In Episode 13 of #StepUpYourSocial, we discussed why you should be blogging.
Today let’s talk about how you should approach writing content for your blog.
In this episode, we cover a lot of best practices for blogging in 10 minutes or less including:
- The Goldilocks approach to finding good topic areas
- How to make your content easy to skim
- How to write for your audience, even if you’re not a great writer
- The ideal length of a blog post (hint: it’s exactly how long it needs to be and not one word longer!)
- And the importance of writing for Google. Or Facebook. Or both.
Tune in today and then get ready to step up your blogging!
Full episode transcript
If you aren’t already blogging… you should be.
We did a deep dive into why in Episode 13. But the short version:
- It provides you content you can use to drive traffic to your website.
- It’s great for your SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- And it clarifies you as an expert in your field.
For more on all three of these reasons, head back to episode 13 and dig in.
So that’s why you should be blogging.
Today let’s talk about how you should approach writing content for your blog.
First things first: a blog post should answer a question. It doesn’t literally have to be titled with a question, though that doesn’t hurt.
The question should be specific enough that people are looking for the answer, and broad enough that you can turn it into a full-length blog post.
A while back, I did a blog post on the Evolution of Instagram. That topic is potentially HUGE – but I was answering a specific question: How has Instagram changed over the years.
-What was the score of last night’s game? A bit too specific.
-Let’s do a full annotated history of our local sports team, along with in-depth explorations of every players’ personal journey to get there, the story of the team mascot and a recap of every game they’ve played since 1945. A bit too broad.
-What can we learn about our favorite team based on their playing last night? Sweet spot!
You can write pages on that topic, without ever losing the thread of why you are writing the post – or more importantly – why someone might want to read it.
So answer a question. Specifically.
Next up: make your post easy to skim.
No matter how captivating your writing, some people are not going to be interested in pouring through every word.
User headers. And subheaders. And sub-subheaders.
Use bullet points and lists. Please LOVE lists.
Keep your sentences short.
Keep your paragraphs short.
Use formatting – like bold, italics and underline – to make it easier for your reader to know what’s the most important content in the page.
If you can, use images and graphics to help make your content flow.
The word I like to use when it comes to content written for the internet: digestable. How easily can someone digest what you are trying to impart. If it’s not easily digestable – they will just move on.
You don’t have to be a great writer to be a great blogger. You just have to break things down in a way that your audience can follow.
So answer a question and keep your content easily digestable.
If you want to connect with a wide audience, don’t assume they know… well anything!
The goal of writing for an audience is not to make yourself sound smart. It’s to make them feel smart.
Picture a real person in your head when you write (or at least when you edit) your content. You are an expert in your field (if you weren’t, you couldn’t be blogging on it!). Unless you only want to talk to other experts, don’t assume they know the lingo. Spell out acronyms for them, explain why something that seems obvious to you should matter to them. Write for them as if they don’t know what you are talking about. Because frankly, if they knew what you were talking about – they probably wouldn’t be reading your blog post!
So answer a question with easily digestible content in a way that makes your audience feel smarter.
Next up: write your blog post for Google. Or Facebook. Or Both.
What does this mean? If you want a post to do well on Google — meaning you want people to find it when they do a search on the topic — know your keywords before you start. What’s a keyword (bearing in mind a keyword can be a phrase as well)? It’s the thing someone is going to put into Google that will hopefully help them find your post!
Before I wrote my blog post on the Evolution of Instagram, I did research into which keywords people were actually searching for on the topic. Were they looking for a history of Instagram? A breakdown of how Instagram has changed? Something else altogether? They were looking for an Evolution of Instagram. So I wrote my blog post accordingly. And my blog post is now on the first page of Google when someone searches for that keyword.
How did I get it on the first page of Google? I used Evolution of Instagram as my url slug (the part after the .com in my website). I used it in my title. I worked it into my copy as often as I could without sounding redundant (if your copy sounds like it’s been “stuffed” with keywords you will be penalized by Google, not to mention by your annoyed readers!).
How did I know that this was a keyword worth optimizing for? I did research. There are loads of free and paid tools out there you can use. I like one called Ubersuggest. You can also just use Google directly – run a few searches and see what comes up. Did one query give you 20 hits and another 200,000? Well that’s good to know, isn’t it!
Not every blog post needs to be written for Google.
But if it’s not written for Google, make sure you’re writing it for Facebook!
If you don’t have to worry about people searching for your content – because it’s something timely, interesting to you and your audience but not necessarily to the world, or for any other reason, then be sure the title helps it pop.
Let’s say you’re writing a post about the ways that your industry has changed, and what it means for consumers. And, just so we can get specific, let’s say your industry is artisanal sourdough bread .
If you’re writing for Google, you might go with: How Sourdough Baking Has Changed Over The Years, or What Do I Need To Make Sourdough?
If you’re writing for Facebook, you might go with something more like: Finding the Sweet Within Your Sourdough! Or 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sourdough… But Should!
No one is going to search for those latter titles – but they are fun and have the potential to do great on Facebook!
In this day and age, if your content isn’t written for Google OR Facebook, it’s written for no one. So pick one – or find a way to tailor it to both – and get to writing.
To recap:
- Know the question you are trying to answer BEFORE you start writing.
- Make your content easily digestible.
- Write to make your audience feel smarter.
- Optimize your post for Google. Or Facebook. Or both.
One last thing: folks always want to know how long their posts should be. Google likes long form content, so if you’re writing for Google, keep that in mind. That said, I prefer the following: your content should be exactly how long it needs to be and not one word longer.
You’re not doing yourself any favors adding fluff to a post. Google will see through it. So will your readers. Tell them what they need to know and let them get on with their day.
Happy blogging y’all!