Simple Blog Content Writing Guidelines That Increase Sales

I have never doubted my writing skills like when I started content writing, but I was trying to make ends meet. So, I had to try it anyway.

Neither do I have a college degree in English or journalism, but long story short: content writing pays my bills; you can do it, too.

The secret is compelling your audience with content that answers their intent. Here is how you can do it:

Do Keyword Research

You can`t satisfy clients if you don`t know what they want. Keyword research will help you know what people type when searching for the products or services you sell.

Let`s say you are in the shoe-selling niche. You need to put yourself in the shoes of a reader and brainstorm different keyword variations they may use to search. These may include

• Shoes for men
• Running shoes
• School shoes

Apart from that, you can do an auto-search or autosuggest. This entails typing half a word on the search bar, and the search engine will give you various suggestions. The suggestions are keywords people use when searching—take insights from them.

Here is an example of autosuggest:

Additionally, you can type your keyword on the search engines and search. Then check on the “people also ask” section of the search results page. You will see various relevant questions people ask about the topic.

If your content answers those questions you will increase the chances of ranking and driving traffic.

Moreover, there is the “related searches” section. You will see a list of related phrases. Those are keywords people use when searching. Choose the relevant ones and list them.

After that process, you will have got enough keywords. Choose the ones most relevant to your content.

Next, you will need to know the keyword difficulty and volume.

Keyword difficulty is how difficult it may be to rank for a particular keyword. Meanwhile, keyword volume refers to how many searches a keyword gets monthly.

Knowing this helps in choosing keywords that can get many searches and boost traffic.

To know keyword volume and difficulty, you need to use keyword research tools, some of which include

• SEMrush
• Ahrefs
• Ubersuggest
• Google Keyword Planner
• Growthbar

All you need to do is type your keywords in the tool and search. It will show you how difficult it is to rank for a keyword and how many searches it gets monthly.

Short-tail keywords are the most difficult to rank for. If you want to rank, use long-tail keywords. Such keywords are more targeted and have a high potential of having your content rank.

After completing the keyword research and choosing the appropriate keyword, it`s time to create a title.

Create a Compelling Title

Nobody will read your article if the title is not intriguing—even if the content is of high quality.

To make your title attention-grabbing, show the audience that the article can answer their query.

You can achieve that by using compelling words and being specific in what you offer.

For instance, if you sell men's shoes, your title should show the benefits people can get from buying them. So, you can make different title variations and ensure to include the keywords, like this:

• Men's Shoes to Wear to an Interview
• Men's Shoes to Help You Win the Interview
• Best Formal Men's Shoes for an Interview

Creating various titles helps you gauge and choose the best one that you think can compel readers the most.

With such precise titles, a reader will know exactly what to expect in your article.

Moreover, follow the title grammar rules, which include capitalizing nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, and subordinate conjunctions.

However, don`t capitalize Coordinate conjunctions, articles, and prepositions. But, any word that begins or ends the title should be capitalized no matter the part of speech.

Although, don`t capitalize the whole word in a title—capitalize only the first letter; for example, it should be

Best Formal Men's Shoes for an Interview, and not BEST FORMAL MEN SHOES FOR AN INTERVIEW.

Craft a Compelling Introduction

Your introduction should entice the readers to read more. Make it captivating, but don’t go off-topic.

First, start with a hook, which is the first statement that grabs the audience's attention. It can be a question, anecdote, quote, static, or anything else, as long as it`s not misleading.

For example, I have first started by telling you that there are jobs called online content writing jobs, whose benefits are helping me pay my bills.

So, the reason for you to keep reading is that you want to understand the content writing guidelines so you can apply them and earn money, too.

After writing a hook, tell your audience how they can benefit from your content.

Later, create a thesis statement so people know what your content covers. 

However, ensure to make your introductions brief and incorporate your keyword once or twice to optimize it for SEO.

Write an In-depth Blog Content Body

Content Writer by Antoni Shkraba: Pexels

This is the main part of your article where you should elaborate on your topic, and here is how to do it:

Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs

To satisfy the readers, use short, clear sentences and avoid difficult vocabulary.

To achieve conciseness, one paragraph must have one idea. It can have several sentences, but all should support a single focus.

Two to three sentences are enough for a paragraph. In some cases, even one is okay provided it carries a complete idea; for example:

I love writing poetry. Especially, writing motivational poems. It makes me satisfied.

The topic sentence is “I love poetry,” and all the other sentences support that single idea.

It would be wrong to write it like this:

I love writing poetry. Especially, writing motivational poems. Maya Angelou`s poems make me satisfied.

The last sentence doesn`t connect with the topic sentence in this paragraph, and that`s what you need to avoid.

Use Subheadings

Ensure to also break down your content into subheadings to make it navigable. Subheadings help readers easily move to the sections that feel important to them.

However, ensure that the subheadings answer your title.

To be effective, each subheading should be succinct and intriguing to compel the reader to keep reading.

Instead of writing a plain subheading like “Men Shoes,” write, “Stylish Men's Shoes for Weddings”. The first one is generic, but the second one lets readers know exactly what to expect.

Dedicate the Content to Your Readers

When writing, use the second person (you, your, and yours). You can also use the third person (he, her, they, and them) when needed. But don`t use the first person (me, we, us, mine, and ours).

Using the first person alienates your readers and makes you sound selfish or condescending.

Using the word “you” personalizes content and makes the readers feel like they are part of the conversation. This keeps them on your content for a long time, building trust and increasing chances to drive sales.

Eliminate Fluff

Avoid fluff words—extra words that are included just to meet the word count. Delete them and communicate your message clearly.

Examples of fluffy words include like, that, just, since, owing to the fact that, etc.

If you should use such words, ensure they are necessary to the understanding of a sentence. If a sentence makes sense without them, delete them.

Don`t Copy-Paste

When researching, don`t use only one source to get your information. Use multiple sources. Using only one source might make you rewrite directly and end up plagiarising.

Plagiarism is a crime involving copying someone’s writing. It is unacceptable and lowers content rank.

Read and understand, and write what you understood, but do not copy directly. To examine content for plagiarism problems, use

• Grammarly
• Copyscape
• Plagiarism checker
• Plagiarism Detector
• Scribbr

To use these tools, copy your content, paste it into the tool editor, and click on scan. It will show you the plagiarized sentences so you can rewrite them.

Incorporate Images

For your article to be more attractive, use pictures that align with the context of your content. You can get images from websites like Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay, where you can buy or use free pictures.

If you decide to use the free images, make sure to attribute the creators to avoid being sued.

When attributing, you should not only mention the image title and the source but also provide a link for the exact image location.

Here is an example of how to attribute an image:

Blog Writer by Anna Shvets: Pixels

This attribute mentions the creator (Anna Shvets) and the image location (Pixels).

Besides, add an ALT description to your images and ensure to include the main keyword to enable your content to appear on image search results.

Use Clear Formatting

Bad formatting is one of the quick ways to lose your readers.

Readers should not struggle to read your content. If your content is hard to read, they will skip it for another.

To hinder that, format your content for the web. You can do this by ensuring consistent spacing between words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Also, avoid walls of text by breaking your content into subheadings.

Additionally, use bold and italics. This helps to emphasize the text and capture readers` attention.

Bold is used for words with heavy emphasis, and italics to highlight quotes, conversations, titles, and words that require weak emphasis.

Here is an example of the usage of bold:

Ensure to use expertise, authority, and trust (E.A.T) when creating content. The bolded words make the readers slow down and give them more attention.

Example usage of italics:

I thought to myself: “How can I learn content writing?” The quoted words are italicized to stand out, though not as emphatic as the bolded ones.

Also, use numbered and unnumbered lists when listing items. They make content readable. However, don`t overuse them and make the content look awful.

Whenever applicable, also use tables, graphs, and screenshots to make your content easier to understand.

Exclamation marks and question marks also make content exciting. However, don`t overuse them. Too many of these marks make the content look unprofessional.

Add Links to Your Content

Search engines use internal links to index content on the same site. It also makes a site navigable since readers can follow the links and find their preferred content.

External links, on the other hand, help build credibility since readers can follow them and confirm your ideas.

However, ensure to link to authoritative resources related to your content.

If you redirect your audience to a credible, relevant resource, you will build your authority, and be a reliable source.

Add a Conclusion

You may name this part “conclusion, final thoughts, closing, bottom line,” or use any other words to summarize your content.

Don’t make your conclusion too long. This part is only to wrap up and emphasize what is already said in the article.

Don’t introduce new ideas on which you may not be able to expound. That can confuse the readers.

Moreover, ensure to put a call to action.

A call to action is a statement that urges people to fulfill the purpose of your content; it can be

• To share your article on social media
• To like or comment on your content
• To subscribe to your email list
• To buy your products or services

To make your call-to-action intriguing, ensure to use action words and be precise.

Use words that evoke a sense of emergence to make the audience feel they may lose something valuable for not taking the action.

Here are examples of calls to action that show value are

• Subscribe now for wedding shoe-style design tips
• 60% discount: just for you if you purchase this course before noon
• Don`t forget to share this post
• Would you take blog content writing as a career? Share your comments

Ensure to Proofread

No matter how experienced a content writer you may be, you will always make mistakes in your first draft. That`s why you need to reread it and correct any errors—that`s what proofreading entails.

To be able to identify the mistakes, keep your content aside for an hour or a day before revising it. That`s because you can easily recognize the mistakes if your brain is relaxed.

Also, you can give your content to a friend to help you correct the mistakes. It`s easy to spot mistakes in somebody else`s content.

This is because as a writer, you already know the destination of your sentiment so it`s easy to replace or skip words, unlike if you aren`t the author.

Alternatively, you can use a text-to-speech program to read your content. The advantage of this is it reads every word, unlike a human who can skip, replace, or add a word that you may have misspelled not written.

Some of the efficient speech-to-text programs are

• Converse Smartly
• Dictate in Microsoft 
• Google Docs Voice Typing
• Otter
• Speechnotes

Besides, you can use tools like

• Grammarly
• Ginger Software
• Zoho Writer
• Scribens
• ProWritingAid

These tools have features that can correct grammatical mistakes.

What's better, you can use them for free. You only have to copy and paste the content into the tool`s editor and click scan. It will show you all the errors in your content.

Conversely, you can install their extensions, and they will show you the mistakes as you are writing.

However, you should learn and master correct grammar because these programs are not 100% correct every time.

Writing Helpful Blog Content Increases Conversions

To beat online distractions and keep the readers on your content, create content that fulfills their intent. That involves formatting it for the web by

• Using short sentences and paragraphs
• Breaking your content into subheadings
• Adding clear, relevant images
• Incorporating the main keywords
• Using internal and external links

Then don`t forget to add a call to action, and you will hold readers` attention, build trust with them, and drive conversions.

What other tips do you have for writing compelling blog content?