Are your blog posts bringing in the right number of readers you’d hoped they would? As there’s nothing worse than writing content that you are proud of but nobody is reading.
Tips to write effectively on your blog
Here are some tips to make sure people read what you write, as well as enjoy the content and share with everyone they know.
1. Know your audience
Understanding what users are searching to find your content is crucial. Once you know your topic, you need to think about what users search in relation to the topic. For example, if your post was about a blog posts tutorial, start by looking at what users search in google related to blog posts.
We can see when searching for the phrase ‘blog posts’, more detailed searches include ‘blog post ideas’, ‘blog posts for SEO’, ‘blog post examples’ and ‘blog posts about social media‘.
We now have a basis for our topics. It allows us to narrow down our blog content targeting more specific avenues users took to find what they were looking for.
‘Blog posts’ is quite a broad and generic search term making it harder to rank. It is possible that the user searching may not find your content as relatable. However, a user searching for ‘blog posts for SEO’ is hoping to find more specific content.
Targeting that search phrase, you’re more likely to appear for searches that directly relate the user’s search intent. Pertaining to more specific information, it improves the chance of them clicking the link, finding your post interesting and hanging around to read the whole thing; which lowers your bounce rate.
Tools such as Google’s search bar, as shown in the example above and keywordtool.io can be useful in finding long-tail keyword searches.
2. Choose interesting topics
Nobody will want to read your posts if the content is boring, unrelatable or provides no wealth to your reader. Therefore, it’s crucial to write about topics your readers find both important and interesting.
Neuroradiology Consulting, do a great job in their post on Radiologists’ work patterns being safe. In their post, they discuss points that are essential to the radiology industry, pairing content with proven facts to keep their readers both informed and interested.
Write about topics that are meaningful, enticing and worthy of your readers time.
3. Write attractive headlines
Headlines are going to be the first thing your user reads after a search, when shared on social media or when landing on the blog post. It’s essential to use headlines that seem intriguing, exciting and answer the user’s question.
It’s good to try and incorporate keywords relating to your audience, increasing your visibility in searches, whilst targeting the correct audiences.
4. Offer an interesting introduction
Your introduction will be next in line after your headline. It may appear in the search engine’s snippet and will probably make or break your chance of the user reading your content beyond landing on your page.
You have to tell your audience;
- Why is your post worth reading?
- Will you help make their life easier?
- Are your tips groundbreaking?
- Is it something everybody should know?
Therefore, in order to write a good introduction, you need to grab the readers attention, draw them in and explain what there is to gain from reading your content.
5. Include subheadings
Formatting is a considerable part of your blog post. There’s not a lot worse than having a big chunk of unformatted text to read.
Subheadings help to break down the page. People will usually skim read content to see if it relates to what they are looking to find. It also allows users to scan the content when they’re referring back to your blog posts.
Include subheadings to make your post attractive, simple to read and as easy on the eyes as possible.
6. Write content that helps SEO
We already know that keywords are the building block required to help audiences find your content.
When writing content, it’s best practice to plant those keywords where you can help to improve your blog posts of ranking. It will help to tell search engines what your content is about ensuring you rank at the top for the right topics and searches.
Make sure you don’t keyword stuff by sticking the keyword left, right and centre. Instead, use the keyword appropriately. Your information should read naturally but incorporate your keyword where possible.
7. Include an obvious CTA
What do you want your users to do once they have read your post? Would you like them to reshare, leave a comment, or contact you? Ask them to do so. The reader made it to the end, so by this point, you’d hope they enjoyed what they have read. It should now be easy to have the user engage or share your work.
For example, ‘Did you like the post? I hope so. If you did would you please share it on social media with your friends.
Hopefully, we’ve provided you with some benefits. If you follow these tips, your blog posts should get more hits, improve and convert readers easily.