The first paragraph of your blog post should capture the readers attention, tell them what you’re going to tell them and use the keyword phrases in the first and last sentence. The first paragraph of your blog post is used in many ways including imports into facebook, and as snippets in archives and rss feed. It’s important to express the main theme of your post, use your keyword phrases and describe what you’re going to go into detail about.

Google may only look at the first 1000 characters of your blog pages, so a good practice is to use the “more” feature just shortly after the introduction paragraph, or just a few more characters into the blog post. Consider grabbing their attention with the first paragraph, then hooking the reader by using the “split post” tag also known as the “more” tag. Grab their attention, then ask them to “click here to read more” (what the “more” tag does).

By doing this, you can keep your front page at 5 to 10 posts but they’re so short, that Google spiders the entire front page and catches everything. It also allows your readers to browse the front page and see what sort of things you write about.

Then there’s the little issue of how the archives work. Generally, the archives are limited to the first paragraph, so again, you’re being efficient at informing the reader about your post and it carries over automatically to the archives.

The Facebook app “Notes” allows you to import automatically from your blog feeds right into your mini feed, alerting your friends and profile viewers about your new blog post. They make a decision about your post based on the title of your blog post and then the first paragraph they read. If they like it and it’s informative (ie: tell them what you’re going to tell them), and relative to what they want to know, that first paragraph is the “GO - NOGO” decision to visit your site.

If people are limiting the amount of info they read in their rss feed reader, the first 100 to 250 words are critical. Again, based on the description, it’s the GO - NOGO about visiting your site and reading the post.

Tip for the week: Be aware. Be open to learning. Pay attention to what you’re seeing when you read blog posts, rss feed snippets and other blogs “first paragraphs”. How can you learn from what others are doing and what do you notice about how they could improve. Use what you learn to improve your own first blog paragraphs.

The first paragraph can be critical in the decision process to whether or not your reader visits your blog, continues to read the post and or even stays on your website. Your first paragraph can be beneficial in Google spidering your site, you getting listed and being identified in the search engines. If your interest is in increasing your income, then visitors and eyeballs are what you need. If your interest is spreading the word, or sharing your thoughts to as many people as possible, write a great informative first paragraph. As my English teacher taught me in grade 10, “Tell me what you’re going to tell me, Tell Me, and then tell me what you told me”.

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Tags: Blogging Tips, Facebook, Rss