6 tips for effective blog articles
Writing a blog article is a step that should not be underestimated in your marketing strategy. In fact, this approach has many advantages. When well written and understandable, it can encourage visitors from your website to buy the product/service you offer. It is thus very important not to forget this step when creating your marketing strategy. In a previous article, we explained why it is essential to define a content marketing strategy for all your networks. In order to keep the momentum going and to improve your SEO, we are now exposing 6 tips for effective blog articles. This approach is a real asset in your marketing strategy. In this article, you will have the opportunity to discover the essential elements to take into account when creating your own blog.
The first question you might ask yourself is simply: “Why should I have a blog?”. Having a blog has 3 main purposes. First of all, it will allow us to attract traffic to your content. This is because your articles will be shared on social networks. In addition, your SEO will naturally improve. Secondly, writing blog articles will allow you to support your expertise in the field in which you practice. When customers have questions, they will not hesitate to read your blog articles to learn more. Finally, you will have the opportunity to encourage the reader to take specific actions. These can be as diverse as inviting them to leave a comment, share your article on social networks or subscribe to your newsletter.
“A blog brings in 67% more leads.” (Source: redacteur.com)
Table of contents
Tip n°1: Use an attractive title
The title of your article will be the very first thing the visitor to your blog sees. It is therefore essential that it is striking, and that the reader wants to learn more about the subject. Ideally, it should be short and between 4 and 10 words. In terms of number of characters, this is about 70. Also avoid adverbs, adjectives and prepositions that will make your title too long. To ensure that it is clearly visible, use a larger font size than the body text. It is best to avoid capitalizing, italicizing and underlining your text. Remember, the title of your article should be catchy and attractive! Make readers want to read your article.
“Your title should convey an emotion” (Source: MarketingBienveillant.com)
An essential element that you should also keep in mind is the use of keywords. When they are well chosen, search engines will be able to take them into account to correctly index your pages and thus, in fine, improve your referencing. In addition, the title you decide on must correctly reflect the content of your article. Writing a good article title is essential to attract the reader, hold their attention, get them to click to read the article and ultimately click on your CTAs.
Tip n°2: Write an engaging introduction
Once the headline has convinced the visitor to click on the article, it is not over yet. Based on this, the reader will decide whether or not to continue reading. A good introduction should summarize your article quickly. It is a short summary of the information in the body of the article. It should get straight to the point and grab their attention.
“Surprise readers with an original and unknown fact!” (Source: 360-webmarketing.fr)
In order not to forget any important element, use the 5 W’s rule. It will help you to achieve a perfect synthesis of the elements you will have to address. This is summarized as “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “why”. This phase will allow you to determine who your story is about, what information is being announced, what it is about, where the news is being announced and why. For completeness, some communication experts add two elements: “how” and “how much”. So as not to be too long and risk losing the reader, it is recommended to limit the introduction to one paragraph. In this way, you will be able to capture his or her attention, without revealing too much.
Tip n°3: Summarize the content
A blog article will contain a lot of information. To make it easy and enjoyable to read, it is important to properly structure the information presented. It is essential to organize the content in a clear and concise way. To do this, you can use numbered headings, sub-headings, etc. Then, the sections can be divided into paragraphs to make reading more pleasant. This will also allow you to avoid having large blocks of text that are often indigestible for the reader.
When you start writing an article, draw up a detailed outline of the structure of your article beforehand. This will give you a list of important points to cover in a logical and coherent order. It is also possible to find pre-designed article templates to make your work easier and faster. Once your plan has been drawn up, it is now time to move on to the writing phase. To do this, you now need to follow the different points that you have identified in the development of your plan. It is important to add figures, if possible, to the points you make. This will add credibility to what you say. In addition, always remember to check the credibility of the sources you use to ensure the quality and reliability of your data.
Tip n°4: Pay attention to the format
To make your article more attractive, add images to illustrate it. This way, the reader will not be confronted with a long, indigestible text. The use of visuals will make reading more dynamic and provide concrete examples of the information you provide. The image you choose should be relevant, aesthetically pleasing and correspond to the information you are going to detail in your article. Keep in mind that this image will be the first thing the reader sees when he clicks on your article. It will also be prominently displayed on social networks. Choosing the right image for the subject of the article will have an impact on your click-through rate. However, always remember to use royalty-free pictures. There are many websites available such as pixabay, unsplash, …
“Content that includes one or more images gets 94% more views than content without images.” (source: HubSpot.fr)
In addition to the image you choose to represent your article, the whole article should be aesthetically pleasing. As mentioned above, the text should be well spaced out for easy reading. Headings and subheadings should be coherently arranged. The style rules must be applied to the whole article and to the whole blog.
“The two factors that bring the most credibility to a blog are the quality of the content and the design.” (Source: 1min30.com)
Lastly, don’t neglect the tags. These are precise keywords that describe your article. They will allow readers who visit your blog to browse all your articles by theme. Most of the time, 10 to 20 tags allow you to summarize the main themes covered by your blog as a whole.
Tip n° 5: Optimize the SEO of your article
Once your article is written, it is important to proofread it. There are many reasons why proofreading is necessary. It is essential to check the spelling, the turn of phrase, to avoid repetition but also to optimize the text for the various search engines. The use of keywords should be discreet but strategic. It is essential that they are naturally incorporated into the text without degrading the quality of the text and the reader’s experience.
“Companies that blog are 13 times more likely to have a positive return on investment” (Source: HubSpot)
In order to improve the SEO of your article, also consider writing a relevant meta description. This is the text that appears on Google below the title of the page in question on the Google search results page. Its purpose is to attract the curiosity of visitors and encourage them to click on the link.
It should therefore summarize the article. We recommend that you write a meta description of approximately 150 – 160 characters. In addition, it is preferable for it to begin with a verb inciting to action such as “Learn”, “Discover”, etc. The keywords inserted in the meta-description are not taken into account by Google. However, it will enable you to improve your click rate.
Last, but not least, do not neglect anchor texts. These are internal or external links inserted within your article. Take into account the keywords used to link your article to other web pages, as these are taken into account by search engines. Moreover, if you link your blog article to web pages targeting the same keywords as you, this will be valued by search engines, which will improve the referencing of your article.
Tip n°6: Optimize your content for all types of devices
Always keep in mind that your blog article is available on the Internet and can be read from different types of devices such as tablets, computers and smartphones. This may seem obvious to you, but it is important to ensure that the reader’s experience is the same regardless of the type of device they use. Also, readers behave differently when they read an article in a magazine than when they read it online.
“Out of every 3 minutes spent online, 2 are spent on a mobile device.” (Source: HubSpot.fr)
In addition to improving the experience of your users, creating a “responsive” blog, i.e. one that adapts to all types of devices, will improve the referencing of your online articles. The layout of your article must adapt to the screen format of your device. Search engines like Google encourage websites that improve the user experience. As a result, natural referencing will be much better. Moreover, a product adapted to any type of device will provide users with additional comfort, which will ultimately improve their satisfaction. Finally, don’t forget to make a clear homepage where readers can quickly and easily access all the articles that have already been posted on your blog.
To conclude, as you have certainly understood throughout this article, creating and producing blog articles It will allow you to support your expertise in the field in which you practice. As a reminder, it is important to consider the different steps to take into account when writing your article. It is important to come up with an attractive title for your article, to write an attractive introduction, to be clear and synthetic in the content you propose. You should also pay attention to the format, think about optimizing your SEO, and adapt your content to all types of devices. So, don’t hesitate any longer and start this great adventure that is blogging!
We hope that through this article you have been able to find out more about the different “rules” for making good blog posts. Please let us know in the comments if you are keen on blog articles! Have you ever written one? What tips do you have for making them much more attractive? What topics interest you the most? We look forward to hearing from you! If you liked this article, please share it!
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