What Makes a Good Blog?

Blogging must be a core part of your online marketing strategy if it isn’t already. It’s a powerful marketing tool that can increase brand awareness, SEO efforts, lead generation and thought leadership. However, it is essential you don’t write for writing’s sake. Every blog post you publish must be well-written, insightful and, most of all,…

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However, it is essential you don’t write for writing’s sake. Every blog post you publish must be well-written, insightful and, most of all, relevant to your target audience. If you want to write a blog people want to read and can help your business grow, read the below top tips on what makes a good blog.

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A Digestible Word Count

Don’t bore your visitors. Readers will click away from your blog if they need to scroll through a page endlessly. Every blog you write must have a digestible word count, so a visitor can easily read it on a coffee break or a short commute to work. Aim for between 500 to 1,500 words per blog post.

If you want to dominate the search engines, a blogger should write between 1,140 to 1,285 words, which is the average word count for top ranking content on Google. If it needs to be much longer, consider breaking the article up into two parts. If a reader likes what you have to say, they’ll read part two.

Talk to Your Target Audience

It is a blog writer’s job to understand their target audience and write directly for them. For example, if you’re selling cloud services, you will more than likely be talking to business owners or senior managers within a company. As a result, you will need to skip the technical jargon to inform and engage a reader.

Pick the Perfect Headlines

The headline you choose will make or break your blog’s success. The best blogs have attention-grabbing titles that hook readers in. You should also diversify your headlines to keep readers coming back for more. For example, you should feature a mix of the following on your blog:

Listicles
How-to articles
Checklists
Reviews
Infographics
Interviews

Aim to keep headlines simple yet snappy when blog writing, and feature a compelling introduction to make your visitors want to carry on reading. Top 10 blogs are, however, one of the most powerful headlines you can use because 36% of people reportedly prefer list-based headlines.

Feature Visuals Throughout a Blog Post

71% of marketers have reported using visuals within their content marketing strategies. That’s because visual content is much more compelling to text alone. It’s for this reason why blogs with images receive 94% more views. It means that you must incorporate high-quality, relevant images into your blog posts to hook readers in and reduce your bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website..

Good Blogs Are Interesting and Helpful

So, what is a good blog? While all the above tips are fundamental, your blog should, most of all, be interesting and helpful. Never write a blog post to simply incorporate some keywords or just to keep your site fresh. If you want to become a thought leader, you must provide insightful content each time you hit publish. Consider your readers’ potential questions, and aim to provide an answer. Also, remember, what might be old news to your business might be useful to your growing readership.