James SpillaneMaybe your blog isn’t getting the traffic that it should. Or, maybe you’re not getting the interaction from readers that you had hoped for. Or, maybe people aren’t responding to your blog with email sign-ups, phone calls, and purchases.
If your blog is falling short of expectations, the solution isn’t necessarily to improve the on-page SEO, find a different layout, or sign up for new RSS feeds. Instead, you can do these 5 things today and give your blog an instant upgrade!
1. Make your posts shorter
Look around at well-written web content, and you’ll see that the average blog post is much shorter than the average article. That’s because blogs are designed to be much more informal than traditional article sites. Successful blogs are go-to places where people can check in every day. If you want people to make reading your blog part of their daily routine, you can’t make it take forever to get through one post!
So, how short are we talking about?
On my own blog, I aim to make each post 250-350 words. I might go slightly over that if the topic is really, really important. But if I go too far over that 350-word threshold, I start looking to see what I can cut out.
Having trouble keeping your posts short?
The solution is simple — devote one thought to each blog post. The more points you try to make, the longer your posts are going to be. Instead of trying to jam everything in, use those extra points to inspire future posts!
2. Focus on the conversation
All web content should be conversational, but this is especially important for your blog posts. Remember, you’re trying to inject your blog into your target audience’s daily routine. They’ll be much more likely to stop by all the time if your posts are easy to read — and that means making them conversational.
Just remember that conversational blog posts do a whole lot more than throw on an obligatory “share your thoughts in the comments” ending. Instead, you’ve got to make your readers feel like you’re sitting down having a cup of coffee together — the whole time they’re reading.
So, how do you do it?
Whenever you sit down to write a new post, picture yourself talking to one member of your target audience, instead of an entire group. That way, it will be easier for you to make your readers feel like you’re talking to each one of them individually — and that personal connection is what leads to future visits and sales!
3. Give your readers a taste of the real you
Blog posts really lend themselves to an extra human touch. Be funny, be angry, be sarcastic. Whatever emotion you throw out there, go with it. The more emotions you show, the more proof your readers have that there’s an actual face behind your business.
Why is that so important?
People like to deal with other people. If your blog posts look like they were written by some sterile, faceless, corporate entity, you’re not building the relationships you should be. And by missing out on those relationships, you’re missing out on sales!
4. Stop it with the miniseries
Ever arrived to a party late and realized you missed whatever event led to the inside joke that everyone was laughing at? Arriving at a blog post called “Part 2” is just like that!
For readers who missed out on “Part 1”, it’s no different than being late to the party. They instantly feel like awkward outsiders, so they simply want to grab their coats and go home ASAP. Don’t make your readers feel like that!
So, how do you get around it?
When you write blog posts that relate to each other, reference and link to them. Above all else, be careful with your titles. Good blog post titles never reference a miniseries (like “Part 2”), because their authors want to make sure that no one feels left out. The wrong title can turn readers off before they read a single word of your post!
5. Push the boundaries of your comfort zone
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that this is YOUR blog. You can do whatever you want with it, so have some fun being creative! In fact, you owe it to your business to think outside the box!
If you simply stick with the same ol’ same ol’, your blog is never going to stand out. You’re simply going to blend in with the millions of websites that offer similar products and services as yours. And if you blend in, you’re never going to see the success you want!
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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I mentioned this on twitter, but I’ll mention it again here…
#2, #3, #4, #5 are brilliant, but I can’t stress how much I disagree with #1. There is something so disconcerting about correlating the length of an entry to the quality of a blog. This implies that successful blogs only cater to an audience with a short attention span.
Thanks for chiming in! :)
It’s not so much that the length of the post makes or breaks the blog — it’s that lots of blog owners tend to think “longer is better”, so they ramble on and on about something that could be summed up in 100 or 200 fewer words. Readers start to get bored, never make it to the end of the post, etc. In the end, they see the blog as a time-waster, so they stop coming back.
Bottom line — if you’re going to give your readers a blog post that goes on and on, it better be well worth their time!
The length of a post is a tricky issue that I believe depends greatly on your readership, your industry, and the nature of the content. Long posts are also easier to handle if they are laid out in a readable fashion. If the post is laid out nicely the reader can skim it quickly and read what they want before moving on. However, if the reader is presented with a ‘wall of text’ with no headlines, subheads, bullet points, illustrations, or other formatting the writer has probably lost the reader before they have read the first line.
Disclaimer: I love writing lost posts!
Long posts, that is. I don’t really like writing “lost” posts.
Haha… I don’t like reading “lost” posts, so we’re even! ;)
But, seriously, you’re so right to point out the actual formatting of things. For me, personally, if I see a giant paragraph (that could probably be split into 2 or 3 different paragraphs), I don’t bother reading it unless I have a *really* good reason. Similarly, if I’m just so-so about a writer or a topic, I might be somewhat put off by 700 words in a blog post. If you don’t hook me quickly, I’m gone — and there are tons of other people who feel the same way.
Don’t totally discount short posts, though. Seth Godin’s blog is a great example of how powerful they can be. In fact, his post this morning was a whopping 2 sentences — yet he made a really strong message in them. His posts are always short (although not always that short!). The upside is that I know I’ll always have time to read them — no matter how busy my day might be. If they were longer, I might not be able to fit them into my routine every day.
I have had long posts that did great and long posts that should have done well, packed with great content, but they just did not fly. Overall I agree with you that shorter, concise posts work better but I would not use them exclusively.
You’re right, Matthew — there’s no “magic” length that’s going to work for every post in every niche. Like I mentioned in the article, I try to keep my own blog posts at 250-350 words, but there have definitely been times when I’ve gone over that. At the end of the day, it simply boils down to giving your readers the information they need.
I wonder if those longer posts of yours that didn’t fly would have worked better if they had been divided up into a few different posts?
You are right no one likes the longer post atleast not me. Most of the users do not like longer posts and by looking at the long posts, they even cant bother to read them.
Thanks for giving us a readers’ perspective, Stephen! :)
I agree — when I see a giant post, I’m less likely to dive in and start reading (especially if I’m pressed for time, don’t know much about the author, etc.)