Regularly creating content original to your company’s blog is a great habit to adopt as part of your web marketing strategy. The content provides visibility and helps increase your domain authority, and above all, the more articles you publish, the more you create “gateways” on Google to be found by your target. Because of this, the number one rule is that you have high quality content! Here are 10 essential items to check, in addition to a coherent writing plan to capture the attention of your audience… and encourage them to browse your other items!
1. Article Title
It must be very impactful and clearly indicate what the content is about. If your title is more than eight or ten words, be sure to shorten as much as possible without it losing its substance.
Very important: optimize your title for the search engines results and make sure it contains the keywords that Internet users are likely to use in their search. Opt for a title like The best brunch restaurants in Montreal instead of one like Perfect places for brunch in the city. Without necessarily over-optimizing at the expense of the experience of your reader, the idea is to find the best compromise between an SEO-friendly title and content that you can understand in seconds!
2. Introduction
Immediately after the title comes the introduction: it is the small paragraph that explains, in two or three sentences, what will be discussed in your article. This is a small introduction that should allow visitors to quickly understand what they should expect while they read.
Just like the title, the lead is also important for your SEO. Where relevant, lay out the relevant keyword phrases for your article, including “Long tail“ keywords.
3. Headers
Make sure your headers – those little tracks that allow to mark the major parts of your texts – are concise, catchy, with a more visually enhanced format. If your article deals with why people should include more vegetables in their diet including the reasons, for example, each heading should correspond to one of these reasons. The reader should be able to identify the main arguments/factors/reasons/etc. of your comments by quickly browsing your article.
4. Content
This may seem obvious, but edit the content of your article before publication. Is there an item that seems superfluous to you after rereading? Ditch it! Something else seems a little rough? Rephrase it. If necessary, ask some of your employees for help, especially if they are very specific topics to present to an uninitiated audience. In this regard, use examples or analogies to illustrate your points.
5. Tone
As interesting as it is, your content must first and foremost have a distinctive tone that your audience can relate to throughout the published articles. The way you present your message is just as important as the message itself. You must challenge your readers. If you were surfing the internet, would you want to read your own article?
6. Images
A picture is worth a thousand words, but is this also true for a poorly selected image? Probably not. An image must support the topic, or even improve it. Choose your visuals as carefully as you choose your words. And make sure each photo contains a precise description (with associated key phrases!) to be SEO-friendly.
7. Links
Where relevant, include links to you previous blog posts, in a natural manner. These internal links are beneficial for your blog’s SEO in the sense that these items, although “old”, are seen by Google as sustainable content (= evergreen) which still has its place in recent articles. Also direct your users to relevant content that comes from authority sites, or reinforce your words by using verifiable sources.
8. Spelling
Mistakes happen, but it undermines your credibility. Your most fastidious readers will comment on your spelling errors, it is not the type of engagement desired and often diverts attention from the content itself!
But beyond this reality, it is more complicated to be referenced by authority sites, who will inevitably be reluctant to recommend content that contains errors. You will miss out on great opportunities to gain external links, and all this for failing to review your article!
9. Paragraph Length
For your readers to enjoy reading your article, it is not enough for its content and style to be attractive: the visual should be too. Avoid paragraphs that are too long or address too many things at once. Our advice: one idea, one paragraph, as many paragraphs as needed, provided they are structured and easy to read.
10. Text length
Remember that a good article is not necessarily long. If you are redundant and stretch out your point, Google is not likely to consider you a good site to refer its users to. It would be completely absurd to write a 2000 word article if your idea can be clearly explained in 500 words, especially when we know that the attention span of Internet users decreases more and more!
