#1 Tips for successful blog writing

Want to become more findable on Google search, but don't feel like spending a lot of money on ads? Then writing blogs can be a good solution for you. Because a blog contains a lot of text, with many words that are relevant to your website, this can help Google make your website more findable for your target audience and drive more traffic to your website. And the best part is that it's completely free! 

In this blog I will explain to you how to write a good blog, what you might run into, and most importantly how to make sure your blog is effective and drives more traffic to your website!

How to come up with a topic for your blog

Before you start writing your blog, it is important to have a good topic to write about. It is important that your target audience is looking for the information you are going to write about in your blog. To find this out you can do a keyword research. This can be done quickly and easily via Google Keyword Planner and is completely free. On this site you can easily see how much a particular keyword is searched for and how much competition there is. Ideally, you should look for a subject for which the competition is low and for which there are many searches. Then you have a good chance that many people will read your blog.

Coming up with an inspiring blog title

Once you have found a topic, it is important to come up with an appropriate title for your blog. A good title is important because this is the first thing the reader sees, and on which the reader judges whether or not to read your blog. 

Titles that always work well are:

Sample blog titles:

1. How come ...
2. How to make a ...
3. Top 7 tips ...
4. This is how you get rid of ...
5. 10 Beginner's Tips for ...
6. Important facts about ...
7. The truth about ...
8. Ingredients for a perfect ...
9. What no one tells you about ...
10. Would get the most out of ...

Don't make the title too long and make sure the title responds to the reader's feeling, or addresses a problem that many people struggle with. For example, if someone wants to lose weight and works out a lot but doesn't get results, and then sees a blog titled; "7 reasons why you work out but still don't lose weight," chances are very good that they will read your blog. 

By making the title approachable and clear, you ensure that Internet users will quickly feel addressed because they can relate to your title. After all, you are writing the blog to solve a problem that many people are struggling with.

Once you have found an appropriate title, it is very important to set it as H1. This is because it ensures that your title will be displayed on Google.

Think of 5 to 10 subtopics

Sub-topics are used in blogs to increase ease of reading for the reader. This is because without sub-topics, your blog looks like a long piece of text, and it is harder to read. When the text is divided into subtopics, this is not the case and it looks more appealing. Also, sub-topics make it easy for the reader to find the information he or she is looking for. This increases the likelihood that the reader will actually read your blog.

Sample subtopics:

• What can a blog do for you
• Writing a successful blog, how to do it
• Is writing a blog something for you?
• Tools for successful blog writing
• Writing a blog, things you especially shouldn't do

Once you have come up with the subtopics, it is important that you set them all as H2 in your blog. This is because this will ensure that Google will also display you on these keywords.

Find the right images for your blog

Many images are not important for a good blog. What is important are relevant images that support the information on your blog. Think of a graphic or an image that makes your subject clearer. An image can say more than a thousand words. But placing the wrong or unclear images can make your blog unclear and can cause readers to have to search longer for relevant information. So choose your images carefully.

By giving these images an ALT text, you also increase the chances of these images showing up in "Google Images." This ensures that there are more channels to find the blog. You add an ALT text in WordPress under the "Media" heading.

ALT text add WordPress image

1. Login to the WordPress dashboard.
2. On the left menu, click Media.
3. Click on the corresponding image.
4. Below the image is the heading "Alternative Text".
5. Enter the keywords of the photo here (Max. 6 words).
6. Make sure the title properly describes what is shown in the image.

Also, find a featured image. This is an image that will appear at the very top of your blog. You can also think of this image as a kind of subtitle for your blog. Unlike other images in your blog, this one can be a bit more playful. The purpose of this picture is to excite and make your readers curious. 

Use bullet points in your blog

Using lists and bullet points makes your blog more organized and easier to read. Information is organized and in short and clear sentences underneath each other. No one feels like reading blogs endlessly, and lists with bullet points gives the reader a sense of efficiency. The reader has the feeling of easily and quickly arriving at new information. On top of this, lists also look organized, clear and professional. 

Benefits of bullet points in your blog

• Saves readers time by allowing them to easily scan the text.
• Saves the writer time because the blog is written in small chunks.
• Makes you rank higher on Google.
• It looks great. Neat and uncluttered!
• It keeps the reader reading longer. Reading an entire text takes us much more energy than reading a few bullet points. Even if it says exactly the same information.

Use clear CTA in your blog

CTA stands for Call To Action. A CTA is often a button that redirects you to another page. By using this in your blog, readers can easily click through to pages that catch their attention, proceed to a purchase or take some other action. You can incorporate the CTA into your blog in a variety of places and ways. The most common CTAs in blogs are backlinks. These are pieces of text in your blog that have a different color or are underlined. You can click on these pieces of text to be redirected to a new page. This way, the chance that a reader will stay longer on your website increases significantly. You stimulate them with all the pages that are interesting to them so they end up seeing much more than just the blog they came for.

Another way of a CTA is to ask a question at the end of your blog. Allowing comments on the blog allows people to engage in conversation and ask questions with each other and with you. This way, you make sure readers come back more often because they want to see if someone has already responded to their comment. Also, this causes Google to show your blog more often. So turn on your comments and ask an open question in the conclusion of your blog.

Tools to write successful blog

There are several tools you can use for free on the Internet to make the blogs you write a success. I use these tools mainly to check that there are no spelling mistakes in the blogs and to check that the topics of the blogs are popular.

• Ubersuggest (For checking the CPC)
• Google Keyword Planner (Free keyword planner)
• Toggle (Time tracker to keep track of how long you spend on it)
• LanguageTool (Checks spelling and sentence structure of texts)
• Unsplash (For finding appropriate images without rights)
• Google Docs (For organizing and keeping track of your blog ideas)
• Canva (For creating statistics and for editing photos)

Make your blog personal

People prefer to learn from other people. We have all been doing this since we were babies. By watching closely how other people do things and learning from their mistakes we learn what works and what doesn't work. Try not to write your blog as an all-knowing pro but write it as if you were addressing it to your neighbor. After all, to your neighbors you are being polite but not selling your knowledge. You should also mention what didn't go well in your research. This shows that you are also a human being and that you are sympathetic, because the last thing you want is to come across as an arrogant know-it-all.

Make your blog unique

Make your blogs unique and do not copy text from other blogs. Google scans your content and compares it with what is already on the Internet. If they notice that texts have been copied and pasted without a mention of the source, they will display you less on your chosen keyword. Unique content is created by doing your own research and not just blindly trusting what other people say on the Internet. Some good examples are:

• Product comparison | Do a comprehensive product comparison. Get the information from as many sources as possible and check that what your sources mention is correct. this way you create unique content.
• Test your research in practice | By testing out your research in real-life situations, you ensure that you can stand behind your information. It also lets you know a lot about your topic. Include several studies in your blog to back up your choices.
• Product explanation | Test the product yourself and clearly show why you think it is useful or inconvenient. By using images you strengthen your texts and win the trust of the customer. Also, these images are often not found on the Internet. This way you create unique content that does not yet exist.