Blogging 101: What makes a good blog? Part 2 of 3

This article first appeared on the XFactor Collective Campfire Community blog.

We all know that there are so many benefits to blogging (or vlogging) and that it’s something that we should all do, but what makes a good blog. 

What keeps people coming back to your site and ensures you get inquires about your services?

Below we share some of the components of what makes a good blog, based on our experience.

• Make it count: Don’t write a blog just for the sake of publishing something. Make sure you have something valuable to add on a topic or to the conversation. Take a different perspective or offer insights or advice that you’ve noticed isn’t readily available on the internet.
• A clear structure: Make sure your blog has an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. You don’t necessarily have to write it in this order (sometimes it’s easier to write your intro last) but just make sure that you’re finished product follows this general structure.
• Concise sentences and short paragraphs: Ever clicked on a link, only to be met with a wall of text? You hit the back button, right? So make sure that your sentences are short, and your paragraphs too! That doesn’t mean you can’t write a thousand or two thousand words on a topic – but make sure every one of them adds value – so edit, edit, edit!

• Images: Add something visual to your blog. It will help to draw your reader in and it’s a great way to break up the written content on the page.
• Internal and external links: Include both internal (ie links to other parts of your website) and external links (other sites) in your blog. This will boost your SEO as it helps to show Google that the page isn’t a “dead” page. Not only that but it also improves user experience because it contributes to the journey that the potential customer is taking through your website instead of simply leaving them with not obvious signposts of where to head next.
• Strong call to action (CTA): Make sure you always include a CTA at the end of each blog. After all, you’ve written this blog for a reason so make sure the reader knows what you’re asking them to do – whether that’s subscribe, get in touch, leave a comment or check out this resource or page.
• Be authentic: Last, but definitely not least, be yourself. Don’t try to use big words and technical terms if that’s not what you do when you speak to your clients. Write about what you know and genuinely believe in. If you try to ‘fake it until you make it’ your audience will likely spot your inauthenticity a mile off.

That list can hopefully serve as a checklist for when you write your next blog.