How do you write awesome content for your audience? That’s a big and important question. With 70 million blog posts published on WordPress alone every month, you need to write content that will stand out. That’s why we created this ultimate guide on how to write a blog that people want to read.
In nine simple steps, this guide will teach you how to write great blog posts that attract traffic, comments, and shares. And that your audience wants to read. Keep reading to find out more!
Understand your audience
You acquired a domain and hosting for your blog, and chose a niche topic you want to write about. The next step? Research your ideal audience.
After all, knowing what your audience wants to read about will help you write a blog post they’ll love. To help you out, we compiled a list of questions that you should be able to answer:
1. Who is my target audience?
2. Which platforms do they hang out on?
3. What would interest them?
4. What challenges do they need solutions for?
5. Where do my expertise and their interests coincide?
After researching, you can write down all the information you know about your audience and create what the marketing industry likes to call a ‘consumer persona’. This persona is your typical and ideal customer. But don’t treat your audience like they’re one and the same! Take time to understand your readers and nurture genuine relationships with them, for example in the comment section. This will help you build reader trust, credibility and brand authority.
Plan out what you’d like to write
You’re full of enthusiasm. You want to write! Before you do, however, it’s good to determine what kind of content you want to create and which goals you want to accomplish. If you want your blog to rank high in the search results, it’s useful to conduct keyword research. This will tell you what words and phrases your audience uses when they are looking for content. Often, they need help with a problem. By doing research, you will be able to write content that is relevant to your audience.
Next: create an outline for your blog post. This will give your post structure and ensures you won’t deviate from the main topic. When making an outline, try to keep the following questions in mind:
1. What value will this blog post give to my readers?
2. Am I addressing their pain points with this blog post?
3. What are the current challenges they need help with?
4. Is this post going to be informational, inspiring, actionable, or promotional?
Tip: to speed up your planning process, set up a content calendar! Write down a list of topics your audience wants to read about, plan when you want the posts to be done and voilà. All that’s left is the fun part: writing your content.
Create a headline that entices users
Copyblogger states that 80% of people read headlines, but only 20% read the full blog post. In other words: it’s important to have a headline that grabs the attention of your audience. Your headline should make your audience decide if they want to read the rest of your post or simply move on.
Here are some tips for writing a headline your readers can’t resist:
1. Construct your headline around the target keyword or keyphrase
2. Try the “how-to” headline-style
3. Include numbers in your headline, such as “5 tips”
4. Use adjectives and emotional words
5. Address your reader directly
Write a captivating introduction
There are several approaches you can use to write an intriguing introduction. Grab your readers’ attention by making them aware of an interesting statistic or study. Tell them a personal story or quote a relevant source. You could also include a bulleted list of what your readers will learn from your content; a table of contents, if you will.
Above all else, make sure your introduction addresses the problem your audience is facing. After all, that’s what they’re here for. Then succinctly explain how your blog post will help them solve their problem.
Add subheaders and bullet points to break up the page
Invariably, most of your audience will skim-read your blog posts. Research conducted by Nielsen Norman Group in 1997 found that 79% of people scan web pages and only 16% actually read everything. More than two decades later, this is still mostly true.
Writing scannable blog posts will help your audience to consume necessary information within seconds. And it has another benefit. Chances are, they’ll return to your blog because it was useful and easy to navigate! Another tip: write short paragraphs. This creates more white space and helps break up your post, making it easier on the eyes.
Consider doing the following if you want to write an easy-to-read blog post:
1. Add subheaders accordingly to section out your blog post
2. Use bullet points to highlight key points or features
3. Keep your paragraphs short
4. Use text formatting such as highlighting, bold and italics
Include images and visuals
Over 50% of our brain’s surface processes visual information. Meaning: if you use several images in your blog post, you’ll capture your readers’ attention better than you would without using any visuals. And that’s not all. Images can also help your audience to better understand what you’re writing about. When used right, pictures and visuals enhance your text.
That’s why it’s important to use images or pictures that support your blog post. You don’t want to distract your readers with disconnected pictures. The best practice to improve your blog’s visual appeal is to include more informational and complementary images, such as charts and tables. Original images – photos you’ve taken yourself – are always a great option too.
Deliver value to the user
Choose quality over quantity. Always. There is already a lot of content online, so focus on writing insightful posts that add value. Consider your audience: what do they want to read about? What do they need help with? Additionally, it’s good to focus on creating new content. While there may be a lot of blog posts about a specific topic, by adding your personal (and professional) insights, your content could be unique.
Revise your draft
You’ve researched your audience and content, outlined your post, and written the actual piece. Good job! Treat yourself by taking a break. Give your eyes and mind some rest. Once you’re ready to continue working on your post, it’s time to revise.
Revision is the “does this make sense?” part of writing a blog post. You read your entire post as one piece. If you find weird parts or unnecessary filler sentences, now’s the time to trim them. Tip: read your post out loud! This usually helps you locate any awkward phrases.
While you’re revising, here are a few steps to take to perfect your draft:
1. Optimize your headline. Tip: use Sharethrough Headline Analyzer
2. Check for grammar and spelling errors with apps like Grammarly and Hemingway, which will help you ensure that everything’s on point
3. Ensure your blog post has proper formatting
4. Split up walls of text into shorter paragraphs to create more white space in your blog post
5. Check for plagiarism. You can use Copyscape or Small SEO Tools’ Plagiarism Checker
6. Perfect your blog post’s search engine optimization (SEO). Add a meta title and meta description, and do necessary keyword placement for primary and secondary keywords. We recommend the Yoast SEO plugin.
Upload your blog post
You did it! You’ve written a fantastic blog post. The final step is to upload it. Add your post to WordPress and publish it.
What’s next? Waiting for readers to discover your content is going to take a while, so it’s smart to take matters into your own hands. Promote your blog post on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and social curation platforms like Reddit and Quora. Talk about it in groups you’re active in (if it’s permitted). Let your audience know you’ve written something valuable.
Final thoughts: how to write great blog posts for your audience
Even if you’re not a writer by heart, if you follow the steps above you’ll be able to create engaging and shareable content that your audience wants to read. The best part? Writing blog posts does get easier. With consistent practice and value-inspired content, your content marketing will perform better. And if you optimize your blog posts for search engines, you will organically grow your audience.
Are you looking for expert guidance while creating your blog and filling it with valuable posts? Get started with expert WordPress support services at Bluehost.
