It’s no secret that blogging is a critical component to any content marketing strategy.

Google (and the other search engines, of course) love to see fresh content and blogging is one of the best ways to provide just that.

Plus, maintaining a regular blog on your website and using each blog post as an opportunity to target relevant keywords can be a great way to boost your SEO.

With all that being said, it’s safe to assume that blogging is important.

And it’s not going anywhere soon.

However, maintaining a consistent blog and creating regular blog posts can be a bit of a daunting task – especially if writing really isn’t your strong suit.

So, if you’re struggling to create solid blog posts on a regular basis, here are 8 of our favorite ways to write a better blog post.

1. Think About Relevant Keywords to Include

As previously mentioned, incorporating relevant keywords into your blog posts can be a great way to improve the overall SEO of your website. Pay attention to the things that people are searching for in your industry, or better yet, do a bit of keyword research and come up with a list of solid keywords to target within your blog posts.

2. Use Headings and Subheadings to Break Up the Text

Be honest with yourself – how often do you skim read articles online instead of reading the whole thing through from start to finish? I’m guessing this happens more often than not. And let’s be real – that pretty common. Using subheadings within your post (like the numbered list items here) helps to break things up and ultimately creates a blog post that’s much easier to read.

3. Bullet Points and Numbered Lists Are Your Friends

Continuing on with the same train of thought, bullet points and numbered lists are great for improving the readability (and skimability) of any blog post. So, for example, instead of writing a long-winded paragraph, try thinking about the key pieces of information being presented within that paragraph and arrange those items in a list format instead.

4. Keep Things Simple with Shorter Paragraphs

Lists are great, of course, but your entire blog post can’t be just one giant bullet-pointed list. Keep readability rates up by writing shorter, snippier paragraphs. Blogs posts aren’t supposed to be college essays. They’re meant to be informational, educational, sometimes entertaining, and always easy and quick to read. Using shorter paragraphs helps to achieve this.

5. Always Include an Introduction and a Conclusion

The introduction of your blog post is extremely important, as this is your one and only opportunity to ‘hook’ your reader and try to keep them reading on into the meat of your post. The best way to do this is by creating an engaging intro section, something that is interesting and really resonates with readers. Equally important though is the conclusion, as this is your opportunity to sum things up and segue into a call to action.

6. Try Including a Summary Section at the End

Chances are good that most people will be skimming your blog post – at least upon first read-through. Including an organized summary section at the end of your post that briefly touches on what you’ve previously discussed can really help to draw the stragglers back in. This is especially helpful if you’ve written quite a lengthy blog post and want to end on a high note.

7. Don’t Forget About the Ever-Important Call to Action

It’s always important to include some sort of call to action at the end of your blog posts. Now, this doesn’t have to be something salesy or promotional. It can be a simple as asking people to respond to a question in the comments or share your post on social media. Whatever it is, the important thing is that you’re giving your readers a ‘next step’ – something to do immediately after reading your blog post to keep them engaged with your content.

8. Keep an Ongoing List of Topic Ideas Going

Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with ideas for blog posts on the fly. That’s why it’s always a good idea to keep a notebook handy (physical or digital) to record blog post ideas when you happen to think of them. And if you’re planning to post regular blog content, creating an editorial calendar can be a great way to organize your thoughts and keep track of your content ideas.

In Conclusion…

So that’s it. Hopefully, you’ve found these blogging tips helpful and can use some of them right away in your own blog posts.

And if you still need some help, don’t worry – we love writing blogs and creating content marketing strategies for our clients.

If you’d like us to help, feel free to shoot us an email at info@jslmarketing.org , give us a call at 817.470.5274, or fill out our contact form here.

Happy Blogging!