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What makes a good blog design?

Writing is a craft – we take it for granted as we do it every day. But some of us really enjoy it and have a predisposition to using words eloquently and conveying our emotions and theories by committing them to paper (or a screen).  With more and more emphasis on being seen online, blogs can really make an impact but what makes a good blog design?

Readability

When you write a blog, you have to think about your audience – who is likely to read it – and pitch it to them.  If you are an engineering company, you are going to be speaking to your peers and they won’t care about the history of the widget but what problem it can solve for them.  If you are educating people (which is always my aim) then the language has to be simple, easy to digest and give the reader ideas and information for them to build upon.  If you use jargon, will everyone know what you mean? If you make people stop and Google what you are writing about then the chances are you will lose them (a bit like the last series of Line of Duty).

Knowledge

You are an expert at what you do – whether that’s making widgets, selling gizmos or teaching underwater basket weaving.  Employing someone to write about that topic – unless they have experience in your field – is no mean feat. The writer has to get to grips with what you are trying to convey, know your audience, have technical knowledge and get all that across in a way that is interesting to read.  I have a varied employment history and so can draw on a lot of ideas and life experiences which can be used to my client’s advantage.  If I don’t know a topic, such as underwater basket weaving, I will put my client in touch with an expert in that field.

Depth

How deep do you want your blog to go? If you are happy with surface level – the cat sat on the mat – then that’s great.  But if you want more detail and for it to really convey your expertise and knowledge then there needs to be more explanation and authority – the Devon Rex, known for its unusual appearance and butterfly ears, elfishly ran across the room to settle quite contentedly on the luxurious hearthrug in front of the roaring fire.

References

If your field is technical, then your peers will expect full research into your topic with links to external resources – which are current and relevant.  Those need to be researched thoroughly assuming that your audience will really know their stuff AND will question you on it.  This level of competency will really make your business stand out as being the market leader.

Grammar and spelling

Autocorrect and spellcheck has made us lazy and some people genuinely don’t care how things are spelt.  Thankfully, conditions such as dyslexia and Irlen are now recognised and  are nothing to be ashamed of as they were when I was young.  But to ensure your message is loud and clear, there can be little room for error.  The English language is complex, and a misplaced comma or misspelt word can change the whole context of a piece – crucial when putting forward a new concept or argument.

Keywords and SEO

What makes a good blog design is a combination of all of the above but with keywords and SEO added to the blog in such a way that the reader is unaware.  Keywords are the phrases that people search for on Google and so by carrying out some research you can find out what your audience is actually looking for and write around that.  Then when your blogs are uploaded to your website, all the SEO boxes are ticked.  This is where a lot of blog writers fall down – they write the blog, pass it to the client and then nothing happens with it.  The blog doesn’t get uploaded with a relevant royalty free image, slugs, meta description etc. are not competed and so all SEO opportunities are missed.

Audience

Blogs are written for three audiences – you, your potential customers and Google.  You want to educate, entertain, engage, sell; your audience want evidence of your knowledge, know more about the topic or do research; Google want to have backlinks, keywords, meta tags, slugs, 2000 words and is always changing its mind!  It’s a tricky balancing act between the three and getting is right can be difficult but not impossible.

If you’d like to know more about why blogs can be good for your business, take a look at another blog from our back catalogue.

All of these elements combined are the elements to what makes a good blog design.  If you’d like to know more, then please call me on 07534 268664.

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