How to Write Blog Posts That Keep Your Readers Wanting More
Did you know that websites that implement a blog strategy generate 126% more leads than those that don’t? That statistic should be enough to persuade you that blogging isn’t just a good idea – it’s a necessity.
But how to do you implement a blog strategy that will actually work?
Just because you insert keywords related to your services into your blogs doesn’t mean you’re going to earn a high position on the search engine results pages. In fact, focus too much on keywords with no regard to any other aspect of search engine optimisation (SEO) analysis, and your content marketing strategy might do more harm than good, though that’s not to suggest keyword research isn’t an integral part of your blog strategy.
Later in this article, we’ll detail why keywords are important – but less so than many people assume. More accurately, we’ll explain how and where you should be using keywords to drive traffic to your site.
But that’s not all we’re going to cover in this in-depth article about writing compelling blog posts that generate results and help you generate leads.
In this article, we’ll cover:
How to write headlines that grab attention
Writing introductions that not only let people know they’ve arrived at the right place but encourage them to read on
Create content that compels people to take action rather than just provides information
Understand the anatomy of the ‘perfect’ blog post
Create an inbound linking structure that keeps readers on your website
First, it seems logical to discuss how to write great headlines. Let’s begin.
Writing headlines that attract click-throughs
Appearing on the first page of Google is challenging to say the least, but what’s arguably even more challenging is encouraging users to click on your result instead of a different one. To make sure they choose your listing in the organic search results, you need a great headline.
You need to avoid being generic or boring with your headline. Remember, there are now billions of blog posts live on the internet. People have seen the headlines similar to these countless times:
Those headlines are written with the right idea in mind. They’re purposed to let people know that the content within the article will be valuable.
Unfortunately, they’re just a little boring. And, why should anyone believe the information within the articles is going to be useful?
Instead of approaching headlines in the way above, try to capture attention by including statistics. Or, make them more compelling by including just a little bit more information. Let’s see how we can apply this logic to the headlines listed above:
How to Increase Your Home’s Value by 55% with a $1,000 Investment
Where to Insert Keywords to Place in Google’s Top 10 Search Results
How I learned How to Play an Entire Oasis Album in Two Months
Five Tips That Helped Me Grow My Start-up by 35% in Six Months
Ten Mistakes That Could Cause Your Website to be Marked as Spam
Those headlines are a little more enticing, aren’t they? They show you that you’re going to find really useful and actionable information within the article because we assume the statistics and figures they’re mentioning must be true (if they’re not, Google will punish them).
As long as your content backs up what you say in your headline, you’re aren’t publishing rubbish click-bait blogs that will only harm instead of improve your search ranking. Instead, you’ll end up building a loyal following of subscribers eager to see what you have to say in your next article.
Speaking of headlines, it’s probably worth delving into keywords and how you can use them in your headers:
The Importance of Keyword Research
It seems to be apparent that keyword placement is becoming less and less important with regards to on page SEO. However, keywords are still essential, so you need to know how to use them – especially in your headers.
Keyword research is crucial because it helps you find out what your target readers are searching for. However, remember that when they type in a search query, they’re not searching for an article that contains that query a specific number of times.
In the not so distant past, keyword density was a key element of search engine optimisation, but that’s no longer the case thanks to Google’s frequent updates. However, you can still strategically place keywords into headlines to boost your search ranking.
First, think about what keyword you want to target, and it can be as broad as you want. Let’s take ‘blog writing’ for example.
Next, type this keyword into Google AdWords Keyword Planner, and you’ll be given a list of semantically related terms, which may include:
What are blog posts
How to write blog posts
Blog post headlines
Blog writing advice
To target these keywords, you can use them in headers throughout your blog post, but use them correctly. For example, you can’t just use one as a heading if the information in the following section is completely unrelated.
Try to adapt the keywords to make your headers more interesting. For example, using the list above, you could try:
What Are Blog Posts – How They Differ to News Articles
How to Write Blog Posts – And What Mistakes to Avoid
Blog Post Headlines: Tips and Trips That Will Get Your Articles Noticed
Blog Writing Advice: How to Write Compelling, Useful and Actionable Content
All of those headlines make sense, but, as mentioned above, you need to make sure your content within each section is directly related to your headers if you don’t want to be flagged as spam.
For now, that should be enough about headlines, headers and keyword research. You can read more about those topics on our website, but in the interests of teaching you how to write blog posts that keep your readers wanting more, let’s move onto introductions.
The Basics of Writing Blog Introductions
Just as book authors know that the preface, foreword and introduction are essential pages, successful blog writers know that correctly planned and written introductions are a key factor that determines the success of their blog strategies.
You need your introduction not only to let readers know they’ve found the article they were looking for but also encourage them to read on. This could involve including a compelling statistic. For example, we could’ve started this blog article with the sentence:
“This blog will detail some top tips on how to write blogs that engage readers and generate leads.”
Instead, to make our introduction more compelling and enticing, we went with:
“Did you know that websites that implement a blog strategy generate 126% more leads than those who don’t?”
Doesn’t the second sentence give you much more reason to find out what we have to say throughout the rest of the article?
A few good things a strong introduction should do include:
Provide some information to the reader regarding how they can benefit from reading the post
Make some kind of statement that summarises what the post is about
Restate the problem the headline mentioned to show readers you truly understand that you know what you’re talking about
Your introduction needs to stimulate your reader’s interest. Depending on your industry or topic, an introduction can compel users to keep reading your post by:
Asking questions
Making comparisons
Identifying debates
Showing statistical results
Explaining a situation
Quoting an expert
Describing a problem
If you’re an opinion blogger, you might want to make sure your introduction makes comparisons or identifies debates. If you’re a news blogger, giving people statistics or explaining a situation might be a smarter idea. If you want to generate sales, quoting experts, asking questions (do you want to grow your business?) or describing a problem might be a good idea. You really need to think hard about what you want your blog to achieve and then write your introduction accordingly.
Creating Compelling Content
Once you’ve mastered the art of writing eye-grabbing headlines and introductions that encourage further reading, you need to make sure that what they end up reading is actually worth their time. This means creating compelling content that solves problems, answers questions, provides useful information and tells them something they didn’t already know.
Before we go on, three essential things you need to remember about content writing are:
Your content must be unique (non-plagiarised)
Your writing must be high quality (as few errors as possible to show authority and professionalism)
You need to know who your target readers are and what information they’re looking for
Writing a blog that’s destined to rank high on the SERPs requires a lot of research and refining. You can’t simply churn out 500 words of garbage that contain a few keywords and expect to get new customers. You need value-driven content that shows you’re a website that’s worth visiting time and time again.
For the reason above, hiring a professional copywriter who is well-versed with the modern rules of SEO is a smart idea. They’re trained to scour the internet for information and arrange your content into clear sections that makes your blogs easy to scan and digest. Remember, not everybody will be interested in reading every word in your blog, but they’ll scan through it to find an answer to their query if they think it’s worth their time.
Just look at Wikipedia, for example, which is on the first page for just about any search query. Its articles are long and sometimes difficult to comprehend, but they’re clearly sectioned, making it easy for readers to parse information to find what they want.
The Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post
In short, here’s how you should approach blog writing if you don’t intend to hire a professional SEO writer:
Write a fantastic headline: Don’t be boring! This is the first thing people will see when they find your post.
Insert a catchy picture: Images break up huge chunks of text, which helps you avoid putting off readers from finding out how what you have to say.
Write a compelling introduction: This is your second chance to hook your reader. Don’t overdo it – be punchy rather than too informative, but give them a reason to keep reading.
Lead in: Let people know what you’re going to cover in your blog. You might want to use bullet points (just like we did with this blog).
Make your points: Use headings to make your points while ensuring readers can scan your content for the information they want.
Conclusion: Wrap up your post without leaving readers hanging. You don’t need to summarise all your main points as you would when writing an essay.
Related posts: If you want to keep readers on your website, share links to related posts after your conclusion.
Encourage feedback: It’s a good idea to ask people to comment on your post. Ask questions such as “What did you think of?” or “Do you have anything to add?”
Don’t Forget to Add Inbound Links
Generating backlinks to your website from other websites is incredibly challenging. However, what you can do rather easily is create a clear inbound linking structure that keeps people on your website. We briefly mentioned it above when we said “share links to related posts after your conclusion,” but you can also add hyperlinks to other posts on your website within your content – doing so will give your engagement metrics a boost, which is a crucial factor in the modern world of SEO.
Need Help Perfecting Your Blog Posts?
Writing blogs that keep readers wanting more is far from straightforward, but it’s one aspect of our job here as a provider of leading local SEO services in Sydney. If you’d rather remove the headache from getting to grips with such a difficult task, they when not leave the hard work to us?
Give us a call on 02 8205 3133, and we’ll tell you all about blog writing, paid advertising, WordPress SEO and much more. More importantly, we’ll let you know how we can ensure your business makes an impact online for a cost-effective price.
About the author
Michael Holder
A specialist in Google Ads, and with a wide range of SEO skills and experience, Michael has a particular interest in Local SEO strategies for small to medium sized businesses. When Michael is not working hard increasing conversions for clients Paid Advertising campaigns he enjoys traveling, dining out and watching Formula 1 and football.
