If you want people to read your blog posts, you need to make them readable and easy on the eyes. People are reading from a screen, often a mobile phone, and if it isn’t easy to follow, they won’t read it! Write blogs for your potential clients on topics of interest to them, not you. Focus on local pet-related topics and answers to questions they would search for in Google. Producing quality content will result in returning readers and increased conversion rates. Tools like Yoast will help guide you to improve the readability of your blog posts. Following their Readability Analysis will help you create better content for both your audience and Google.
High-quality content makes Google happy. Therefore, you will more likely see improved search engine ranking.
Write Blog Posts for your Audience
One misconception is that you want to write content packed with specific keywords that you think will rank you higher in Google. Keyword stuffing is bad. Focus on your audience’s wants and needs and write content for them. Make it easy to read and naturally add keywords throughout the copy.
Make your posts exciting and educational. Think of topics that your potential customers might search for in Google. For example, “Best place to walk a dog in your city,” “top veterinarians in your town,” “holiday gift ideas for your dog.” Browse other pet sitters’ websites to get ideas, but make sure you do not plagiarize. Focus on original content as duplicate content will not benefit your business.
Write in Paragraphs with Headings
Write blog posts in clear paragraphs, the shorter the paragraphs, the easier they are to read. Start with a paragraph that includes your focus keyword. The first sentence in your blog is most important, so make sure that paragraph covers your blog topics. Explain and elaborate on that sentence in the rest of your introduction paragraph. Your paragraphs should not be too long, 7-8 sentences are usually long enough. If you use the Yoast plugin, it will alert you if your paragraph is too long.
Each subsequent paragraph after the introduction should begin with a header to explain the next section, as we do in this blog post. Headers help your readers easily find the information that they are looking for. It is also important to use the proper header tags to help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). H1 should be used for the title of the blog only, then H2 for main headings, then H3 for subheadings and so on to organize the content like they are chapters within a novel.
Use Short Sentences
Keep it short and sweet! Sometimes it can be difficult but try and write short sentences as much as possible. Shorter sentences are easier to read and understand. Additionally, when you write short sentences, you are less likely to make grammatical mistakes. Each paragraph should have no more than one long sentence. Sentences with over 20 words are too long. The Yoast tool will tell you which sentences to shorten for better readability, which is very helpful.
Keep Difficult words to a minimum
When writing keep it at a grade school reading level. Yoast uses the Flesch Reading Ease Score to measure readability based on the length of sentences, and the average number of syllables per word to calculate a score. A score between 60 and 70 is considered acceptable. Reading from a screen can be tricky plus adding words with multiple syllables makes it harder. Sometimes it’s not possible to avoid, but keeping difficult words and jargon to a minimum improves the readability.
Transition words are your friend
Transition words help improve the flow of your paragraphs by connecting sentences. They show similarities, contradictions, cause-and-effect relationships, and chronological progression. Some common transition words are “because”, “therefore”, “Hence”, “First”, “Second”, “Similarly” etc.… List of Transition Words. Transition words will help your readers understand and process your content correctly.
Make your blog post attractive to your reader and easy to read by following these five tips. Try using synonyms to mix up your content. Tools like Grammarly are helpful in offering suggestions for overused words. Don’t forget to add an eye-catching featured image and optimize it for search engine indexing by using descriptive file names and ALT text. Take advantage of Yoast Readability Analysis tool to check for grammar and writing style to make sure it is readable and follows SEO best practices. You want your readers to get the end of your blog post; these tips should help get you started.
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Erika Godwin is the President of Barketing Solutions and the Co-Founder and CMO of ProPet Software, an industry-leading kennel management software. Erika has over 8 years of experience with WordPress and graduated from Elmira College in 2009 with a BS, Business Administration- Marketing and Management.
