Better Blog Content with Five Approachable Steps
Focus your content creation efforts using these five approachable steps for better blog content.
Whether you’re new to blogging or have several posts behind you, it can be challenging to know where to start to increase the value of your content. While there are many ways to improve blog content, this post focuses on five accessible steps.
To start improving your content, use these steps when writing your next post. Bonus points if you use these tips to go back and update previous posts. Side note: refreshing previously published content is quite beneficial for SEO.
With numerous potential benefits for your business or organization, blogging continues to be a valuable and accessible tool. Intentional blog content helps increase awareness, build relationships, improve website SEO, and drive more conversions.
Moreover, optimized blog content helps increase the value of your efforts.
1. Make it skimmable
Not only does this practice make your content more engaging, it also helps improve SEO.
Keep in mind, blogging is a different style of writing from an academic paper, journal entry, or book. Give yourself permission to break some of the rules you may have picked up about good writing in other applications.
Incorporate the following to make a blog post skimmable:
- Active voice (vs. passive)
- Short sentences
- Short paragraphs
- Header tags
- Lists
- Bolding
- Callouts
With blogging, the goal is to provide something useful to your audience in a manner they can easily digest. Guide them through the content with clear steps marking each section. Even if you’re creating a longer post, you can still make it skimmable at a glance.
2. Intentionally include links
In addition to guiding readers to valuable supporting resources, internal and external links support SEO.
Internal links point readers to additional content within your site.
While helping readers navigate to what they are looking for more easily, internal links also help spread link equity. Use at least one internal link in each blog post whenever possible.
External links point readers to additional content on other websites.
In addition to providing further resources related to the topic you’re discussing, external links help support your search engine ranking in a number of ways.
Use relevant external links with intentional anchor text. Use at least one in each blog post and feel free to use many.
3. Be mindful when choosing keywords
Keep your audience and their needs or aspirations at the center of the content you create. Consider what they are searching for and choose meaningful keywords.
In other words, blogging for a company or organization is simply not about you.
Demonstrate audience knowledge with intentional keywords and topics.
One of the best ways to keep your audience at the center is to intentionally choose a topic and corresponding keywords. The outset of the writing process is a great time to do this. It’s okay to use anecdotes but make sure they don’t dominate the post.
Always include valuable content that helps your reader with a challenge or problem they encounter.
4. Incorporate engaging and properly tagged imagery
In addition to supporting overall post engagement, imagery serves a number of other purposes including:
- Improved SEO to help more people find your content
- Enhanced Social sharing opportunities for increased visibility
Keep in mind the following when adding images to your blog post:
- Be mindful of image size which can impact page load time
- Pay attention to the image title, alt tag, and description (they matter)
- Respect copyright parameters
If you find you don’t have the images needed for a specific post, here are some great resources for sourcing photos:
- Unsplash (free)
- Creative Commons (free)
- Adobe Stock (for purchase)
5. Always include a call to action
While quality content is forever a win, you are missing out on a key opportunity if you don’t include a call to action.
Whether your goals are increased time on site, engagement, or conversions, including a call to action helps you get the most value from your content.
Call to action examples:
- Share an offer such as a downloadable PDF
- Add a button that guides readers to a next step (see bottom of this post for an example)
- Encourage readers to share
- Point readers to another related post
- Invite readers to comment
- Prompt readers to take action in some way
Without a call to action, your post is like a road with a dead end. Think of yourself as a tour guide and help your audience along in their journey by suggesting options for where they might go next.
On your way to better blog content
In conclusion, keep these five approachable steps for better blog content in mind as you write. Your blog posts will turn out better and you’ll see greater rewards for the time you dedicate to creating and publishing content.
As you continue to practice, these steps will feel more like second nature. You may feel ready to explore some of these to a deeper level or explore new methods for optimization.
No matter where you are at, remember the key is to start somewhere. If you really feel stuck, consider hiring a copy editor to support you in strengthening your content. Experts with a trained eye can spot your best opportunities for improvement.
Brittany Bach is a strategist, content expert, and co-founder of Holistic Creative, a non-traditional business strategy and marketing agency. Holistic Creative empowers innovators and trailblazers as they envision, strategize, and build thriving and captivating brands.