The Most Important Word

Do you want to know what the most important word is that you can use in your blog? Well to give you a hint, I've used it five times so far. Once in the title, once in the sub-title, and three times so far in the article.

You've guessed it. It's the word YOU.

Some time back, I did an interesting search on Google Adwords. I was looking for the words that would draw most traffic to my--and your-- blog. Out of the 20 words I searched for, the most important word was - YOU. The word YOU was billions - that's right--billions ahead of all the other possibilities I looked at. Would you believe that, during any given month, people search for the word YOU on Google 1,680,000,000 times.

Now is this fascinating or what? And what does it mean? Most important, what does it mean for us as bloggers?

Well, I look at it this way. If a word is that important we need to pay it attention. Let me rephrase that. You (and I) really need to pay attention to a word that is so important. Why is the latter sentence a better way of puting it? Because it's addressed to you. It's using that all-important word.

So let's look at this in more depth.

Why is the word YOU so important?

• Your readers are the most important purpose of your blog. No readers--no point in the blog. Therefore you need to address them in whatever you have to say.
• Your topic needs to be one they want to read about. Otherwise they won't continue reading.
• Your title, tweets, FaceBook entries, need to address their needs.
• As you address their needs, you in turn will benefit.

John Maxwell says,
"People don't care how much you know, until they know you much you care."

We all care about "I", "Me", "#1".

If "I" get nothing out of your blog, I'm not going to come back. (Sorreee.) So if you want me to come back, you need to make your blog of interest to me. In other words, we need to make our blogs of interest to them. You (and I) need to write for them and their needs.

In other words, you need to address you.

You may notice that I've used YOUR quite a few times in the above section too. That scored 226,000,000 Google monthly searches. Okay, that's nothing like 1,680,000,000 but it's still quite a few hits! And in case you're wondering, "I" scores 618,000,000 and ME 277,000,000.

How can you use YOU more often in our blog without becoming preachy?

• Don't write for yourself. Write with your reader in mind. Address the YOU that you write for. Who is in your audience? Write to them. Speak about things that matter to them. Encourage them.
   
• Take another look. When you're finished the post, go back and check. How often have you used words like YOU, YOUR, YOURSELF? If it's not often, look to see how you can rephrase to make the article of greater interest to your reader. (Don't overload your post, now. That will only drag your rankings with Google right down. You're not trying to see how often you can use the word. You're trying to appeal to your readers.)
   
• Check your title: See if you can use these words in your title or at least your subtitle. This isn't meant to be a gimmick. It's meant to remind you how important your reader is.

It all goes to show how important YOU are. 

Over to you. How often do you use "you" in your writing? Do you find it easy? Or is it a new concept for YOU? Hit comment below and share with us.

SHIRLEY CORDER lives a short walk from the seaside in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with her husband Rob. She is author of Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer. Shirley is also contributing author to ten other books and has published hundreds of devotions and articles internationally. 

Visit Shirley on her website to inspire and encourage writers, or on Rise and Soar, her website for encouraging those on the cancer journey. Follow her on Twitter or "like" her Author's page on Facebook.