What makes a blog post “worthy”?
Without something like a Mjolnir to check worthiness (I like Thor, sue me), it often falls upon the lone blogger to evaluate the quality of his/her blog post. But since we’re all fundamentally attached to things we create, it’s hard to see the posts we write in a detached, objective, clinical light and make the right call. We pass off bad work as good and pat ourselves on the back.
And that’s probably why advent of internet has turned us into a generation of skimmers instead of readers: we know most of what we’re reading is useless anyway, so why bother?
So the question remains: How do you determine the quality of a blog post?
This is one equation that’s full of ‘variables’ because every person has different preferences: Humorous, short, normal vs. formal, syntactically correct, list-icles, etc… but there are some ‘constants’ in this equation that make it a lot less blurry.
So here are the standard ingredients most good blog posts are made of:
1. A Good, Strong Topic
Topic strength and goodness is determined by what your readers would find relevant/want to read. In order to find what that is, just ask.
Get insight via stats and analytics: Your most visited/commented on/socially shared blog posts will give you a straight-up window to what kind of readers you have and what they would like to read. Once you have the topic, find a keyword relevant to it so you can anchor it for both humans and search-bots.
You can do this differently: run a keyword search and find topics relevant to those keywords instead of other way around. The first way is generally less burdensome though, so my advice is to go with that.
2. Headings
Headings are among the first things a reader’s eyes will be drawn to. From there onwards the decision to “stay-and-read” or “no-thanks-I’ll-pass” will be made in less time than it takes to say “Hello!”
That’s why your headings should be:
- Short and Sweet (4-6 words) OR Long and Legible (10-12 words). Anything more than that is exhausting.
- Attractive and relevant to the topic. For example: 10 Tricks to Better Blog Writing on WordPress OR WordPress Blog Checklist
3. Formatting
This is perhaps the most under-appreciated aspect of writing.
It’s irrelevant/largely subjective how many times you switch through your 6 heading sizes (just reserve <h1> for the title and work your way down).
Now for some actual pointers:
- Brevity: Is always your friend, whether you are writing your next thesis or the next chapter of your Brave Keep your sentences short and things will move along at a brisk pace.
- Break it: Because eyes get tired and no-one will read a huge wall of text on the internet (except maybe lawyers). Break it into paragraphs.
- Be Bold: Where it’s necessary. Italics add subtle emphasis, while bold just leaps out of the screen and grabs attention.
- Best bits on the top: Skimmers will be skimmers, so coax them into reading more by your most compelling writing focused on the beginnings of paragraphs. Also: Focus on intros (first two-three paragraphs) of your blog posts.
4. Excerpts and Meta Descriptions
These warn your readers in advance what they’re getting into.
Meta descriptions show up as search results on global as well as internal site searches, social media, bookmarking websites, etc. Excerpts show up in your post archives.
TIP: To write these, think of what you’re providing and put it into 15-odd words. That’s usually a 160 character length meta description.
Example: “These are the standard ingredients that only the best blog posts are made of.” = 77 Characters (spaces count too).
Bonus points if you can cook up something that complements (looks awesome beneath) your Title.
5. Media
Visuals cues are processed way faster than text because your brain won’t stop reading the text aloud in your own head when you’re actually paying attention. (I know your secrets)
This is where images and videos play an important role, and why they make an essential part of every landing page/ good blog posts. They speed up comprehension. They break monotony.
Use at least one post-relevant, good quality, properly optimized image in your blog post: If only to serve as featured image. Use captions to drive your point home further.
Winning Points: Make sure you add alt tags to your visual media and transcripts for video and audio files.
Tip: This is one of the few acceptable instances of using stock photos.
6. Conclusions
A.k.a Closure.
From a storytelling perspective, Conclusion is the ‘end of the line’, ‘The Happily Ever After’, or the ‘(Moral) lesson summarized in one chapter.
A nicely written conclusion sums up a post and gives readers closure, which is always welcome. Instead of ending abruptly and giving your readers a theoretical ‘whiplash’, ease them back into reality by bringing the story to an authentic end with a conclusion/endnote/parting shot/ what have you.
7. Links
I have seen many amateur writers disregard ‘external links’ in posts.
External links, especially from trusted/reputed sources lend your post authenticity. It tells readers that you really did make an effort and researched well before writing. Giving links to select sources is the same as showing evidence to support your own point, even though they can direct readers away from your post.
Citations aside, also take special care of pagination and broken links. Search engines simply disregard the content/pages that return ‘404 Not Found’ Error. It may not be your fault (maybe the user put a wrong URL in the address bar), but don’t leave it to chance. Plugins like Broken Link Checker will help you fix 404 errors on a WordPress website.
8. Taxonomy
You’re doing your readers a huge disfavor by not organizing your content.
WordPress taxonomy (Categories and tags) are easy to work with: Given that you can sort your own content into a handful of categories and then refine them with tags. They help users find content they came for, quickly and easily; and they help search engines grasp the core subject and topic of every post you have published.
9. Editing and Proofreading
This is part and parcel of every good writer’s work. We write like we’ve exorcised our demons (for the time being), then spend the next few hours editing the post for mistakes and just generally making it more awesome. It’s natural: Once you sleep on it, you get a fresh perspective, and what looked like a masterpiece may start to look like a pile of dog poo the next morning (or vice versa).
So make sure you set time out for editing before you publish your work.
Tip: Read it in WordPress preview to see what it would look like really. If you have a ‘beta’ (another word for an informal editor-person), ask them to look at it.
Bonus Tip: A lot of writers leave formatting to this part to make it easier to pay attention.
Endnote
This is a basic rundown (and related tips) of blog writing. It changes with goals (corporate, guest post, infotainment, etc.), but the general idea remains the same. It’s that easy.
That’s all there is to it.
Author Bio: Lucy Barret is working as a WordPress developer for HireWPGeeks a WordPress development outsourcing company. She is working as an expert of PSD to WordPress theme conversion and manages a team of experienced WordPress developer. You can get in touch with her company, HireWPGeeks on Facebook.
{ 0 comments… add one now }