Did you know that at least 77% of the global digital population enjoys reading blogs at least once a month? This means that if you’re thinking about getting into blogging, there’s a good chance there’s an audience already waiting for your content.
But it takes more than filling up pages with text to attract a faithful following. Without engaging blog posts, you can quickly lose steam and see your followers drop as quickly as you gained them.
However, if you learn how to improve your writing skills for blogs, then your target audience will find your page irresistible and your SEO will very likely grow as well. Once you’ve mastered these, try working on getting your blogs written faster so you lose less time in the process.
Here are 9 Actionable Ways To Improve Your Writing Skills Right Now
Review Basic Spelling & Grammar Rules
If it’s been a while since you’ve been in school, then it can help to brush up on basic spelling and grammar rules. No one wants to read content that’s riddled with errors; there’s no quicker way to alienate your followers.
You don’t need to invest too many hours into this. There are plenty of free online resources you can browse through to get a fast refresher.
Need help, consider adding Grammarly or Language Tool as an add-on in Firefox or Chrome to highlight errors as you write.
Create An Outline First
You might think you have a great idea, but as you progress, you’re not sure where the post is going. As a result, you have a rambling piece that you’ll have to scrap.
Before you start typing away, make an outline first to improve your blog writing skills. It doesn’t have to be complicated either; writing down possible subheaders in a few minutes can help your post have structure and keep you on track while you get your thoughts down.
Need a refresher, watch this:
Write In An Active Voice
Many people don’t realize this, but writing in a passive voice drains your content of its vitality.
As a refresher, passive voice is when “X is done by Y”. If you switch it around and rephrase it to “Y did X”, this instantly perks up the sentence. Also, it keeps your sentences shorter, which prevents them from becoming muddy.
Writing in a passive voice is one of the most common improvements blog writers need to address. Don’t feel bad if you struggle in this area, many people do. Developing a daily writing or weekly writing practice will drill this bad habit out of you quickly.
Not sure what passive voice looks like? Yoast has a great passive voice checker in its free SEO tool.
Use Interesting & Active Verbs
Because writing is a medium that involves fewer senses than photography or videography, you’re relying heavily on words to bring your thoughts to life. You’ll want to paint a picture for the reader so they have a vivid image in their heads.
To do this, pick interesting and active verbs, such as “hit”, “bounce”, “flourish”, and “gaze”. With the right punchy verbs, you’ll keep your audience on the edge of their seats.
Creative writing evolves over time and you will learn the words that are common language for you when you write content. The key is to change out those less impactful words for ones with a greater punch.
Here the thesaurus is your friend.
Pretend You’re Speaking To A Friend
Blogs are meant to be casual, so you don’t want to be too formal or stiff. An easy way to write engaging content is to imagine you’re speaking to a friend.
Think about how you’d explain the topic to your buddy while at dinner. This will naturally encourage you to write in a conversational tone.
Want to reduce your academic writing habits, here’s how to write more conversationally:
Cut Out Fluffy Words
Take a look at your blog post and ask yourself: do you really need to use every single word? It’s very likely you can whittle words down and say the same things still.
Look for the use of “very” and “really” too. These adverbs don’t really say anything, so look for alternatives. You don’t even need to find another adverb either; rephrasing can make your content more expressive.
You should also avoid using cliches. Not only are they old and overused, but they also don’t add much value to your content.
Word choice is a key skill to tackle as you work on improving your writing skills. Hemingway is the app that will help you see where the fluff is and help you creatively edit it out!
Avoid Long Walls Of Text
One of the best blog writing tips is to break up your text into small chunks. Walls of text might work for whitepapers and e-books, but they’re hard on the eyes, especially when most people want light and easy reading.
Thankfully, it’s easy to break up your text.
Keep your paragraphs to 3 or 4 sentences max, and make good use of subheadings. Bullet pointed lists are also a good idea, as they provide a quick way for readers to digest information.
Rule of thumb: if your content takes up the entire screen of your phone to read, it’s too long. Look at your article as a draft on your phone before publishing so you can find the lengthy sections and then break them up before publishing.
See What Your Competitors Are Doing
If your competitors have more traffic than you do, then they must be doing something right. You don’t want to plagiarize, and original content is always best, but it doesn’t hurt to check out how they’re running their blog.
For example, if you’re struggling with how often you should write blog posts, take a look at how many times a week/month your competitors post. This can help you find the sweet spot.
Pro tip: Any search engine can help you with this. Look up your topic on Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go or whatever search engine you like and see what’s on page one. This will give you valuable insights into what your competitors are doing so you can work on beating them with your next piece!
Always Proofread Your Work
Even if you’ve read through your blog post 10 times, read through it again before you publish it. Chances are, you might still find something that’s misspelled or a phrase that can be more succinct.
Sometimes, it can be tough to see errors when you’ve been staring at a page for hours. So another pair of fresh eyes can be beneficial. Have a friend or fellow blog writer check your content to see if you’ve missed anything.
If you don’t have anyone to turn to, then a typing assistant add-on can help. While it’s not foolproof, it’s better than nothing after all.
Microsoft Word’s writing assistant or Page’s Editor can help you improve your writing by alerting you to any leftover issues not yet addressed by everything else on this list.
Summing Up How To Improve Writing Skills for Blogs
Now you know how to improve writing skills for blogs. You’ll want to first write an outline, write in an active voice, keep fluff to a minimum, and proofread extensively before publishing. And if you’re ever stuck, having a look at your competitors’ pages doesn’t hurt either.
With enough practice, you’ll be able to craft captivating content that’ll keep people coming back for more. And when that happens, it’ll be effortless to keep your blog page traffic up.
If you need support with improving your writing skills or if you simply want SEO focused content written for you, please reach out, we’d love to chat and see how we can help.
