Writing an Anchor Post

Your anchor posts will drive the majority of the traffic to your blog, because these are the posts that Google will rank highly, these are the posts that others will link to and talk about, and these are the posts that you'll eventually promote.

An important distinction to keep in mind is that an anchor post is a specialized form of link bait. Anchor articles should be informative, interesting, well-researched, and on topic, but not necessarily provocative, controversial, or gimmicky, like other forms of link bait. They are simply well-written articles that appeal to the types of readers you are hoping to attract.

Anchor posts should be at least 600-800 words long with two exceptions:

• They can be extended to nearly 1000 words if the subject is particularly complex, but only if you can stay tightly focused. By staying tightly focused, you are automatically performing search engine optimization by targeting keywords that are important to your blog.
• They can be shortened to 300-500 words if they’re presented in a consumable format.
  

Writing an Anchor Post

Certain types of articles lend themselves well to being anchors, but that doesn't mean that you are limited by the examples I've given below. But because they are common forms of anchors, I find that if I'm ever searching for topics, reviewing these common anchor types helps with inspiration.

How-to articles: these articles are your bread and butter anchor posts. Although they require some time to write, they are generally easy to write, because you are essentially codifying the knowledge you already have by putting it into an easy-to-follow, logical sequence.

Consumables: these articles are favored by readers because you've done the hard work of distilling a lot of information into a readily digestible format. A common example of a consumable article is the list article.

Tools: create a tool or utility for other people to use, and feature it in a post. Make sure to include the bulk of the instructions in the blog post, rather than in the tool itself, so that people are attracted to your post first. Also be sure to link from the tool to the post for those instructions!

Freebies: similar to the Tools anchor post, a freebie is any piece of intellectual property that you can give to your readers. The giveaways that work best are the ones that teach your readers how to do something, examine an important issue, or that can be reused by your readers.

Research / Solutions: While this recommendation applies to nearly every content-based site, it's particularly easy to leverage with a blog. If everyone in the NASA forums is wondering who makes all of the parts in the space shuttle, and you write a blog about space exploration, give them the information that they want!

Issues: issues posts are the least popular type of anchor post, but they create incredible traffic if executed properly. Good issues posts can attract hundreds of relevant backlinks, and that’s enough to secure your blog's position as a respected resource.

Analysis: the final type of anchor post to consider is the analysis of a popular topic (though not current), important industry theme, or important concept. First mover advantage is important here, as well, so Google your keywords to see if others have already staked claim to this territory.