Why is your blog not driving traffic and leads?

Are you struggling to drive traffic to your blog despite filling it with articles? Are you getting the traffic but not the conversions? If you feel like you’ve addressed the SEO basics, what next? 

This article covers improving blog performance from a less obvious angle:

• Are you intros putting people off?
• Content design is a thing
• What do your images say?  
• Review your writing style
• Adding humour and personality 
• You’re just like all the rest
• Our top tips 

Are your intros putting people off?

• Too much fluff - Readers are either going to skip over this bit anyway or exit completely. So save yourself the time and put that effort into the rest of the article.

• No TL;DR - Make this a compelling summary. What are they going to learn? Create a hook so they’ll want to stay and read more.

• No bullets - Anchor links down to sections in the blog are good for SEO. That’s because the algorithm is focusing on user experience, so you should too. They also act as a helpful summary. Make sure the link text reflects that.

Content design is a thing

What’s content design? Is that the same as web design? Yes and no. It’s how you lay out written content on your site to make it user-friendly. Because good user experience is a ranking factor (according to the Helpful Content Update), you need to get this right.

Where could you be going wrong?

• Blog overview page - Can users find the content they’re looking for? Or are they drowning in a sea of posts with no filter? You could fail at the first hurdle.

• Lack of images - A wall of text isn’t anyone’s friend. People are innately visual. They’ll be drawn to the next image to find out what it means but reading on (intrigue) or they’ll realise the next section is going to be relevant.

• Poor layout - It isn’t simply a case of sticking in a few images. Where you place the imagery, links, CTAs and copy on the page are important. Look up the rule of thirds and basic UX principles that will make content more digestible. Readers are less likely to bounce if it’s easy to work through.

• Unclear copy hierarchy - If all the copy is one-size our brains start to switch off.

• No bullets - Breaking up content with things like bullets help our brains break down the wall of words.

• Not skimmable - Using copy hierarchy effectively helps the reader skim the article to start with and get the gist. They then know if it is worth investing time in reading the whole thing or which sections to skip to.

What do your images say?

• High-quality images are a must - Anything grainy is going to reflect badly on the professionalism of your company.

• Be playful - Use metaphors to create interesting blog headers rather than being literal. Writing about SEO and then having a person staring at a lap has been done to death. That doesn’t excite anyone.

• Find out more about ‘How great photography can boost online sales’

Review your writing style

• Adding words for the sake of it - This might have been necessary in an educational setting to hit a word count but they only add fluff and cut them.

• Write like you’re talking to a real human - Would you say “It has rarely been the case that any mistake has been made.” in a real conversation?

• The average writing age is 9 years old. Take that in! Keep sentences no longer than 25 words.

• Are you talking about your business all the time? This isn’t about you bragging about your company. This content should be helpful.

• But don’t be overly personal. I don’t want to know all about your life, just the knowledge you have to share.

Add humour and personality

• What engages you? Humour or dry legal documents?

• Having a brand tone of voice isn’t just fancy marketing speak - it works. Think Innocent Smoothies. Or Slack.

You’re just like all the rest i.e. boring

• Are you writing something that’s been done a thousand times before? How could you put a different spin on it?

• With AI pumping out articles, Google is looking for fresh opinions and interpretations. Don’t regurgitate facts, ChatGPT can do that.

Our top tips

• Cut the fluff

• Use high-quality, real photos

• Being unique could help you rank better

• Add some personality

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