No matter how good your content is, if people can’t read it you’ll fail to build a relationship with them.
Peaceful Transition, Inc. is an alternative funeral home in Barrie, Ontario, and a client. I’ve shared an image from their website to highlight some good practices for the layout of your blog.
- Use language your readers will understand. While we did call the blog a blog in the top menu, on the sidebar we used the phrase, “Trusted Guidance,” so website visitors would know where to find reliable answers to their funeral questions. Then instead of the heading “Categories,” we used, “More Articles,” which would make more sense to a general audience. We also chose categories that represented the subjects people are most concerned about when they need funeral services.
- Think twice before adding social media data. Instead of busy social media widgets that show latest updates or number of fans or followers, Peaceful Transition has graphic icons where people can instantly connect on the social media platforms they like. Best of all, the icons are unobtrusive for those visitors who have no interest or experience with social media sites.
- Display your older posts. Whether you link to older posts within the current post (as I’ve done in this one) or you use a tool like LinkWithin or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, make it easy for your readers to find additional helpful content and have a longer visit with you.
- Craft an effective excerpt. When a preview of your post pops up on search engine results pages, your main blog page or your social media posts, by default this excerpt will be the first few sentences of your blog post. Take charge of this and write a compelling summary of your post and why your ideal readers/clients would want to read it (for example, here is a link to the Peaceful Transition blog page).
Good blogs don’t just happen. Make conscious decisions about how you’ll display the content on your blog, and keep your readers in mind when you do.
Linda Dessau is the author of Write Your Way to More Clients Online. She is a business blogging expert, writer and editor, and the founder of Content Mastery Guide.
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This post is right on target. Content is king.