Why does every blog post on here start with a personal story that has nothing to do with the point?

I was reading through some content strategy articles last week for a presentation I'm giving at our dental office. And I kept seeing these long stories about someone's grandpa or a coffee shop visit before they finally got to the actual tip. Look, I love a good story as much as the next person. But when I click on a post about building a content calendar, I don't need 400 words about your rainy Tuesday in Seattle. Am I the only one who scrolls past all that and just grabs the checklist at the bottom? How do you handle this when you're writing for clients who just want the info fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_margaret8d ago

Right, because nothing says "expert advice" like a tangent about finding a four-leaf clover on the way to Starbucks. I just skip straight to the bullet points and hope the writer didn't bury the actual info in paragraph seventeen. Is that the new SEO trick or just a way to pad the word count?

julia_miller248d ago

700 of the first 800 words in a post I opened last week were about the author's dog barking at a squirrel. Then they finally got to the point about email automation. @the_margaret is right that some writers use fluff for SEO or word count padding. I actually like the short intros that set up a problem in 50 words or less, not a whole essay. For clients who want fast info, we give them a summary box right at the top with the three main steps. The rest is just extra for people who want background.

angelar578d ago

The flip side nobody talks about is how these long intros might actually hurt the writer more than help them. Search engines are getting smarter about tracking engagement, so if someone bounces off the page because theyre tired of waiting for the point, that could tank the ranking. @the_margaret is onto something about the padding, but I wonder if its also a habit leftover from when you had to hit a certain word count for ad placements. Either way, its a gamble that probably backfires on readers who just want the actionable stuff. The summary box idea is smart, but even that feels like a bandaid for a deeper problem with how we structure content.