Blogging: 5 Ways To Assure Your Posts Won’t Get Read
Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess
You’re probably reading that headline and wondering, “What the heck is she talking about?! I WANT my blog posts to get read.” Am I right? If you’re not careful there are somethings you could be doing on your blog and in your blog posts that will make your hard work all for naught. What are they? Read on!
If you don’t want your blog posts to get read, make sure you keep doing these five things:
- Write long rambling headlines that don’t have any keywords or searchable terms in it. ACTION STEP: Take time crafting your headlines for maximum impact. Use keywords like I did above: “blogging” “posts.” Make certain the keywords fit the post content and also make sure you’re using the keywords that make sense
for your blogging niche. - Taking too long to get to the point. Yes, you have stories to share when you’re writing your blog posts, BUT remember, your readers have short attention spans and if they have to scroll and scroll before you get to a point or a helpful hint, you will have lost them. ACTION STEP: Take a page from the newspaper industry and make sure your lede (yes, that’s the way it’s spelled) draws the reader in. Don’t make the opening paragraph so sensational that the rest of the post is a let down, but do make the lede compelling enough that the reader stays with you until you get to the meat of the post.
- Don’t edit your post before it goes live. “Hey, we’re writing for the Internet, no one cares if there are typos, right?” That might have (scarily) been true in the beginning, but now if you want to be taken seriously and be seen as an authority you need to spell check (don’t rely on Microsoft spell check) and fact check and edit your work. ACTION STEP: Print out your blog post and read it from right to left from the bottom up. Why? If you read it “like usual” left to right and top to bottom your brain will slip over misspellings and fill in the blanks for missing words. If you read from the other direction, your brain won’t automatically fill in the blanks and it will be easy to see your errors. If you don’t want to print it out, then read the post aloud before you make it live. If you stumble over words or phrases, take the time to reword and rework them.
- Don’t use any photos, subheads, bullets or other visuals to break up the text. Present your readers with a “wall of words” and watch how fast their eyes glaze over. When you figure that many of us consume blog posts
on our mobile devices and you can see how important it is to break up the text into bite-sized, readable chunks. ACTION STEP: Use subheads, bold a some words, use numbers to make your points, add images (make sure you are using images that you have the rights to use) and make the post easier for your readers to digest. - Don’t give a call to action at the end of your post. If your reader has stuck with you for the entire post — and you’re certainly hoping they do, give them a call to action. Ask a question. Start a discussion. Invite their comments or thoughts on the post you’ve just written. Invite them to sign up for your newsletter, etc. ACTION STEP: End each post with a question or a thought provoking conversation starter. Give the readers a reason to interact. Don’t just let them walk away from your post with a shrug and a “well, that was good, but now what?”
We’ve heard conflicting information on: Write shorter, or, write longer when it comes to posts. Have you cut back on the words in your post or have you fleshed them out? Are you finding that shorter is doing better than longer or vice versa? If I were to add a sixth tip here to assure your readers won’t read your posts it would be to “write too short.” Give your readers a reason to stay on your pages and give them content with meat.
(Photo Shutterstock: Hedgehog on books) (Photo Shutterstock: Computer and coffee)
