05 Apr
Blog and article writers can relate to the struggles of producing the best articles that will drive traffic. Many factors come into play, such as topics, audience, keywords, etc. You’re left wondering, how can you write posts like that? Before I discuss how you can write the best articles on the web, let’s take a look at what you should avoid when you write blog posts.
Article Writing Mistakes That Prevent You From Getting Traffic
Not Writing to Your Audience
One cardinal sin of writing is not writing to your audience. Even if you write the most grammatically correct article of all time, but you’re not talking to your audience, you might not get the results you want.
Another thing to point out here is, you should also avoid writing for yourself. Remember, your blogs are for your reader’s entertainment or education. In turn, they can eventually benefit from your content.
Not Knowing Which Topics To Write
You may have a content calendar that would say, post a blog on this day or publish a video on another day. That won’t make sense if you’re writing random articles to fill up your blogs. Once again, it’s related to not writing to or understanding your audience. You have to get into your reader’s mindset to create blog posts that will become relevant to them.
Not Using the Right Keywords
Content marketers and writers know that keywords are essential to your SEO efforts. Sure, you utilize keyword tools to help you determine which keywords you should use. But, you should dig deeper into what your blog readers are searching for as well. This way, more readers visit your blog and browse your content.
Not Editing Your Work
Don’t make the mistake of writing an article and NOT proofreading it. You might be itching to hit the publish button as soon as the article is done. But the writing doesn’t stop when you finish the first draft. Remember to edit your work as it will become a guide to help you in becoming a better writer.
8 Tips to Write the Best Articles
It may take time to have your blog gain traction in the first few months. But, if you keep these eight tips in mind, you’re on your way to writing the best articles for your blog.
1. Captivating Headline
Whenever you search for something on a search engine, the best headline will draw your attention. But what words should you use?
According to Buffer and Crazy Egg, here are headline examples your audience won’t help but click:
- X Reasons Why or Tips _________
- Here’s A _______________
- How To ___________________
- Little Known Ways ____________
- The Ultimate Guide to __________
- Lessons I Learned _____________
Tips for writing an enticing headline:
- Use power words such as best and easy
- Include your keywords in the headline
- For list posts, add numbers in the headline
- Keep it short: eight words at best
- Check your headline on sites like on Headline Analyzer and EMV Headline Analyzer
2. Short but Impactful Intro
After you’ve hooked the reader in your headline, don’t stop the momentum on the intro. You’ve spent so much time crafting the right headline, but if the opening isn’t up to par with the headline, your readers may close the tab. How, then, can you further capture your audience’s attention from the headline to the introduction?
Well, some writers would opt for the question route. It’s a great way to engage your reader at the start. They could think of your question and scroll down to know more.
Another approach is to use numbers. But don’t just use any statistic or number. Make sure that it’s significant and interesting enough to make your reader want to process it.
If you want to intrigue readers, go for something controversial. You can consider siding with unpopular opinions or playing devil’s advocate. Do what you can to make the reader hooked and finish the whole blog.
But, on an emotional level, you can also consider sharing personal anecdotes or stories. Get your reader to connect with you. Give them the feeling that whatever you shared is something they would relate to or empathize with you.
3. Well-Researched and Edited Content
Writers of the best articles don’t spew nonsense. Sometimes, writers take hours of research to produce a 1000 to a 2000-word blog post. It’s to ensure that what they’re writing is truthful and accurate. In turn, it will make them become a trusted source.
Don’t forget to add statistics or cite an industry authority. This increases your credibility to your readers.
Other than research, you want to connect with your audience too. Often in blog writing, you have to combine both logic and emotions.
Here’s how to connect with your readers emotionally:
- Ask them questions
- Share a personal story
- Use you or your
Before publishing your article, don’t forget to proofread either. You could have the best points in your article, but you can shoo away some readers if there are minor typographical errors or syntax issues. To avoid that, you can use these helpful editing tools:
- HemingwayApp (Readability checker)
- Grammarly (Proofreader and plagiarism checker)
- Cliche Finder (recognizes cliches you can remove)
4. Appropriate Keywords
A well-known best practice in blogging is to add relevant keywords to your articles. You want visitors to stumble upon your blog posts rather than your competitors’ posts. For that to happen, you need to identify the right keywords. This way, you can rank for those keywords.
Not only that, but writers produce the best articles by integrating the keywords naturally into the post. Writers are strategic when writing blog posts because the keywords blend well into the blog that you don’t notice them at all sometimes. The keywords drive you to the content you want to read, but it’s the blog that gets you to stay.
Aside from using keywords on the post, if you can, place your keyword on headings.
According to John Mueller (Senior Google Webmaster), the headings will help search engines better understand your content. As search engines pick up a trend, it may gain more traffic because of search queries that direct them to the post.
One other thing to note about keywords: beware of keyword stuffing in articles too. You don’t want to bombard your reader by saying your keywords all the time. In fact, keyword stuffing is a black hat SEO technique. That’s something you should avoid as it will negatively affect your website’s ranking and traffic.
5. Formatting Elements
An article isn’t just a block of text that your readers should consume. HubSpot found that 43% of your blog readers skim your content. They don’t read the whole article. Instead, they scan it and read the content relevant to them. All of the best articles would have subheadings and bullets.
For example, if you have different points in one article, that’s when you use subheadings. This breaks down your whole article into smaller chunks for easy reading.
On the other hand, you can use bullets for examples so you would have shorter sentences. Or, if you want to list things down in a much cleaner way, visually, bullets are the best way to do it.
6. Relevant Links
Most of the best articles include relevant links. But what counts as “relevant links?”
Yoast says having relevant internal links will guide bots to create a structure in your website. In a simplified sense, when you link to another blog, you get the reader to find more relevant content depending on their query or issue.
You shouldn’t also focus on internal links. External links also hold value and would become advantageous in the long run. WebFX lists these reasons as to how external links can benefit you:
- Readers may see you as a valuable site even when you post other references and information
- Marketers and bloggers may approach you for backlinking strategies
- Other sites may see your content as valuable and relevant
Tip: It’s always best to link to relevant blog posts and use outbound links to cite and support your ideas or credit your references.
7. Engaging Visuals
One particular reason writers add visuals is to break up the text. But visuals do more than just that. Readers can retain information better. That’s why you shouldn’t forget to add visuals before you publish your posts.
Looking for stock images is the easiest path to fill in the visual gap. But, it’s better if you post custom graphics on your article.
Examples of engaging visuals to add to your blog:
- Data-driven visuals (graphs, charts)
- Infographics
- Illustrations
8. Captivating Call-to-Action
After your reader finishes your article, it shouldn’t stop at the conclusion. You should always include a call-to-action (CTA).
You want the reader to come back and read other articles or subscribe to your content. Here are some CTA tips to follow:
- Add a button at the end of the post – ask your readers to enter their email to subscribe.
- Write a short paragraph – this may entice the reader to subscribe or buy your product or avail of your service.
- Put social media sharing buttons – while this one doesn’t count as a call-to-action, it does give the user an option to share your article with other people.
