5 Latest Blogging Trends in 2023

Blogs are the best source of answers to many people’s questions. They also serve as an essential marketing resource for businesses. However, creators must familiarize themselves with the latest blogging trends to succeed in this area today.

With the ever-changing online world, you need to continuously adapt to new trends to stand out. Employing the right blogging tips and tricks can help you boost traffic and engagement significantly. For a business or revenue-generating blog, this means more earnings for you.

I’ve put together a complete expert-vetted guide below into the latest blogging trends this year.

1. Data-Driven Blogging

Data-driven blogging is the best way to know how your blog is performing and if your efforts are on the right track. Data-driven blogging simply involves the use of your site’s analytics, including your customer profiles, to qualitatively improve your blogging.

What Data to Collect

As mentioned above, data-driven blogging can go two ways. You can directly refer to your customer analytics while also evaluating your own site’s performance. For instance, according to the website builder Wix.com, content marketers can collect vital customer profile information and use it to curate effective campaigns.

Alternatively, you can use key site KPIs to evaluate the performance of your blog. In this case, you use your site’s analytics and reporting to evaluate SEO, UX, and sales KPIs. SEO KPIs measure site visibility in search results based on your site’s niche and the search engines used.

These KPIs simply measure the rankings and traffic of your blog online. These are particularly useful for serving blog visitors looking to answer specific questions. However, you can also use SEO KPIs to understand how much traffic you get from visitors in this niche.

For instance, if you have a coffee blog, you can evaluate how many visitors you get looking to answer questions, or how many conversions you get from your blogging that lead to customers buying from your site or a site your market for.

In contrast, UX KPIs focus on tracking the user experience. Now, this is a valuable resource, especially for blogs focusing on the more digitally-inclined millennial and Gen Z visitors. On the other hand, sales KPIs are straightforward, tracking your site-related sales.

You can track e-commerce sales (site-based sales), brick-and-mortar sales, and indirect sales (for instance, affiliate marketing sales). In addition to tracking direct sales, with the right integrations, sales KPIs also track conversion rates. Conversion rates evaluate how your blog campaigns boost conversions, whether through promos or affiliate marketing links, to name a few.

Some of the interesting tools you can use to collect data on your blog can be as simple as your hosting provider’s analytical and reporting tools – Google Analytics, HotJar, OptinMonster, and ConvertBox, to name a few.

How to Use Data to Improve Your Blogging

According to the CRM platform HubSpot, businesses that blog are 20X likely to generate 5X traffic than those that don’t. This means that you can employ various campaigns to continue boosting traffic and revenue generation. You can also use the same blog KPIs to measure these performances.

The easiest way to use data to improve your blog content, marketing strategies, and overall blog performance is to view your data qualitatively. These are not just numbers to brag about! You want to learn from the numbers and improve from them.

For instance, if you see your blog engagement or traffic declining over time, the solution is not to stop blogging entirely. Instead, you can diversify your content. Experiment with how-to blogs, and roundups, and try to curate blogs that answer commonly asked questions (in your niche).

Remember, most blogs are there to answer questions that people have. Blog-related data is the easiest way to understand your audience and what they want.

2. Highly Visual Content

A successful blog today must also focus on highly visual content. Text alone isn’t enough. You can add photos, videos, reels, or other visually appealing content. Moreover, your site design also matters. You don’t want a dull-looking site layout complementing your equally boring all-text blog content.

It is easier for many people to grasp concepts visually than through written text alone. With the ever-growing amount of information we are exposed to, our attention span continues to decline. So, a text-centered blog will struggle to attract as many visitors. But, visual content is not only a solution to our poor attention spans. Successful content tells a story clearly and engagingly.

It also makes information more digestible and makes sense to different minds. For instance, if you create how-to blog content, adding related photos or videos to the blog makes it much easier for the reader to grasp your instructions.

Types of Highly Visual Content

You can choose from a variety of highly visual content types to incorporate into your blogs. Ultimately, the type of visual content you choose must resonate with your content. Here are the common types of highly visual content:

Regular stock photos, proprietary photos, and screenshots.
Illustrations or cartoons.
Memes or quotes.
Different styles of video, such as explainer videos, PSAs, and skits.
Native videos created specifically for social media sites such as Facebook or Instagram. You can, however, embed them on your blog.
Other site videos you can embed, such as YouTube videos.
Guides with in-depth information and multiple visual aids, including text, photos, graphs, and tables.
Data visualization tools, such as tables, flow charts, and graphs.
Explainer infographics with a mix of texts, pop-up boxes, and photos.
Interactive content, in a photo or video form, changes based on how you interact with it.

Also read, 7 Things Bloggers Don’t Want To Do But Absolutely Should Do

Tips for Creating Highly Visual Content Effectively

When it comes to picking highly visual content effectively, remember that simplicity is always better. The easiest direction to go is to choose high-quality and clear photos for your blog. This doesn’t mean you can’t get creative – but it’s important to maintain objectivity and be realistic.

For instance, if you are making a how-to blog on crafting the best cappuccino, you’re better off with a video, photos, and illustrations. Alternatively, you can embed a YouTube video or native video that accurately visualizes your instruction.

As an added perk, shorter videos are more appealing. They offer quick how-to answers to the already short attention-spanned mind. For this content, flow charts aren’t the best choice. Further, you can take advantage of the countless visual content tools available to you online. These include everything from Canva to marketing video and photo editing tools, such as Adobe.

Benefits of Highly Visual Content

According to a marketing statistic conducted by Venngage, up to 4.9 out of 10 marketers rank visual marketing as very important. On the other hand, only 1.9 out of 10 say their marketing strategy doesn’t include visual content.

Other experts report that readers can recall up to 65% of visual content as opposed to only 10% of text. So, using highly visual content can truly boost your blog’s visibility. Using images and videos helps break down large chunks of boring text. This, in turn, makes the blog more digestible, entertaining, and engaging.

This is particularly important for long-form blog content. Putting together a more interactive layout with text and highly visible content prevents the reader from feeling like it’s laborious to read the entire text. Incorporating highly visual content also allows the reader to scan through important bits of the content to get the idea without having to read the whole text.

Visual content also adds context to your text. It helps to visually explain the content and make it more relatable to the reader. This explains why it’s always a good idea to use original visual content. However, if that is not practical, you can still find very good and relatable stock content.

3. Visual Search

Visual search is a relatively new phenomenon. When it hit the market, visual search was embraced by all users and continues to grow in popularity. But visual search is popular for a reason.

Unlike the traditional text-based query, visual search has made it easier to even inquire about things we really can’t put into words. With the right visual search tool, you can pick up on anything you wish to know.

Visual search allows you to search for information online by simply inputting its image or visual display. For instance, if you are in an Asian supermarket and can’t deduce what something is from the text on the packaging, a visual search will help you identify it.

How Visual Search Works

Using visual search, you can submit your queries on a search engine via photo, screenshot, or other types of images. Visual search works in two main ways. The first way involves the use of image metadata, scanning attributes such as color or shape to get your answers.

The second way is using reverse image retrieval. This method detects an image’s features and patterns via an AI-based algorithm. This allows the AI medium to extract information about the image based on pre-existing similar images.

All you do is take a photo and upload it or directly scan it using your device. Common examples of visual search tools include Google Lens and Bing Visual Lens. Popular sites have also been emerging with their proprietary visual search tools, like Pinterest Lens, Snapchat Scan, and even Amazon StyleSnap.

Note: Don’t confuse visual search with image search. While the former focuses entirely on images, the latter search requires an image with keywords and URLs for the query to be successful.

Benefits of Visual Search for Bloggers

Not every potential customer or visitor to your site will be able to find your content easily with just keywords. After all, not everyone is efficient at articulating their goal in words. Using visual search tools eliminates the hassle of trying to locate a particular product or service.

It allows the searcher to easily navigate through distractions and irrelevant content. According to studies, 62% of internet users, particularly millennials and Gen Z, use visual search over other search types. Integrating visual search tools into your blogs can easily boost conversion rates. Your visitors don’t have to leave wondering!

A simple visual search can lead them to exactly what they are intrigued about on your blog. Visual search also creates an intersectional link between your blog and other sites, primarily, the social media sites that you operate.

For instance, if you operate a Pinterest page, your customer can be easily connected to your blog via your Pinterest posts. Lastly, visual search creates an emotional connection with your customers. Here’s a scenario to help you understand better – for instance, you have posted a blog about the new dresses your store has just introduced.

As a visitor browses through the site, they are immediately impressed with how it looks on the model and want the exact same dress. With a visual search tool, the customer will only be interested in knowing where to find the dress, paying less attention to the price. This, in turn, creates the potential for higher conversion rates as more customers react similarly.

How to Optimize Your Blog for Visual Search

There are a myriad of things to do to optimize your blog for visual search. You can take a more technical approach but also pay attention to simple common sense things. For instance, when uploading images to your site, don’t settle for a predetermined, computer-generated name.

Avoid generic file names, like “IMG_54732.” Instead, label the photo with keywords that give as much information as possible about the photo. For instance, if you are uploading a photo of your modeled dress, be as specific as possible, for example, “a girl wearing a pink floral dress.”

On the other hand, technical approaches always assign the appropriate size and file type to your images. Additionally, add uploaded images to the sitemaps. This increases the likelihood of the photo being picked up by search engines. While this will benefit other factors of your site, faster website speed and mobile-friendly pages optimize visual search for your blog, too.

4. Voice Search

Like visual searches, voice searches have also become a popular search engine option. Although it takes a slightly different approach, voice search makes querying easier just like visual search. Voice search has managed to be embraced in the tech world, thanks to the introduction of smart speakers.

With our ever-so-busy and distracting lives, being able to search the web via voice commands has improved our efficiency. You can continue working, cooking, or even concentrating on a movie while letting the voice search tool do the work for you. Are you an amateur gardener and wondering which herbs make good companions?

A simple Google voice search can give you the answers while you are actually planting your herbs. Similarly, you can quickly search for the definition of a concept via voice command as you type your assignment.

What makes voice search a gift for bloggers is you can easily optimize the blog for voice search. This makes it easier to connect with potential visitors and customers. In particular, you want to optimize your site for search engines, especially Google.

How Voice Search Works

Voice search works through an automated speech recognition (ASR) system. ASR transforms your commands or voice signals into text. So, all you need to do is tell Google what you are searching for and let the voice technology translate your spoken words into the text.

Benefits of Voice Search for Bloggers

Today, many people use their mobile phones for online searches. Having your blog optimized for voice search can do wonders in terms of driving traffic. With an optimized blog, potential visitors are more likely to be directed to your search through their voice search.

Voice search is also among the top search types for many site visitors due to its fast and reliable functionality. So, adding it to your site truly has the potential to bring in more people and ultimately, boost conversion rates (if you are selling)!

How to Optimize Your Blog for Voice Search

The best way to optimize your blog for voice search is to let the search engines know your blog exists. This involves performing simple tasks such as claiming your Google My Business listing. Moreover, you can add key data about your business, such as contact information, address, and other public details.

Lastly, remember that most people use voice search on their mobile devices. So, don’t forget to optimize your blog for mobile-friendly use. It is also worth noting that optimizing and improving your site is an ongoing process. You certainly can’t achieve it all in a day.

But consistency is key. For example, you can also focus on improving your blog content to continue building your visibility on search engines. Successfully capturing Google featured snippets is one of the best and most effective ways to optimize your blog for voice search.

You can also integrate your blog with search marketing platforms for more professional help. These include platforms, like HubSpot, SemRush, and MailChimp, to name a few.

5. Guest Posts on Other Blogs

The success of your blog doesn’t count on your in-blog efforts alone. Sometimes, you have to venture outside your blog to get more visitors to notice it. One of the best ways to do this is through guest posts on other blogs. This concept involves sharing content on other non-competing blog sites to scout for potential audiences.

Additionally, guest posting is an excellent way to build your name through a trusted service provider among potential site visitors and customers. Whether you own a small start-up business or manage a larger brand with a large following, guest posting is never bad.

Why Is Guest Posting Beneficial?

Guest posting comes with a lineup of benefits for your blog. Most importantly, it helps you build your brand name and authority in your industry. It also allows you to establish long-lasting relationships with others in the industry.

However, guest posting also benefits your blog directly by exposing it to new audiences and potential customers. This, in turn, drives traffic and ultimately boosts site conversion rates. Moreover, guest blog posts help you build SEO-boosting backlinks to your blog. It’s definitely a win-win situation for you. Think of guest posting as the internet version of real-world PR – only it’s usually free.

How to Find Guest Posting Opportunities

There are several ways to find guest posting opportunities. You can always reach out to blog owners you are interested in and pitch your ideas and interest. Alternatively, you can even contract and pay blog owners to post on their sites. Other blog owners use free, popular sites that allow guest posting, such as Medium. You can even Google guest posting websites to get more ideas.

To succeed in guest posting, you first want to find an effective site. If you are going for individual blogs, choose one with reasonable traffic and engagement. Your efforts will also be more effective via a site that has gained some authority in the field.

Alternatively, if you are going for guest posting or contributor sites, choose a well-known one with reasonable traffic and engagement, as well. In addition to picking the right sites, what you do in the blog posts matters too. Make sure you research your topics properly, write interesting content, and craft a strong author bio.

With today’s ever-changing trends, guest blogging and brand building aren’t limited to just blogs. There are plenty of other ways you can build your brand outside of your blog. A few popular and easy routes include podcast appearances, co-authoring articles, and even social collaborations with creators/influencers.

Conclusion

Following the latest trends in blogging is the easiest way to ensure your brand stays relevant and attracts engagement. With the right execution, you will see your blog attracting more visitors and audience while also boosting conversion rates. Ultimately, to sell more through your blog, you have to pay attention to these blogging concepts.