We all know that blogging is important for SEO, but do you know how to strike the balance between informative and optimised content?
Read on for Content Editor Hope’s top tips on writing blog posts that not only entertain and inform but also help you get seen online.
Message leads to structure
The first things you should consider when approaching a blog post is what message you want it to convey, what questions you think it should answer and therefore what structure you think it should follow. If you start writing without considering each of these points you will likely end up with content that doesn’t flow and doesn’t successfully meet the needs of your users and customers.
Keyword research
If you’re new to blog writing, this may be something you are unfamiliar with or haven’t approached before. Keywords are basically the terms, words or phrases that are most often searched for in search engines. For example, if you’re writing a blog focused on vegan skincare, your keyword research might lead you to keywords like ethical skincare or vegan skincare brands. If I need to look for keywords, I will often use SEMrush, select the ones that I think will best match my content and actively refer to them when I begin writing. Your keywords should be found in your page title, your H1 (heading 1) and your first 100 words to give you the best chance at ranking for that keyword.
Headings and page title
As I just mentioned, your headings are pretty important for keyword ranking but also for structuring your content. I was once told if you can’t take away all of your content and understand what your blog is about from the headings, then your headings might need some work. I always start a blog by planning out my headings, so I have a clear structure of the content I’m going to create before I begin.
Internal linking
If you are writing a blog for your company or brand, internal linking can be really important for continuing your users’ journey onto your website. After all, your blog is usually there to encourage more traffic to engage with your website, so including links to your products or services is a great way of continuing that user journey. These can be sprinkled into the content or placed at the end of paragraphs as clear CTAs.
CTA
Speaking of CTAs, having a designated Call-to-Action at the end of your blog post is your last chance to give users that final push towards your website. Whether you want users to get in touch to discuss your services or explore your range of products, including a simple and clear call to action is the best way to bring your blog post to a close.
Tone of voice
When you’re writing your blog post, creating and keeping a consistent tone of voice is pretty important for making your post engaging and reflective of your brand. The best way to check your tone of voice isn’t overly formal or monotonous is to read it out loud to yourself or have someone else read it before posting. When you’ve written a blog yourself, it can be difficult to spot your own flaws and that’s okay as long as you do amend them before posting.
Final edits
By the time you have finished your blog post, you should have structured headings, keyword-rich content and a clear call to action at the end. But before you post your blog, though probably the most obvious tip of all, you need to do a grammar and punctuation check. Having a blog post that is littered with mistakes generally creates a poor user experience and will likely impact whether users decide to engage with your site after reading. It’s super simple and quick to do, so doing a final read through and checking there are no mistakes will give your blog the best chance at success as possible.
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Whether you’re completely new to blog writing or just hoping for some tips to improve the optimisation of previous and future blog posts, I hope you’ve found this useful. Best of luck with your future blog writing!
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