The worst thing that could happen to a perfectly good and high-quality blog post is to get lost in the interwebs without having served it’s purpose – to empower, entertain, and to educate.
There are a lot of reasons why an informative post doesn’t get the audience it deserves, one of these being that it is constructed in a way that makes it look boring and confusing. Remember that post you stumbled on a week ago? The topic was so compelling but when you looked at the content, it was composed of ten long paragraphs, making you feel sleepy right away! Boorrring! Because of the internet our attention span is becoming shorter and shorter.
Thankfully, we know all the tricks to spice up your post! Here is the anatomy of a perfect blog post:
1. Headline
Your headline is equally as important as your whole content. Why? Because it is what drives people to click your link and read. A boring headline is death to your awesome content. It is almost impossible to get clicks with headlines such as “My Vacation”, “Beauty Tips”, “Cool Designs”, among others.
There are a lot of best practices that you can use to create a headline that will spark the curiosity of your readers. Here are our suggestions:
- Numbers. (Ex: 10 Happy Activities You Can Do During Vacation Time, 5 Cool Things I’ve learnt about Creating a Unique Design, 8 Beauty Tips You Probably Have Never Heard Before)
- Catchy adjectives. (Ex: Cool, Unique, Amazing, Useful)
- How-to Words such as tips, tricks, ways, reasons, etc so people know what they are reading about.
- Guarantee. (Ex: That will truly help you, That will make designing easier for you, That will change your whole morning routine)
- Keywords. (Make your heading keyword rich)
- Personalise. (Ex: #8 is my favorite, No. 2 is shocking, The third one is worst!)
Quick Win! Ultimate Game-Changing Headline Formula:
(Number) + (Catchy Adjective) + (How-to Word) + (Guarantee & Keyword) + Personalise = Best Headline Ever!
2. Intro
So you’ve got the attention of your reader. What now? This is the part where you will have to keep your readers engaged to make sure that they stay on your site and continue reading. The best way to do this is omit the formal-research-paper type intro and adapt to the secret of all successful best-selling authors – tell a story.
Whether it’s a simple experience that you had before you started writing, an idea which popped up on your head as you typed the first sentence of your post, or even a common occurrence with regard to your topic, include a personal anecdote about it.
Using the trick mentioned above, construct your intro by including a problem (your topic) and a brief preview of the answers that you will be providing them.
Quick win: Remember in the beginning when I said we have shorter attention spans? Blogs supported by video work really well so that those who learn visually and through sound
3. Body
This is perhaps, the most important and challenging part of your post! Your body is the longest part of the post, so you must try your best to keep things interesting. One great way to do this is to make sure that your points are easily scannable.
In a study conducted by the Nielson Norman Group, shows that only 28% of your words are most likely read by your website visitors! Thus, your readers must be able to understand the gist of your content even if they don’t read it word for word.
The best ways to make your content scannable are the following:
- Lists. (Numbers, bullets, arrows are a must!)
- Bold key words / sentences. Make sure that the most important points in your content stands out by using a “bold” font.
- Block quotes and Italics. Put quotes and verbatim information in block quotes or use italic font.
- Visuals. It is easier to remember photos than texts, and the former lengthen the attention-span of your readers. Thus, it is extremely crucial to find or create images that speak your message.
4. Outro
By this point, so should have already explained the answers to problem that you have presented in the intro in full detail. But don’t keep your readers hanging, provide closure! You can do this by quickly summarising your strongest points and giving them friendly reminders.
5. Final Ending – Call To Action
Your post should not end on the outro. Guide your readers on what to do next – ask their thoughts, ask them to comment or share, to download your freebies, or to sign up to something. This is the perfect time to present yourself as an expert in your field!
Quick Win: Look for oppotunities in your copy to seed your product or service throughout your blog to drive sales conversions, a common mistake with blogs is forgetting it’s an additional sales tool!
Creating a blog post that will get results / engagement can be really hard for some. But with these tips, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge anymore!
Do you find these steps useful? Are you feeling more confident in writing your next blog post? Let us know by commenting below. Remember to share this to anyone who may find this helpful.