Amazing blog posts are essential for your brand. This is why you need to know how to write an amazing blog post so that it improves brand awareness, trust and loyalty. A big ask!
Great blogs help with your search engine results by providing regular new content, keywords and high-quality external links. In terms of social media marketing, they are used as the subject matter for a variety of posts, as well as providing bridges that give potential clients a direct route into your website. In terms of client awareness, blog posts can position you as a thought leader, showing the world you’re an expert in your field and helping to build trust in you and your brand.
Having written hundreds of blog posts on behalf of clients over the years, I thought it would be a good idea to share my secrets on how to write an amazing blog.
Get to the point straight away
Think of a blog as a reverse joke – the punchline must always come first. Don’t assume that your readers have either the time or the inclination to be held in suspense long enough to find out what your point is. They won’t. The best way to write blogs is to treat them like newspaper articles – the headline is there to draw the reader in. The subheading gives the reader a bit more information about the article to help them decide if they want to find out more, and the first paragraph summarises the rest of the article. Only then can you go into more detail and put flesh on the bones on your blog content. Readers who are interested will find it fascinating. Readers who are satisfied by knowing the basic facts will be happy. And readers with no interest in the blog will simply move on without feeling they’ve been duped into reading something they didn’t want to – which avoids any negative consequences for your brand’s reputation. (Remember how disappointing clickbait is? Don’t fall into that trap when writing blogs for your brand.)
Make sure it’s well written
Search engines look for well-written content – which is great news for professional writers like me! The more natural the writing, the more likely you are to climb higher on the organic rankings. If you think you’re being clever by shoving as many keywords as you possibly can into a sentence – known as ‘keyword stuffing’ – you’ll end up at the bottom of the rankings. You’ll also annoy your reader, creating a negative impression of your brand.
Make sure it’s unique
The search engines are also looking for unique content. Cutting and pasting content from a different website is forbidden. To begin with, it’s plagiarism. But it’s also a red flag for the search engines, and if they catch you, you’ll end up at the bottom of the rankings. It’s absolutely fine to quote someone as part of your blog; if you do, make sure the quote is in speech marks, so the search engines know it’s legitimate, and attribute the quote to the person who originally said it.
Add links to external, trusted websites
If you’re writing about something you’ve seen on another website – such as a website for a news outlet, magazine, scientific journal, etc – add a link to the page. This has a number of advantages – it shows your source, proves to the reader that you’re not just making something up, and it provides an external link in your blog which will help you rank more highly. Ideally, you’re looking to include 3-5 external links. You also need to add internal links to other areas of your website, which helps with SEO as well as keeping your reader interested in what you have to offer – in this case, I’m talking about Cariad’s content marketing services!
Understand what a trusted website is
One of my greatest bugbears is that people think Wikipedia is a trusted source. This is because anyone can change anything on the website at any time – and they do! Sometimes it’s done as a joke; sometimes it’s done to be malicious. So by all means, use Wikipedia, but always do extra research to find a credible source for your information – a peer-reviewed article, a trusted news source such as a broadsheet newspaper, an article on a university’s website, an article or press release on a trade association’s website or a government website, information on a brand’s website, or a link to a book you’ve referred to. Then, when you’re happy that you can trust the source, link to that source.
Word count
Aim for a minimum of 500 words, which will make it meaty enough to attract the casual reader. Your aim is to encourage people to stick around on your website to find out more about your products or services – and hopefully buy – or to get in touch to find out more about what you offer.
