Disclaimer: I may or may not be slightly overtired from moving.
And I may or may not have had a glass of wine very recently while doing a bit of work.
OK, fine.
I am and I did. Grammar police and any other police-y type peeps, don’t hate. Appreciate. Ha.
OK, right… onward.
So I don’t actually know what a donkey’s tickler is.
I totally made that part up. hehe
But really, I’m not kidding about the SEO part.
I could truly care less at this point… Google changes things so often that I get digital whiplash trying to keep up.
When it boils down to it, if you write for readers, readers will appreciate and share your shite with more readers.
Know what I’m sayin’, mayin’?
What do I mean when I say write for your readers?
It’s common sense really.
Write Stuff They Will Actually Want to Read
You know, it might seem a little like “duh” advice, but you’d be surprised how often people write about a bunch of crap no one actually gives a donkey’s butt about reading. (Yes, I am attached to donkey’s this evening for some reason.)
Make a little effort to know who the heck you’re writing for, why the heck you’re writing for them, and what exactly you want to say to them.
Then say it.
It makes a world of difference in helping you to come up with ideas that actually hold a little meaning for your readers.
And when you write those ideas out, (aka say it) you’ll find said readers are actually interested enough to read to the end and ultimately (hopefully?) share that awesomesauce with others.
Make It Engaging
Whatever engaging looks like for you and your readership. Only you will really know this one.
Maybe your audience is a big fan of pictures.
Maybe they’re a big fan of videos or audios to supplement a really great post.
Maybe they love it when you curse a lot, or crack jokes, or write silly haiku’s to augment your worldly wisdom.
Who knows what tickles a donkey’s tickler?
The point is that you know your readership better than anyone, so do your level best to give them what they want and make it fun and interesting, so they stick around and come back for more.
Ideally your content should be achieving some kind of goal.
- Maybe it’s providing useful and actionable tips.
- Maybe the goal is to just share a bit of wisdom and move your reader emotionally.
- Maybe the goal is to sell something.
- Maybe the goal is to get them to subscribe to your newsletter.
- Maybe it’s simply to entertain.
Regardless of the goal, when your content has a purpose (and usually the more targeted the purpose the better), you’ll find the content naturally becomes more engaging as you attempt to achieve the purpose.
Don’t ask me to explain the how or why of it, just give it a shot and holla with your results.
Don’t Use Uber Big Words
Really, I’m not looking to talk down to anyone here, but it just makes sense to simplify things, your words included.
No one enjoys struggling to understand big words, or trying to decipher technical jargon, or decoding medical speak.
NO ONE.
OK, maybe someone, but I challenge you to find that someone. When you do, buy them chocolate and they’ll forget all about their weird adoration for big words and jargon-y lingo, and move on to more fun things, like writing haiku’s.
If you do a teensy bit of research, you’ll find out that most readers (online readers included) read at an 8th grade level or lower.
That means that they are not a fan of big words.
Big words can be confusing, frustrating, and do more to muddy a good message than throwing a letter into a puddle of mud.
What Do These Simple Tactics Accomplish?
They help you capture readers and hold them hostage.
And you can do it without twisting yourself into a pretzel trying to voodoo your SEO rankings or figure out the next “hot” SEO strategy.
Your blog and traffic will begin to grow on actual merit, because you write for your readers, not search engines, and readers dig that shite.
Does that mean you should never, ever, ever think about SEO?
Ummm… probably not.
There are some things you should probably do that can only be of benefit to your blog. The point is to not get wrapped up in those things so tightly you forget why the heck you started a blog in the first place.
And that was to communicate.
With readers.
With your words.
Capisce? Capoosh.
Over to You
Do you get yourself twisted into knots over SEO strategies, and whether or not you’re “doing it right”? Or are you relatively laid back about the whole SEO thing (like yours truly), and find that works for you? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.