7 Signs You’ve Written and Shared an Excellent Blog Post

Andrea Willson

Writing can be subjective. The topic, format, and layout may seem appealing to some and not to others. This concept particularly applies to writing blog posts as the content has the ability to reach a wide audience. So how do you know if you’ve written and shared an interesting or useful blog post?

Here are 7 tell-tale signs you’ve written a great blog post:

1. It’s original.

Second-hand content is not only useless for your target audience but also detrimental from an SEO perspective as well. Google rewards sites with original content and penalizes ones with duplicate content. Try researching your topic to get ideas, but ensure you’re writing a new post from scratch.

2. It offers value.

A good blog post should give something of value to readers (usually intangible). This is a key component for creating a shareable blog post. Types of value in your blog can include:

• Tips
  
• A tool
  
• Links to more resources
  
• A video
  
• Answers to a common question your persona may have

3. It’s easily found.

A well written and useful blog post should be easily found within your website and externally. After publishing the post, share it on social media with a relevant image and hashtag but make sure you’re not polluting social media feeds with your latest blog post. Be strategic about where you share and the caption or message you include. Aim to share blog posts with your buyer personas.

It’s also a great idea to include a search bar on your blog so that users looking for specific topics or titles can find the post later.

4. It’s shareable.

Some blogging platforms allow you to embed social sharing icons directly in the blog post, making it easy for your readers to pass it along. Additionally, the content itself should be written with the goal of your readers sharing the post on their networks. Your readers should come away from reading your blog post with the satisfaction of receiving value to the point where they want others to educate others. Try framing your content with freebies, top 10 lists, or something related to pop culture. There are plenty of ways to spice up your content so be sure to check out this blog post for more tips.

5. It’s user-centered.

Before publishing a blog post, try asking yourself a common question your persona would ask. Now read the post with the intention of answering that question. Does it solve the problem or guide them along the buyer’s journey?

6. It’s scannable.

There are plenty of resources on blog writing best practices but the visual layout of the post is also important. Readers often scan a blog post for eye catching words rather than reading the entire post. This is why it’s important to use bold headings, and numbered lists to help break up the content and give your readers a quick overview of what to expect in the article and key takeaways if they don’t have time to read the entire post.

7. Use an enticing title.

When sharing a post on social media, generally your audience only sees the title. This gives you an opportunity to foreshadow what they can expect but also catch people’s attention. Check out this post for some unique ways to come up blog titles that do just that.

How do you know if you’ve written and shared an excellent blog post?

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