Writing Guidelines

Writing an Excellent Blog Post

While much of the advice here focuses on optimizing your post so that search engines can easily find it, your most important consideration should be providing good content.

The topic of your post should be original and the content of your post should be appealing to your audience.

While good content is definitely the most important consideration, having a good message is meaningless if no one reads your post.

The following guidelines are designed to help you increase the likelihood of having your post read.

READABILITY

Reading from a screen can be hard. If you want your readers to read your entire blog post, you should make sure your post is easy to read.

You should put effort into writing an attractive, well-structured, readable text. The following are important tips for writing a readable text.

Tip 1: Identify your main idea

It is important to identify the key idea you want to convey and then structure your writing around that key idea. You should be able to convey that key idea with a focus keyword or phrase.

The focus keyword or phrase is also the search term you most want your page to rank for, so when people use a search engine to search for that keyword or phrase, they will find your article.

Tip 2: Clear paragraphs

Make sure to write clear paragraphs. Always start your paragraph with the most important sentence. Then explain or elaborate on that sentence. This way a reader will be able to grasp the most relevant content from your article by reading the first sentences of your paragraphs.

Also, make sure your paragraphs aren’t too long (2-3 sentences is ideal). You can conclude longer paragraphs with a summarizing sentence to clarify your point.

Tip 3: Short sentences

Try to write short sentences. Short sentences are easier to read and understand than long sentences. Furthermore, you will be less likely to make grammar mistakes with short sentences. Sentences containing more than 20 words are considered lengthy.

Tip 4: Limit difficult words

Limit the use of words that are difficult to read. Remember that reading from a screen is harder for everyone. Words that contain four or more syllables are considered difficult to read. Make sure to limit the use of such difficult words.

Of course, in some cases, you may be writing about something that’s hard to explain or that requires a more advanced vocabulary. In such cases, make sure your sentences and paragraphs aren’t too long.

Tip 5: Use transition words

You can make a text much more readable by using proper transition words. Transition words are words that help people understand the connection between sentences. They include words like ‘most importantly,’ ‘because,’ ‘therefore,’ or ‘besides that.

Using transition words well makes your text much more readable because they give direction to your readers. They send a signal to your readers that something is coming up, and prepare them for the next sentence.

If you’re summarizing a discourse, you probably use words like first, second, third, etc. Your readers will understand you’re summing up things if you use these words. If you want to compare certain matters, you could use words like same, less, rather, while, or either. And if you want to conclude your story, you might use words like hence, consequently, or therefore.

Table 1: Examples of transition words

Relation Example of transition words
Enumeration first of all, also, another, furthermore, finally
Cause because, so, due to, for the reason that
Comparison/contrast similarly, likewise, rather, while, in contrast
Conclusion as a result, hence, consequently, therefore
Fuzzy signals seems like, maybe, probably, almost
Emphasis above all, most noteworthy, certainly, even more

While using transition words is something many people do automatically, lots of people use too few transition words in their writing. This makes a text hard to read, especially if your audience is reading from a screen.

Tip 6: Mix it up!

For a text to be attractive to a reader, it should be varied. This means that you should try to mix it up a little! Alternate longer paragraphs and sentences with short ones and attempt to use synonyms if you tend to use a word very often.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

While CONTENT is the most important consideration. The following suggestions will help maximize your post for optimal search engine access. Again, a good message is meaningless if no one can find your post.

Please keep the following in mind before submitting your post.

  • Ensure the focus keyword appears in your title.
  • Ensure the focus keyword appears early in the first paragraph of the text.
  • While it’s important for your keyword to be prevalent in your text, try to not exceed 3% (3 times for every 100 words).
  • Don’t use a single keyword or keyword phrase that you have used in another post on our site.
  • Include outbound links (hyperlinks to external sources) in your post.
  • If possible, try to include internal links (hyperlinks to other Clamoring for Change posts) in your post.

CONCLUSION

Blog posts are excellent platforms for conveying ideas. If you want your readers to read your entire blog post, you should make sure that your text is easy to read. Don’t make a text more difficult than necessary. Avoid long sentences and write clear paragraphs. Tools like Grammarly and Hemingway can help you to write a more readable text.

Click here for even more tips and resources for good blog writing.

We greatly look forward to your contributions!!