Write for Your Readers

Wednesday, 2 May 2012 - No comments

It�s one thing if you are only interested in having a personal blog, because you may not be all that concerned with who ends up reading the things that you write. However, if you have any ambitions to run your blog as a business or if your blog is for your business, then you are likely interested in growing as large an audience as possible. The more eyes that see your blog, the better, right?
Growing your blog and getting traffic can be challenging and you may be tempted to participate in some less than savory practices to get that traffic. There are many bloggers, for example, who seem to be writing their content with search engine optimization (SEO) at the forefront of their minds, casting aside any concerns for relevance, value, and readibility. That�s not the strategy you want to take.
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization
Before we proceed any further, we should note that we�re not saying search engine optimization isn�t important; it is. It really does help if you can get your blog ranked on the top search engines, like Bing and Google, for the keywords and keyword phrases that you are targeting. Can you imagine the kind of traffic that your technology blog would be able to get if it ranked ahead of Apple for �iPhone� in Google?
There are certainly several different strategies you can employ to improve the search engine optimization for your blog and we will describe these in greater detail a little later on. For now, though, it is far more important to think about your readers before you think about Google�s spiders crawling through your content.
But Your Readers Should Come First
Why? Think about it this way: If someone comes across your blog and finds that there is zero value to be gained by reading your blog posts, they�re not going to stick around. They�re not going to come back. The Internet audience is fickle and they are not going to give you a second chance.
If you put your readers first, then you�ll be sure to post the best content possible. These readers can then tell their friends, both online and offline, about how great your site is and why they should go read it too. Your blog can then spread through word of mouth and you�ll gain not only people who visit your site just once for a resource article, but rather a loyal following who will come back to your blog time and time again.
Organic Traffic Is Better than Search Engine Traffic
The great thing about �organic� traffic (visitors who come through �natural� links rather than through search engines) is that they are real people interested in real content. They may be inclined to share your content through their own blogs and social media channels, thus extending your reach on the vastly expanding Internet.
Organic traffic has the ability to improve your search engine traffic, even if you make next to no distinct SEO effort. This is because Google (and other search engines) places great value on how popular a site is, both in terms of traffic and in terms of inbound links. As your organic traffic grows, so will your �value� in the eyes of Google�s spiders.
Building an Online Community
At the end of the day, you are ultimately writing for people and not for �bots� and �spiders.� Even if you are targeting people to find your site through search engines, you are still aiming to have people arrive at your blog. That�s why you need to write for your readers. They need to find value in the posts you publish, otherwise they won�t come back and they won�t help to grow your site.
If you are able to build this increasingly large group of loyal followers, you can start to develop a real online community around your site. The most loyal of readers will become your evangelists and will be more than happy to help spread the word. They�ll want to share your posts with their friends.
It doesn�t take long for someone to figure out that you�re writing for Google and not for a human being. Articles that are written for search engines above all else reek of keyword stuffing and human incoherence. That�s not the type of content you want to produce if you want to have a trusted and respected blog. Write for people first. Readers are always your target audience.

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