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It’s true that first impressions last, and would you believe that the same principle applies with blogs? It’s a claim we can attest to! According to FactBrowser, “B2B marketers who create great blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not.” So, who wouldn’t want a compelling blog introduction to accompany their blog?

The first few lines of any blog holds a huge responsibility, it needs to grab the attention of the audience and live up to its SEO potentials. It must deliver from the beginning and convince the readers to stay reading until the last paragraph.

But why must blogs make such an immediate impact for the readers?

READ: 5 reasons why your business needs a blog

Why start it with a bang?

Perhaps, you’re already aware that the entirety of a blog must be hooking enough for your readers to finish reading it, but that won’t be guaranteed if from the beginning, the introduction fails to grab their attention and gets them wanting to read more.

As mentioned earlier, your introduction invites readers to stay put and keep reading the entire article to its last words, sometimes without them even realising. It also sets the tone for the entire article and enlightens the reader on what is to come.

Much like daily verbal conversations, blog openers are connection builders. Let’s look at it this way - how do you often start a conversation? You probably greet the other person and check in on them. Same idea goes with blog intros. You can ask them about a certain concern you’d like to discuss with them and as the blog goes along, you can present the solution.

Lastly, content with striking leadoff statements makes a promise to its readers. The opening paragraph already captures their attention, so, they expect the next few lines to deliver. So, more often, you would see statements such as ‘in this blog, you will…’ within most blog intros.

What SEO has to do with your blog introduction

Oh, our dearest friend SEO, we meet yet again!

When writing blogs you want to target a lot of readers to come across your blog, so it will be better if you align it according to search engine standards to expand its presence to SERPs.

Search engine crawlers are also content readers in a way. They scan through search results and find related information they find valuable for the search query. In a blog writing perspective, blog introductions must clearly define what it aims to tackle, so search crawlers can understand its topic and index it for search engine results.

This can be achieved through inserting target and relevant keywords in the introductory part to assure search crawlers know what the blog is about.

And since we already discussed that a strong blog opener makes readers stay, it also gives you another SEO benefit - user engagements. If your blog attracts a lot of readers to engage throughout the article, it sends positive user engagement signals and elevated metrics to search crawlers, which will then prioritise its presence before search engines. Those are just some of the benefits an SEO-friendly blog can provide.

The five tips for blog introductions that can captivate readers and SEO

Without further ado, let’s get into the secrets!

Tip 1: Start with an interesting statistic.

Stats are one way to generate readers’ interest as the blog is opened. Most readers out there won’t realise how crucial a topic is until you present relevant statistics that can serve as eye-openers. For example, if you’re writing a health-related blog, statistics such as, ‘4 out of 5 people are at risk with this disease’ or ‘60% of Australians do not know what this certain health risk is’ can initiate interest among readers. Just make sure you are sharing truthful information to them and you’re good to go!

Tip 2: Ask a direct question to the reader.

Another strategy that can work is to ask your readers about the problem your blog can address. There are three ways you can do this: (1) directly ask readers about the problem your blog can solve, (2) paint a picture of the readers’ assumed current situation, and (3) ask users whether they want the solutions you’re offering. This encourages conversations and discussions as well, enabling your readers to stay within your blog pages looking for further answers.

Tip 3: Tell readers how you solved the problem.

This is one way of opening up a blog, use testimonials. For example, you opened your blog with a statement that one of your clients can generate customers for her baking business using only social media marketing because of your company’s social media marketing strategies. It looks simple, but it leads the readers to a question of how it was made possible, this will then lead them to continue reading and find answers in the process.

Tip 4: Confront your readers’ mistakes.

When we say this, we don’t mean be aggressive and lose your potential readers in the process.

What we mean is, you can open your blogs in a way that confronts your readers’ mistakes and makes them aware that they must be corrected. Let them know, the only way to do so is to read your blog and find the answers! But you also need to establish your expertise on the topic you’re delivering so the effect will be more convincing.

Tip 5: List all potential questions readers could ask about the topic/problem.

Commonly, this takes place in the pre-writing process. If you have the topic or problem at hand, you can list down questions your readers might ask about it. It won’t only add relevance to your opening paragraphs, but it also leads you to richer target keywords you can insert within it.

One encouraging fact about all these tips is that you can use them with whatever your blog topic is. But finally, your introduction must not be a mere tease - the entire blog must be informative and uplifting enough so readers will gain the benefit of your content.

Struggling with how your blog can generate readers? Worry no more, because Melbourne’s leading web content writing services are here to help you - Elephant in the Boardroom. Contact us at www.elephantintheboardroom.com.au and find out how our SEO and marketing experts can support and elevate your content to its best!