Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
I’ve created a lot of posts about the ins and outs of creating good blog content. And these practices are elements I use every day for myself and my clients. Today, though, I’d like to reiterate some of the more important aspects that you need to keep in mind when writing your masterpiece.
We’re going to go a bit beyond the aspects of SEO, though. We all know keywords and phrases are important. In fact, you have access to a lot of tools for keyword research you can use for free.
But what are some of the more intricate elements of a blog post that really gets the reader’s attention?
11 Things to Remember When Creating Blog Content
Writing a great blog post isn’t necessarily a difficult process. It comes down to how you’re able to engage the human reader and if the Google algorithm thinks your post is “helpful” in some way.
Although the overall technical structure of the post is important, there are a few things you need to consider. Especially if you want to rank high in search results and get more visitors to subscribe to notifications.
1. Write for People, Not Bots
One of the most important aspects to consider is how you’re writing the content, to begin with. Are you writing to engage the reader, or are you merely adding text to please search engines?
In 2022, Google launched algorithm changes that focus on “people writing for people.” This means the search engine is more interested in how you interact with humans and not its bot.
Yes, keywords still play an important role; it’s how people are going to find specific information. But how you deliver that info is now more geared toward the human reader.
If people don’t find your content high quality, then neither will Google.
2. Keep Paragraphs Short and Easy to Read
There’s no doubt that a wall of text is terrible when creating content. It’s easier to get lost within the text and reads poorly from mobile devices. And mobility is the underscored element, here.
When you read a blog post from your phone, are there appropriate spaces between segments of text? If you’re reading a properly written blog post, the answer should be a resounding, “yes.”
Keeping paragraphs short and easy to read keeps people scrolling through the content.
Now, there are a lot of ways you can do this. Some experts use a single sentence as a paragraph, and others will only use two or three sentences.
The trick is to keep an eye on your Google Analytics and see what articles you write have a higher on-page time. The longer people spend reading your content, the more engaged they are with the material.
I would believe that articles with shorter paragraphs will have a higher retention rate than those with a wall of text.
3. Use Plenty of Subheadings When Creating Content
Subheadings are used as a way to break up the text and emphasize points. It’s a way to help readers skim for specifics while giving your blog post a professional look.
Not to mention how Google will often use subheadings within search results. A lot of the time, you’ll see them as a featured snippet at the top of the search page.
Think of subheadings as “sections” for different parts of the primary topic.
For example, I’m using this section to talk about subheadings, which are relevant to the primary topic of creating content. I’m not going to cover any other information in this particular section.
Subheadings can help keep you focused on specific information while making it easier for visitors to find specifics.
I find that outlining headers in posts can help keep the content flowing well while giving you a chance to think about what else needs to be added. If done thoroughly, you can easily find enough material to fill a long blog post.
4. Add Personality and Flare
Adding personality and experience is what makes you unique. By creating something from your own perspective, you can engage an audience even if you’re writing about a popular topic everyone else seems to be covering.
One of the changes Google is working on is separating the same information being rehashed across many blog posts. You’ve probably seen something like this when looking at certain lists.
I know I keep coming across the exact same lists of free writing apps when looking for something new to try.
The key element here is to add your own sense of style and experience to a blog post. I know, it’s easier said than done, especially if you’re new to blogging. But the more unique you can make the content, the better.
I’m not just talking about search engines in this case. No one wants to read the exact same article over and over when looking for specific information. They want what they’re looking for right off the bat.
5. Be Detailed Without Being Long-Winded
Being long-winded is a terrible thing when creating content. You want to inform or entertain readers, not bore them to tears.
The way I approach the text in a blog post is that every sentence has a precise purpose. And I try to get to the point as quickly as possible while still providing adequate information to help someone.
Nowadays, it’s important to include storytelling to a certain degree. It has been found by some to improve engagement and interaction in the comment section.
But when you take more than 500 words to get to the point of the article, you’re going to lose readers.
Especially if you’re writing a tutorial or providing a list of products or services. Reviews can be a bit longer, depending on your experiences with the product. But you’ll still want to avoid being long and drawn out for a specific point.
6. Always Cite Your Claims
When you make a claim on your post, always provide a citing link or add an annotation. This does a couple of things for your content: a) solidifies you know what you’re talking about, and b) avoids people viewing the text as “fake” news.
Having quality backlinks in your article gives people a way to check the information themselves while letting Google know you value factual information from the perspective of a quality source.
So, when I say that WordPress has a current market share of 64.1% of all known content management systems, I’m using a link to cite W3Techs.com as a source, which is a viable and trusted platform.
The problem with statistics, though, is that you’ll constantly have to worry about updating old content. You don’t want to use outdated information on your website.
7. Don’t Fluff for High Word Counts
According to various experts, the best length for a blog post is between 2100 and 2400 words. However, this is based on averages and depends more on the amount of quality information in a post.
With that being said, you should never fill your content with fluff and filler text when creating a post just to meet a certain word count.
In reality, a lot of my top 10 performing articles have fewer than 2,000. One, in particular, has fewer than 1500 and ranks in the top three for its keyphrase.
Remember what I said about every sentence having a purpose? This can keep you from adding text that isn’t relevant to the topic. In turn, your content doesn’t confuse or distract humans or bots.
Don’t forget, you can always go back later and add more details you may have missed to further help readers and increase the word count.
8. Include Imagery When Applicable
As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And for the most part, they can help engage human readers while helping bots “understand” more of the context of the article.
However, you don’t want to go hog-wild with the images. Each picture you upload will impact page performance, which is a ranking factor for Google. And people will abandon a website if it takes too long to load.
On the other side of the coin, though, images help accentuate the text, especially if you’re writing a tutorial. In this case, plenty of images are often worth the sacrifice of a second or two in load times.
Think about this; blog posts with visuals of some kind get 94% more views. Does this mean that simply adding images will almost double your traffic? Not necessarily. It’ll also depend on the topic.
Nonetheless, images do make a major impact on the quality of your post.
9. Add a Table of Contents for Longer Posts
A table of contents helps people find exactly what they’re looking for within your article. Those who are visiting for a quick bit of information can easily click the link and see the section of the post.
Another aspect of the ToC is how Google will often use them as part of a featured snippet at the top of the search results page. It’s a quick reference for the bot to scan and analyze.
If you use WordPress, you can quickly add a table of contents plugin for free that will build them automatically.
In any case, you probably don’t need a ToC on shorter blog posts. It could be a waste of space if the post is shorter than, say, 1,000 words. That doesn’t mean it’s bad if you use one, though.
Like other aspects, it pays to keep an eye on Google Analytics to see if adding a ToC to posts makes a difference in on-page time, page views, and bounce rates for your particular target audience.
10. Aim for Grammatically Correct Structure
Lastly, but probably one of the more important, make sure your articles have proper spelling and grammar. This makes you look more professional while giving search engines an easier time correctly categorizing and indexing your post.
Unfortunately, not everyone can hire an editor to browse through the content when creating a great piece. But you should still proofread to the best of your ability and make sure your text is easy to follow and understand.
One great way to do this is by using the Grammarly browser extension. It works perfectly in WordPress and is what I use throughout the day when working on my own blogs or those of my clients.
Even the free version can save you from embarrassing mistakes.
Just remember that no grammar-checking app is 100% accurate. You’ll still need to use your best judgment when editing your article. However, Grammarly will fix a vast majority of common errors as you write.
I can’t count the number of times Grammarly fixed my posts for Twitter that would have been embarrassing to share.
11. Update Your Old Content Regularly
An extremely important aspect of creating content is to make sure it remains relevant. This means going back to update old blog posts with current information, polishing up grammar, or expanding on the topic to interest readers.
Updating your content does two distinct things for your website. It a) helps boost engagement of the particular article, and b) demonstrates to Google you value high-quality and “fresh” material.
One of the things I do for clients is managing the updating of various pieces of content. Over time, I’ve seen a simple change of 400 words boost traffic to the page by over 250% on average.
In one instance, just restructuring and rewording the subheadings increase traffic by more than 400%, and it only took five minutes to perform.
The point is that you don’t want your content to disappear into the ether of the Internet. Especially if those articles are using prime keyphrases while focusing on search intent.
Questions to Ask Yourself When Creating Content
There are a lot of gears turning when setting up a high-quality article. Though, you can greatly improve your content by addressing some major concerns.
The best way to do this is to ask yourself a series of honest questions about what you’re creating. These questions can also help when you’re going back and updating older articles.
So, what should you ask yourself when writing a blog post?
- What is the overall purpose of this post?
- Does the content fit your site’s niche?
- What kind of things can you add to dive deeper into the topic?
- Will the visitor leave feeling you adequately met their needs?
- If you read the post out loud, does it make sense to you?
A good way to know if the content you’re creating meets the needs of your target audience is to use a visitor persona. This is a mock-up of the people you’re trying to engage and what they are most interested in from your website.
It may sound silly to create a “character sheet” for your average reader, but it truly does help. Especially if you’re trying to come up with ideas for blog posts.
Creating Good Content Takes Practice
It’s highly unlikely you’ll come out of the gate writing amazing blog posts. When I started writing professionally, my style was quite clinical and bland. Over the course of a year and a half, my style changed to the point where clients threw money at me in Textbroker.
You can also look back at my earlier journal entries on this website and see how my writing style improved over time.
My point is that whether you’re writing for clients, using your own blog to practice, or taking to sites like Vocal Media, applying what you’ve learned ingrains it into memory.
Consistent practice makes writing future posts much easier while attracting a larger audience.
Don’t assume that you’ll instantly whip out an award-winning blog post. I know some “experts” on YouTube make it sound super easy, barely an inconvenience. But in truth, it can take quite a while to hone your skills.
Everyone grows at their own rate. And the techniques that work beautifully for one person may be a nightmare for another. But you won’t know where you’re abilities are until you try.
What Kind of Content Are You Creating Today?
Generally speaking, keeping a good flow of niche-related topics is probably the most difficult of blogging. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to come up with blog ideas.
Just remember to keep the points above in mind when you start typing.
It’ll take a while to find your groove. But when you do, you’ll find success while blogging much easier to accomplish. This is true whether it’s for yourself or for a paying client.
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