Content is the key to building a strong online availability to users. One of the best tricks for creating your small business content is to write a blog article.
By publishing new blog posts regularly, you will get a new source of content for your email newsletters and many more chances to rank in the relevant search results for your website.
Sounds awesome, it’s not easy to keep writing two to four blog posts per month when you’re a business owner or part of a small team that doesn’t have a full-time writer on staff. It’s easy to get an author’s block and keep an eye on a blank page for as long as you can afford.
So, to help you become more productive in your blogging endeavors, we put together our top 7 tips for blogging that everyone should know. Read on to improve your blogging process now.
1. Pick your topic
Before you start writing, you need to decide what you would like to cover in the article.
A helpful tool for this is your customers and clients. Think about the questions they ask you regularly. If you are asked a question that is frequently asked, it means that there are a lot of people wondering about the same question.
2. Outline
Put together a list of the main topics covered in the article and then group those topics into common themes or put them in logical progress to create your profile.
For example, if you’re writing an article about backing up your data securely, you’ll want the article to follow a step-by-step process to explain this to the reader.
Keep in mind that the outline you create is not set-in stone. You can always elaborate on certain issues or remove the ideas once you start writing.
3. Understand search engine optimization (SEO)
Blog articles are a valuable tool to drive more traffic to your site through search engines. Each article has the opportunity to optimize for keywords that you would normally not optimize on a static page on your site.
The most important thing about SEO for a blog article is that you should always write for people first. Search engines prefer content that provides value to readers. Make sure you’re covering a topic that people want to read about and that your article is a helpful tool.
With that said, you should pay attention to the keywords when you write. Before getting started, keyword research may take a little longer. Try to find some keywords that people often find and include them in the content of the article.
However, make sure you use those keywords naturally. Don’t force keywords to be included. Remember, we are writing for people first.
4. Make the content schemable
As you begin to develop your content, make sure you break down the bullet points or sub-titled text blocks. Online, people tend to mock the article instead of reading the word for their words. Paragraphs should not be longer than 5 sentences, and if you find yourself listing items or steps, divide them into bullet points to make them easier to read.
If you have a WordPress website, use the Yoast SEO plugin to get a readability score for every blog post you write.
5. Describe your issue with images
Images visually break up the text of the article, making it more tedious for readers. They can also help explain the point you are trying to make. If you cite research or specific data in your article, try to include a chart or graph to visualize the data.
6. Tell people what to do
When you reach the end of your article, tell people what you want them to do with the information you provide them. It may be a good idea to include a call to action (CTA). However, people do not come to the blog article for a strict sales pitch. Keep your CT in mind.
Instead of immediately pressuring someone to buy from you, try to encourage them to take a small step through your sales funnel. This could mean a CTA asking them to subscribe to your email newsletter or to download an e-book.
7. Read and re-read
Once you have completed a post, then leave it and come back later with a fresh mind and fresh eyes. Read and re-read it for grammatical errors and make sure you summarize your points, the points flowing logically one by one. Check your title again and see if you can fit any important keywords in it.
It’s hard to review your own work, but there are a couple of Nifty tools that can help you.
Hemingway App: Like the famous author, this app is about keeping your writing style bold and clear. It will guide you by cutting out any unnecessary words.
If possible, read someone else’s article for typo and make sure your article flows nicely.
