More real, less robot: 11 human-friendly blog writing tips
When writing a blog post, it’s easy to forget you’re talking to an actual, living, breathing person. With SEO rules (we must please the ‘Google Gods’!) and that marketing course you took (how will this blog fit into our funnel?!), you follow a blogging checklist. Which is great to a certain extent. But are you remembering the most important thing? An actual human will read your blog post - with actual human tendencies. Yes, even for blog posts covering the most corporate (and complex, specialist) topics - it’s still a human, behaving like a human, doing human things.
In this blog post, I share how to make your blog post more human-friendly. Read along for easy blog writing tips you can implement today…
Skip this - get professional blog writing support. Get in touch.
1.It’s all about YOU
Do you want your audience to connect with you? Do you want them to feel interested? Engaged? Emotionally on board? Then, speak to them directly - use the word ‘you’.
2. Embrace the short sentence
Complex subject matter? Niche specialist area? Want to sound professional? In-the-know? Great - but don’t overcomplicate your syntax (your sentence structure). Short sentences are easier to read. And, some longer sentences add variety - so keep the pace interesting for your reader.
3. Use accessible language
Just like the above point, but with the words you use. Yes, it’s always ok to use specialist vocabulary that your audience understands, but make sure you simplify words if you have any doubt. Imagine your audience in front of you, are their faces blank with confusion? Or are they nodding along, soaking in your words?
4. Use headings
Picture that human reading your blog post. They are busy. Their time is precious. So before they even decide to spend a couple of minutes reading your blog content, they will make a quick decision of whether it’s worth it. Headings achieve three main things:
your reader understands what you’ll be covering quickly
your reader scans to the bits they want to read
your reader is less intimated by a big chunk of text
5. Use bullet points and lists
Another easy formatting gem to improve readability! You can even use this as part of your title, such as: ‘9 questions to ask a potential childminder’.
6. Limit CTAs
Call-to-actions are great practice, right? Yes - but don’t overdo them! Otherwise, your audience feels like a.) they’re being sold to all the time/ pushed into things b.) if you confuse, you lose (i.e. too many CTAs will not give the reader a clear action to take, and instead, they’ll get decision-paralysis and close your tab - nuuuuoooo!).
7. Help out with links
Instead of CTAs everywhere (read this, contact us, do this, do that) simply insert helpful links on keywords so your reader can navigate easily as they wish - without losing the sense of your blog post.
8. Consider why we have SEO
So you want to make sure your blog is getting top marks for SEO best practice? Fantastic - that means more human-friendly. Because, think about it: Google’s business model is to connect YOU (the searcher) with the most relevant search results. When you’re happy with what Google displays (accurate results), then you go back to use Google again, and again and again. Success for Google. And that’s why we’re less likely to use Bing, right? (Sorry Bing, no shade, but it’s the truth!).
If you publish a blog post which is easily crawled by search engines to display as an accurate result to specific search query - woohoo! You’ve done great - it means Google thinks your blog post is GREAT for its users (who are humans, by the way).
9. Write first, optimise later
My advice when it comes to SEO? Optimise after you’ve written. Yes, it’s great to have your keywords/ phrases in mind - and to know what ‘query’ you want to answer. However, I encourage you to write naturally (with points 1-7 above) and then optimise your content for SEO afterwards. This way, you’ll maintain a natural tone that reads well to your audience (no keyword stuffing or awkward phraseology!) but you’ll tweak bits to improve SEO.
10. Proofread, proofread, proofread
Finally, proofread for accuracy but also proofread for sense. Read it aloud. Read it backwards. Read it to your dog (or mum, she might give better feedback). Overall, make sure it reads well and makes good sense. Don’t let a fantastic blog post fall down at the final hurdle.
11. Wrap your blog post up with a snappy conclusion
I’m going to conclude the blog post here - with my final point. You should do the same to be more human-friendly.
Wrapping it up can be a great way to summarise what you’ve discussed. It’s a really important feature as it can also help solidify your overall ‘takeaway message’ for the reader. However, some people struggle with this as it feels like an ‘effort’ to do after putting together some great content. So, my advice? Keep it simple. No need to go chapter and verse on the conclusion. Simply summarise what all your points mean and leave on a great call to action so your readers know what to do next.
I hope these tips have helped. If you want more support with your blog writing, I’d love to help - get in touch.
