Millions of people use the internet to search for products, services, information even entertainment online. After the pandemic, a new lifestyle has emerged, and it’s here to stay. That has made blogging an integral part of marketing strategy. But the content must convey a clear message across, and people should be able to appreciate it. Your aim is for the blog to “click” and bring money.
Here we have a guideline to avoid the most common mistakes in blog posting that will help you achieve your desired goal.
Just avoid these 7 most common mistakes:
1. It isn’t what you write but how you write it. Why?
You research, you write well,l but no one “clicks” to read your content or even read past the first paragraph. What do you do wrong?
3 simple ways to fix it:
● You don’t know your readers. Who are they?
It is good to know your target audience to address them directly and communicate your message briefly and clearly. Remember, you are writing for a general audience. You don’t know their background, social status, education, or locality.If you promote a home product, the readers want some information, understand its use, and why they need it. Technical jargon will not do the job.
● You don’t know what they are searching for. How to learn about their interests?
By researching your keywords, you can learn a lot about the readers you’re targeting and directing to your website.
● You make a promise that you don’t keep
To avoid such a blunder, make a plan, an outline for your content.
Plan your blog content before you start writing, and break it down into sections. An outline helps you avoid mistakes like repeating or including irrelevant information.
It also helps merge similar ideas under the same heading and check that you have covered all points.
Remember“People judge a book by its cover and read a blog by its title”!
Thorough keyword research determines the success of your content. The right keywords bring SEO-optimized headlines, and when used in eye-catching- ones, they compel readers to click and read the content to satisfy their curiosity.
It is advisable to finish your content first and then write your title.
● Keywords are the backbone of your content! Do you use them wisely?
Keywords do not only improve the domain authority of your site. They also let Google know your site is alive.But don’t overlook search queries, the terms, phrases people use in search engines. They reflect their thought and helpyou target the right keywords.
You only need 4-5 powerful keywords to take the reader down to the last line.
The keywords should appear throughout your blog content in the title, and the paragraphs, to maintain readability to the end.
It’s also advisable to target long-tail keywords that are almost impossible to target within the copy of your website.
How powerful keywords in your title take the reader down to the last line?
The headline should convey the main point of your content with a keyword in it!
Yet, it must be short and simple to read at a glance. But also unique to differentiate your content in the search engines.
Use up to 55 characters to write search engine-friendly blog titles.
It is advisable to finish your content first and then write your title.
Glancing at the title, readers should know what the content is about and if it interests them, and how they will benefit by reading it.
2. Your headlines don’t make noise! Say it loud! Be Emotional! How?
Words are to a writer what color is to an artist!
Be creative, original, daring, and why not eccentric? Use words that make an impact, strong verbs, adjectives, and adverbs! Do not fear using unconventional adjectives to make the difference.
Write titles to excite your readers, make them eye-catching and effective. Strong headlines will increase your traffic and revenue in no time.
Numbers work like magic
They are easy to read, prepare the readers for the length of the content and
keep the reader engaged reading through all the points
Do some cheating! Use Question Formulas. How?
People use search engines to look for information, focus on the questions they ask and how they ask them.
When you type something in Google or YouTube, it automatically suggests several search terms. That’s what people have in mind and have a high search rate.
Question words: Why, Where, When, and How to arouse curiosity.
How to write compelling headlines?
Why are keywords vital?
What is SEO-optimized content?
3. Why bother with headings in every blog post – here’s why!
Headings are short phrases that prepare the readers for the upcoming paragraph. Headings organize the information you wish to convey and allow readers to focus on the parts that interest them most.
● Headings contribute to well-organized content
The headings help organize your ideas, give a clear structure of your text, and show readers the points you cover. So, they can scroll down to the section that interests them easy, and effortlessly. Remember that readers want answers, and they want them fast, on the spot.
● Consistent use of headings helps your search engine optimization.
Google uses headings to index your content and identify its main topic. Some headings should contain your keyword. That helps search engines to recognize that keyword as relevant to your content which brings better rankings.
●Headings break your text into smaller sections and facilitate understanding
Blog posts are usually between 500 to1000 words, maybe more. You want your readers to stay focused and engage in your content.
Headings divide your post into smaller sections. Each section expresses a different point, making it easier to understand.
The best way to use headings in every blog post is as titles to the different sections. When you break up your blog into sections, write a sub-heading for each one.
However, try not to write more than 250 words between the sections, or you will fail your purpose for headings.
Subheadings are vital to keeping attention. Sub-headings are usually h2 or h3 headings in the HTML structure, and common sense suggests these are good places for keywords to boost SEO.
What a headline does for the post, a subhead does for each subsection ofyour content, so simply apply the same rules.
Treat your subheads like your headlines as another opportunity to stand out, to grab your readers’ attention, and keep them on your site long enough to transform them into “Shares.”
4. Your Readers are Scanners! What can you do?
Readers have become scanners. They scan your content, and within 10 sec they determine if it interests them or not.
Keep paragraphs short and easy to scan to encourage your readers.
Use the space between sections to add an image or a video or even let the eye rest. That will make your content visually easy even to the reader who’s just scanning.
Also, if you are skeptical about how you can convey more information without losing them, try different techniques. Change the font and format. Change the text color and size include bold and italic parts, images, and links.
More for Less!
Readers want to read less, still get more information. Shorter paragraphs create an illusion that the content is short and easy to scan.
They prefer reading several short paragraphs, so keep them short and underline, bold, or italicize words to help readers stay focused on your point.
5. You don’t encourage readability. Why not try this?
Another trick to break your content and keep readers engaged is bullets.
Write them as if “they’re mini-headlines.”
Keep your bullet points symmetrical.
Maintain the same style and length.
Begin each bullet with the same part of speech and the same grammatical form.
Keep your punctuation consistent.
Capitalize the first word but for single-word bulletslowercase.
Add periods to short sentences but not too short phrases or incomplete sentences.
6. Your Readers don’t Stay Long on Your Site
The longer your readers remain on your site, the more they engage, comment on your blog post, share and like it, and the better it is for SEO,
Help your readers remain on your site. Within your blog post, link to a past blog, post that includes relevant content, or provides additional information. As some topics may need more content, you can write follow-ups and interlink them. So readers can read in sequence.
Include audio and visuals, graphs, images, and videos boost your content’s value and will rank higher in search engines both on Google and YouTube.
7. Don’t get enough “Shares” and “Likes”? Easy!
To know your audience means you know what they are researching. Craft content to satisfy their needs, bring more shares, and generate more organic traffic to your site.Include the terms and phrases they use, so when they read your content, they’ll relate and be eager to continue and “share.”
The “Shares” will bring more readers who will probably read at a later time. As you want them to “share” it, too, all you have to do is create “evergreen” content. That means your information will be equally valuable and appreciated whenever read at any time in the future.
Designing captivating visual content isn’t difficult. Make your content attractive and shareable.
When you brand your images, your blog is easy- recognized, and your readers are more likely to click, read, and share it on social media.
Finish off with a Call-to-Action.Don’t hesitate to ask for comments and shares or invite them to come back to your blog post.
Always double check your work- Then Publish
When you have your blog ready and set, check the following list before you click “publish.” Have I performed the following?
Craft an attention-grabbing headline and Subheadings?
Added interlink posts to increase engagement?
Included a content upgrade?
Design attractive -visual content?
Added a call-to-action for Social Media?
All writers want their content to be read, not scanned. To capture the reader is a good thing but to keep them reading is an accomplishment.
Can’t do it alone? Tech is here to help you find other ways to increase drives more traffic, shares, and search results for your blog.
Find share-worthy content at Buzzsumo’s (free trial), and type in what you plan on writing your blog post about,
Check Pinterest pins with most saves.
Use Canva(free tool) to create graphics.
Create an AdWords account to search for search volume
Research blog posts and videos that have gone viral.
Use CoSchedule’s free Blog Post Headline Analyzer. It analyzes the structure, grammar, and readability of your headline,
Draftposts in Scriverner to improve subheads
Yoast SEO plugin, target several keywords based on your main keyword
For long-tail- keywords, use Quora
KeywordSpy
Moz Analytics’ Keyword Analysis Tool
SECockpit
UberSuggest
KeywordTool