You're publishing ten blog posts per week, and not even one of them received the response you think they should've. Why?
Blogging is more about quality than quantity. There are around 600 million blogs on the internet in 2022. People have many options, and you want to give them a reason to read your blog posts over your competitors.
Numerous steps in writing a blog post range from crafting an exceptional headline to keeping a scannable format. We've compiled a list of easy-to-follow tips on how to write a blog post that people love and return to read more.
Tips to Write an Effective Blog Post
To craft an effective blog post, you need to know and include exactly what your target audience wants. Therefore, before you begin, research your target audience.
1. Find the Topic People are Willing to Pay for
There are numerous ways to search for the topics for your articles. However, we think searching Udemy is effortless and the most fruitful method.
Go to Udemy's website and search for the courses in the category you're interested in. For instance, you want to establish a business blog about coding. Search for programming courses on Udemy. Now look for the best sellers with the most positive ratings. Click on the courses and go to the course content and "What you'll learn" list. There you will find numerous topic ideas.
Image taken from Udemy
2. Craft a Catchy Headline
A headline calls people toward your article. To write a blog post that ranks, you need to think of a title that'll attract your target audience, but it shouldn't be overpromising or misleading.
According to analysis, certain headline keywords and phrases have a greater chance of attracting the audience to your blog post. Here's a list of some phrases:
- __ vs __ : Which is ____ ?
- How to (achieve something) in (amount of time)?
- (Number) Tips for ____
- We Analyzed ____. Here's What We've Learned
- People Regularly Pay Me ($) for This Information – But You Can Have it FREE.
You can find countless phrases like these in one search that will help you to write a blog post headline that attracts the crowd. You can't use these phrases for all your posts. But try to incorporate them whenever you can.
Another way to nail your blog post's headline is by including parenthesis. According to a survey by Outbrain, if you write a blog post headline with parenthesis, it will have a chance of performing 38% better than headlines that don't include brackets.
3. Make Your Reader Stay With Your Attention-grabbing Introduction
The reader has entered your web page, and you have only a few seconds before they decide to stay or not. Your introduction will help them decide. Here's the perfect formula to write a blog post introduction that makes the audience stay.
- Preview
- Give proofs
- Transition
For the start of the introduction, you can tell relevant facts, tell an interesting story related to the blog post's topic, or ask your readers a question that'll encourage them to read further for the answer.
Now, give them a preview of what they will learn in your articles. This will tell them if this article contains exactly what they want.
Next, display the testimonials of the people that listened to your advice and succeeded. After all, people need to know why they should listen to your advice. Then, wind up your introduction and transition to keep the reader invested. You can use phrases like "let's dive into" or "let's get started with" to switch to your main content smoothly.
4. Make Your Post Scannable
Image taken from Strikingly
It's essential to write a blog post that people can scan and have an overview of what's going on. Making your blog posts scannable will create a great user experience and make your content mobile-friendly. Google loves mobile-responsive web pages and even rewards them with a higher rank.
Another reason your blog post should be mobile-friendly is that most people browse websites from their phones. If your blog post is challenging to read on mobile phones, you may miss out on a considerable percentage of your target audience.
Here are a few tips for making your blog post scannable:
- Use subheadings.
- Use numbers or bullet lists for the content that can be written in points.
- Ensure your headings can be easily differentiated from the content.
- Keep the length of the paragraphs short. Aim for three to four lines per paragraph (max five to six).
- One idea per paragraph.
- Write easily understandable subheadings so people know what to expect from the content below.
- Bold important information.
- Include relevant pictures. Distribute them evenly.
- Use big enough font size.
- Ensure the font face you use is easily readable. Steer clear of the cursive font family.
5. Include Relevant Keywords
Keywords are crucial to write a blog post that gets exposed to broad audiences. When someone enters a query in the search bar containing the same keyword incorporated in your article, your post might appear in the search results and get that person's attention.
An easy way to search for keywords is using a keyword search tool, such as Ubbersuggest or Semrush.
Aim for a low-difficulty keyword if you've just started blogging and your blog has only a few visitors. High-difficulty keywords are used by websites that have tons of visitors. And it'd be challenging for your blog to rank if you use high-difficulty keywords because you would be competing with domains with a huge reader base.
Ensure you use keywords for the captions of your images whenever you can.
6. Make Your Content Easy to Understand
Many people believe you have to use fancy vocabulary in your posts. This is false and might do the opposite of good for your blog posts.
Here are some tips you can use to write a blog post that is easy to understand:
- Use the vocabulary a fourth or fifth-grader can understand.
- Write the way you talk.
- Use the right combination of short and long sentences. It's essential to throw in a few long sentences between short ones to avoid sounding choppy.
- Use contractions to make your content conversational.
- Steer clear of the phrases that most people don't understand. This will be super helpful for non-native English speakers because they might be unfamiliar with most native expressions.
Keeping your content easy to understand will be convenient for non-native English speakers, making your blog accessible to wider audiences.
7. Avoid Including Heavy Pictures
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s website
Page load speed is critical in deciding whether the user will stay or exit. Most people don't wait longer than three to four seconds for a web page to load. Pictures play an essential role in determining page load speed. Heavy photos and videos cause the pace to slow down, making you lose potential readers.
Ensure you don't upload images heavier than 150 KBs on your blog.
8. Write a Powerful Conclusion
To write a blog post that ranks, you need to know how to conclude an article properly. Here's what a flawed blog post conclusion looks like: "hope you like my article…."
Here are three simple steps to conclude your blog post like a pro.
a. Use a phrase to tell people that your blog post has ended. Such as "now that you know all the tips …."
b. Ask a straightforward question your readers can answer in the comments.
c. Give a clear call to action. It can be anything you can ask your readers to subscribe to your YouTube channel, follow you on your socials, or sign up for your newsletters.
Build Your Blog for Free
If you haven't built your blog yet, you must try making one using Strikingly. It is a ridiculously easy-to-use website builder that lets you create your website using ready-to-use templates. You can modify those templates via drag-and-drop and tons of customization options offered by Strikingly’s website editor.
Image taken from Strikingly
You don't need to be tech-savvy to build a website with Strikingly. It doesn't also cost a tremendous amount of money that a developer and designer will ask you for.
Strikingly allows you to add multiple sections to your site, such as a blog, an online shop, a gallery, a bookings section, etc. You can also create a section yourself and change its layout.
This list of Simple Blog features will tell you why you should choose Strikingly to build your blog.
- Accelerate Mobile Pages. Enabling this option will load certain web pages faster on mobile devices.
- Categorizing your blog posts. It will make searching for blog posts of different categories easier, creating a great user experience.
- Personalize your blog preview photo and your post's cover page.
- Google Analytics for your blog to know your audience's response to your content. It will help you improve your quality content.
- Enable commenting for posts to engage with your audience.
- Offer blog email subscription.
- Change social media buttons for your blog. Linking your socials to your blog will help drive traffic to your blog and social media traffic.
You can enable these features from the blog settings.
Image taken from Strikingly
Now that you know how to write a blog post that ranks, and one of the best platforms to build a blogging website, start your blogging journey today. Sign up!
