There’s no doubt that good blog posts can help improve your business – but what makes a great blog post? And how can you go from writing basic blog posts to creating content that is truly valuable for your audience? In this article, we’ll share tips and tricks to take your blog posts to the next level. So whether you’re just starting out, or you want to improve your current blogging strategy, read on for some helpful advice!
Let’s start with what makes up a standard blog post:
To be able to publish a blog post you need a good concept, a headline that shares an idea of what the reader will find, relevant images or maybe even a video, written content that elaborates on the concept, and a call to action.
These are the things that make up a pretty decent blog post, but with just a little effort, a good idea for a blog post can easily be turned into a blog post or article that will be truly beneficial to both you and your reader!
Ready to take your good blog post and turn it into a great one?
How to Improve Your Blog Post:
Because you’re starting with a good idea, and assuming you have a good understanding of what makes up a blog post, let’s cover some of the technical things that make a great blog.
- A well-written post should be 800-1000 words.
- Quality SEO and keywords related to your topic
- Short, easy to read paragraphs
- Headings and subheadings, using keywords
- Clear call to action that converts
Including these things in your content will definitely elevate the quality of your content, but we aren’t done yet!
Start with Research
A great blog post is well-researched and provides accurate information that is valuable to the reader. Take the time to do a deep dive on your topic so that you can provide insights that are not commonly known.
Headings and Keywords
My number one recommendation for quality content that your readers AND the search engines will love is to break up your writing with headings every couple of paragraphs.
In a world where we are consuming TONS of content, quickly scanning an article for the highlights is second nature for most of us. If you can’t show your reader what the post is about with a quick glance through, it’s quite possible that they’ll move on to something else.
Be sure to use your focus keywords in these headings where they make sense!
Make it Easy to Read
On the topic of making your content easily digestible, shorter paragraphs are easier for us to read on a screen than large blocks of text.
You don’t have to worry about sounding choppy if you break up your writing into manageable chunks – in fact, it’s encouraged! Just make sure that each paragraph still flows nicely and supports the overall theme of your post.
Lists and bullet points will help improve your blog post readability, too!
Write for your audience.
Keep in mind who you are writing for and what they want to learn from your post. If you want to write better blogs, then you need to understand the goal you’re trying to achieve and what your reader wants to take away from your article.
Write in a way that is easy to understand and engaging, without using too much industry jargon.
To really stand out and connect with your ideal reader, be sure make sure to include helpful tips, interesting facts, or personal anecdotes! Insight into your experience and personal understanding of the subject you’re writing about helps improve the quality of your blog post.
Add in Strong Imagery
Images are essential for breaking up text and adding visual interest to your blog post. Choose images that are high quality and relevant to the topic throughout your article.
These visual breaks help increase the readability of your content as well!
From a technical standpoint, imagery is also another way to optimize your SEO and keywords! Before you upload your images, name the actual image file with keywords. Example: new-real-estate-agent-brokerage.png Also, be sure to fill out the “Alt Text” for all images with a description of the image, using your keywords.
Video is also a great way to improve your blog post! Create a YouTube video for your article and embed it right inside the content. (There’s a YouTube block in the editor where you can just paste in the video link.) And don’t forget to add your keywords in your YouTube video title and description.
Include a Call To Action
It’s a mistake I made when I first started blogging, and one I still see other writers make, so I want to be sure you avoid it!
You’ve written an amazing blog post, full of valuable information and insights… now what? You need to tell your reader what you want them to do with all this new found knowledge!
A call to action can be as simple as asking your reader to leave a comment below with their thoughts or questions. Maybe you want them to share the article on social media. Perhaps you’re hoping they’ll sign up for your email list. Whatever the goal is, make sure it’s clear and easy for your reader follow through on.
Before You Hit Publish
This last tip to improve your blog post is a technical one, but it’s one that makes a difference! Your article needs Tags (this adds keywords and links to related posts so users spend more time on your site). It needs to be added to a Category (your category name will be added to the post URL and if it’s a keyword, that helps too). And you need to include Internal Links (links from other articles you’ve published on your site – often these are hyperlinked to relevant keywords).
This is probably the step I forget most often because it’s usually the last step in my process, but it’s an important one! These final steps will help keep your reader on your site longer because you’re giving them additional and relevant resources to the article that brought them to you in the first place.
By following these tips, you can easily take a good blog post and turn it into a great one! Keep in mind that creating valuable content takes time and effort, but it is worth it when you see the positive impact it has on your business. So don’t be afraid to put in the work – your readers will thank you for it!
Do you have any other tips for writing great blog posts? Share them with us in the comments below!