How to write a blog post that’s genuinely helpful

The latest Google update (August 2022) was all about helpful content. But what does that mean for your business?

This update emphasises the importance of writing content that is genuinely useful to the reader. Keyword stuffing or churning out blogs that leave the reader searching for more will see your search ranking suffer. It’s a part of Google’s broader (and admirable!) goal of encouraging original content, written for people, by people.

Blogs shouldn’t be used solely as a tool to improve your Google rankings. Instead, stronger rankings are the byproduct of answering your readers' questions and sharing your valuable knowledge.

So how do you write a ‘people-first’ blog post that will still help your website to rank more highly in search? 

1) Have a clear purpose

There are a number of reasons you may be blogging. To provide information, to persuade, to offer your thoughts and insights on a subject or to entertain, to name but a few.

Try to understand who the blog is for, what their needs are and how the blog will help them.

Whatever the reason - keep that purpose in mind. Deviating away from this makes the blog less valuable as it becomes more confusing for the reader. 

Make sure you’re writing content relevant to your field to share your knowledge, experience or expertise. 

2) Structure your blog well

Your blog should be easy to read. To make your blog easy to follow it should be structured well with a good old beginning, middle and end.

It gets a little more complicated than that. Nurture each section so that each one provides its own value and leads smoothly onto the next.

The key elements of structure:

• A headline - write a title that clearly shows what the blog is about. If you can, make it intriguing.

• A hook - the start of the blog should ‘hook’ the reader in and make them want to read on. It could be a surprising statistic, a new take on a topic or an intriguing question.

• A solid introduction - outline the information you’ll be covering and drum up a rabid desire to read on!

• The meaty section - the bulk of the text providing the wealth of information you’d promised to cover in the intro.

• A conclusion - sum up, finalise your thoughts, finish on a high.

As well as a narrative structure, you want to make it easy on the eyes. Break up the texts into small, easily digestible sections.

A Hubspot report found that 73% of those that read blogs skim them. So make them skimmable! 

Ideally, paragraphs in a blog should be 2-3 sentences long. Use headings, bullet points, lists, infographics or images to break up the text as appropriate. Make the UX (user experience) accessible and reader friendly.

3) Use simple English

Businesses often use blogs to share their knowledge on a subject. To answer commonly asked questions. To land them as an authority in their field.

It’s understandable then that some people overcomplicate their writing in a quest to show off their expertise. If you’re an expert in the field - remember those reading aren’t. 

Write as if you’re talking to someone and try to avoid unknown acronyms and technical jargon (unless you’re confident your target audience will understand). If your business has clear ideas of their ideal buyer persona, even better. Talk directly to that person!

4) Conclude with a strong call to action (CTA)

If you’ve held your readers interest to the end of your blog it’s likely you’ve provided them with some value. You’ve piqued their interest and hopefully quenched their knowledge thirst. Use this opportunity to finish with a helpful call to action (CTA). 

This could be signing up to a newsletter for more of your insights. It may be linking to another article on a related topic that may be of use. Or, it might be the holy grail - booking your services or buying your product.

If you’ve provided genuinely useful content, you’ve built trust with the person reading. They may be looking for more from you - anticipate what that is in relation to the blog and use a relevant CTA on which they can act.

5) Tweak your blog for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) 

Aside from answering your readers’ questions or sharing your insights with others, blogs have the added benefit of working behind the scenes. Your blog has the ability to increase the organic traffic to your website.

Now, SEO is a complicated beast and Google likes to throw updates at us - changing the way it indexes and ranks content. Just like the one we discussed in the intro.

However here are some basic SEO techniques you can use:

• Research commonly asked questions and keywords from your target audience using Answer the Public or Google search (use an incognito window to avoid your previous searches affecting the results).

• When writing your blog use these keywords within your headings and within the text. Remember to use them naturally and avoid overuse.

• Write useful metadata to show readers (and Google!) what your blog is about - write meta descriptions that grab your readers attention.

• Build links - include any useful resources within your blog through both internal and external links and, if you can, find backlinks (authoritative websites that link to your posts).

• Make sure the page loads quickly. Reduce image size if needed (I use Squoosh). According to Google, the bounce rate increases by 90% if your page takes more than 5 seconds to load so it’s worth taking the extra effort!

SEO specialists, Moz, put together Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO Needs (see what they did there?!) giving a helpful guides of the requirements from SEO from essential to ranking to improving competitiveness:

I write first and address the SEO after. That way, some of the keywords have already been used in an organic way. You can then review or tweak to optimise your writing further.

If you go straight in focussing purely on the SEO first, you’re more likely to start catering your blog for the algorithm, rather than your reader.  Remember, you are writing for people. Write for the reader first, then address the SEO.

Note that If you have a lot of unhelpful content on your site, the adverse effect is likely to be even greater.

The key with all of these is write for a human first and the search engines second. Your search rankings will thank you for it. And now, like any good blog post, I’ll sign off with a CTA - and I’m going for the jugular! If you don’t feel confident writing a solid blog post for your business - or if you simply don’t have the time - get in touch and I’ll make sure things are genuinely helpful!