How to write great blogs in WordPress.
Publishing regular blogs means you’re creating all-important new web content that Google loves. It also gives you something new to share with your contacts. Here’s our advice on how to write great blogs in WordPress…
Get the ball rolling with the basics
Getting started
In the left-hand menu on your WordPress dashboard, click on Posts and Add New. This takes you to a page with everything you need to create your new blog post.
What’s in a title?
Writing an effective title is crucial, especially to keep Google happy. WordPress generates the URL (otherwise known as a permalink) for your blog post based on your title – you can override their suggestion, but the key thing is to make sure your title is relevant to the content and search terms you want Google to pick up on.
Also, according to copyblogger, whilst 8 in 10 people will read a blog title, only 2 in 10 will go on to read the actual post. So, as well as including your main keywords in the title (to help Google find it), you should also make sure it’s engaging and intriguing to readers.
Oh, and keep your title short and sweet – 8 words or fewer if possible, so Google search results will display it in full.
Top tips for easy readability
- Know your lengths: As a guide, your blog should be at least 300 words long – with enough keywords for Google to pick up on, and plenty of content to engage and inform your readers. 500-600 words are ideal – with anything longer, your readers are likely to lose interest.
- Break it down: Divide up the blog post into easy-to-read chunks – short paragraphs with subheadings are a good way to do this, like we’ve done in this blog!
- Point readers in the right direction: Always include a ‘call-to-action’ – what would you like people to do after reading your blog? This may be to view other content on your website, contact you, or complete an enquiry form, etc. Thanks to the magic of Google, many visitors will come straight to your blog from a search – so remember to include everything they need to know on this page!
For more information, check out our tried and tested guide to writing successful blogs.
A picture paints a thousand words
Make your blog more appealing by adding images. It’s easy in WordPress – simply position your cursor where you want the image to go, and click on Add Media. Then choose Media Library to add an image you’ve uploaded before, or Upload Files to add a new one in JPG, PNG or GIF format. When you’ve added the image, click on Edit Image to change the size and positioning.
Categories and tags
Consider setting up categories and tags for your blog posts to help readers find your other content on the same topic. Categories provide a broader grouping, and tags are more specific – usually keywords. For example, on a recipe website, categories could include starters, main courses and puddings – and tags could be specific ingredients, like ketchup - yum!
Use the Categories and Tags module on the right-hand side of the text area to add relevant categories and tags to your blog post. You can select existing categories and tags – or add new ones.
Maximise your SEO impact
You’ll want your blog post to work hard at attracting new visitors to your website, and WordPress is very SEO-friendly– especially if you use a WordPress plug-in application like Yoast SEO.
Along with a raft of other great SEO features, this clever piece of software evaluates your blog post as you write it, and gives simple traffic light results to show how well it is optimised for SEO. You can then adjust any elements highlighted in red to make them more SEO-friendly, before publishing your post.
And finally, don’t forget to share your blog post on social media and your LinkedIn page, so your contacts know where to find it! Boosting your visibility this way makes your blog post more likely to be shared; after all, you want to make sure your writing reaches the intended audience.
No time to write your own blogs?
At Ketchup Marketing, we can help with planning, writing and marketing your blog posts.