Optimizing My Niche Blog: Lessons in Writing for My Audience
When I started my journey into the world of SEO, I established a niche blog to put into practice all that I had learned.
And it started pretty well. I got some of my articles ranking quickly and things were going well.
Even though most niche blog experts tell you to optimize your blog for the readers, not Google. I did it all wrong.
I thought I was optimizing for the users, but inadvertently; I was optimizing for Google.
Not only that, but I assumed I was helping my audience by writing these unnecessarily long articles and believed they were “helpful.”
Yes, my optimized headlines brought my readers from Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page), but my content was not good enough to make them stay.
How did I know this? My aunt opened my eyes. My aunt is an amateur travel blogger. She travels around the world and shares information about her travels.
When she came on my blog, which I thought was good, she said “Oh gosh! How do you expect anyone to read these?”
You see, my blog is a blog that reviews beauty products, and I thought writing long in-depth reviews would help people make informed decisions.
There are niches for that, not mine. People are looking to make quick, informed decisions and fast. My aunty helped me see things from the angle of the regular Jane or John.
A good example is: if you want to buy an iPhone to start your career as an influencer. And you read these two reviews of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max sports an LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED Screen with 120Hz, HDR 10, and Dolby Vision and goes up to 2000 nits brightness.
It has a 1/148 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS and a 12 MP, f/2.8, 120mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.06", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, 3D sensor‑shift OIS, 5x optical zoom triple camera system that brings your images and videos to life.
(I know you skipped everything above)
The 15 Pro Max Apple A17 Pro (3nm) chipset with a hexa-core CPIU and 6-core graphics Apple GPU to handle all your video and editing needs.
OR
The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch screen with deep vibrant colors and a joy to look at every single time you pick up your iPhone. The 15 Pro Max screen is so good that your images will look better on it.
The iPhone comes with a triple camera system that takes photos and videos at the highest quality of any other phone on the internet. With some excellent editing skills, your social media pages will be the envy of other social media influencers.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max not only takes stunning photos, but it is also a powerhouse for editing large photos and videos. You can edit your huge-data photos and videos on this iPhone with no lagging, freezes, or slowing down, and you can do them on the go, with no need for a MacBook or an iPad.
If you read either of these articles, which helps you make a well-informed decision to buy the iPhone?
Even as someone with copywriting experience of over 5 years, I assumed writing on a niche website requires me to go too in-depth.
My articles were less complicated than the first iPhone excerpt. But they were not as helpful either. They were information for the nerdy, not regular people.
Armed with this realization, I am leveling up. Focusing more on the advantages of the products than on features, more on the emotions it might invoke and the best use case. Instead, of on the unnecessarily granular stuff.
The funny thing is, I write my articles faster. Usually, it takes me weeks to write a 3000-word article, and now, I do it in less than 7 hours — by hand.
Writing by hand is another new writing hack I have been trying out recently. I’ll talk more about it soon.
I write about how I am growing my writing-based business. Furthermore, I am also working on launching a writer + entrepreneur community.
If you sign up today, you’ll be one of the first to know when it’s live.
Thank you for reading.
