I’ve been asked a few times over the past few months about tips for writing a blog so I’ve jotted a few notes from my experience of working with various businesses and marketing professional.

1. Know your audience and your market

Even before writing a blog you need to research what key words potential customers and current customers are using. In addition, research what key words competitors are using that is getting them hits to their website and do a gap analysis with your website.

2. Make it Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) friendly but ensure it’s readable

I’ve come across a blog recently where it was obvious that the author must have been trying to include key SEO words in their blog with little useful information or thought to the reader. If people are not linking to it, etc it may not be SEO friendly.

3. Make the title of the blog honest!

One of the easiest ways to lose customers is to fail to deliver on a promise, so ensure that the title is an accurate description of your blog.

4. Prioritise your information

Make the main point of your blog the first paragraph they read or they may not understand what your blog is about and why they are reading it.

5. Use graphics and bullet points

Help make your blog readable by including photos, pictures and some structure via headings, subheadings and bullet points. Use original photos, a lot of organisations buy or use stock photos and it can be a big disappointment to readers to come across photos they have seen several times before. Graphics also have the advantage of looking good when you promote your blog eg: via twitter and Facebook.

6. Leave it a day

After writing your blog you might think of other ideas. Editing and grammar checking might be easier after giving it a rest. You can also check your blog before posting it by using tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway apps.
Re-read it, is your blog…interesting or useful?

7. Make it easy to navigate

If you are creating your own blog and have some control, add a top and side navigation bar. Make it easy for readers to go to your favourite blogs that is relevant for a long time (known as evergreen blogs). If you are using WordPress there are lots of themes available free of charge with easy to setup navigation bars, but choose or buy a decent theme.

8. Use white-space

White-space can make a blog easier to read, eg via increasing the line spacing or padding around images.

9. Use a readable font type and size.

12 point might look good on a A4 sheet of paper but 16 point is far more readable on a screen.

10. Has your blog made an impact?

Assuming you have google analytics or equivalent, has your blog increased hits to your website using the right key words? Has it increased backlinks and had positive read comments? If not, it might need editing and checking to make sure it’s SEO friendly, for example, there is an optimum density for key words, more than this density will make it SEO unfriendly.

Good luck with your blog 🙂

Paul Dobson BSc(Hons), DIT, DMS, MSc, MA, MBA, PGCHPE, FHEA, FCMI, MAM