Engaging your Readers and Writing Search Engine Friendly Articles and Blogs

Online writing’s more than simply throwing some words at the page and posting them. There are many writers who are trying to get their articles and blogs read and you’re competing with them all. To appear credible and knowledgeable so that your claims will be believed it’s important that your writing is as professional as possible and that it’s search engine friendly.

Choosing your subject: it’s best to write about something you’re familiar with because you’ll appear to be knowledgeable about it. Nevertheless it’s also useful to write about something you’re simply interested in because you’ll learn more about it when you research during the writing process. Ensure that you’ve covered the important points concerning your subject and try to find snippets of unusual information about it so your article or blog will be unique and interesting.

Introduction: a clear and concise introduction will tell your readers what the article is about and sets out what it is you’re going to do. It’s best not to give away your conclusion but outline the subject matter that you’re going to tackle and perhaps the reason why. A couple of lines or a paragraph will suffice.

Key words: in your introduction insert four or five key words, that is, the most important words that you will use throughout your article or blog. Try to use words that are likely to be typed into a search engine because they’re about something people are interested in.

Title: this goes for the title also; for instance if you were writing about the extinction of the dodo ‘The Demise of the Dodo’ wouldn’t be search engine friendly because hardly anyone will be looking for these words. ‘The Extinction of a Species – the Dodo’ is more likely to be found because various people, perhaps students, will be looking up ‘extinction’ and ‘species’.

Content: the content shouldn’t be so long that it's uncomfortable to read and it shouldn’t be too short because your article or blog should contain enough information to be informative or be entertaining enough to be valuable to the readers. I suggest between 400 and 700 words. Remember to use your key words but don’t overdo it; I’ve read articles where the authors were obviously trying to be found by search engines rather than writing a useful article or blog.

Spelling and grammer: paying attention to detail is extremely important. If you’re writing contains errors the readers are not going to take you seriously because if you can’t be bothered to use spell-check and learn about grammer how much effort will you have put into your research, content and claims? Read your article or blog several times after you’ve written it so you can make your alterations.

Research: it’s possible to write on a subject you know enough about so that research isn’t required but often it’s necessary. It can be tedious browsing the websites the search engines bring up or ploughing through books but it’s worth doing because you’ll be informing the readers of something they wish to know and perhaps weren’t aware of. Your writing will appear to be polished and professional if it contains enough knowledge, and of course you’ll learn something. Also websites will give you extra ideas.

Memorable writing: I often find that I’ll remember an article or blog that contains humour or a writing style that’s unique and enjoyable. Write with the intention of holding the attention and of giving your readers something to take away that they’ll wish to remember or talk about. They’re likely to give you good ratings, bookmark it or perhaps pass it on to friends to read.

Conclusion: your conclusion sums up what it is you’ve done and leaves it clear in the readers minds. It’s useful to basically remind them of your aims in the title and introduction. Briefly outline the important points and conclude with your findings. This will ensure you have a professional and tidy article or blog.

I’ll conclude by saying that though it takes effort to write and that the writer’s arena is highly competitive, the internet draws millions of people who want to read and learn so your audience is there. You’ll become a more proficient writer the more you practise and if you follow my points and you’ll be in control of the writing process. If you’re struggling have a break and come back to it when you’re refreshed. If the writing’s too much of a hard slog it’ll show but if you’re having a good time writing that will too. I wish you success!