Having an active blog packed with quality content is the key to attracting new visitors to your website and establishing your brand as an expert in its field.
Google loves websites that are updated regularly and picks up content in blogs quickly so your business will rank higher in search results, driving more traffic to your site.
Frequently refreshing your blog with original content as part of a content marketing strategy lets customers know what you’ve been up to and builds credibility.
So how can you MINIMISE the time you spend writing blog posts and MAXIMISE the benefits to your business?
Here are 5 tips to help you write better blog posts:
1. Choose your subject and structure carefully
Choose a topic that is helpful to your customers and a title that includes a keyword or phrase that’s relevant to your blog subject. The blog title should be below 55 characters.
Think about the structure of your blog post before you start to write and introduce sub-topics within the main topic. Use sub-headings to break up the text and make it easier to read.
Make your blog post informative and pack it with relevant keywords. Once you’ve hit publish, share your blog post far and wide to attract the most possible visitors to your website.
2. Write a gripping introduction
To get your audience hooked, you need to set the scene in your introduction and tell them what you’re going to talk about in the blog post.
Think about what your audience is going to want to read.
Keep it relevant to your business and make it helpful and informative.
3. Craft your body copy
Use sub-headings to break up your body copy and keep each section of text roughly the same length.
Keep your blog post’s tone conversational and sentences short and uncluttered to make it easier for the reader to digest.
Don’t be afraid to add personality to keep things interesting if it’s appropriate to the topic.
Try taking a break between writing each section to make the process easier or write them all at once if that works better for you.
Once you’ve written the first draft, read it out loud to check it makes sense, sounds like you (or your brand) and flows easily to the reader.
4. Summarise your blog post
Link your introduction to your conclusion to sum up the topics you've discussed or arguments you've raised to wrap the blog post up neatly.
Make sure you end on a call to action to let the reader know what you’d like them to do next. For example:
Sign up for our email newsletter
View our products
Book an appointment
Make an enquiry
A call to action can be created with a clickable button or with clickable text in your body copy.
You should use a call to action to end your blog post even if you’ve used one in your body copy.
Before you hit publish, check your spelling, grammar and punctuation using a free app like Grammarly. Take a break and revisit your words with fresh eyes or ask a friend, family member or colleague to read your blog post.
Make changes until you’re completely happy that your writing is mistake-free and that your words sound natural and easy to understand when you read them out loud.
5. Add links and images
Break up your copy with quality, eye-catching images that are relevant to your topic.
Optimise your images for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) with appropriate file names, titles and image tags.
Then add links from your blog post to relevant articles or pages on your website or elsewhere. Linking to pages on your website helps with SEO so include links to related blog posts or your products and services where relevant.
Over to you
If you follow my five tips you’ll streamline your blog post creation and see your content perform better as you post consistently.
You should ideally post new blog content once a week but once a fortnight or once a month will deliver results too.
Plan your blog posts in a calendar to ensure your audience benefits from quality, diverse content and to avoid repetition.
If possible, regularly set aside time to write two or three blog posts so that you always have a bank of content to dip into when you’re busy.
Need help with your blog?
If you lack the time or inclination to create consistent blog posts for your business, I offer blog writing packages to suit all budgets and requirements. My well-researched, original posts – packed with keywords and SEO-friendly titles – can be repurposed as content for your social media, newsletter or customer emails.
Book a discovery call to discuss your requirements.
Further reading
For more first-class writing tips plus 10 content ideas for your blog posts, get my newsletter.
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