Creating blog content isn’t an easy feat.
There is a special balance that has to be achieved for effective content marketing to grab hold of an audience. Topics should be thorough, but they shouldn’t be too complex. They should be relatable and inviting, while remaining knowledgeable and authoritative. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to building the perfect blog, there are a few mistakes that every blog writer should avoid.
- You write for the search engines, not the readers. While every post should follow SEO best practices, do not let that overshadow the blog content. The quality of the writing should always come first. Don’t sacrifice readability to throw in as many keywords as possible. Google is becoming very “intelligent” and it will recognize when blog content has the proper balance.
- You don’t know your audience. Although your website has the potential to reach millions of people, you need to narrow your target audience in order to write effective content. Knowing the demographics of your target audience will allow you to address your readers individually instead of speaking in generic terms. This will make your blog content 100 times more engaging.
- You force content every day. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all? While you should definitely aim to release content consistently, just throwing out useless information to fill space isn’t doing you any favors. Put thought into each post and don’t waste people’s precious time.
- Your personality is hidden behind industry jargon and technical information. If a reader wanted to read a dry entry of just the facts, they would pick up an encyclopedia. A blog is meant to be personable, informal and informative. Each post should be easy to read and the reader should feel like you are having a casual conversation with them. Save the technical talk for industry publications.
- You rush through the editing process. Just because a blog should be informal doesn’t mean that it should be unprofessional. Even the best writers make mistakes. After completing a post, review it for flow, grammar and spelling, and trim redundant or run-on sentences. It is important to have a second set of eyes go over each post before it is uploaded.
Before you jump to upload your next blog post, stop and take the time to think critically about every aspect. Is the post tailored, engaging, pointed and unique? If the topics don’t invigorate you, it’s unlikely that a post is going to inspire your audience to take action. So put the past behind you and stop making rookie blog content mistakes.
