One of the things that often comes up as I am suggesting blog topics for clients is “Why should I cover this topic when it’s been covered by other blogs?” It’s a great question – most businesses and bloggers think that they should only write about things seldom covered.
While you do want to cover unique topics, you might also want to consider tackling the common topics as well. Here are five good reasons why.
1. You want to be the main resources in your niche.
Sure, there are already 37,700 exact results for pages with how to increase Twitter followers in the title.
But as a social media blogger, consultant, or business, do you really want someone to have to leave your blog to find a guide about how to increase their Twitter followers just because you didn’t want to cover something you considered overdone? Probably not.
Why? Because anytime someone has to leave your blog to find content, they could easily end up purchasing products or services from your competitor simply because they covered the topics that you didn’t.
2. You want your blog to rank in search results for particular keywords.
When the new Facebook timeline profiles came out, everyone naturally wrote about them.
Although I don’t rank as well as I did before, I did receive lots of traffic from search for Facebook timeline, unsubscribe Facebook timeline, new Facebook timeline, and 42 other variations.
It doesn’t matter how many other sites cover a particular topic. You can still rank well in search for keywords related to the topic and reap the incoming traffic rewards.
3. Your audience wants to know your thoughts on a particular topic.
There is a good chance that you have traffic and subscribers to your blog for a reason – because they want to know your thoughts. This means that they want to know your favorite blogging tips and blogging tools. Sure they can find other lists out there, but they want to know more about the tips you suggest and what tools you use.
Don’t underestimate yourself – you probably have unique insights into lots of topics already covered on other blogs simply because you have experiences that others may not. So be sure to share them. If it makes you feel better, read a few similar titles by other blogs – there’s a good chance you’ll be sitting there going “Hey, why didn’t they mention how to do ___.”
4. The last time the topic was covered was so long ago, it’s out of date.
One of the beautiful things about the online marketing niche is that something written even a month ago could easily become out of date thanks to algorithm updates, new layouts, upgrades, and other changes made by major search engines, social networks, and technologies.
So maybe you could find 44,500 exact results for pages with WordPress tutorial in the title. But chances are a good majority of those are out of date and applying code found within those posts would cause a small disaster on your blog.
What you want to be is the latest person to cover a particular topic, that way those searching for the newer material would find your blog post.
5. You could get listed in a roundup post about a particular topic.
As someone who loves to curate the latest blog posts about a specific topic, I know that while lots of people cover the same topic, they almost all provide unique insights into that topic. Since roundup posts are increasing in popularity, especially in the online marketing niche, writing about a topic that a lot of others cover could easily get you into a roundup post on a high profile blog. This means more traffic and a shiny new backlink to your blog!
Are you apprehensive about covering topics lots of other blogs write about? Or do you see the benefits of having the information on your own blog? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
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