Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 125

your post. Quality media that loads quickly is extremely important to the success of an
article. Media that takes longer than three seconds to load, or is of poor quality, causes
readers to become frustrated and seek out blog content that doesn’t make them wait or that
looks fuzzy. Committing to the production of high-quality media is one way to stand out in
an industry saturated with content. Therefore, be sure to include high-quality images,
videos, and audio that are clean and crisp. Also, look for instances where media can
further explain or enrich a point made in an article.
Hiring a full-time photographer or graphic designer may not be necessary, but try to avoid
using stock images and video. Often, stock forms of media look too staged or forced, plus
they don’t always match well with the topic of your piece.
Provides a compelling close
Your article’s closing paragraph can take your post from good to great. Effective
conclusions tie t he piece together. Therefore, by the close, any curiosity loops that your
heading may have opened need to be answered, and you must have delivered on the
promise of the article; otherwise, readers feel cheated and might form a negative
impression of your brand. You can finish a post by using humor, wit, or insight, or
otherwise incite emotions that compel readers to comment, share, or visit more pages on
your blog.
The conclusion is the make-or-break portion of your article that makes readers
decide to share the post, comment, click your call to action, or dive deeper into your
site. Your closing doesn’t have to be epic, but be sure that the article doesn’t end
abruptly. The simplest way to close a piece is to restate the intro and ask the reader to
comment and share.
Uses search engine optimization
Done right, effective search engine optimization (SEO) helps your blog posts rank higher
in search engines, such as Google, which will improve your chances of having your blog
posts found by your audience. (We go into greater detail about SEO tactics in Chapter 8.)
To optimize your blog post, choose a relevant keyword or keyword phrase that is unique
to your post and include that keyword in the
Title tag
Body text
Image alt attribute
Universal resource locator (URL)
Meta description