How to Write an Effective Blog

Let’s face it: No one really reads anymore. Oh, I know you’regoing to lambast me and say you LOVE to read, you devour a book a week and you even have War and Peace on your nightstand. 

But I’m here to tell you that online, you don’t really read. You search and you scan.

Unfortunately, too many companies look at their blogs more like term papers or well-respected tomes about their industry, and the more boring the blog, the less likely that anyone will read it.

To help you out, here are a few tips on how to write an effective blog.

1. Use numbers. Numbers are great. They help writers organize their content, and they help readers scan the information quickly. Look, I’m using them now!

2. Keep it short. I just said this at the top of the article, but if you’re like  most readers, you skipped the intro because you’re just scanning anyway. The longer the paragraph, the more likely someone won’t read it.

3. Give advice. Blogs should be helpful to the reader. Instead of writing about my own experience writing blogs, I chose to make this article more of a “how-to” story, giving people direct advice, rather than making them read between the lines. Also, some of the most popular searches in any topic begin with the words “How to…”

4. Use your keywords. If you’re trying to write an effective blog, you have to use the keywords that you think people are going to be typing in. Don’t be shy about using them frequently, in fact. Don’t make your sentences sound weird, but just try to be strategic about how many times you can work them into the copy.

5. Use a casual tone. Yes, lawyer/consultant/engineer, this means you. Many times, businesses think they have to write in a professional tone in order to be respected, but actually, readers respond better to content that seems like it’s written by a regular person, rather than a lawyer, and it makes the company more trustworthy and accessible. 

6. Use internal links. If it’s possible, refer to previous blogs or other pages on your site
and provide links to them. This will help Google determine what certain pages are about, and keep visitors on your site longer.

Need professional blog writing help? Contact Sharp Pencil Marketing for more
information.