Blog posts aren’t obsolete. If so, then we’d be wasting our time writing this and you would be wasting your time reading it, right? Writing blog posts are a great way to increase website traffic, generate leads, and showcase your expertise. Readers also get a closer look at your brand and learn to trust your validity as a service provider or eCommerce store. Of course, not all blog posts are well-written and won’t perform well in a search engine. We teamed up with our partners over at Lucent Creative, a woman-owned digital marketing agency, to bring you the best tips on writing blog posts that convert.
We asked Lucent Creative’s copywriter and content writer Nikki for more insight on the five mistakes to avoid when writing blog posts.
Just because your blog post covers a wide subject doesn’t mean it will pique the interests of a wider audience. Know your ideal reader, or target audience, and create content exclusively for them.
Nikki shared, “It’s tempting to take a trending topic and write broadly about it. If anything, you imagine it would rank well in search engines since it’s a popular subject. The truth is, that you always want to optimize your writing for your ideal customer. There are a lot of books out there, but authors choose a genre, then a sub-genre, and then continue to specify down to the demographic they’re writing for. The same is true for writing blog posts.
Know your audience and know them incredibly well. It affects the language you use when writing, how you speak to their needs, and of course, how successfully your blog performs once it’s out in the world.”
Utilize Alt text on photos and other visuals in your post. It’s not only helpful for SEO optimization but is also considerate of your readers who may be visually impaired.
“The trick with alt text is to keep it concise. Bring out the most vital aspects of the photo with as few words as possible. Thankfully, many stock photo sites have already provided alt text for you.”, Nikki says.
The example below shows that Pexels, a stock photo and video site, provides alt text in the URL. Nikki adds, “Make sure you look at the URL or texts provided by these sites so you can optimize them for your blog. Some photos may have alt text that is too general.”
“Formatting is one of the biggest mistakes people make in their blog posts. Attention spans are short and you want your audience to get the most from your writing at a glance.”
The ideal blog post will be easy to read. Formatting is one of the most important aspects of a blog that performs well.
A call to action is crucial in creating a blog that generates leads. A confused audience won’t take the intended next steps unless you show them how.
“Make sure your CTA matches your blog topic. When writing blog posts, it’s also important to link your CTA to the appropriate page. If your blog is educating the audience on your newest app feature and your CTA is “Download Now”, but the CTA button is linked to the “About Us” page then that complicates the reader’s journey. Your audience will bail if the CTA isn’t seamless.”, Nikki instructs.
This one is huge. Include backlinks in your posts to relative information you have created in the past. Woggle does this often to optimize our posts.
Internal backlinks have multiple perks, including:
Take a moment to think through your current blog content. Are the posts optimized with internal backlinks? It’s an easy fix and we recommend taking time to implement links in your content.
If your team needs a hand optimizing current content or writing blog posts that convert, get in touch with Lucent Creative’s team.
Nikki wraps up our interview with one last gem:
“Helping business owners connect with their audiences is one of my favorite aspects of my job. They have worked hard to build something their passionate about and they deserve to foster the leads they deserve. I get it–writing blog posts is one of those business tasks people don’t necessarily look forward to or enjoy. Thankfully, I love what I do and Kendall’s team is always happy to help.”
