It’s been shown that readers of blogs make quick decisions about what to read based on the title and first few lines—with hundreds of new articles being posted every day, readers pretty much have to make those kinds of decisions just to keep their heads above water. If you want to get their attention, you have to spend time thinking about how to make your blog titles and introductions as appealing as they can be.
Welcome to Part 3 in our Blog to End All Blogs series! Previously in our article series, our team of blog writers in Omaha talked about the all-important first line and the work it can do to get your readers hooked. We’ve been taking things pretty slowly out of the gate, but it’s for a reason. If you missed the previous entries, check them out here;
The Blog to End All Blogs: Part 1, The Title
The Blog to End All Blogs: Part 2, The Hook
But that’s not where the story ends! Even when you grab someone’s attention with a clever title and hook them with a novel-worthy first line, it can be hard to convince them to keep reading. This is where focusing on the long game becomes important for internet marketing, especially in Omaha. Our content creation team at Big Red SEO will finish up this blog series with some interesting ideas and tips to keep your readers’ attention and leave them wanting more!
Keeping Your Reader’s Attention Throughout the Blog
As with the entire process of blog writing, there’s an art to keeping a reader’s attention. You have to be creative, but most importantly you have to respect the reader and their time. What do we mean by respect? You simply have to understand what they value, know what they expect to see when they visit your blog, and give them information that they can digest and put to use.
Avoid Disrespecting Readers of Your Blog
Here are some examples of common things bloggers do that unintentionally disrespect their readers. If you avoid these things then you’re well on your way to creating a truly valuable blog!
- The Misleading Title: Don’t lure readers in under false pretenses by using a flashy and misleading title! That title may get them through the door, but once they realize the rest of the article doesn’t fulfill the title’s promise they’ll walk right back out. This situation is worse than if they’d never visited at all because they’ll always remember that negative first experience, and your reputation as a reliable source of information is more important than any one reader.
- Absent Value: Don’t leave it up to the reader to piece together why they should be reading your blog—tell them specifically what you believe the value of your article is! Your article should contain a definite take-away, preferably stated more than once.
- Insider Language: Many blog writers use insider language without really thinking about it. If your industry uses a lot of technical jargon, you have to be aware of the audience you’re trying to reach when you decide whether to use that language in your blog. If your ideal audience won’t know the terms you’re slinging around, don’t expect them to look up the definitions. Instead, using simpler terms to explain industry jargon makes those who are new to the industry feel welcome, and they’ll be more likely to stick around and learn more from you.
Ask Questions to Keep Readers Engaged with Your Content
Another good way to keep readers engaged is to ask them a few questions. Place them in an example you’re creating by asking them what they would do. Going further, you could present a hypothetical problem that your product or service can solve to show readers the real value of what you’re selling. Asking questions that address readers’ insecurities can also be a good way to keep them focused on your content. Every customer has a “pain” that they want to avoid, and usually that pain involves some kind of fear: fear of aging, fear of looking dumb, fear of being alone, and many others. The key to keeping them interested in what you’re saying is to acknowledge those fears and offer a way to avoid them.
Contact Big Red SEO Today at (402) 522-6468!
For affordable search engine optimization and internet marketing, Omaha’s best local SEO company is Big Red SEO. By combining proven and up-to-the-minute SEO and web design techniques, Big Red SEO makes our clients more visible to potential customers on leading search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
We hope that you’ve learned a lot over the course of our Blog to End All Blogs series, and that you put that knowledge to use in creating great content that boosts your search engine rankings! If you’d like a free consultation with our professional search engine marketing company to see what we can do for you, call us today at (402) 522-6468 or fill out our contact form!
