How to write the perfect blog post to drive people to your website

 

*Disclaimer* While blogging is one of the most important tools you can use to drive traffic to your website, it’s not going to happen overnight. Writing a really good blog post isn’t going to magically get you thousands of viewers. You need to blog consistently for that to happen.

Right, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business.

I might be biased, but I love blogging. I love how the keywords I adorn my posts with have the power to get me noticed by Google. I love sharing my views and opinions. I love scouring loads of different resources to learn new facts and information to include in my blog posts. And I love it when people read them and tell me that they’ve found my posts really useful – and then visit my website to see who I am.

That’s the holy grail, isn’t it? Having your content convert readers into paying customers? It’s why blogging works, and continues to work. Here, I’m going to share with you what I know about how to write posts that will get those casual readers to want to click through to your website – and ultimately buy from you. Want to know the secrets? Read on!

The perfect blog post starts with planning

In order to write the perfect blog post, you first need to plan it out. Do I ever skip this step? Yes – but those spontaneous posts are never my best ones, and they rarely get as much air-time.

Let me tell you how I like to do it. It might be different for you, of course, but this method works for me.

First, I brainstorm an idea that I have. I write down a possible title, and a few – 5 or so – bullet points covering what I want to talk about. Personally, I like to do this with a pen and paper. I find the ideas flow better when I don’t have a screen in front of me.

Next, I open my Word Document, and enter my proposed title, and my rough ideas. Then I enter my title into a blog header analyser (I use Coschedule, there are others) and play around with ideas until I hit upon one that fits and scores reasonably.

I have a little poke around the internet, to see what other people have to say on my chosen subject, and write down any ideas or useful facts that got thrown up.

After that, I enter my section headers, and start filling them in.

Using keywords to lead people to your post

Keywords are like little breadcrumbs, which allow search engines like Google to find your blog posts. I’m going to be a bit controversial here and say, don’t worry about them too much. People get so hung up on keyword research – and there’s really no need to.

Here’s my advice. Thinking about the subject of your blog post, wite down a few (2 or 3 is enough, I think) words or phrases that give a flavour of what you’re talking about. For this one, for example, I might choose ‘writing blog posts’, ‘perfect blog post’, and ‘blog writing’.

Write your post. THEN do a search for those words within your post, and see how many times they appear. If you’ve got between 3 and 5 of each per 1000 words, that’s fine. I honestly wouldn’t worry too much beyond that – it’s enough for Google to get the gist of your post, in order to be able to list it.

Making your post interesting, engaging, and ORIGINAL!

The purpose of blog writing is to educate, entertain, and engage an audience. It’s not about you – it’s about them, so make sure that when you’re writing your blog post, you’re talking to the kind of people you want to reach. Write conversationally – this isn’t the place to be dry and boring. Rather than writing a list of facts, tell a story. Be useful, yes, but also be entertaining, and talk to people in a way they’ll understand.

Depending on your subject, you might need to do some research – and that’s fine. I always find it useful to have a look at what other people have written on my chosen subject before I write – I usually place a few links at the bottom of my document to refer to as I write. It’s fine to do that. But don’t ever copy what someone else has written – that’s called plagiarism.

Sure – use ideas and facts, but always write them in your own, original way. And if you do use specific quotes or information, link to the original source, and ask the author’s permission to use it where you possibly can.

Remember your CTA!

What should your call to action be? Well, you can ask them to:

·        Sign up to your newsletter

·        Check out another one of your blog posts

·        Share their comments on the post

·        Join you on social media

·        Buy something from you

Was this post useful to you? Drop me a comment below, or share it on social media!

About me

Tereasa Hedges, freelance copywriter for creatives, designers and makers.

I’m a freelance copywriter who specialises in writing content for creative people, helping you to reach larger audiences through blogging, web content, email marketing, and a little bit of social media for good measure.

Want to work with me? Contact me for a chat via shirecopywriting@outlook.com