St. Patrick is credited with having cast all of the serpents out of Ireland. According to the legend, they attacked him while he was holding a 40-day fast and he drove them into the sea. Although considered just a myth by most historians, this banishment of snakes is considered to be a symbol of St. Patrick’s banishment of pagans from Ireland.
St. Patrick has the right idea: if something is getting in the way of your goals, get rid of it! This means taking a good evaluation of what aspects of your blog may be scaring visitors away, and then taking action against the serpents plaguing your blog posts.
Start With Titles
If your titles are uninteresting, boring, or irrelevant, no one will even be interested in the blog section of your website. Without a strong title, you have no way to draw your readers into the information you want to share with them. Learning to create great titles is one of the most important things you will do when creating content for your blog.
Image is Everything
If the title doesn’t draw the reader in, the image definitely should. Images play a huge role in getting that initial click on the blog post. But don’t stop there. Once a reader clicks on the actual blog post, continue to grab the reader’s attention. Time is valuable and important to your readers, so don’t waste their time with huge blocks of text. Instead condense information by using small paragraphs, bullet points, and numbering. Use bolding and italics to highlight important information in an eye grabbing way.
Pick Interesting Topics
Another way to drive your readers away is with snooze-worthy topics. Keep who you’re writing for in mind when you create ideas for topics. It’s possible to create a great title and have a terrible article, so be sure you are providing information that is actually interesting and of value to your target audience.
If you’re having trouble thinking of topics for your blog posts, go back to why you created your blog in the first place. What is the purpose of your blog? How is your blog positioning your company? What sorts of topics will accomplish that goal? Consider what questions your audience has, and answer it. This will provide the most valuable content to your audience.
Providing a blog that is relevant and useful to your readers may require some St. Patrick-like casting out of serpents, but the end results will provide your potential customers with a better experience on your blog, which will ultimately drive more traffic through your website and increase your brand recognition.