So you want to learn how to write a blog post? This means that you understand that blog posts are the content that will help you develop your blog and business.
You see to learn how to write a blog post means that you will make sure your visitors are convinced in those 2-3 seconds that they give you to impress them.
It’s also good to remember that you want your blog to be perfect for both people and the search engines.
To do that you need some elements that will assure your success.
There are so many blog posts that are just wrong from the top to the bottom. Too short, no real value, not deep enough.
Your blog posts need to provide something that your visitors can use.
That’s why here you’ll find how to write a blog post and what elements you need to make it the perfect one.
1. Know Your Audience
The thing is, you have to know who you are writing for.
Do they find the information that you want to share with them valuable and worth reading?
A very good way to do this is to create your ideal client or customer. You can also say, a buyer.
This means that you create a character that is a description of a real person.
You want to write down as much information as you can about your audience or a buyer.
Everything how old are they, what is their job, job position, what do they try to accomplish that you can help them with.
Are they running a business, or are they looking for tips on home improvement, or fashion tips.
These are all important information, so you know what to write about and write a blog post that is tailored for them.
Knowing that will make sure you are not just throwing out some content but really optimizing your content for your audience, that actually cares about this type of content.
A great tool to create a start with creating a buyer persona is a Hubspot tool Make My Persona.
As you develop your business or blog you will add more and more things to this persona or create a second persona so you’ll serve your audience better.
2. Research The Topic You’ll Write About
You see, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel to have something to write about.
Find a way to make it better and more insightful. Basically, create a better piece of content.
Yes, that takes time to research and write it, but it will be worth it.
The research will help you to understand what types of posts are ranking and what you can do to make them better.
Also, you’ll get the foundation to write your blog post.
3. Create An Outline of Your Blog Post
Now that you have conducted research for your topic it’s a good time to create your blog post outline.
I know it can be confusing.
How are you supposed to create an outline before you have anything written?
I had the same problem at the start.
But as you have read through the posts and articles by other authors you have gained some ideas on how your article will be structured with the main sections.
That way you will have a straightforward plan for what you are going to write and which points you’ll cover.
Just remember that this is not final and you can change or upgrade it anytime if you feel you want to add something.
The outline will help you to write the post and your readers to read it when published on your blog.
Just look at the table of contents on my posts.
It’s there to tell you what you’ll find in the post and you can easily navigate the post by jumping to the section that you want to read.
Of course, I would suggest that you read the whole thing, but maybe there is something that you are particularly interested in.
4. Make Sure Your Voice Tone is Right
You can’t write in the same tone for a law blog or for a marketing post.
But still, you would want to make sure your tone is conversational.
Like you are actually talking to your reader.
I try to do this in all of my posts. My strategy is to image myself explaining to you in person like we are sitting in a coffee shop and having a conversation.
This way your writing will feel more fluid and human.
And that is what you are after, to make a connection.
It’s not a bad idea to use humor in your posts so you can come closer to your readers even more.
5. Make Sure Your Post is SEO Friendly
To make your blog post visible to a search engine doesn’t mean to stuff as many keywords in it as you can.
But more to make sure you do the best you can with on-page SEO factors.
These are the elements that you have the most control over.
So make sure your blog post has these elements populated with the right keywords:
- Title tag – it’s similar to H1, but it tells the search engines what your page is titled. It’s important as the search engines that the text between the title tags as a heading in search engine results. It’s also the one that is clickable in the results (usually). It’s important that it contains your main keyword. But make it human-friendly. You write for humans and search engines are aware of that.
- H1 tag – is the first thing that you readers see on your post. It’s should contain your main keyword as the title tag. They are mostly the same thing. Sometimes you see that the H1 tag is longer than the title tag because there is a character limit in search engine results. More on that later.
- H2, H3, H4 header tags – These are used for subheadings. They help you structure the content to be easier to read. Use keywords in them if they sound natural. But avoid stuffing in the keywords for the sake of it.
- Write a meta description – This is the text that is under the title in the search engine results. It’s important that you include your main keyword in it. This is also the place where you try to convince the searcher to visit and read your blog post. CTR is important and you can see it in Google search console.
- Your blogs first paragraph – it’s the place where you include your main keyword. This way you tell the reader and the search engine what you blog is about and you confirm your title.
- Image alt tags and descriptions – It’s still a good idea to write a description or populate the alt tags of your images. For one it’s a good way of telling the search engine what your image is all about. That way you can rank in image search. The second thing is that you help people with disabilities to know what the image is all about as their software can read them the description. The third thing is, if you pin your posts to Pinterest then it’s a good idea to have a good description because the Pinterest is taking the alt text to show it with the pinned image. It’s not a bad idea to use a “data-pin-description” tag for Pinterest, as you can then include even important keywords.
More about what is SEO and how it works can be found in this article.
6. Show Trustworthiness
What am I talking about?
Well, you can see all the fake news posts and similar fake stuff online, so why would the readers trust you?
Give them a reason to trust you.
Link out to sources that have are trustworthy in your niche.
If you can provide data in numbers and link to the source, so you can show the readers that you are not just talking from your head.
Provide your name and what do you do as a trust signal.
Maybe even a quote from someone that is a high authority in your space.
7. As You Write Search For Internal Linking Opportunities
You see as you write your post, you’ll find that there are posts on your blog that could help your readers even further.
So you’ll include links to those posts on your blog so you can help your readers understand the topic even better.
It’s not unusual that topics overlap, so use it to your benefit.
This will also help you SEO wise. It will show the search engine that you are creating a bigger picture and it will help you to keep your readers for a longer time.
Again an SEO benefit and a signal of your blog content quality for the search engine.
You can see I included an internal link just above the heading of this section, and I am about to do it again just below.
To learn more about internal linking and how to structure your content, see the post about how to plan your website structure.
Now, these are just basic stuff that you need to do, to have a chance to write a really good blog post.
But I haven’t yet said anything about which elements your perfect blog post should have.
And the post is titled similar to how to write a blog post.
So let’s get to the next steps with elements of the perfect blog post.
Elements of a Perfect Blog Post
Now lets take a look at what elements your blog post should have to become a success.
8. Write an Interesting Headline
Your headline is one of the most important elements of your blog post.
As Copyblogger found out 80 % of the poeple will read your headline, but only 20 % will actually read through your whole post.
So creating an appealing headline is important.
Do a Keyword Research
Everyone would tell you to start with brainstorming it.
But I like to do the keyword research before that.
Why?
Basically, because that gives me the foundation to brainstorm it.
It means I am not all over the place, as I know that I want to include the main keyword.
Because you already did the topic research you have some idea on what keywords you are looking for.
To do it better use tools, like:
- Ubersuggest – It’s a tool to check your keywords monthly volume, competition, and backlinks
- SEO Quake (check how much authority your competition has, backlinks and more. You can already use it in topic research)
- Keywords Everywhere (as it’s combined with Google search it will tell you basics right in the Google search. It’s a great way to open your keyword research)
- And of course Google search (check for related searches and other Google suggestions to find the right keywords)
These tools are free to use. If you want you can also use premium tools like:
Which of course are on another level.
The closest to them is Ubersuggest which has got a ton of features that are free, all thanks to Neil Patel.
Let’s get to the next point.
Brainstorm The Title Idea
Now you have your keyword.
Just don’t limit yourself to the keyword.
You want it in your title, but still, you want an amazing title.
With the topic researched and the keyword research done, you have come to this point with a working title and you know which keywords to use.
Still, you can do a brainstorming session that is just throwing out ideas.
And once you collect the ideas, you can see which one could fit your keywords the best.
It’s not a bad idea to see what have others done with similar posts and make something of your own out if it.
Create a Title
Now that you have done your keyword research and brainstorm the title idea, it’s time to craft your title.
To have a better idea if your title is good or it needs some fixing, you can use a tool by Coschedule named Headline Analyzer.
This tool will give you an idea of how good your title is and what you can do to make it even better.
Use Numbers in Your Titles
It’s not a bad idea to use numbers in your titles.
Something like “7 tips for better writing better blog posts”.
It’s an easy way to use them when you want to create a post with a list of tools.
The Ideal Length of Your Blog Post Title
If we take it from Hubspot marketing statistics the title should consist of 6 – 13 words. With that count, you should expect the best results in the form of traffic.
The number of characters in the headline is usually between 60 – 100 characters. It depends on the width that the characters take in the Google container space that is fixed to 600 px, according to MOZ.
This length will help your headline to be fully visible in Google search.
Best Headline Length For Sharing on Different Social Media Platforms
But if you want your posts to do better on Social media, data suggest that there is some difference in the length of the title.
Let’s take a closer look at this.
First, it’s fair to say that headlines for social media are more and more bizarre and are closer to clickbait.
I would, however, advise you to not go for a clickbait headline.
But still, make sure that your headline invokes curiosity and emotion. And please not in a bad way.
What about length?
According to CoSchedule they are different for different social media platforms:
- Twitter: 71 – 100 characters
- Facebook: 40 characters
- LinkedIn: 80 – 120 characters
My advice is to go for a compromise as you should have a good headline for search engines as well as for social media.
This means that you are always somewhere between 70 and 100 characters. That way you have everything covered.
To learn more about the length and the perfect title see this article “What really is the best headline length” by CoSchedule.
9. Write a Good Meta Description For Your Blog Post
Meta description is that part of your blog post, that isn’t visible on your blog post, but it is shown in the search engine under the title.
It can really help you boost CTR for your link. Which can consequently help you rank better in the search engine, as it means that more people are clicking on your listing compared to the people that have seen it.
It’s an HTML tag that explains what your blog post or a page is all about.
The description should be around 150 -160 characters long. While on mobile the length is at 120 characters.
Stay between 150 – 155 characters.
10. Your Blog Posts Featured Image
It’s another element in your blog post that you shouldn’t forget about.
The featured image sits on top of your blog and tries to get the reader to be even more curious about your post.
In my blog, it sits at the top of my blog post, behind the title
Also, this image is the one that will show up if you share your blog post on social media platforms.
First of all, make sure the image is visually appealing.
It should be connected to your topic, but it doesn’t have to be directly connected, it can also represent a metaphor.
Whatever you do, make sure you are allowed to use the images that you publish in your posts.
You can’t just take random images from Google.
They have to be licensed in a way that you can use them.
You can find free images to use in our post that contains 50 + website with free stock photos.
The images on these websites are all licensed under CC0, which means you are able to use them for free with no attribution required.
However, make sure you check the license and terms of use on every individual website. Just to be safe.
11. Write a Compelling Introduction
The introduction is the first few lines of your blog post. It should make sure your reader is hooked enough to read further.
Don’t make it too long (yes, I make this mistake all the time, as I want to make sure people understand what the blog post is about).
You can use humor, interesting facts, cliffhangers.
Something that can make your reader interested enough to read the whole post.
Still, it should also be direct enough for the reader to see the point of the post.
12. Body of Your Blog Post
This is your content, the substance that you are providing to your readers.
It’s where you tell them all about your topic.
Of course, your body text should be divided with subheadings. This means that your blog post is divided into multiple sections.
More on subheadings later.
The ideal length of a perfect blog post is different according to different sources.
According to CoSchedule, a blog post should be 2.500 words long to rank good in organic search.
Buffer, for example, recommends 1.600 words in a blog post.
While Hubspot found that blog posts that are between 2.250 – 2.500 words long rank the best.
But length or word count shouldn’t be your main focus.
Of course to cover a topic and to provide a quality piece of content you will write longer posts.
But that doesn’t mean that your goals should be 2.500 words if you don’t have the content to write a post that long.
An awesome post by SEJ covers the topic of the perfect length of a blog post. You’ll find out that it depends on the topic that you are covering.
Your goal should be quality and not quantity. Don’t write fluff.
So from this, we can conclude that blog posts between 1.600 and 2.500 words are producing the best results.
But don’t push it. Sometimes the post that is 1.200 words long can have better quality that the one with 2.500 words.
13. Include Subheaders
They will help you improve your SEO and most importantly, they will help you improve the readability of your post.
They help your reader to better understand the blog post. It also helps Google to understand your post better.
Subheadings should be enclosed in H2 or lower H tags.
Don’t use H1 tags for subheaders as for SEO this tag signals a title and should only be used once on the page or post.
Where possible include keywords so that you enhance the SEO and help search engines to understand your post even better.
Problogger suggests that you use a subheading for every 500 words. At least.
While you can see that Express Writers use it even more often, for every 100 words in their Guide to subheadings.
The thing is that you should use them where you find them fit in.
WP plugin Yoast SEO will signal to you that your sections are too long if you don’t have a subheading every 300 words.
My recommendation would be that you should have a subheading for every 100 – 300 words.
To not get into trouble where to include them plan ahead, check the number 3, create an outline.
14. Use Bullet Points
They are another element that can help you make your blog easier to read and follow.
Besides that, they also give you a chance to point out some important steps or points in your blog post.
It’s a good idea to use them as some sort of headlines.
But sometimes it can be a place with more text (like you see in this post), but usually make the short and to the point.
Together with subheadlines, they are a great way to break up the text.
15. Use Data in your Blog Post
What does this mean?
Well, simple. Use real numbers instead of words, where possible.
See above how I used numbers and not words.
Include sources of your data. This will also help you establish trust and provide facts to your readers.
It will also help you link to trustworthy websites and it can help your SEO.
16. Include Images, Videos, Graphics
People have low attention spans, so it’s important that you include some images, videos or other graphics to break the flow and help them to re-engage with your content.
This will also provide extra value to your readers, as you’ll add to your post format.
It can even be some posts from social media.
You can add an audio recording of your post, or video.
If you can change your post to an infographic, add it.
Besides breaking up your post for better readability, it will add value to your post in the eyes of your readers and search engines.
17. Tie It Up With a Good Conclusion
Wrap up your post with a conclusion that ties everything up in a nice finished product.
Let your readers know that the post is coming to an end.
Draw up your conclusions and try to show what they should take away from your post.
Summarize the main points of the post.
It doesn’t have to be long.
For good measure, this is the opportunity to provide some more resources for your readers and increase the provided value.
18. Add a Call To Action at The End
This is one of the most important parts of your blog post. It would be foolish not to include this tip into a post that talks about how to write a blog post.
It can be a simple request to your readers to comment and share the article.
Maybe you want to offer your help in case they need it, so you add a call to action as a contact button.
Just remember that call to action is something that is different from other elements in the post, so it stands out.
Conclusion
If you are still here, thank you for your patience. We have come to an end of this guide on how to write a blog post.
Remember that it’s important to research your topic. Come up with an interesting and powerful title.
Make sure you structure your blog post for better readability with subheaders and bullet points.
Use data and numbers where you can. Tie it up with a good conclusion and don’t forget to include a call to action.
To do what I am preaching, below is my call to action.
Hopefully, you find this post helpful, if so, it would mean a lot if you can share it.
If you need any help with planning your posts send us a message.
SEO specialist and Founder of Nomiscom WebDesign. Here to help you grow your business with the strategic approach to designing your business website and growing it to become the tool that is increasing your revenue.
