Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 120

Auditing a Blog Post
When you’re reading or editing a blog post, putting your finger on the specific reasons a
post is falling short of fabulous can be difficult. Communicating what needs to be
improved to a writer or content team can be even more difficult — that is, these things are
difficult if you don’t have a process or don’t know what to look for. To audit your blog
post, you should examine ten elements. The following sections discuss each element to
help you learn to evaluate and improve each one.
Presents an exceptional headline
In the section “Applying Blog Headline Formulas,” earlier in this chapter, we list the six
categories that headlines often fall into. No matter which headline formula, or combination
of formulas, you’re using, exceptional headlines have three aspects in common.
The headline contains a promise of what people will gain from reading the post.
Although the headline uses as many words as needed to convey the promise, it’s
concise and avoids fluff words, which are redundant, unnecessary words or phrases
that add little to the headline and slow the reader down, such as really, just, very, and
rather. Here’s an example of a headline with fluff words:
Why It Is Very Important to Basically Avoid Fluff Words That Are Rather Empty and
Sometimes a Little Distracting in Your Headlines and in Your Writing
Here’s a better, more compelling headline:
How Fluff Words Are Driving Your Readers Away and How You Can Avoid Them in
Your Writing
The headline is compelling without being misleading or full of hype.
Headlines that don’t work well are often merely statements or incomplete phrases. For
example, consider three blog headlines found on a fitness and nutrition website:
Chocolate for Breakfast
Benefits of Meditation
Win the War Against Childhood Obesity
Notice how all three headlines are simply statements of (presumably) fact. They can be
dramatically improved, and often by a simple alteration such as
Chocolate for Breakfast?
7 Benefits of Meditation
How to Win the War Against Childhood Obesity