Last Updated on January 23, 2019 by Shane Corbitt
Let’s face it, as a blogger, finding the right words to express yourself is what it’s all about. Without the right words and the right topics nobody will be interested in reading your post.
So how do you stand out among the millions of blogs published every day? That’s why I want to share these 9 crucial elements that every blog post should include:
- Create an eye catching title
- Write compelling introductions and conclusions
- Add social media sharing buttons
- Write an optimized meta description
- Visuals
- Featured image
- Optimize your bio
- Have a call to action (CTA)
- Subheadings
If you’re ready to boost your blog traffic, than keep reading and I’ll cover each of these elements and have you writing blogs that will grab new visitors to your site everyday.
#1 Create an Eye Catching Title
Research from QuickSprout shows that 8 out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.
That’s why it is so important to write an awesome title! The method I use for writing captivating titles is “The Perfect Title Formula” from Brandon Gaille.
The Perfect Title Formula
The formula for your title should include these 3 things (in order):
- Odd number
- Superlative
- Exact keyword phrase
Why do you start your blog post title with a number? People prefer to click on titles with numbers because they expect to get an article that they can easily scan. It’s also been proven that people prefer titles that start with an odd number over an even number. The click through rate (CTR) is 20% higher on odd number headlines over even number headlines.
Similar reasoning for adding a superlative in your title. Adding a single superlative to your title increases the CTR.
Now you’re probably wondering, which one’s should I use?
Here are some superlatives that have been proven to produce an emotional response…
- free
- new
- best
- greatest
- better
- sensational
- amazing
- important
- remarkable
- unique
- simple
- secret
- worst
- ever
Let’s face it, creating an emotional response to your blog will get you more shares.
Keyword Phrase
Going into depth about keyword phrases is beyond the scope of this article. I’ll be writing an article very soon that will go in depth about keywords and keyword phrases. So let’s keep rolling through it!
Finding and choosing your keywords and keyword phrases is part of the research phase of writing your blog post. Searching for the right keywords is normally done through a keyword tool such as Google’s keyword planner.
Picking the right keywords is crucial to getting your posts ranked in the search engines.
The difference between a keyword and a keyword phrase is that a keyword phrase is two or more keywords used together. Using a keyword phrase in your title will help your blog post receive more qualified traffic and improve your bounce rate.
Title Length
Now many of you may be wandering, why title length has anything to do with a compelling title. Your title length determines how it will show up in a Google search.
On average, Google cuts off titles after 70 characters when the search is done from a desktop or laptop. On mobile devices any title between 40 and 54 characters will get cut off and placed on a single line in a search result. A title beyond 70 characters will get cut off and placed on two lines in a search result.
To avoid cut off, your titles should be between 55 and 70 characters or less than 40 characters. This will ensure that your title shows up completely in a Google search regardless if you’re searching from a desktop, laptop or mobile device.
Titles that get cut off will hurt your CTR.
One last thing about your title, always use sentence case for your blog post titles. Conductor performed a survey that showed 64% of the people surveyed preferred the title to be sentenced case.
#2 Write Compelling Introductions and Conclusions
Introductions
In the post introduction you should quickly explain why they need to read and apply the information in your post. Whereas the body of the post should never have a paragraph with more than 7 sentences, the intro and conclusion paragraphs should be 3 sentences or less.
Conclusions
The closing paragraph should quickly wrap up the post and lead into a transition sentence that frames the next post or a call to action (CTA) to continue them on their knowledge journey.
#3 Add Social Media Sharing Buttons
Adding social media sharing buttons to your landing page and to each blog post is a great, easy method for readers to share your post with their followers and friends. Creating an easy method for readers to share your content which drives relevant traffic directly to your blog. It also creates more opportunity for natural links, as readers mention and link your content to their blogs and websites.
Of course you don’t want to spam every webpage with social sharing buttons but you do want them above and below every blog post. I also recommend using, at the very least, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google share buttons. There are many more to choose from but at least use these four.
As a side note, building a presence on social media is hard work, just like building a blog. It requires that you do more than simply hop on and shout out your latest article. Take the time to build a tribe, one that edifies and supports your blog.
#4 Write an Optimized Meta Description
While most bloggers are focusing on creating a great post title to help their Google ranking they often overlook writing an optimized meta description.
The meta description can be the difference maker when it comes to a #1 ranking.
Strategically placing keywords or the keyword phrase from your title in your meta description draws the readers eye to the description and will increase the CTR.
Remember to be persuasive with your descriptions.
A nicely placed sales copy phrase in your description can persuade searchers to click through to your blog post. While the maximum number of characters for your meta description is 156 the recommended length is between 140 and 150 characters.
If you’re using WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin gives you an area to write your meta description and shows you how it will look in Google search.
#5 Visuals
Visuals are a powerful tool.
Not only will the right visual brand your business, but it can also improve visibility.
Research from MDG Advertising found, articles that included a relevant visual received 94% more total views than one without. What this tells me is writing great content alone just doesn’t cut it. You have to add relevant graphics or videos.
Identify the best spots to add visuals such as videos, pictures, infographics, ads, etc. but don’t overdo it. Place them where it adds value to the post. As you can see, the banner image above has nothing to do with this article but is reasonable to use as an ad placement (go ahead and click on it, it’s a great book. Just click the “download now” button and get the first 2 chapters for FREE!)
Please don’t spam your article with bunches of ads! There’s nothing more annoying than landing on a website and you have to click your way through a jungle of pop-ups and ads. There’s nothing wrong with a few ads, just don’t overdo it.
Ok I’m through with my rant, LOL, now on to featured images.
#6 Featured Image
Adding a featured image is a very important aspect of the visuals. This will be the image that it most often times used to share your post on social media.
90% of information transmitted to the brain is through visual content. Visuals are also processed 60,000 times faster than text.
Like anything else you want that image to elicit an emotion and get that potential reader to click and land on your blog post. You don’t want to spend an excessive amount of time on this so I recommend using canva.com they have some ready to go templates to use that make life easy.
Please be sure that the image is good quality and clear. The last thing you want is to write an epic blog post to then have a poor featured image turn readers away.
#7 An Optimized Bio
Why is your author bio so important?
If you want your readers to subscribe to your email list or buy from you, then you have to be able to get them to trust you first.
The blog bio is the apex that begins molding that bond of trust between you and your readers.
It starts with a great picture of your self and it needs to convey competence, likability, and influence.
Your bio needs to be short and sweet. If it’s too long, visitors will be discouraged from reading it.
The character count should be less than 300 characters, so right at three sentences is the sweet spot that leads to the highest engagement.
Two more recommendations to add to your bio is a call to action and personal social media buttons. The call to action can be the third sentence of your bio and could be something similar to this, Feel free to send Shane a message here. This will allow readers an easy method of contacting you. As for the social media buttons, I would only share the social profiles that you are on daily and only list up to two.
#8 Strategically Place Internal Links Within Your Post
Here are the basics of internal linking.
An internal link is a link within a blog post that links to another page or post on the same domain name.
Internal links drive visitors deeper into your site and improves the average time spent on your site. The best practice is to try and use one internal link for every 500 words in a post.
These internal links should add additional value and continue the education process. If you don’t have another post that adds value or continues education on the subject, then don’t force it. In these situations, you can use a loosely related link to one of you posts at the end of the blog post.
Make sure the internal link has a natural transition within the post. It needs to look and feel like part of the article.
#9 Have a Call to Action
And the last but also the most important tip is to add a clear call to action.
Whether it is to ask your readers to leave a comment, share your blog post, follow you on social media, or purchase your product, make sure you clearly state what you’d like them to do.
Ending your post with a question and asking the reader to answer in the comment section is a great way to kickstart engagement. Stay away from yes or no questions and try to use open ended questions that ask your readers what they are struggling with in regard to the topic.
And please make sure to quickly respond to all comments. This will increase the likelihood of getting more engagement. Your goal with the comments should be to create a conversation that turns readers into raving fans and future customers.
I hope that these helpful tips has given you some insight on improving your next blog post. As you may know their are other aspects to writing a great blog post, so I would like it if you would leave your ideas and feedback in the comment section below.
If you are new to all of this and still need to launch your blog. Then this will get you started on How To Start A Blog
