By Special Guest Blogger and MENG Social Media Council of Advisors Member Mack Collier
Know all those ’5 Steps to’ or ’10 Ways to’ posts you see everyone writing? Ever wondered why there are so many of them? Because they work. Because we all want answers to problems, or if we don’t need help, we probably know someone that does.
So when you write content for your blog, think about how you could pose it as a solution to a problem. This can help you completely reframe your content so that it’s more useful for others.
For example, I saw a post on a company blog recently titled ‘Fall is here’ or something generic, and the blogger then listed all the things/changes they were making to their house to get it ready for cooler weather. By simply changing the headline to ’10 Steps for Getting Your Lakeside Home Ready for Winter’, it becomes much more effective. Then the writer could have tweaked the content a bit to make it follow this format.
There are two big benefits to creating problem-solving content:
1 – It makes your post more ‘shareable‘.
If you are reading blogs or spending time on Twitter, if you see a post titled ’10 WordPress Themes For the First-Time Blogger’, you are probably going to think about sharing that post with your friends that are considering launching a blog, right? But if you saw the same post that was titled ‘I need a WordPress theme’ and the blogger shared a few they had found, you probably wouldn’t be as likely to share it, would you?
If we find content that we think will help others, we will share it. If your content is structured so that it solves a problem, it’s more likely to be shared.
2 – It mirrors what people are searching for.
Now SEO junkies might not completely agree with me here, but a lot of search results are related to solving a problem. I know when I use Google I am often looking for the answer to a question. I might search for ‘What’s the best way to….’ or ‘How do I get….’
Think about this when you write your posts. Don’t focus so much on search keywords, but rather on search phrases. Because people are getting more comfortable with search all the time, and as such, they are using more elaborate search terms.
Where before a search term might be ‘Best family car’, now it’s ‘Best car for a family with an infant’. If you write for a car site, there’s your post title, ’5 Cars for Families With a New baby’.
Another example, I recently read a post titled ’3 tips for more sustainable living’. This is a decent title, but as I read the post, I realized that if someone followed the 3 tips given, they could have saved (according to the post) over 30,000 gallons of water a year! So a much better title would have been ’3 Changes You Can Make to Your Home TODAY That Will Save You Over 30,000 Gallons of Water a Year!’ or something similar that communicates the real value of the post; that it will show you how to save 30K gallons of water a year.
That headline instantly communicates the value of the post, and the post backs up the headline.
So as you are thinking about the content you are creating, think about if that content could solve a problem for someone. And also think about how your headline relates to your post, so that the most relevant information is being shared.
Keep this in mind as you are writing posts, and think about whether your post is actually solving a problem for someone, or if it could be a problem-solving post with a little tweaking!
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Photo is In Writing by Matsuyuki.
October 14, 2010 - 07:43
“Don’t focus so much on search keywords…”
“SEO junkies might not completely agree with me here…”
What is the digital world coming to when people stop focusing so much on keywords and damning SEO junkies? It’s mass hysteria I tell you… cats living with dogs…
How dare you insist people use common sense?
Next you’ll be telling us to look BOTH ways before crossing the street…
Thanks for nothing,
Steve O
(tongue planted firmly in cheek)
October 14, 2010 - 10:08
How dare us focus on writing for people instead of search engines?
Thanks for the comment, Steve!
October 14, 2010 - 12:24
That is probably one of the biggest things I struggle with is the title. How to make a compelling title that is still tweetable. There is always room for improvement on my end. Though SEO has its necessities for those who have never heard of you, I am always hoping for more PEO..people engine optimization. The more I can generate people to talk about my content the more I feel it will help my reader list grow. Thanks Mack for the post.
October 14, 2010 - 16:36
Hey Jonathan! One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make with the title (and I have done this repeatedly), is they try to pick a title that simply summarizes the post.
For example, last year I was writing a post for The Viral Garden. The post was based on the idea that it’s more important to try to create a vibrant community on your blog, moreso than writing great content. My thinking was that as you interact with people on your blog, it will only improve the quality of the content, and thus a cycle is created.
But I was stuck on the damn title. The post was great, but all I could think of for a title was ‘Community trumps content on a blog’. And I knew that was such a LAME title and that it wouldn’t give anyone a reason to click the post.
So I was almost ready to scrap the post completely, then I started reading http://www.Copyblogger.com and Brian had some great tips for improving your post titles.
So I changed the lame title of ‘Community trumps content on a blog’ to ‘The idea that ‘Content is King’ in blogging is total bulls***!’
The post got over 70 comments (a record for me at the time) and the blog had one of my best traffic days ever. All because I added an attention-grabbing title.
October 15, 2010 - 10:46
Jonathan and Mack: P.E.O. is awesome. Community over content is awesome-er (is that a keyword?). Thanks for supporting talking “normal”.
Gerry
October 15, 2010 - 11:04
Gerry, I think ‘talking normal’ is a lost art. Especially if you’re abnormal like me
Have a great weekend!
October 15, 2010 - 12:10
Mack thanks so much for the tips! To both of you I am a big fan of abnormal talk.. I leave the good grammar up to my wife
October 15, 2010 - 15:52
This is a great topic and one I struggle with as a graphic designer and illustrator. Sure, I get paid to design, but I’m still an artist and like to work on projects of a personal nature. For example, I did a post about branding (Branding…what is it good for? 4 things your business needs), and it did very well. I gained a gig out of it too. But the most recent post was a sketch I did of my wife and I. I titled it “9 Years: A Sketch Inspired by my Wife”. It also did well, but I can see the benefit of reworking the title to “How to make your wife happy”. Any suggestions for an artist who struggles with the informational and the personal posts? Great post.
October 15, 2010 - 16:11
Hey Dennis! Here’s an idea for improving your post, think about what would happen if someone found your post by accident.
What I mean is, write for your regular readers, but also give new readers a reason to want to check out your post. Like with your branding post, you made it relevant to people that might not know who you are, by adding ’4 things your business needs’. If you had made the title something like ‘My thoughts on branding’, then your regular readers might still be interested, but why would anyone else care?
BTW as for personal posts, it has been my experience that readers enjoy an occasional personal post. So don’t be afraid to mix those in every once in a while! If you have a strong connection with your readers, they will probably want to learn more about you.
October 15, 2010 - 21:48
Thanks much for the post. I’m moving from amateur website developer (I mostly write, my wife does the coding work…thank god) to amateur blogger.
My main motivation is that I’m tired of being guided by keywords. Keyword have their place in the world, granted. But I like the human element in blogging. The sense of community instead of competition appeals to my sense of business ethics.
Excellent post and great string of comments. Thanks to everybody for sharing their thoughts.
By the way, any tips on choosing a web host? My research so far has been…inconclusive. My plan is to use a WordPress theme (still figuring that one out, too) but reliability if your blog should hit it big (mentioned on Oprah!) seems to be if-fy (<–not a real word). Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks again.
Disclaimer: This comment is not SEO optimized
October 16, 2010 - 11:14
Hey Patrick! I have to admit, for the longest time I really couldn’t care less about SEO when it came to my blogging. I just wanted to write, and it seemed that my blog did well with page rankings and such, so why change?
Then I started seeing the correlation between how I placed keywords (especially in the title), and how it could affect my search rankings. For example, last year I was talking with a friend about how so many companies have no idea how much a social media strategy would cost them, so I decided to write a post on it – “So How Much Will a Social Media Strategy Cost?” – http://mackcollier.com/so-how-much-will-a-social-media-strategy-cost/
If you search for the term “how much will a social media strategy cost” that post is the top result. Mainly because the title is very similar to a search phrase that a lot of people would use. If I had made the title something like “The cost of social media”, odds are it would NOT have been that high in the results.
So while I don’t think you should let SEO totally dominate and change how and what you write, I do think bloggers should have a basic understanding of search optimization.
October 16, 2010 - 11:46
Make it relevant. Words to live by in all communications, even meetings, emails/texts, and helping a kid with homework.
October 17, 2010 - 20:58
Mack, I couldn’t agree more. Got the best traffic on any blog post ever with my “12 reasons I won’t follow you back on Twitter” piece (http://bit.ly/dpKWfT). I was delightful surprised by how much it resonated with people.
Amber @wordsdonewrite