How to Write a Blog Post to Meet Goals {2022 Edition}
The average customer views 3-4 pieces of content before moving further into the Buyer's Journey (signing up, scheduling, downloading, subscribing) to meet your KPIs.
But before this happens, you must offer significant value to the visitor. And --aside from any physical product/service you offer --your blog is the best place to demonstrate this value.
Unfortunately, many blogs are an afterthought in the overall digital marketing strategy. This can lead to less than desirable results and a waste of your resources. But knowing how to write a blog post that gets results can transform your outcome, helping you maximize your long-term ROI.
Whether you want to generate passive income through affiliate links, AdSense, or goods and services, I can show you everything you need to know about writing a blog post to achieve this.
Here's your step-by-step guide to writing a blog post that will help you get what you want from blogging. Results you can see, feel and take to the bank.
Also read: 9 Simple Steps to Start a Successful Blog for Business
18 Benefits of Great Blog Writing
This blog post isn't another of the many personal opinions you'll get online about best practices for blog writing. I've built this method based on large-scale industry research on consistently meeting blogging KPI to ultimately generate revenues for your business. This blog post writing method will help you:
Increase traffic from your target audience
Keep readers on the page
Create content readers look for and want to consume
Encourage clicks to other content
Increase conversion rate
Generate more leads
Generate more highly qualified leads before the lead even contacts the company
Reduce bounce rate (great for SEO)
Increase dwell time (great for SEO)
Increase search engine results
Increase engagement (sharing, commenting)
Increase high-quality do-follow linking (the kind that helps SEO)
Increase customer satisfaction / Get more 5 star reviews
And those are just the beginning. I'll show you how to use your blog to:
Increase customer lifetime value (CLV)
Reduce marketing budget
Reduce sales team close time
Maximize your ad budget ROI
Reduce customer service calls
76% of customers say they'd prefer to help themselves if companies would just make the information available online.
When you blog this way, you give customers exactly what they want. When you funnel that positive sentiment into a streamlined content marketing funnel, you win at content marketing.
Throughout this blog post, we'll explore the data that supports these benefits and the methods behind them.
1. Establish Blogging Goals
Before you start writing, you need a strong idea of what you want blog content to do for you.
A new blog is an excellent tool for achieving business goals. But what writing blog posts won't do for you is instantly drive traffic to your website. It won't immediately increase revenues either. It won't do much of anything if it's not part of an overall content strategy.
Of course, you want your blog to generate revenues. But you need to set measurable, meaningful, and realistic goals for our blog to get more out of it. That way, you know if the blog is flourishing, and you can see where improvements will take your blog to the next level.
Build your blogging goals around metrics that blog posts can achieve, and recognize the value these offer to your overall content marketing strategy.
Google SEO Goals
Keyword ranking
Greater visibility in search engine results
Search engine traffic
Bounce rate
Time on page
Conversion Goals
Free signups
Paid signups
Newsletter Subscriptions
Leads
Free trials
Downloads.
Social Media Goals
Likes
Shares
Comments
Social traffic
Affiliate Marketing and Ad Goals
Affiliate link clicks
Ad clicks
2. Start with a Shareable Topic
The shareable topic is the centerpiece of a successful blog. If you don't know how to write a good blog post on shareable topics, then you'll never get past square one with your blog.
Strong blog topic ideas meets the following criteria:
Your readers are looking for it
Your target audience will want to read it
It helps further your business goals & objectives
Readers find it very helpful, entertaining or both
It gets and keeps your reader's attention
It encourages the reader to take the desired action like signing up for your subscription service, clicking an affiliate link, etc.
So yes, "10 reasons you should hire our company" isn't a good blog topic. In fact, it's terrible. That's not how to write a great blog post.
It's thinking from the business perspective. Content marketing is the ultimate in customer-centric marketing.
81% of readers trust what they read in a blog.
61% of readers say they have purchased something immediately after reading a blog about it.
To create a successful blog, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your readers.
According to research performed by the New York Times, 94% of us share on social media because we think that the content will be helpful to someone else.
So, to be a shareable topic, it needs to be helpful. How do you determine what is useful to your target reader?
How to Come up with Helpful Blog Post Ideas
Start by listing not what you sell, and instead, list the goals and challenges that readers have surrounding what you sell.
Beneath each goal or challenge, create a list of questions readers may have about achieving that goal or overcoming that challenge.
At this point, do some keyword research from your list. Find out which of these questions and keywords are getting decent traffic. How competitive are they? This will help you understand what you'll have to do to compete.
Moz Keyword Explorer is a tool I trust when doing keyword research. SEMrush also has some great tools.
Later, when we get into how to write a great blog post, we'll build the content around those keywords.
To develop shareable topics, have your ear to the heartbeat of your industry. When I'm looking for topics ideas, regardless of industry, I check several places:
Quora
Reddit
Talk with the Sales/Customer Care Team
Popular Blogs
Facebook/Twitter/etc.
SaaS tools like BuzzSumo
Analytics (what's been working for you?)
Keyword research tools
Search engine results for search terms
Niche bloggers websites
You can create a great blog post that readers, search, and social love when you listen to your readers.
Fun Read: Your Secret to Having Endless Topics to Write About
3. Use a Recognizable Blog Post Format
We like to think that being different is always the best strategy. Market differentiation, right? But sometimes, being predictable is more important. Formulaic even.
This isn't to say that you throw creativity out the window when learning how to write a post that gets results.
But reason and data will always help you create a better post.
A person spends less than 2 seconds deciding whether to click a headline.
They're basically on auto-pilot. The more recognizable the topic is, the easier it is to process on the spot. And they're more likely to click.
What Do Recognizable Formats Look Like?
They're formats bloggers frequently use in your niche. Before you outline your blog posts, consider fitting your topic into one of these formats.
Some formats readers engage with again and again include:
FAQ - (What is, How long does X take, When is the best time to, etc.)
HOW TO (that's what this blog post is)
Pros & Cons (avoid comparing your product to a competitor's. It will always seem biased. Instead, be objective and use the art of subtle persuasion)
Mistakes to Avoid
Product reviews (again, keep it objective)
X benefits of for readers
X reasons why this will work for readers
Case study ( This hospital saved $1.2 million a year by switching to a lean supply chain system)
X Tips to Do X
DIY
DIY - Your Unlikely Secret Weapon
Okay, let's get honest here for a second. I'm a professional blog writer who's written over 10,000 blog posts for clients. It's what I do for a living.
Why would I be telling you how to write a good blog post? Won't I lose business?
Actually, no. Not in the long run. Why? Because I earned your traffic through this helpful blog post. That helps my site with search engines and readers. When I take the time to figure out what readers need that I do and show them how to do that, we both win.
DIY is a very practical, shareable blog theme for any business. It's also often avoided because a company doesn't want readers to walk away from a good blog post and DIY.
But here's the secret, it's easy to tell someone how to do something in a blog post. It's 10X harder for someone to do it. So you'll undoubtedly have some people who take the blog post ideas and run with them. More power to them. I'm thrilled that I could assist them. My goal is always to write this kind of helpful post.
But the vast majority will read it, try some of it and realize that they'll probably want to hire a professional to either save time or get better results.
You've demonstrated your know-how because you can explain it in a way they can understand in your blog posts. But that doesn't mean they can do what you do.
And now, you've earned their trust, so you're top of mind when they do decide they can't do it themselves after reading some blog posts.
4. Research Your Topic
I like to start with at least 3 good resources. I'll pull more as I go.
Type your keyword phrase for this blog post into Google search. Check out page 1.
If someone has already written this topic, go ahead and write that good blog post idea. Just because someone has already created those blog posts doesn't mean you don't use the topic.
Think of the blog post that already exists as proof of concept. Page 1 blog posts on the same topic show you readers want good blog posts on this topic and what those posts may look like.
Now, you need to compose a more in-depth and likely longer piece to compete with it. If you want to reach a page one spot, you have to be better than the good blog posts on page one.
You have to be great. What's here will show you how to do that.
Pro Tip: SaaS Tools like ClearScope and UseTopic.com may be worth your while. They're not cheap but will save you a lot of time by pulling data from the blog posts that rank that you can use to position your new blog post among them better.
5. Do a Competitive Analysis
You don't want to regurgitate what someone else created. Your readers will recognize that for what it is. Your target audience will not appreciate it.
Instead, the examples you pull up in search will be your guide for writing a competitive piece on content quickly. If writing a great piece of content takes too long, it takes a long time to recoup that time invested in that blog post.
You may find helpful information about the competitive landscape and your target audience when you do this research.
What's the Right Length to Rank?
The perfect length is as short as possible to still cover the topic thoroughly. Your competitive analysis will help you figure out this length.
You may find that people cover the topic with 1500-3000 words pieces, and you were planning a short 1000 words.
The average online blog post is now over 1500 words. But in some industries, like mine, a 5000+ is par for the course. Readers expect it, and I consider that when writing blog posts.
Length isn't the end all be all. But it is much easier to rank a blog post that's longer and more in-depth than the competition's if search engine ranking through SEO is among your goals for the content.
If this is what you find, just know it will be pretty hard to rank this piece on page one in search engine search results if you stick to that word count.
You can either decide to up your word count to cover it more in-depth. Upping the word is often the best option.
Long in-depth blog posts generate 9X the leads.
Or you may choose to use this as a social media traffic generating piece, knowing that it won't likely become an excellent SEO piece.
Shift Your Focus to Win
Social media is a vital part of your content marketing or inbound marketing strategy. So it's certainly okay to create blog posts specifically for social that you know will not do much for SEO.
It's just important to call a spade a spade so you can get the most out of this post. Put it to work as a short, shareable piece and craft it around that objective.
Here's the exciting news, though. As you continue to build up your domain authority, this new blog post will also become more visible in searches. Your first blog may be on page one. But as your authority rises, Google gives your shorter pieces more of a shot with readers. If you perform well, then your ranking goes up.
If you're building your strategy around sustainability in this way, you win either path you choose to take here.
Failing to adapt to the competitive landscape means you can't compete in the real world. The more pieces like this you invest in, the more poorly you'll perform. And you'll have less money to spend on content writing that works.
Unfortunately, since content marketing is a long-term sustainable set of strategies, you could spend big thinking you're investing. But it's just an expense if you're not getting results.
That's why you've got to take a look at what you're up against and adapt accordingly to do it better.
6. Outline Your H2 Headings
Time to sit down to write. These last steps you'll find so much easier and quicker because of the 1st 5 steps we've just taken. Now, we need to focus on nuances like getting the reader's attention and keeping the audience on the page.
Write out some basic H2 headings. These are your most prominent headings on the page after your title, which should be H1, in most cases.
Don't dive down into H3's unless you want to note something to be sure to cover for your readers. I often use bullet points at the outline stage and focus on formatting after I start blogging.
Shoot for 3-6 headings per 500 words. Not too many. Not too few. This will help readers skim the article to understand it and navigate it to find what they're looking for.
Readers won't always read top to bottom as you might expect when you write your first blog posts.
As you'll remember, we're here to discuss writing posts that get measurable results. So let's briefly look at why headings are so important for the Internet reading audience.
How Readers Read the Blog Post You're Writing
New bloggers often miss this fine point. They may think every word is perfect, so of course, the audience will read everything to the very end. But that's not how your audience probably interacts with your blog posts.
Reading on the Internet isn't like reading a book. The better you understand this, the more successful your blog posts will be. The back button and fast Internet speeds mean that visitors can back out at lightning speed.
43% of blog readers admit to skimming blogs for specific information
55% of visitors will spend less than 15 seconds looking for it before leaving
37 seconds is the average time visitors will read a blog
I know this sounds outrageous. Why the heck are you investing in quality blogs if "no one is reading them?
But here's the rest of the story you need to know.
A Nielsen Norman Group study of over 10K websites found that blogs experience "negative aging."
That simply means that the longer someone stays on the page or site, the longer they are likely to spend on your page or site, instead of vice versa.
An example of positive aging would be the longer a container of guacamole is opened, the faster it browns.
If you can put systems in place to keep a person on a page past that 15-second mark, they're more likely to "come on in and say awhile," as my very Southern grandmother used to say.
These are your leads, the readers who stay for 3 minutes or 10.
And because readers on the Internet mostly skim, a portion of 15-second visitors are also "comin' in to stay awhile" when they find another blog on your site that they wanted to read.
This isn't just an assumption.
You can see this in your Google Analytics visitors data. And you know it's true when you see the results a blog can generate when you learn how to write the smart way.
Accomplish this staying power with the effective use of headings and images on your website. We'll discuss the image part later.
So how exactly do readers spend their 15 seconds that determine if they stay? That's also well-documented.
The F Pattern
In English and other left-aligned languages, readers read a blog post in an F pattern like this:
Read the hook and perhaps the whole opening if it connects well to the audience.
Skim the headings down the left of the page.
If a heading goes all the way to the right, they read the first 5 words or so of the heading and stop.
Find a heading that looks interesting. There's using your headings like search terms, so make sure they concisely explain the purpose of that section.
Read the text under that heading or list if you use bullet points
If while reading, it isn't helpful and engaging, readers immediately leave.
If it is helpful and engaging, they do one of two things.
Go back and read the whole blog post (if they have time). Or continue skimming down to another interesting section.
It's improbable that they'll read your conclusion and CTA (call to action). We'll talk a little later about how to put a CTA somewhere that people will actually see it.
It's not a perfect F. But you can see where it gets its name. Professional content writers like myself have learned about writing with this pattern in mind. We've honed our skills to get results even if someone doesn't read the whole post.
My writing tips include covering your bases most efficiently and effectively to get the highest ROI.
Because, this is about getting results even though most readers will not read your website content from start to finish.
Are we sad about it as content writers? Sure. But it's the reality that we must adapt to get results.
When you build your headings around how readers actually consume a blog, you will win at blogging for business. The faster new bloggers develop this style, the more quickly they'll see results from these tips.
How to Create Skimmable Headlines
A Skimmable headline is the following:
Short as possible. 5-7 words. 3 if you can get the point across. You'll notice that sometimes I balance this with keyword usage in H2. I'm writing for people and Google, so "rules" get broken from time to time.
Stands alone. A person should be able to do nothing but read straight down your headings and know precisely what the article is about.
Entices a person to read more.
Are Frequent enough that reading under the heading doesn't feel like a long commitment.
Put a heading every 100 words in a shorter blog. And maybe every 200 in a long-form post. If you can, break a heading into subheadings as I've done under each step. That makes for a much more skimmable piece.
Look back when you proofread. If a section looks long, but you can't easily break it up, add an image within that section.
How to Create SEO Headings
As we focus on writing a winning post, remember we want a post that gets results with people and search engines.
Use your secondary keyword phrases in those headlines to SEO your headings and make them even easier for a human to understand.
Put your primary keyword phrase in at least one headline. Put other complementary keywords in the other headlines.
For example,
Topic: What is Cool Lipo?
{H2} What Are the Benefits of Cool Lipo?
{H2} Who Are the Best Candidates for Cool Lipo?
{H2} What's the Cool Lipo Recovery Time?
{H2} How Many Cool Lipo Sessions Will I Need?
{H2} How Much Does Cool Lipo Cost?
Notice how each of these headings stands alone. Each answers a specific question a person will be searching for. And they're built around common questions people ask in search engines, so we're also competing for Google's Top Questions section in the search results.
If you were interested in Cool Lipo, do you think you could easily skim these headings to find precisely what you're looking for?
7. Create People-Friendly Text
Let's dive into the text. Note that we haven't talked about crafting the perfect hook / opening yet.
Unless you know exactly what you want to say, you'll generally craft a better hook when you save it for last.
What does people-friendly mean to you?
People-friendly blogging is:
Mobile-friendly. Over 50% of blogs are read on mobile. But even on desktops, this style will provide the optimal reading experience.
SEO-friendly. If people like it, Google takes notice. Over time, they'll reward you with higher visibility.
It:
Focuses on delivering a great customer experience.
Is conversion rate optimized in a customer-centric way
It probably keeps paragraphs short
This style doesn't take much explaining. You've been reading it this whole time, unless you're skimming. This is how to write a blog post that people will read.
Note this great visual from Neil Patel. Who wants to read something that looks like this?
A people-friendly style includes these 13 elements:
Uses short paragraphs
Uses mostly shorter sentences
Avoids jargon
Doesn't talk down to a reader
Makes use of bullets and numbers to increase white space. But doesn't overdo it as I did in this section.
Highlights important points like stats
Feels like a conversation with a trusted friend, not a sales pitch or a lecture
Stays on point. I don't like to say "no fluff" because many people confuse that with having no personality.
Supports your points. You don't just make claims. You back them up with quotes, stats and expert opinions.
Provides actionable information. A person can immediately walk away and do something or know something that improves their life.
Edits out clumsy or detracting language
Write how your audience speaks. If your audience is academic, you're going to use larger, more academic words. If you're speaking with a business owner, you'll use words business owners use like revenues, productivity, and cost-savings. Regardless, you'll perform best with a conversational piece.
It's a good mix of interrogative, declarative, and imperative sentences.
Interrogative:
Ask the reader to ponder questions.
Declarative:
Explain why and describe how
Imperative:
Tell the reader to do something to achieve a certain result.
Find a balance.
Going too heavy on imperative can seem bossy, presumptuous or salesy. Too much declarative is often dull and reads like an essay.
Too many questions can make a piece exhausting to read. But together, they make a more engaging piece.
I strongly recommend that you write in the second person.
When one writes in 3rd person, it's more difficult for a person to connect with the writer's writing. It sounds more like a graduate school textbook than a conversational piece of content.
When you write in 2nd person, it sounds like you're speaking straight to me. You make a connection. You need the kind of connection to build trust and earn a conversion.
This is how you build trust through your writing. It gently yet consistently persuades the visitor to take the desired action. Each action gets you closer to generating serious revenues with your blog and maximizing your content marketing ROI.
Keyword Usage
In addition to the above 13 points above, to have a chance to rank, it needs to be clear to search engines what a piece is about. This isn't about using the same keyword over and over.
It's about ensuring that you're using a range of related keywords. This helps show that you're covering the topic in-depth.
Search engines are getting better all the time. But to date, it's still a good idea to have a single keyword phrase that sums up the article as your primary keyword.
"How to write a blog post" is mine for this article. But you'll notice, I'm not using it every other paragraph or using it in ungrammatical ways.
When used correctly, your keyword becomes a catchphrase that follows a person through the post. Each time they read it, they remember why they initially started reading this blog. It can keep a person engaged longer.
It fits naturally into the text. It enhances the reading experience. There's not an exact number of times. But I shoot for .5%-1%. In other words, I use this keyword phrase every 100-200 words.
But notice I've also used many complimentary words like:
Article
Mobile-friendly
SEO
Search engine
Blog topics
Lead generation
Headlines
Keyword
Content writing
These supporting words demonstrate that I'm covering a topic in-depth.
8. Write Your Hook
Your hook is the 2nd most crucial element of a modern blog post. Learning how to
write a blog post that gets results hinges on your ability to write an effective hook.
Hook Your Readers with a Great Opening
If the readers see you as creating excellent openings, consider your goal half completed because this is the hardest part. You can lose a person so fast here that it's ridiculous. If someone clicks and then thinks they're in the wrong place, they can backtrack fast. Google sees this backout and keeps score.
That's horrible for your blog, your readers, and SEO.
Many writers find it easier to write the body of the blog post first. This will save writing the intro for a final and then having to re-do it when you decide to go a slightly different direction. Your opening will better align with the blog post when done last.
One very practical approach here is this. When beginning your blog post, start by directly addressing the reader's problem. You can interject emotions, statistics, and stories, depending on what you've found to be most effective with your niche readers.
Get them curious to find the solution they want in your blog post. Assure them that it's there, and then don't let the reader down.
Several approaches work very well with different audiences. But be sure to mix it up and see what works best overdoing a hook-type can lose its punch.
Here are some hook types you should try.
A Storytelling Hook
Start your post with a quick story that pulls a reader into the post. A story can take different shapes.
It could be a day in the life of your reader facing a specific challenge. It could be a story about a person or organization.
It could also come in the form of things people say that tell a story.
For example, what story do the following statements tell when we put them together like this.
"I can quit whenever I want to." "But I love you." "I didn't mean what I said." "I won't hurt you again".
If you're an addiction treatment center or a shelter for abused spouses, then that's a hook you can take to the bank. A person who connects with these words likely is, or knows, someone who needs help.
A Just the Facts Hook
This is very effective in B2B (business to business) writing. But it can be effective with B2C as well. People like impressive stats.
Find one that's relevant to your audience and exemplifies the importance of your blog post.
This post began with a Just the Facts hook.
The Challenge Hook
Start with a challenge that shows that you understand your target. But be prepared to quickly provide solutions in your post.
Example:
Over 3 million blog posts get published every day. How are you going to get found or keep people coming back?
The Hopeful Hook
Examples:
What would the world be like if everyone loved each other a little more?
Could improving your communication skills land you that next promotion?
An Empathic Hook
Examples:
You've spent more than one sleepless night worrying about data security.
9. Write Your Title
This is inarguably an essential part of your blog post. 80-90% of people only read headlines. That's why clickbait, misleading headlines are such a problem today.
Craft a short (<10 words) impactful title that people will want to click. Based upon studies, some of the most compelling headlines include elements like these.
How X Will Boost X By X
How to X & Get Results
How to X on a Limited Budget
How Much Does X Really Cost?
How to X Fast with X
Your Ultimate Guide to X
The Complete Guide to X
A Definitive Guide to X
The Practical Guide to Growing/Generating/Increasing/Etc. X
X Benefits of X You Need to Know About
X Ways to Grow/Generate/Increase/Etc. X
This Business Generated X in X months with X
X Product: The Pros & Cons You Need to Know
Don't Buy X Before You Read This Review
Is X Worth the Money?
How to Optimize X and X
X Reason X Is Essential for X
The headline takes your topic (which we discussed earlier) . It puts it in the most digestible and compelling form possible. And the great thing about these is that it's easy to fit your keyword phrase into an X slot.
I like efficiency. Don't you. This is how to write a blog post title fast,
Remember not to overdo one headline type, though. That can give the impression that your content blog is very scripted and impersonal.
Test headlines in social media, keeping everything else constant. See which ones get the best results with your audience.
10. Add Images
Think you don't really need pictures in a professional article? Here's why that is so wrong.
Blogs articles that include images within the post get 94% more engagement, according to marketing researcher Jeff Bullas
We can't discuss how to write a blog post without speaking about the visuals. Add high-quality regular images, infographics, and screenshots from influencers to enhance your post.
You'll find 100% free, amazing HD images on Pixabay. And if you can't find the perfect image there, it will suggest paid options.
You'll rarely if ever, need to go the paid route. But given how powerful an image can be, you may choose to splurge sometimes.
Some people will tell you that you need so many images per so many words. But often, this advice can make your page look spammed with images.
Instead, I like to take a more flexible approach to maximize the reader experience.
How many images you use really depends on your formatting. If your post is very well divided up, then you may need fewer images.
On a super-short 500 word post, at least one image in the post aside from the main image is advisable.
An image every 200-250 words would feel spammy on a longer post as a general rule. Shoot for an image every 500 words or so. And look at it to get a physical impression of how it seems.
Don't forget to add relevant alt tags to your images. Wix, WordPress, Joomla, and other similar platforms have a spot to add these. Otherwise, your webmaster will need to add them in.
When possible, make the alt tag one of your keywords. If you're local, it's also wise to include your city and state in at least one image if you're local.
Always try to make the tag relevant to the image.
Other visuals you might consider adding to your post include:
Embedded videos
Gifs
Infographic
Slideshow
Blockquotes
Stand out stats
All of these enhance user experience as long as they don't slow down the site.
Pro Tip: Using Images Effectively
It's hard to concentrate on lengthy blogs without an eye candy boost from time to time. Even though the article is usually just plain text, and ultimately that's what the reader is here for, images create a visual experience that keeps the reader on the page and coming back.
It's so important to include pictures in your posts. Play around with image frequency and balance that with page speed and useability to find the sweet spot.
11. Check Your Facts
Facts matter. If you're creating an informative post, then getting a fact wrong can cause harm to the reader. It also reduces the trust they have in you.
Check and double-check your facts, especially those that include numbers, because they may lead to bad calculations. Cite your sources to increase credibility further.
If you do make a mistake, be honest, get responsible, and fix it quickly. Denying that something is false is true after you're called out will only compound the issues that arise from it.
Review your past blog posts to makes sure they continue to be accurate.
If you published misleading information, you should re-evaluate your fact-checking processes. Maybe you're not using the most reputable sources, or someone is getting a little loose with the facts.
12. Use Online Tools to Improve
As independent a writer as you may be, it's always helpful to have a 2nd opinion. And you want that opinion before your customers see it.
I'd recommend many SEO and other tools when you're learning how to write a blog post and get results. But I'm going to focus here on the free online tools Grammarly and Hemmingway App.
Here's how to use these tools effectively.
Hemmingway App
I use Hemmingway app to find out how readable my text is. There are other tools for this. But Hemmingway is different because it not only gives you a readability score.
It tells you exactly which sentences and words are negatively impacting readability.
If your readability score is too high, then you can browse through the suggestions. Make changes to lower the score.
I know this sounds like a nightmare. And it may be the first time if you like long sentences. But as you use it, you'll get better at writing in shorter, more straightforward sentences from the start.
If you're writing as an expert to an expert on the topic you're writing about then the 8th-10th-grade reading level is comfortable for a blog post.
If you're writing to the average person on a topic, then shoot for 6th-grade or lower. This post is written at a 5th-grade reading level.
But a couple of warnings are needed here.
Hemmingway will make suggestions that you might need to ignore. These include:
Hard to read- To avoid overwhelming yourself, ignore them unless you're writing for an early elementary reader. They call any complex sentence hard to read. A blog without complex sentences often comes across as simplistic for an adult reader. Only worry about the "Very Hard to Read."
Adverbs - Unless you're writing short stories or novels, adverbs are a good thing.
Passive Voice - If you aren't a professional writer or use a lot of passive, check this out. But know that Hemmingway often marks sentences as passive that aren't passive.
Simpler Alternatives - Use at your discretion.
Grammarly
I love and hate Grammarly. It's gotten much better. But it still needs some work.
Most people, including myself, have trouble seeing grammatical errors when proofreading their work.
The human brain is wired to overlook inconsistencies. Grammarly helps catch these oversights. But never follow suggestions blindly.
Grammarly is often wrong.
Grammarly makes suggestions based on what it thinks you're trying to say. But it will not get it right 100% of the time. After a Grammarly session, I typically have 4-5 suggestions that I forget because they're wrong or detract.
Grammarly recently added a readability function. But I still use Hemmingway because it identifies the sentences to fix.
And it's also added a feature that uses language markers to determine who well the text meets your goals. While Grammarly can't read your text, it can use these markers to tell the differences among essay writing, blog writing, sales writing, short stories, etc.
I typically set these Grammarly goals for blog writing.
Inform
Knowledgeable
Informal
Mild Emotion
Don't ignore this if you get below a 90. It may suggest that your article reads like a sales pitch or an essay instead of a blog post. Reconsider your use of language to connect and convert.
I always recommend that a thorough person should take these steps in this order.
Edit & Manual Proofread
Hemmingway
Grammarly
Grammarly Again (Once you fix the first errors, it will often find more)
Have Someone Else Read Your Work
Online tools are great. But ideally, a human reader needs to read your blog post before you publish and provide recommendations. Sometimes something will sound perfectly clear in your head. But it doesn't read that way.
Get ahead of these problems by having your writers "exchange papers" just like in school and read each other's work.
13. Create Clickable Headlines
Your headlines are what people see and click first. This goes beyond your post title and includes the many first glimpses people get of your post. These are critical because it doesn't matter how amazing your blogging is if you can't create headlines to drive traffic.
In search engines, those are your:
Meta title
Meta description
URL slug
Rich snippets, if you've earned some
In social media, these are:
Social Media Headlines
Post image (some would say this isn't a headline. But the definition of a headline is "anything that quickly, concisely draws attention to a blog post. Sometimes the visual does this more than any words you could say.)
On your website
Blog post preview for your blog's main page
Writing a Great Headline
Vague headlines can generate curiosity but use caution. Generally, your best bet to create great headlines is to tell people exactly what they're getting, so they know what you expect.
After writing blog posts, take some time to craft each of these headlines. And as you get your blog up and running, test your headlines to see what works best with your readers.
How One Writing Blog Quadrupled Their Traffic (A Case Study)
Compelling Call to Action
A CTA provides your readers with a logical next step. This step is tied directly to your blogging goals. If they take it, that's a conversion.
Put yourself in the reader's shoes. Would you click this CTA? This is usually your best indicator.
14. Format and Upload your Post
Find what works for you. You may prefer to format as you go or get it all onto the page and then format it as a step in editing. Either way, do go all the way through the blog post to make sure formatting is consistent.
Then upload your post.
Pro Tips: Don't forget to check the URL slug before posting. Remember: you shouldn't change it after publishing, so it's essential to get it right.
15. Optimize for Conversions
You can waste a whole lot of time and money learning how to write a blog post. You can spend even more creating those posts. But if you don't have a straightforward way to convert traffic, you won't get an ROI on your content marketing budget.
Developing a Clear Conversion Path
Develop a clear path to conversion. Add this path to Google Analytics so you can see how well it performs at each stage. This path will typically include:
A blog post....It may start on social media. But this is the first contact on your website
A lead capture form. This is generally a landing page. Use an in-text message or delayed pop-up to take them to the page. If using a pop-up, be careful not to scare people away. These work best at around 60% of the average on-page time. They're already invested.
A thank you page.
To generate the lead, offer something of value that only your target customer will be interested in. This might be:
A chance to win something
A discount or free stuff from your business
A report, ebook, white paper, case study, or another helpful document
An add-on service
A free audit of something. Be careful with this one. You have to consider your time versus reward. I've got a system down and can do a very in-depth and actionable SEO content audit in about 15-20 minutes. It's worth my while and helps my clients and future clients get more out of their blogs.
Bonus: Get Feedback
A friend or co-worker can help you identify logical gaps and bad flow that you may not see when you read what you write in your "Internal voice". They're more likely to catch grammatical errors and typos you missed as you were typing.
They can also help you become a better writer, as you'll apply their feedback on future content.
How to Write a Blog Post & Win
Content writing is an even mix of creativity and applying techniques that are proven to work.
This is how it's done, Peeps. Start with a sharable topic. Gather resources. Do a quick competitor analysis, so you know what you're up against.
Create skimmable content.
Are you struggling to get results with your blog? I can put the right content to work for you.
Stop wasting time and money, Contact me today.
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