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Top bloggers understand the importance of internal linking, particularly at the beginning of a blog post. Those internal links are great for search engine optimization and they help to keep people on your blog longer, so be sure to link to other posts in your blog archive early in your blog posts.

Also, try to hold off on including external links in your blog posts until at least after the first paragraph, and don’t use keyword phrases in the anchor text for external links. Save those keyword phrases for internal links.

Finally, avoid using too many links in your blog posts or your blog might be flagged as spam by search engines like Google.

There are many search engine optimization tips for keyword usage that you can use in your blog post content. The most important trick that top bloggers would tell you is to front load keywords in your blog post content and titles. That means make sure you use keywords early in your post if you can. However, avoid making your posts sound like a list of keywords. Your post quality shouldn’t deteriorate when you include keywords. Instead, make sure keywords work organically within the post.

Top blogs publish a lot of content. Visit Mashable.com and take a look at how many posts are published per day. Most bloggers can’t possibly produce that amount of content on a daily basis. However, the more content you publish each day, the better chance your blog has to grow. It’s up to you to decide how much content you can realistically publish on your blog each week, but more content typically equates to more growth. Learn more about blog post frequency.

It’s important to stay focused on your blog’s growth instead of spreading yourself too thin. For example, it’s good to spread your wings and develop a presence on multiple social media destinations such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on. However, the quality of your blog content and activities shouldn’t suffer because you’ve diversified your online presence. Make sure your blog is always your top focus, because if your blog quality deteriorates, no one will want to visit no matter how much you promote it on Twitter and Facebook.

Top blogs begin by focusing on a specific niche. Choose your niche and stick with it. As your blog grows, there may be opportunities to expand your niche and write about related topics on your blog, but your core purpose should be to provide content related to your niche. Consistency is imperative when it comes to building a brand and a blog.

Top bloggers know that great blog post titles can help drive both search traffic and social traffic to their blogs. That’s why The Huffington Post spent so much time and effort into A/B testing its blog post titles until the team could identify within seconds which title would drive the most traffic and instantly switch to that title.

People will see your blog post title on Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and more. You need to consider keywords, curiosity, and interest when writing blog post titles. Use a web analytics tool and trackable URL shorteners to track and share your blog posts in order to learn which types of titles work the best at driving traffic to your blog.

The reason why top blogs often become the first stop for people looking for information in that blog’s niche is because those blogs consistently publish great content. Don’t just copy content from other blogs and websites. It’s fine to discuss the same story that another blog or websites talks about, but put your original and unique spin on that story to stand out from the crowd.

Top blogs have the right people writing content. There are many blogs out there that are good, but top blogs stand out because the contributors are either highly experienced and knowledgeable in the topics they write about or their personalities are infectious and entertaining. Make sure the right people are writing your blog or your chance for success will be very limited.

The way your blog looks has a significant effect in its chance for success. Top bloggers know this, so they create style guides for contributors to follow. This makes sure all posts look consistent in design from headings to image placement and everything in between. Your blog needs to be visually appealing, so use images to break up text heavy pages and support blog post topics. Also, use video to offer an auditory and visual element on your blog. Spend some time on top blogs and you’ll see all of these tricks being used.