Writing a good blog post

From an SEO perspective, the idea of adding ‘posts’ to your site is to add valuable content on a regular basis that is seen by Google as being valuable to your site visitors. This only works when a post is considered to be worthwhile to the website visitor.

A tiny post of two or three lines is completely useless and is seen negatively by Google as they know that a couple of lines holds no value to a visitor just as a book with two paragraphs would be equally useless to someone wanting to read a good book or learn about a particular topic.

e.g….

“Did you know that adults made up a record high of 1.5 million orthodontic patients in the U.S and Canada? 
Please continue at:  
http://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-07-27/blahblah”

This kind of post is the absolute worst thing you can do. It is far too short and is then followed by a link that takes people away from your site. The very last thing you want to do is take people away from your site. This is website suicide.

Here’s some very important tips…

1. Do not post anything that is not at least four or five large paragraphs long. (Most experts say a post should be over 1000 words to have a positive effect)

To be worth doing, a post must have enough content for Google to see it as worthwhile for someone to read. One or two lines is just wasting your time and will tell Google that “There is nothing here of any value to someone wanting to know about Orthodontics” and you will be ranked accordingly. Also, don’t post stuff like “Suzie got her braces off today…yay!”. It’s a nice thought but for the reasons noted here it is not good. However, using an opening like that to then go into a detailed explanation of how braces work and the process that Suzie went through would be great….if it’s thorough enough.


2. Never replace good content with a link to another site.

This goes against all advertising/marketing logic. It’s no different than attracting someone to your clothing shop and then directing them right out the back door. Don’t do this. One of Google’s key considerations in ranking a site is it’s ‘bounce rate’. This is the speed at which someone enters a site and then leaves it. Linking to other sites instead of actually writing your own original content increases your bounce rate and can lower your ranking.

Putting a useful link in there that relates to the topic you are writing about is OK but only if it is within a large, useful article that the reader will continue to read.
Never replace good content with a link that takes someone to a site that DOES have good content.


3. NEVER EVER post any content that has been copied in any way from anywhere else.
 
Google will penalize you for it. This is a big one. ALL posts must be created from someones original words. No copying from anywhere…ever. The best tactic that I use is to look at other sites and blogs for ideas only but do not copy. Don’t even try to change the wording slightly…Google will know.


4. Use a descriptive title that would be used in a Google search.

Don’t use non-descriptive titles like “Fun Fact”. This is useless. It contains nothing about whatever business or industry it is you are about to write about. Nobody looking for anything related to your services is going to type ‘Fun Facts’ into a Google search. Google knows what an article is about by it’s title. ‘The right time for an Orthodontic checkup’ is a great title. Google now knows what the post is about and can direct a searcher there IF the article contains good content relevant to the title.

A great plan is to create each post as a question and the article would contain the answer. ‘When is it too late to have braces’, ‘What are the pros and cons of Invisalign’, ‘How to care for retainers’, ‘Is my child too young for braces’. These are all great titles and articles that people will actually search for. Do not use the blog for trivial “Bobby is so happy” posts. They’re nice but they will hurt you. The blog is not for casual two-line notices, it’s a VERY valuable marketing tool that needs to be used properly.


Conclusion…

Adding posts to a site is not a brief 5-minute task that can be completed with 3 lines. It usually takes me an hour or two to write one. You must decide on a topic to write about (such as “The pros and cons of braces for adults”) and then write a thorough article that you would expect to read if you were to needing to learn about that topic.

Think to yourself “If someone did a Google search about this topic, did I just write a good enough article that Google would want to recommend me to that searcher”. Make Google WANT to send people to your article. If it’s a useless three-lined post….Google will never do that.

I hope this helps,
Adam