How Many Ingredients Are In This Blog Scoop?

"Simple is better" could become 2010’s most powerful marketing mantra, according to Bruce Horwitz of USA Today ("How Many Ingredients In This Scoop?").  Horwitz explains that consumers these days want to know not only what’s in the stuff they eat and drink – they want to know what’s not.

Simplicity’s an apt mantra for business blogging as well.  "At the end of the day," says Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware, "search engines want to deliver relevant content."  And relevance, according to Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land, means "keeping to the topic, helping the search engine understand what your site is about…ideally about one thing in particular."

So, what should be the basic ingredient mix in an SEO marketing-friendly blog?

Convinceandconvert.com names eight blog elements, but my take is that there are five basic must-haves for each blog post, and I believe you should decide on those in the following order:

1.  Today’s main point
Each post should have a "reason for being" that can be summarized in one statement, a sort of blog post "elevator speech".

2.  Title
After deciding on a main point, you can use a keyword-rich title to capture the attention of search engine spiders. The work of your title is hardly done at that point, however; it needs to engage the curiosity of searchers so they click on that link.

3.  Supporting points
These are like the legs supporting the seat of a stool, where the seat is your main idea for the post. Here’s where a bullet-pointed list, an illustration, or an anecdote might come into play.

4.  Visuals
Add power to the words in your post with a blog visual – a picture, chart, or video clip.

5.  Call to action
Suggest where readers can go from here – click to your website, call you, send an email, post a comment, ask a question, respond to a survey or question you’ve posed.

Michael Pollan, author of the book In Defense of Food, apparently agrees with me about five being about the right number for ingredients.  "As soon as you stress fewer ingredients," he says, "you’re implying that the food is healthy."

Very simply, the KISB standard, (Keep It Simple, Blogger!) could prove a rule worth keeping!