Content is king, and the way to connect with your customers is by setting up a blog. A good blog is crucial to the survival of a business, whether large or small, as it helps drive traffic to your website, establish credibility, and is also a marketing tool that a business can make sales through.
Blogging is a skill that is learned, and, upon perfection, one can share powerful ideas and transform the reader’s life. However, to get the reader’s attention, the blogger has to write a really good blog so that the audience does not get distracted by the many online competitors. So, let us take a look at the tips that one can apply in writing a good blog.
1. Choose a topic that interests you
To be a successful blogger, you need to have a passion for the niche that you are writing about. If you do not have fun writing it, then it will not be fun for the reader either. Narrow down and focus on that hyper-specific topic that you are enthusiastic about, and become that go-to expert that the audience will look to on that specific topic. By choosing your niche you are identifying your target audience.
For example, if you would love to talk about door hardware and your interest is on hardware for barn doors, then make sure that the audience looking for barn doors information will get it from the blog. Once you have gained an audience, then you can branch out and start covering other topics too.
2. Write a catchy headline
Once you have narrowed down on your niche, write on a topic that people are interested in and are searching for. You must understand what your target audience is looking for, so you can be able to write on topics that are valuable and engaging for them.
There is no roadmap for the audience to follow without a headline, and a catchy headline is the navigation system to guide the reader to your writing destination. Base your topic depending on what your audience is passionate about, their common problems and obstacles that they face, and how you can make their lives better through your writing.
A keyword research tool like AnswerThePublic can help you find some topics as they show the related questions on your niche that people are typing into google. Do thorough research on the topic to make sure that you will be adding value as an expert on the topic, and note the important points as you outline your topic.
3. Create great content
When you get down to writing, the first step is to make sure that your introduction lures in the audience to keep reading. Write them from the reader’s perspective and show them that you understand their situation, and then get into character and feel like the reader, the emotions they want to experience, and your words will come out full of authenticity. You could open with a question or a short statement, hint on a solution, and make them eager to read the solutions that you are offering.
As you head down to the main body of the blog, ensure you have subheadings that are not repetitive, sharing too much information, or too cryptic that the readers have to guess what you needed to say. They should relate and deliver on the post’s overall headline to avoid reader confusion.
Follow a format and pattern with your writing that is consistent with what the headline promises. Be generous with the information so your readers feel they have a complete solution and advice to their problem, which will create loyal readers in the long term. This main body content should start strong and end strong too, so the readers remain pumped from the beginning to the end. The sentences and paragraphs should be short.
Take time to edit your post and see to it there is cohesion in sentence structure, no grammatical errors, and no repetition. Read it out loud to check the flow, or request someone else with editing and proofreading experience to read it for you.
4. Include images and other media forms
Images, videos, GIFs, graphs, infographics, and charts to help your audience understand your message better and faster. Incorporating multiple forms of media offers visual breaks to your blog and keeps the reader engaged, breaking the monotony of words. But be careful not to overdo it, as it might give a cluttered appearance and also slow down the loading time.
5. Your content should be SEO friendly
Optimizing your blog makes it more search engine friendly. You can do this through keyword research to find words that will drive traffic to your site. You can use tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tools for this, and then naturally use them in your writing, throughout the post.
Also, optimize the images that you include in your blog by including the keyword in their file name and description, and also by referencing other bloggers through links to their content. Include Feed Subscription Buttons on your blog for your followers to get notifications on new posts, and also use social media sites to widen your reach and promote your blog.
By following these tips, whether you are a beginner or a seasoned blogger, you increase your ranking on search engines, increase traffic to your website, and up the chances of customer conversion.