5 Steps to Writing Better Blogs
Keeping a blog for your business can be a powerful tool to build your know, like, trust factor.
People are constantly looking for advice, guidance and support about every subject under the sun. If your blogs can't be found, or you're not writing them at all, you're missing a huge opportunity to reach your potential clients.If you're too busy to keep up with a blog, hire someone to do it for you!
Seriously, it's what the professionals do. If you've been wondering how your competition manages to keep up with their blog while also flawlessly maintaining every other aspect of their business, now you know. They pay someone to do it for them.
If you're happy writing your own blogs but know they could use some TLC, keep reading to learn my top 5 tips for writing better blogs.
1. Know Your Audience
This seems like a no brainer, but I can't tell you how often people sit down to write a blog without considering the reader. Either they've failed at writing things in layman's terms or it reads more like a diary entry than a blog.
If you know your reader, you can center them in your writing. Your reader should feel like you've written it for them.
What problem does your reader have?
What solution or support are you providing?
What keywords and phrases are they typing into the search engine in an attempt to find the solution you're providing?
2. Do Some Research
Before you start writing your blog, head over to Google, Yahoo, YouTube, etc and start typing in your keyword or phrase. Pay attention to the suggested relevant keywords as well as other popular searches. These are other words and phrases your reader is likely searching for. Write them down so you can use them in your blog!
Pay attention to the top articles that show up when you search your keywords. Scroll past the sponsored ones until you get to the organic articles. These are the ones showing up because their content and SEO is on point.
Recon, people!! Check out their content to see what angle they took for your subject matter. Pay attention to how their blog is organized. The reason they're ranking highly is because people are staying on their page for several minutes, rather than a few seconds. This tells Google their content must be relevant, which pushes them up the ranks.
Don't steal their work, but take pointers. Pay attention to what keywords they've used and how they've used them. Take notice of the layout.
Is it easy to read?
Is it informative?
Does it make you want to see what else they've got on their site?
3. Create an Outline
I know, I know. No body loves to make an outline. I for one have had to fight myself tooth and nail to get into the habit of outlining posts before I write them.
But I'm telling you, it's worth it.
Your outline will make the actual writing process much faster and easier, especially if you're not writing the blog that day. If you've outlined it first, it'll be a breeze to remember what points you wanted to make, instead of starting from scratch.
Outlining first will also help you organize your thoughts so your blog flows well. You'll have all your important points laid out in front of you, so you can organize them properly ahead of time, rather than having a bunch of editing and rearranging to do later.
4. Incorporate Keywords & Phrases
Since you've already done your research, you already know exactly what words and phrases need to be added into your blog. GREAT!
should reflect your topic. A main header in your blog should also reflect your topic, but every few sentences it doesn't need to be repeated. Google will actually ding you for this and you'll lose readers because no one likes redundancy, especially when they're just trying to find a satiating recipe for tonights dinner.
The keyword stuffing example to the below came out of a great article on GeekChicago.com about SEO fails. Take note of how many times they stuffed the title "Game of Thrones" Season 6 into 2 paragraphs. Don't be this person.
5. Break up Your Text
This can't be stressed enough. If the reader clicks on your article and they're bombarded with one long paragraph after the next, they'll likely click off your page within seconds.
Utilize:
Headers/Sub headers
Varying font sizes
Bullet points/numbering
Photos, video or graphics where relevant
Emojis or gifs if it's on brand for you
You need to make reading as easy as possible for your audience. Laying their eyes on a seemingly never ending sea of text registers as complicated and overwhelming.
Break. It. Up!
Also, if you have an exceptionally long info article, utilize a "back to top" button. It's also a brilliant idea to use an index at the top of your blog to allow your reader to pick and choose where they want to begin.
One of my favorite bloggers, Brian Dean, is great at this. His blogs are chock full of valuable content and are easy to maneuver. Click here to see his most recent article and how beautifully organized and easy to navigate it is.
