Writing a blog might seem easy, but it’s a skill, a science and an art form that takes time to master. There are fundamentals to blog writing that many writers overlook and as such their organic traffic and read ratios suffer. Here are some key tips for writing blog articles people will find, read and share.
Many bloggers skip this step. The most important thing you can do is choose a subject worthy of your time and your reader’s. There is plenty of uninspired and unnecessary content on the internet which says very little. Google dubs this as “thin content.”
Don’t bury the lead. You want to hook your reader in with a clear and enticing opening to your article. This is their reason to keep reading. It won’t matter if you get hundreds of clicks through to your article with a clever headline if they immediately leave. That will only worsen your bounce rate and drive down your Google ranking.
If you’re writing for an organisation, you need to make sure you’re using their tone of voice. If you’re writing as yourself, then write as yourself. Many blogs are info heavy and you’ll likely be covering ground that has been written about before. Your unique voice, perspective, experience and tone are what will stand out.
Writing in the right tone will bring in the correct audience. For a brand, these will be high-value customers who share your brand values. For yourself, they will be readers who have a kinship with you based on your interests and outlook. And you only discover your own voice through practising.
The basic structure of a blog post is:
This is the structure for a simple blog article, but isn’t going to be appropriate for all subject matter. Your job as the writer is to decide the best way to disseminate the information or tell the story.
People think because they can speak they can also write. Or they underestimate the practice it takes to become a talented writer.
We’ll loop back around to this in the SEO section, but you want to attribute any facts to their source. You’re not writing an academic article but you do want people to take you seriously. Substantiate your claims by linking to strong original research.
You should also attribute the images you use, even if they’re stock, by captioning them. This shows respect to the creator and means you avoid any legal issues around copyright.
That reminds me: images. Use original imagery if you can, or at least make it relevant if you can’t. Images help to articulate the point of your article and stop readers being overwhelmed by a wall of writing.
You do have to consider some SEO principles, but there’s no substitute for good writing. Google won’t care that you followed the SEO manual to the letter if no real human readers make it through your article. That being said . . .
SEO is like the mythical hydra: a shambing and ever-changing beast with too many heads to count. Here we’ll touch on the absolute basics of blog writing for SEO.
Find a focus keyword for your article and multiple secondary variable keywords, some of them longtail. Your main keyword might be “Blog writing” with a variable being “Writing for bloggers” and your longtail being “How to write a blog.”
You can use tools like Ubersuggest for some top-level keyword ideas without paying, Google Trends for a broad idea of what people are searching for, or Moz and SEMRush offer a free trial.
The rule of thumb is that your target keyword or phrase needs to be in your H1, at the start if possible.
You want your target keyword in the first sentence. However, don’t let this interfere with your hook. You need to seamlessly integrate the two. You want your keyword or its variations to appear in around 50% of your subheadings if possible.
Include both internal and external links. This lets Google know that your article is relevant to your site and backed up by facts, adding credibility.