Here you will find four crucial elements to take on board as building blocks to crafting an effective and engaging blog post.
Consider your readers with a considered Structure
Thought should be put into the structure of your blog posts. Consider what layouts and formats work well for readers of your blog. An effective method here is to separate each of your points into their own sections defined by noticeable headings. In this way, readers can quickly and easily find the section(s) that interests them instead of having to read through the entire blog. Like writing a story, a blog should have a definite structure in that the beginning should introduce and outlay the topic of the post, the middle should expand on what the beginning promised and the ending should reiterate the entire post – say what you are going to say, say it and then say it again. Remembering structure like these two points shows your readers that yours is a blog post that respects their time and needs and is not just rushed content to help with your SEO presence.
Use Visual Cues for Punctuation instead of just Commas and Semi-Colons
There are not many who enjoy reading through solid and dense blocks of text all at once. It helps to break this up by using visual cues such as pictures, graphics, polls, and videos. Ensure that your chosen cues are relevant to your blog post and you will have a post that contains quality information delivered in more than one form. A picture, graphic, or video can reiterate the points that your text is making, whereas a poll allows those with an interest in the subject matter of the blog to have their input alongside like-minded individuals.
Set your Blog free with Sharing and Social Options
Rather than have your blog post be confined to the website or the space that is published, implement sharing options to give it a new lease of life. The text of the blog alongside any of the images or videos etc. within it should be able to be pinned on Pinterest or even shared on Twitter. The blog post should also be published on your social media accounts to reach a bigger audience and link back to your website to gain some traffic from outside sources. When a blog is not time-sensitive (i.e. when it details a topic in general instead of a specific piece of news) its longevity is increased as it can be used as part of a landing page, lead magnet, or even newsletter. Just be careful of duplication when doing this as this is a black hat SEO practice, therefore a link to the blog post can work well around this.
Optimize your Post to arm it for Battle
Your blog post is one of the millions posted to the internet every day. Give it a fighting chance at gaining an audience by arming it with search engine optimization skills. By ensuring that it exceeds three-hundred words, has a focus keyword/term that appears within the text (and ideally where possible such as in the heading, subheading, URL, meta description, and alternative text), is free from spelling and grammar issues and by ensuring that it renders well on mobile devices. Without taking the time and effort to consider how your blog post will perform and be found once live, it will flounder instead of flourish.
Ireland Website Design has a team of experts to help every element of your online business presence and digital marketing presence to flourish instead of flounder. Get in touch with us today for all of your website, digital marketing, copywriting, app, logo, and graphic design needs to finally meet the aims and goals of your business dreams.
