium believable, you request to person tegument successful the crippled and trial things against reality.

For example, I’ve done respective impermanent posts myself. That’s however I could connection plentifulness of unsocial tips erstwhile I wrote my station connected impermanent blogging. I adjacent presented plentifulness of grounds of my impermanent posts, my interactions with publishers, and more.

In fact, 1 of the blogs I wrote for adjacent broke down my transportation email to them—evidence that I knew what I was talking about:

I erstwhile heard bestselling writer Ramit Sethi accidental that helium spent 80% of his book-writing clip connected the array of contents.

I judge him. Because I conflict the astir trying to signifier each nonfiction I write. Case successful point: I took mode excessively agelong trying to travel up with the champion “architecture” for this post. Eventually, I settled on this.

But erstwhile I’m satisfied with the structure, the penning just flows.

Searchers are sick of each blog station being the magnitude of a Tolstoy book. They don’t privation to spot contented with the emblematic “SEO” stuff: what is X and wherefore is X important. They tin get those answers from AI now.

If you privation your contented to basal retired and beryllium unsocial successful this caller satellite of generative AI, you request to interruption retired of the mindset of being an SEO.

Don’t simply transcript what the top-ranking pages are penning astir oregon capable contented gaps. Think astir however you tin add, improve, oregon reframe the speech astir the taxable you’re penning about.

For example, our post connected long-tail keywords tried to close the misconception that long-tail keywords are agelong (i.e., 3+ words) keywords. In reality, they are long-tail owed to their presumption connected the hunt request curve.

It’s a akin communicative for my post connected creating an SEO campaign. Most guides connected that taxable were simply a masquerade for different “beginner’s usher to SEO.” I tried to absorption specifically connected what a “campaign” was and the 3 large steps to mounting one up.

My archetypal fewer posts connected the Ahrefs blog were long. Too long, successful fact. They were rambly and meandering. This was partially due to the fact that I believed that agelong = good. Skyscraper, right?

But the information is, I was wasteful—I utilized excessively galore words to accidental something. Nobody wants to slog done 5,000 words to larn something. As writer Morgan Housel says, “Writing is an ratio game. Whoever says the astir worldly successful the fewest words wins.”

These days, I effort to support my posts arsenic abbreviated arsenic possible. I’ve adjacent seen 20-30% decreases successful magnitude aft rewrites. As a writer, you person to beryllium ruthless and chopped retired sections that don’t work.

I got truthful galore questions during the AMA astir however agelong I instrumentality to constitute each blog station and the mean length. Some adjacent wanted to cognize the breakdown of each conception (researching, writing, editing).

I don’t deliberation I gave large answers due to the fact that I’ve ne'er tracked that. And I’m not definite my answers would adjacent beryllium adjuvant anyway.

So what if I took 2 hours to constitute a blog post? Does that mean you’re amended oregon worse than maine if you took much oregon little time? I don’t deliberation so—and frankly, I don’t spot however that improves my enactment arsenic a contented writer oregon marketer.

Details do matter. But not each details are made equal. Accuracy, uniqueness, connection choice, and phrasing are important. Not nonfiction magnitude oregon however overmuch clip idiosyncratic took.

I don’t deliberation I could person created my champion contented without adjacent feedback. It’s 1 of the champion things we introduced into our contented selling workflow. Knowing that idiosyncratic volition constituent retired and situation you connected the inaccuracies, logical loopholes, phrasing, and much really makes your enactment better.

Case successful point: my archetypal draught of this precise post. I wrote astir 1 much lesson, but Joshua’s feedback was that it was convoluted and confusing.

It was hard to hear, but I agreed. So, I removed the point.

Final thoughts

Some radical asked maine however they tin beryllium bully astatine writing. I’m not definite I person the champion proposal here, due to the fact that I’m acold from being good. But I judge 1 thing: If you privation to beryllium good, you indispensable purpose to beryllium prolific.

100 seems a lot, but I’m conscionable getting started. There’s much to explore, much to learn, and much to improve. I’ll purpose to constitute 200, past 300, possibly adjacent a thousand.

If you privation to amended your penning and contented marketing, wherefore not join maine connected the aforesaid journey to constitute 100 and more?