If there is one online trend that has really surpassed all others over the past couple of years, a trend that has managed to not only stick around but also grow, it has to be blogging. The power of blogging is reaching all kinds of new heights and just about anyone with a website is taking notice. It doesn’t matter if your website is big or small, or what industry or niche it’s in, blogging is something that it can benefit from and really help to drive traffic to your site.
Of course, with that said, there is a catch. In order for your blogs to deliver results, they need to be killer blog posts. While many people might feel they’ve got what it takes to create one, you may be surprised to find there are a lot of considerations and criteria you should be aware of. By ticking off all the must-have boxes, you’ll be able to create a blog post that gets noticed and can even start to set you apart as an expert if you keep churning them out.
So, let’s take a look at what exactly it takes to write a killer blog post.
Have a Clear Understanding of Who Your Audience Is
This first tip is one that is often overlooked yet is one of the fundamentals to blogging. If you don’t know who your target audience is, then it will be impossible to create content for them. This will take a bit of brainstorming and research on your part.
You want to ask yourself who your key consumer/client/buyer is, what information they likely have on the topic or product already, what you want to discuss, and how can you go about discussing this topic. Some blogs are written to entertain the reader, some are meant to provide education on a particular topic, whereas others are meant to be motivational pieces.
As you start to come up with these answers, it will help you to create a blueprint of your blog giving you the basics of what you want to discuss and how.
How a Typical Blog is Laid Out
You can also take a little time to look at other blogs online, and you will start to see the successful ones use a common outline. This outline is the theme of the blog, the main topic that you will discuss, and then there should also be a few subtopics. This gives you a better idea of the specifics that you will include in your post.
One tip to keep in mind is that the title and first two lines are of the utmost importance. This is where you will be able to hook the reader or lose them all together. What this means is that you need to grab their attention right away. Experts recommend that you use some type of emotion in that first couple sentences to capture your audience. You can invoke excitement, happiness, stress, frustration, etc.
Don’t Shy Away from Personal Anecdotes
Another tip is to make use of personal anecdotes when it can help the blog. Including some of those personal details helps the blog to feel more authentic and will resonate more with the reader. Instead of just being a blog, it’s a post written by a real person with real problems and emotions, just like the reader is experiencing. It creates a stronger connection between the reader and the content.
Embrace Multi-Media
While it would be great to think that your words moved people enough to be effective all on their own, the fact is that multi-media can really help to drive home a blog and make it even more successful. Whenever it makes sense and is relevant, it’s important to embrace such things as photos, videos, and podcasts. This creates interest on the page, breaks up the text, and can also help to add substance to the actual post.
When a blog post is effective, the reader is more likely to share it with others, so you want to pull every “trick” out if you will to help ensure you get the response you’re after. As for where to find relevant videos, images, and infographics, there are all kinds of websites that specialize in stock imagery that you can use. Keep in mind that some of these sites aren’t free and may require attribution if you use their content.
Be Sure to Include Keywords
You will also need to do a little research where keywords are concerned so that you can pick out the ideal list of words to use. Keywords will help your blog rank higher in the search engines, which in turn can increase the amount of traffic you get. Ideally you want to aim for a few keywords and phrases. Just be sure to compile this list before you start writing your blog. You don’t want to just slot them in for the sake of including them, they need to flow and make sense within the context of the blog.
As for how to pick your keywords, there is a science to this process as well. There are dedicated websites that allow you to type in a keyword and it will generate a list of keywords that are similar. This is called an LSI graph – latent semantic indexing. You can also do a little online research to check out which keywords are trending at the moment.
Another tip is to ensure you mix up the type of keywords you use, meaning short and long tail keywords should be included in the body and in the headers.
Many Factors and Criteria to Remember
When it comes to writing a killer blog post, it takes a lot more than just simple writing skills. There should also be a fair amount of research done to determine who you are writing for and what it is they want or need to read about. You then need to keep their interest through the use of videos and photos peppered throughout the blog, and of course by using various SEO practices to really hammer home the effectiveness of your post.