A Word Cloud is a visual depiction of your words taken from a blog post or from an entire blog. It can be created using various online software programs that are free. When I set out to create the below Word Cloud (as part of the Word Count Blogathon 2013) I started to think about its purpose and the possible benefits thereof when it comes to blogging.
Benefits of Using a Word Cloud
Firstly, a Word Cloud can be highly beneficial as a visual depiction of a particular subject. It can make a boring blog post more interesting and visually appealing. Clouds can also be created in different shapes, using different colours, fonts and layouts. It’s a simple way to be creative and to add a bit of pizazz to your blog posts. For example, if you’ve just written a post about your travels through Botswana you may want to use a Word Cloud to illustrate the different emotions you experienced on the trip. Word Clouds are basically an interesting, visual way of summarizing your writing in a somewhat instant manner.
Secondly, besides the abovementioned obvious advantage of a Word Cloud, I began to realize that this visual depiction of words can in fact, be quite useful. A Word Cloud has the potential to tell us as bloggers, what kinds of words we make use of regularly. The Word Cloud shows words that are used more frequently in a larger font, as opposed to words used once or twice that have a much smaller size. This means you can easily and quickly gauge how often you use certain words. If you take a look at the Word Cloud I made above, you’ll notice that prominent words such as ‘travel’, ‘write’ and ‘promote’ are ones I used frequently throughout my chosen blog post – 8 Secrets to Becoming the Best Travel Blogger Ever.
As writers, we often get stuck in a rut and continuously make use of certain words from our vocabularies. This is not an easy thing to change. So by playing around with any Word Cloud software we are able to determine which words we tend to utilize more often than others. Interesting patterns begin to emerge in our writing when using Word Cloud software. This has the benefit of showing us what we need to work on or how we can improve our vocabulary within our blog posts. Dull and simple words in the Cloud may equate dull and boring blog posts, and this is the last thing we as writers want.
How can we expand our vocabularies after identifying those words on which we constantly rely? By using an index book. I record new words I encounter using this book and write their meaning. I often carry it around in my handbag because who knows when I will encounter a new word that has the potential to spruce up my latest blog post.
On the other hand, a Cloud can also importantly show us the main keywords constantly mentioned throughout our website. These keywords may help our blog to rank in Google and further improve our SEO. So the more we use certain words and phrases, the better this may be for the overall marketing of our blog.
What other benefits can this have for bloggers?
What do you think are any additional benefits of using a Word Cloud? Feel free to add your comments below this blog post or contact Elizabeth of WordWorx via email to share your comments: info[AT]elizabethjoss.com.
Note: I have created various Word Clouds using ABCYA.com Word Clouds. However, there are plenty of other sites whereby you can create a Cloud; some have much more elaborate designs and interesting patterns.
