I’ve come across many blogs over the past ten years where I’ve scanned a couple of entries to see what they’re about, consciously or subconsciously thought, ‘You’re boring me. I’m leaving now,’ and then closed the tab.

It sounds harsh, but we’ve all done it. We’ve also all written boring things that people have stopped reading halfway through, so how can we turn it around and make our web content more interesting?

Marry the content and the title

A lot of people, particularly web journalists and tech bloggers, take the shock headline approach to get people to click through from Twitter, Facebook, or even just the homepage. I’m always disappointed when I start reading the content and it has nothing to do with the title. Or it’s a much diluted version of the title. Or it’s pretending that it offers me new advice when in fact those ’10 fantastic new ways to get more Facebook fans’ tips are just the old ‘Make a nice welcome tab’ and nine other very obvious statements.

You still need an interesting title to get those visitors – just make sure it leads into your content and isn’t deliberately misleading.

Tell me something I didn’t know

Opinion-based pieces have their place, particularly if you naturally attract commenters who love to debate, but for the most part, giving people advice and actionable steps is more likely to make them stick around. This works well alongside the old adage ‘Write about what you know’. You need to be seen as an authority figure on a topic, because that’s when your website starts getting recommended to others and your visitors and backlinks go through the roof. Ultimately you can boil it down to Great Content + Great Social Network Use = Valuable Reputation. (Of course, you’ll need a following of people who are actually interested in what you have to say. That’s usually the hard part).

Once you reach the dizzying heights of internet fame, you can write whatever you want and people will still love it and retweet it endlessly, no matter how mundane or tedious it may be. Until then, it’s important to write well on interesting topics – something that nearly everyone finds difficult. Readers can often be unpredictable in their reactions too; after all, it’s only natural that you’ll enjoy some blog posts and articles more than others.

Take comment feedback seriously

Comments with constructive criticism aren’t as warming to read as the generic ‘Great post…’ ones, but they provide infinite more value to help you as a writer. After all, you can’t work on your writing faults until you know what they are. Whether it’s sloppy presentation, bad grammar or the wrong tone, your commenters can often help point you in the direction of getting it right. Knowing your visitors and your commenters also helps you at the planning or brainstorming stages, so you can write about what interests them instead of reverting to recent industry news.

Encourage your readers to tell you how you could improve, and always check your analytics and social network stats to find out what topics or styles have been the most successful.

Think about presentation and post length

It sounds obvious, but consider how your text looks on the screen. What’s the spacing like? How long are your paragraphs? Do you need more pictures? Whilst many think that shorter is better when it comes to reading text on the internet, it ultimately boils down to who your visitors are, what they expect, and what your subject is. A short piece runs the risk of saying nothing at all, or only providing half the story, whilst an epic length piece presents a danger of rambling or unnecessary explanations. Using a ‘Read more’ link (aka ‘cut’ or ‘jump’) can help break up entries whilst helping your analytics tracking and analysis as well. If you’re running WordPress, you can find out more about using and customising it here.

If writing isn’t your strong point…

Think about what else you can offer your visitors or how you can take some of the pressure off your text. Tutorials and free resources make for good blog content that provide value for your visitors. If you have a great site design you’re going to impress your visitors straight away, and well-chosen and carefully presented photos can go a long way. But don’t be afraid to experiment with your writing and carry on working at it – it’s the only way you’re going to improve.

Further reading

If you enjoyed this, you may also like:

• 9 Steps To Becoming A Professional Social Media God

• The Ultimate Guide To Offering Resources On Your Site

• 7 Tips On Blogging For Value

• What Are You Trying To Achieve With Your Blog?