Writing a business blog is one of the best SEO laws you can abide by on the internet. Your site will benefit from increased page rank as well as a better reputation, as long as the blogs are of good quality. So what makes a good blog a great one? I've included a list of eight of my favorite blogging tips and rules that I always follow.

1. Use attention grabbing headlines. No one's going to have their interest piqued by a blog title that sounds like it originated on a tax form header. The best blogs have engaging titles that pop out at you, making you want to learn more. If you have a blog about cooking your favorite dish, which sounds better? "How To Cook My Favorite Stew" or "Learn How To Cook The Best Stew I've Ever Tasted"? The second one is more engaging because it includes a commanding verb, as well as the attention grabbing phrase "best ever." 

2. Give your writing personality. Unlike an MLA formatted college essay or a TPS report, no one's standing around waiting to tell you how to write your blog. It's yours! Brand it with your own personality. There's no standard right or wrong style of blog writing. Have fun with it.

3. Keep your blog topics light. Due to their nature, blogs are much shorter than standard internet and news articles. Therefore, it's wise to choose topics that don't require pages upon pages of discussion. If you're a particle physicist, then I'd advise you to discuss what interests you in a different venue. Your work is probably much more at home in a scientific journal.

4. Keep it short. This point goes hand in hand with the previous one. Choose topics that can be fully fleshed out in a 300 to 800 word article. Anything more than that and you risk loosing your readers' interest.

5. Use links. Link to relevant articles. Link to other bloggers. Link to your own past blog posts. This helps out other bloggers and helps search engines find your blogs. 

6. Use images and video. We've discussed the importance of video in the past. The right image or movie can give your blog some great flair. It breaks up the blocks of text, gives visitors  break from reading, and is much more visually appealing than just text.

7. Keep your writing simple. Now, I'm not saying that you have to dumb down everything you say. But, if you want to avoid alienating readers, especially if you're trying to educate readers on a topic, it's best to write at a high school level. Overly wordy vocabulary will doesn't really serve a purpose, and it'll turn off your readers who clicked on your blog link to learn something new.

8. Have a purpose. This rule is the most important in my opinion. Any blog that rambles on without actually saying anything is a useless blog. When you begin writing an article, keep your purpose in mind. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to educate your audience? Will you attempt to sway them to your side on a contested topic? Are you stating your opinion on a recent news topic? Regardless of specifics, just remember that if your blog doesn't have a purpose, you probably shouldn't be writing it in the first place.

There are a slew of other, more specific lessions and rules that I could go on and on about. But, these eight rules are all you need to set up the building blocks of a successfuly blog. And remember, if you need inspiration, just search for a popular blog and see what they are doing and emulate it. Maybe even link to that blog, too, as a way of saying thanks. You know what they say: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

If you don't have the time or skills to run a blog, but want the feature, contact us today to discuss our blog writing services.