5 Amazing Tips That Will Transform Your Blog Writing Skills

Are you new to blogging or want to level up your skills? Here are 5 amazing tips that will transform your blog writing skills.

When it comes to blog writing, apart from good writing, the critical aspect that determines the success of a blog post is SEO.

SEO (search engine optimized) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of your website traffic. This process isn’t just limited to blogging. You can improve the SEO of anything online: a website page, social media profile, YouTube video, etc.

SEO is essential because the quantity of blog posts, videos, articles, etc. online is overwhelming in this day and age. SEO, however, makes it more manageable and allows people to find what they want and need.

SEO will immensely improve the success of your post. However, there is a lot more to it.

Here are 5 tips that will transform your blog writing skills.

1. Start with a Headline

Everything starts with the headline. It’s the first thing people see, and it contains a keyword or topic that people regularly search for.

While some people say to write first and give your blog post a title at the end, I disagree. The headline, for me, acts as an outline for my post. It tells me what keyword/keyphrase and similar keywords to focus on and the overall goal of my post.

For example, this blog post is called “5 Amazing Tips That Will Transform Your Blog Writing Skills.”

The keyphrase and topic is “blog writing,” as well as is “5 Amazing Tips.” This headline shows exactly what my goal is: To share 5 amazing tips that will help you level up your blog writing skills.

Here are 5 tips for writing an awesome headline:

1. Make it 10-12 words long and 55-70 characters. (According to CoSchedule, longer headlines have a higher number of click-throughs.)
2. Utilize power and emotional words. (Look up word banks online for ideas!)
3. Place your keyword or topic close to the start of your headline to improve the skimmability rate. (This increases your click-throughs because the word people are searching for is easy to find.)
4. Research keywords and phrases and use ones with low competition but a high average monthly search. 
5. Create headlines that are lists or how-tos when you can. 

Use CoSchedule’s free Headline Analyzer to create strong headlines.

2. Use Simple and Clear Language

The simpler and more precise your language is, the easier it is to read and the more people it can reach.

How to write more clearly:

• Use short sentences.
• Stick to average vocabulary. (If you use any tool that rates your writing like ClearScope, aim for a 7th grader readability.)
• Write short paragraphs. (No long blocks of words.)
• Use a natural and conversational tone.
• Be direct. (Start your sentence with your topic rather than slipping it in at the end.)

A blog post is not the place for long and flowery sentences. People want information, and they want it fast!

Every sentence, no every word, should have a purpose. If it doesn’t need to be there (I’m looking at you you pesky prepositions!), then it’s simple: Cut it out.

We all need a little help when it comes to grammar and writing. When you’re done writing your post and have given it a read-through a few times, plug it into Grammarly.

Grammarly is a life-saver because we get tired of reading our own words over and over! It’s good to have someone else, or in this case, something else, look over it before you hit “Publish.”

3. Pick a Topic You Can Expand On

People like long blog posts that answer every question about a topic possible. So, when choosing your topic, pick one that you can expand on.

Rather than just skimming the surface, dive deep and offer information that other blogs haven’t. The highest performing blog posts are usually 2,500+ words, after all. That’s a lot of room to expand on a topic.

For example, I’m talking about how to transform your blog writing skills for this blog post. However, you can answer that in less than 2,500 words if you want. The value of the post will be a lot less, and you’ll be able to group it in with all the others answering the same question. However, what I do to generate an invaluable blog post is search up my topic and see what similar questions pop up.

When I searched up my topic, I also found a post about being a better editor and formatting a blog post. These go hand-in-hand with my topic, so I realized they were necessary to answer in this blog post as well.

4. Edit, Edit, Edit

When I am writing, I don’t expect it to be good. My main goal when writing is to get my ideas down because that’s all that matters.

Making it sound good shouldn’t be anyone’s goal when writing. That’s the goal of editing.

Don’t worry about simple language because you’ll have to change around almost everything when you start editing. Editing is when you begin to focus on using short sentences and paragraphs and a simple vocabulary.

And guess what? You don’t have to be a pro editor to be a good editor for your writing!

Here are 3 tips for better editing skills:

• Don’t change it if it doesn’t need to be changed (If you are editing things just for the sake of editing, but don’t have any real reason for changing it, leave it!)
• Stick to commas and periods, and stay away from semicolons and colons. (If you are an expert at using them, great! However, if not, it’s better not to use them at all than use them wrong.)
• Be consistent. (If you use periods at the ends of lists like I am, then keep that up. If you bold key takeaways from each paragraph, keep that up as well, and so on.)

5. Stick to Classic Formatting

A classic blog post format is the best way to write a successful blog post.

Here are 6 things every strong blog post has:

1. An awesome headline.
2. Headings and subheadings. (The highest level concept of your blog post should use the H1 tag and then work your way down from there. For example, my H1 tag is my headline, and the list topics are H2.)
3. Images. (Add at least one image per section. The more, the better!)
4. Numbered lists and bullet points.
5. Short paragraphs.
6. Lots of white space. (White space is literally what it sounds like! It is the space in between paragraphs.)

The goal of a blog post is to be skimmable and organized. Its concept should be easy to understand when someone reads through the headline and introduction of the blog post. It should also be skimmable, which is why numbered lists and bullet points are essential.

When you finish writing a blog post, have someone else take a look at it. If they can’t tell what problem you are addressing and what the answers are, utilize the list above.

Now that you’re done reading this blog post, it’s time to sit down and get writing! When you put these tips to use, you’ll have better blog writing skills and greater content altogether.

Check out my last blog post: Freelancing 101: How to Set Up Your Business for Success

Don’t want to write your blog posts? I’ve got you covered. I offer copywriting services for creative businesses.

I also offer social media management, engagement, and content creation services if you’re in need!