how do you write a good blog post

Do you feel that? That little tugging sensation on your heart? You’re not sure what, but something is pulling you to change. Not in a confess-your-sins-oh-ye-sinners way, but to shift directions, to embrace your calling, to finally do what you were put here to do: Write. You feel the ideas inside you. You sense them straining to escape. You know your job is to set them free, firing them like a cannon into a world in desperate need of them. But you’re afraid. You’re afraid of quitting your job and living without a safety net. You’re afraid of the concerned, disapproving looks your friends will give you when you tell them you’re giving it all up to write for a living. You’re afraid of not having enough money for food, of the power being cut off, of watching your family shivering and hungry, all because of your “selfishness”. And most of all? You’re afraid you’re wrong about yourself.

As writers, we all share the deep longing to embrace our calling and express our ideas, but we also share the fears that so often sabotage those longings — the fear that we don’t have what it takes, that we’ll crash and burn, and that our dreams are just that — dreams.

In his introduction, Jon addresses all those longings and fears and immediately makes you feel like he gets you so intimately, it’s almost creepy.

Creepy, but effective.

Introduction Rule #2. Get into Character

If you want to captivate readers, you must trigger their emotions.

So as you sit down to write, think of the feelings you want them to experience:

Fear, anger, sadness, hope, joy, disgust, shame, comfort, love, courage, and so on.

Then get into character and feel them yourself as you write, and your words will read with undeniable authenticity.

When Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the heartbreaking lyrics in Hamilton that have left tears on the faces of millions, it was his eyes that first shed tears as he put his pen to paper.

So play with your emotions. Map out the emotional journey you’re taking readers on, and infuse those feelings into your writing. Feel what you want your audience to feel and your words will exude those emotions.

This tip applies to your whole post, but in no place is triggering your audience’s emotions more important than your introduction.

You feel me? 🙂

I once wrote an emotional post about my two little girls which addressed how delicate their emotions are, as well as my own vulnerabilities and my longing to give them the patience, presence, and love they deserve.

Here’s a portion of it:

I told my three-year old daughter as we stood outside the car in her school parking lot, the rain pouring down on us as she sobbed breathlessly in my arms. She didn’t want to go in the car. She just wanted me to stand there, holding her. And I didn’t want to rush her, or tell her to stop crying. “I’ll hold you for as long as it takes.”

I felt that longing intensely and definitely shed some tears as I wrote the introduction. The feedback I got from readers was that they felt the same intensity, and even cried as well.

When we write, our feelings seep into our words.

Introduction Rule #3. Lure Readers Down the Page

Want readers to commit to your post?

Accelerate their experience. Lure them down the page.

The faster they get pulled down, the more committed they’ll feel.

Too many bumps in the road early on, and off track they go, never to return.

Here are three writing tips to use in your intros to lure readers down the page:

#1. Open With a Short Sentence or Question

Kind of like how I opened this section. 🙂

This is how all of Smart Blogger’s posts open, and for good reason. It’s a copywriting technique proven to pull readers in.

Start a post with a long clunky paragraph and they’ll feel exhausted just looking at it.

#2. Take a Knife to Your Words

Slash as many words as possible.

If the first draft of your introduction is 200 words, try cutting it down to 100. The more you practice this, the more efficient your blog writing process becomes.

And when you write efficiently, your words have power. That power will grab your readers.

#3. Set the Rhythm

All writing has a pace and rhythm.

You want your introduction’s pace and beat to be somewhat quick. You can slow things down later.

How do you achieve this?

The best writers, like the best music composers, take readers on a journey. Fast and slow, loud and soft, urgency and ease.

The more you pay attention to this, the more rhythm you’ll infuse into your words.

Shane Arthur sends readers’ eyes flying down the page by using crisp sentences and short paragraphs to create a fast rhythm:

You’re not stupid. You know what writing is truly about. It’s a never-ending battle for your readers’ attention. Every sentence is a link in a taut chain that connects your headline to your conclusion. And you are just one weak sentence away from losing your reader forever.

He then appropriately slows things down in the section that follows with longer sentences. A masterful composition!

Introduction Rule #4. Make Them Beg

Want readers begging for your solutions?

Add a little fear to your opening.

What are readers worried about? Do they know what will happen if they don’t solve the problem the post is addressing? What is the worst-case scenario?

Bring those fears to the surface. Expose them.

By doing so, not only will readers feel a camaraderie with you (because you understand their fears, so clearly you’ve tip-toed through the dark side yourself), but they’ll feel more eager than ever for the solution you present.

We all have fears. We think we need to hide them, but the more we give voice to them, the easier they are to set free.

Do that for your readers.

In his introduction, Glen Long brilliantly taps into the fear of failure all writers experience by addressing the dream of making a living as a writer and then quickly smothering that dream with the doubts that creep up at the mere thought of it:

So, who knows? Maybe the doubters are right. Maybe you are naive to think you could earn a living doing something you love, instead of something you just tolerate.

The fear of failure is painful, yes. But giving voice to it is validating and makes readers eager for the solutions that will set that fear free.

Introduction Rule #5. Hint at the Promised Land

Finally, as you wrap up your intro, hint at the promised land.

The place readers will get to when they master your methods. The destination your post promises to take them.

But whatever you do, do not give it all away. Just one sentence that says too much satisfies your readers enough to send them clicking away.

Why? Because readers bore easily. You must keep them on their toes. And the point of an introduction is not to give answers, it’s to set the stage for all the hearty advice your post will provide.

In the introduction to Meera Kothand’s post, she addressed a problem all new bloggers face: How do you get to know your audience when you don’t have one yet ?

She goes on to talk about the big mistake many of them make (making assumptions) and why that’s ineffective. Then, she uses the simplest phrase to hint at a solution:

That kind of guessing is like throwing darts blindfolded and hoping you hit the bull’s eye. Sometimes it works. Usually, it doesn’t. Fortunately, there’s another way…

How could anyone not want to keep reading?

How to Write an Introduction: Bonus Tip

When writing an introduction, try drafting two completely different versions approached from different angles and triggering different emotions.

Doing so will highlight the techniques and emotions that work best for both your audience and the content of your post.

A word of caution:

No matter how eloquent your words…

No matter how powerful your prose…

If your introduction doesn’t satisfy search intent, readers will click the “back” button and never return.

What’s search intent?

It’s the purpose behind the Google search.

If someone searches for “how to lose weight” in Google, they’re expecting search results that will help them lose weight.

If they click a headline that reads “7 Easy Tips For Losing Weight Fast”, and the post begins with an amusing Nicolas Cage anecdote, there’s a good chance they will leave — never getting to read the rest of the post, which is filled with weight loss wisdom.

And when they leave, what they’re essentially telling Google is this:

“At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

And Google will respond by ranking your post lower in its search results.

Search intent is a big part of SEO (search engine optimization). When we do keyword research here at Smart Blogger, figuring out the keyword phrase’s intent is one of the first things we do. It shapes our headline, meta description, introduction, word count, and more.

The ins and outs of mastering it would be an article all by itself, so we’ll simply say this:

Taking the time to analyze the results in Google so you have a solid handle on why people enter the particular query your blog post will be targeting is time well spent. Figure out the intent, and then make sure your intro matches it.

3. Deliver Advice That’s Easy to Consume and Impossible to Ignore

Okay, you’re doing great.

You got readers to click on your headline, you lured them down the page with your intro, and now it’s time to deliver on all that you’ve promised.

If you want readers to love you and look forward to every good blog post you write, you’ll over-deliver.

If you want them to take a quick look and vanish for good, you’ll under-deliver.

The choice is yours.

Use the guide below to deliver valuable and easy-to-consume advice:

Content Rule #1. Add Pitstops

Subheads — use them.

Why? Because readers are scanners.

They have no choice. There’s a behemoth amount of content at their fingertips, and not all of it is good.

And so they scan (as do you, I’m sure).

Subheadings are your chance to prove to readers that your content holds value. To keep luring them back into your post, when their instinct is to leave.

Blogging is a battle, remember?

Keep these four tips in mind when drafting your subheads:

#1. Add a Subhead Every Few Paragraphs

Sprinkle subheaders throughout your post.

Why? Because they gently guide readers along the route your post is heading, making their experience feel clear, easy and enjoyable.

And never forget, your blog posts are all about your readers’ experience.

If readers see too much text when they’re scanning without enough pit stops, they’ll feel overwhelmed. It’s like getting on a bus tour and being told there will be no bathroom breaks … oh, the anxiety!

Every single post on Smart Blogger.

That’s how important this is.

#2. Avoid the 3 Subhead Blunders That Make Readers Bounce

Subheads have the same function as headlines; they must make readers curious so they keep reading. So you should follow similar rules when drafting them and avoid the following common blunders :

Let’s say you’re writing a post about the impact sleep has on anxiety levels and you include the following subheads:

See how the first subhead is way too plain, the second gives too much away, and the third, well, it probably made no sense to you, right?

The subheads below would do a better job at grabbing readers:

#3. Compare Each Subhead to Your Main Headline

Each subhead should clearly deliver on the overall headline of your post.

Again, if you’re viewing subheads as pit stops, they must all lead to the ultimate destination — what was promised by your headline.

If the subheads get off track and move away from that destination, readers are left feeling lost and confused.

In that case, either the subheads need to change or the headline needs rethinking.

Say you’re writing a post called “How to Silence Your Nagging Inner Critic” and you include the following subheads:

The fourth subhead’s sudden twist in topic is jarring. It does not deliver on the overall headline, which had nothing to do with your day job.

Perhaps you intended all along for the post to be about not letting doubts stop you from following your dreams and quitting your day job, but readers scanning subheads will not understand that.

They will simply feel confused.

#4. Follow a Format

If you are listing various “ways,” “steps,” “methods,” “signs,” etc., to achieve what the headline of the post promises, keep the format consistent.

If you don’t, the post comes across as unpolished. Bloggers overlook this all the time, but it’s easy to fix once you’re aware of it.

If you separate your subheads from the post and list them back to back, you can see if any stray from the course.

Say your post is called “12 Ways to Cure Insomnia” and you have a subhead for each of the 12 ways. You’ll want those subheads to follow a consistent format.

Let’s say your first few subheads read as follows:

Something there feel a little off?

The first three subheads start with an action verb instructing readers what to do. They are also fairly consistent in length.

But then the fourth subhead suddenly changes the format and breaks the flow. It doesn’t start with a verb and it’s much longer than the others.

This inconsistency may seem fairly innocent, but it’s distracting to readers.

Content Rule #2. Unleash the Unexpected

Let’s face it, readers today are info-holics. We all are.

So tired old advice isn’t going to cut it. Your post must be unique, bold, and eye-opening.

My advice? List your main points and see if you can add a unique perspective, experience, or twist to them. Something readers aren’t expecting.

What belief systems have you learned to challenge? What do you know that most people don’t? How can you shed new light on an old problem? What methods do you use that others won’t know about?

You don’t want to go overboard just for the sake of adding shock value. Your advice must be authentic and truly helpful. But regurgitating old advice doesn’t challenge you as a writer, nor does it enlighten your audience.

So pour your readers a little espresso for their info-hangover by delivering the unexpected.

Countless articles have been written about blogging, but how many have called you out for being dumb or told you to replace your friends?!

Jon does just that by knocking you over the head with some hard truth bombs about what it takes to make it as a blogger .

Content Rule #3. Follow a Formula

Notice how this post follows a pretty consistent formula?

Each section is relatively similar in length. Every subhead follows a pattern. Each section ends with an example.

The more consistency you weave into your posts, the better the reader’s experience.

Let’s say you write a list post covering five steps to achieve something. If the first step is 500 words, the second and third steps are 100 words, the fourth step is 200 words and the fifth step is 400 words, it looks sloppy. As though you didn’t bother to proofread it before hitting publish.

Your readers deserve the best, and minor details like this matter as they affect the fluidity of their experience.

Want to go even more pro? Look at the beginning, middle, and end of each section you write, and create a guiding formula. Perhaps you start each section with a bold statement or personal experience. Then you flesh out your advice in the middle. And then you end each section with a one-sentence call to action.

The more formulas you add to your posts, the easier they are to write and the more they look like polished works of art.

In his post on getting traffic from Twitter , Brian Honigman uses hashtags for each subhead, each section is consistent in length, and each includes a graphic.

Readers know exactly what to expect from each section, making for a fluid reading experience.

Content Rule #4. Be Ridiculously Generous

Many bloggers worry about giving away too much in their posts. After all, they want readers to sign up for their paid coaching calls or products.

So they hold back, barely skimming the surface of their advice.

Truthfully, if you’re not generous with your readers in your posts, they won’t get a good impression of your paid products.

Don’t hold back on your readers. Fully work through the problem with them. Give them complete solutions and powerful advice. Wow them with your generosity and they will stick around as loyal readers and customers.

Want to learn everything there is to know about affiliate marketing ?

Holy smokes. At 10,000 words, that insanely generous post by Leanne Regalla is basically a textbook on the subject, and reader comments praise it as such. (Let’s all bookmark this one, yes?)

A post of this magnitude is quite an undertaking, but don’t let it scare you. You can also wow your audience with your generosity and thoughtfulness in a 1,000-word post.

Content Rule #5. Start and End Strong

Just as your introduction and conclusion should grab readers, you want the main body of your post to start and end strong as well.

Of course, every section should have great content , but if you’re offering five ways to achieve something, save your absolute best tips for the first and fifth ways. The first way will grab your readers’ attention, and the fifth way will leave them feeling fully satisfied.

On the other hand, if each tip successively decreases in value, readers will feel like your post is deflating. And their excitement will deflate with it.

Let’s leave readers feeling pumped when they finish your post.

Linda Formichelli gives ten crafty ways to write 1,000 words per hour .

While all ten ways are excellent, I’d argue that the first (about writing under the pressure of a full bladder) and last (about gambling with your reputation) are the most bold and attention-grabbing (bathroom break, anyone?).

Writing a Blog Post: Bonus Tip

Before writing the main sections of your post, flesh out an outline to nail your points down.

The clearer and more simplified your outline is, the more clarity and conviction your post will have.

4. Close with a Motivational Bang

We’re almost at the finish line! It’s time to close your post with a bang.

This is where you rally behind your readers. Show them that you believe in them.

Make them believe they can achieve the goal promised by your headline (because after reading your generous advice, they certainly can).

Follow these rules when crafting your motivational conclusion:

Conclusion Rule #1. Give Your Readers a Pep Talk

Motivate your readers.

Show them how far they’ve come, what they’re capable of, and what life will look like once they’ve implemented your advice.

Give them the pep talk you longed for when you were struggling with the topic your post presents.

Empower them by raising your expectations of them. They can’t just read your post and pretend it never happened — they must take action. Immediately.

Make them see that no matter what they’ve experienced or how hard they’ve struggled, their time is now.

In this post’s conclusion , Jon uses all he’s had to overcome in life to show readers that they have no excuses: no matter hard things get, they can accomplish anything they set their minds to.

He encourages readers by letting them know that he believes in them and then he raises his expectations of them by telling them they need to get started … “right freaking now.”

By the time you’re done reading the conclusion, you feel like you can conquer just about anything!

Conclusion Rule #2. Avoid New Information

A common mistake many bloggers make?

Suddenly inserting new information or tips in their conclusions.

It’s like reaching the last ten minutes of a spellbinding movie. You’re on pins and needles waiting to see how it ends, and suddenly a new character is introduced. What the … ?!

It’s jarring. Don’t do that to your readers.

In his conclusion, Robert van Tongeren motivates you to repurpose old blog posts by comparing them to epic musical classics; if they disappeared into obscurity simply because they’re old, we’d all be at a great loss.

Imagine if in the midst of such a conclusion, Robert quickly threw in one more way to repurpose content, or one small caveat to his post’s advice, or one more general tip to keep in mind?

It would throw the whole closing off and leave readers feeling ruffled instead of jamming to Bohemian Rhapsody.

How to Write a Conclusion: Bonus Tip

When writing your conclusion, put yourself back in the shoes of your readers.

What will their lives be like if they accomplish the advice in your post? How will they feel?

The more you can hone in on your readers’ point of view, the more you can motivate them to take action.

Too many bloggers put too little thought into their closings.

That’s a shame.

Let’s face it…

Most people don’t read 100% of our posts. Heck, most people don’t even read half .

So how do we reward the precious few who read and absorbed the words we poured our heart and soul into?

With a closing we whipped together in 20 seconds.

Someone who makes it to the end of your post is primed.

They trust you. They like you. They want you to tell them what to do next.

So tell them.

Don’t waste this opportunity.

5. Polish Your Post So It’s Smoother Than a Slip ‘n Slide

Phew! You’ve written your post . Next up?

Take a well-deserved break. Step away for a day or more so you can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Once you’re ready, it’s time to do some editing. I know, the mind reels that there’s more work to do!

But editing your post is essential. If your post doesn’t provide a smooth reading experience, your reader will lose attention and bail.

Use this checklist when you’re ready to edit your post:

How to Edit a Blog Post: Bonus Tip

A great way to self-edit your posts is to read them out loud.

Doing so will help you catch many of the issues listed above, particularly things like overly complicated wording, run-on sentences and choppy rhythm.

Win the Battle for Your Reader’s Attention

Blogging is a battle.

A war to get your ideas the attention they deserve.

Your enemy? The dizzying array of online distractions that devour your readers.

This battle is not for the faint of heart.

There are so many learning curves. Blogging platforms and plugins you’ll need to install. Social networks you’ll need to employ. Content marketing techniques you’ll need to try.

But none of that stuff matters if you’re drowning your ideas in amateur writing. You might as well lay your sword down in defeat. Readers don’t have time for amateurs.

So before you venture any further down the blogging rabbit hole, you better make sure you know how to write a blog post like a pro.

Skip that step, and nothing can save you. Your battle is lost.

The good news is, writing good blog posts is a skill you can learn. And it’s one you must learn.

You have powerful words and ideas that can transform readers’ lives. Those ideas are worth fighting for.

So when you’re ready to enter the arena, arm yourself with this ultimate guide and fight the good fight.

Your readers are counting on you.

Content Marketing

Liz Careathers

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Written by Liz Careathers

180 thoughts on “how to write a blog post in 2023: the ultimate guide”.

I must say, I am totally convinced to read the complete article. I have completed the step 1 but will complete the other soon. The main things most of the beginner bloggers think that topic is already covered by leaders, how i compete with them?

So this guide will help them to find the answer.

Good Read 🙂

Thanks Kuldeep, I’m glad you found this helpful!

Liz, I have benefitted from your blogging wisdom as your student. This is a wonderful summary of things you have taught me — things we need to be reminded of. Thanks to you and to Jon for this post.

Also, if you chose the photo of Ste. Chapelle as the background to your “over deliver” statement — it’s the perfect illustration — did you know that? The French King who built that chapel had those walls of light created to meet the greatest challenge of Gothic architecture — to construct the highest possible walls of stained glass that could be created without crumbling. It has no rivals on that score.

This is one of the best architectural illustrations of your point you could have chosen. Well written and well done!

Thank you so much, Kim! I learn so much from you as well!

The credit for that photo choice goes all to Heather on Jon’s team, she knows what she’s doing! 🙂

So glad to see your post on here. It turned out amazing. My favorite points are tied to the idea of stealing and being simple. The number one mistake I see writers make is trying to be original, witty, and intelligent. People who think they’re above having to learn first principles always fail.

Kudos on using lickety-split in your post too. haha.

Off to share!

Thank you so much, Ayo! You have me cracking up. Thank you for noticing I used lickety-split, I was quite proud of that word choice 🙂

Wow!! Amazing guide… Thank you for putting it together! I’ll be sure to follow all these steps every time start writing my articles!!

Off to share right away!

Thank you Nadeem, so glad you found it useful!

Fantastic post!

We have a website/blog and our way of motivating is by providing samples of Truth and Beauty. We do this through images, words, music, movies and wine! We blog every day so we try to keep it fairly succinct.

Although our structure is a little different, I find this post to be extremely helpful and look forward to future posts. Thank You!

–Shawn

Thanks, Shawn! So glad you found this useful

That was a great article. I will go back to it again. In fact, I’m going back to edit a post I thought was perfect…until I read yours. Glad I hadn’t published it quite yet. 🙂 Jan

Thanks, Jan! Glad you can refer to this when you write!

Some great stuff in here! I resonated a lot with Avoid New Information – I’m always doing that with my blog posts. Too many great statistics to pack in!

What made you decide to format this as a long-form document rather than separate posts? I would be concerned about people seeing the length of this bad boy and being put off!

Ha, yes, you might be right Jack! This bad boy was quite a writing project all on its own. But since it’s an “ultimate guide” I just couldn’t leave anything out 🙂

Thank you for this incredible guide! As a new blogger, I have learned so much in this generous post. And now I’m itching to write using the steps that you’ve outlined above! I have bookmarked this post and will be returning to this guide often.

Thanks so much, Kat! So glad this guide will be helpful to you as you write 🙂

You’re very welcome 🙂

Thank you Liz for this overwhelmingly important information. This is really called “ultimate” for a reason. 🙂

Thanks so much, Mikel 🙂

Hey Liz, wonderful to read your post again. This article is an awesome checklist and will save us the trouble of Checking out the Blog Launch Formula video where Glen gave a kick ass presentation on the same topic. This is also a great resource for training new writers. Bookmarking this.

Thanks Peter! I know you know most of these tricks already! I haven’t seen that video but everything I know I’ve learned from Glen 🙂

Hi, Liz. I´ve been reading Jon´s posts for a while now. Yep, he´s the master of empathy. Undoubtedly. And I found my courage from his articles to start blogging again.

But as a loyal follower I read all the Smartblogger´s blog posts and you know what I´ve noticed? Jon has an incredibly sharp eye to choose his co-writers. Cause´ they are as talented and skillful as he is.

In fact, your guide, Liz, has triggered me to write this comment. Which, by the way, is my first one not only here, but ever :).

I know well how much time and effort it took to put this guide together. It seems so smooth, playful and professional, but in reality there`s loads of work hidden under the playfulness.

So I simply say: thank you, Liz!

I now bo back to my blog posts and work harder to be worthy of this guide, some day 🙂

Cheers, Sigrid

Thank you so much for these kind words, Sigrid! I can see just from your comment that you are a talented writer 🙂 And you are right about the amount of work that underlies the playfulness! Your words are very much appreciated!

Ups, I left my photo behind, that´s fixed now 🙂

Hey Liz, what can I say except… Boom! You nailed it. Your post is an amazing and generous resource for bloggers. Every blogger should bookmark this goldmine of advice. I’ll stop there before Jon deletes it 😉

Thanks so much, Miranda! 🙂

Wow amazing post with tons of actionable advice that will help us become better writers. I definitely took away a lot of gold nuggets just from reading it.

I definitely need help crafting better headlines. This is something that I’ve been working on to get people to my blog. I’m going to check out the 52 Headline hacks to see what else I can learn.

Also, love the tip of closing with a motivational bang. Definitely, makes a lot of sense and will make your reader feel better.

Thanks again Liz for these useful tips. I’ve bookmarked this page so I can refer to it when I write my next blog post.

Have a great day!

– Susan

Thank you Susan! You will love Jon’s Headline Hacks!

Even as someone who has written 100’s of blog posts over the years I found the suggestion and tips here great. I know for sure my headlines leave room for improvement!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Bradley! So glad this was helpful to you!

This is a very informative article. Great hints. Bookmarking it. Thanks for sharing this information.

You’re very welcome, John!

This much too long piece (especially in 2017) seems to be aimed at persons who have no writing experience. I have been a freelance and full-time journalist for more than 20 years. I have written/edited a wide variety of things, such as news stories, articles, newsletter copy, blog/web site copy, captions, subheads, and headlines. I have learned that conciseness, especially now, is very important since many persons now have very short attention spans. This piece needs a lot of editing. I probably could reduce the piece by at least 25%.

The people who are passionate about your topic (i.e. your ideal audience) will happily sit down and read an in-depth guide like this, as the other comments here demonstrate. This is not meant as a read-it-and-leave-it fluff piece. This is a resource for people to bookmark and use when they sit down to write their posts. The audience we’re targeting will appreciate it. But to each their own.

Hey Robert I agree with you. This is not just a short ordinary blog but an in-depth guide. Maybe Paris Wyome didn’t have her reading glasses on!

I think Liz has done an excellent job. All new and seasoned writers need constant reminders on best practices when it comes to blogging.

I’m a newbie to blogging so I’m lapping all the information up. You can never be complacent in life about anything. Learning news skills and picking up great information helps you move forward.

So many thanks to Liz for her time and expertise.

I have been a subscriber to Jon Morrow’s blog and there is no denying that he is treasure trove when it comes to blogging and I admire his writing style. He hs this flair to combine words into a sort of music. And he uses simple, easy to understand words.

But what confuses me is that, while you guys are always talking about the short attention spans of people, your articles practically guarantee that when a reader gets to the last sentence, I’ll be damned if he can remember the first.

They’re just way too long. Maybe you should not describe the flower too superfluously.

Great tips, whenever i need to find a topic i research it on buzzsumo to see which one has potential to go viral.

Thanks Tony. Yes, BuzzSumo is a great tool!

Just a few thoughts about post length.

Yep, it´s likely possible to cut down all the Smartblogger`s posts (including this one), let´s say, into bullet-pointed lists. Or shorten them in some other way. So that people can just quickly jump in, get an answer and jump out. Within seconds.

But I`ve got a question.

Have you noticed one single ordinary-length post here in Smartblogger? I certainly haven´t. Why? Cause´ these articles here are not meant for ordinary people. They are not meant for get-my-results-quick-and-easy kind of people.

They are meant for people who actually want to study, who are willing to put as much time and effort into reading these posts as the author put into creating. Moreover, they are meant for people who enjoy this particular writing style.

This article´s headline says Ultimate Guide. Headlines are supposed to deliver, right? And this one really does it by having a length of a mini course. Yet it´s not just the competition of who-can-write-longer-posts going on here, this is about actionable information. Yep, the competition is called who-can-write-most-actionable-and-thorough-posts.

That´s the reason I´m Smartblogger`s reader. Whatever question I might have about blogging, they provide me an answer. Thorough and actionable. With style 🙂

So I`ll take my time, make myself a nice cup of tea and start to read AND enjoy the posts.

Just like a good book.

So beautifully put, Sigrid! I cannot imagine a better description of Smart Blogger’s posts and audience. Thank you for sharing such an insightful and positive perspective!

Seriously..!! Unbelievable.. I never ever read this type of articles in my 3-year career. I m glad that I found this blog from online Junk. I started my profession as a writer but later I started online blogging. Now, I started my own blog as I recently quit my job. I purchased a Domain and WordPress hosting scottadlhochwriter.com and started making changes. I am really inspired by your blog @Liz and this blog is really helpful for me.

Thanks so much, Scott! And that’s very exciting, I wish you the absolute best with your new blog 🙂

I was wondering how to find and omit grammatical mistakes from articles. As a non-native English speaker, it’s hard to grab those bugs.

Grammarly and other proofreaders are ok but don’t give deep insights. So, the bugs remain.

Is there any alternative tool that does the job you know of? Or some guide you’ll like to suggest so I can brush up on my grammars?

I meant, the free version of those tools don’t give a deep insight. And I’m unable to get the paid version for some reason.

I personally only know of Grammarly and Hemingway App. But I did find this article which lists a couple of other options you could check out – thewritelife.com/automatic-editing-tools/. If you read the comments section, readers also mention additional options and insights.

I hope that helps!

Gotta say that this post delivers on what it says. “The Ultimate Guide to writing a blogpost”. Wow. I’ve only been blogging for ~4 months and the difference between the post I wrote after reading this and before is almost staggering. This is what I produced based off of this post. http://many-wounds.com/how-to-change-my-life/ and before this http://many-wounds.com/genetics-luck-propaganda-youve-systematically-brainwashed-helpless/ . Like I said, difference is staggering.

Wow, what a way to put things into action, Abhinav! And yes what a difference in the two posts! Excellent job.

Such a beauty! In a world where information is turning on us and has become toxic, it’s refreshing to read advice that offers clear, actionable steps.

Find out what your audience actually wants! Sounds obvious and yet so many of us just write about what we think is interesting.

Cheers Liz.

Thanks Drew! So glad you found the advice here to be clear and actionable.

So much so that I wrote an article yesterday and applied the points with a microscope. When it’s published I’ll share.

I think this is the best article i have come across for writing a blog post…you have really gave some useful tips to write some amazing blog post title…next time i am surely follow all these tips…thank you very very much Liz…this article has made my day..!!

So glad to hear that, Arvind!

The title is the most important phase of a post and should be powerful and clear enough to attract visitors and bring traffic.

Hi Liz, Thanks for the article. You are always informative to read. Always found something useful from your side since years.

I Appreciate you for this post. All These Five Steps in a Guide for writing a blog post helped me a lot to write an effective and unique content for posting. Keep Posting this type of informative blogs for learning.

Thanks David!

Nice article, you have almost covered all the points that have to be considered while blogging. Thanks for sharing.

Thank for this post Liz, what an amazing resource!

It’s funny you mention giving too much away with this post that gives so much away – but it is so valuable, it only sparks my curiosity to read more from the site 🙂

Loved the part about making your subheads uniform with the theme of the post. Especially the part about not introducing new ideas in the conclusion. I’ve definitely been guilty of that.

So happy you feel that way, Blake! This site is a treasure trove of blogging wisdom 🙂

Great blog my friend 🙂

Awesome tips Liz! I have been a blogger for several years but I always have new things to learn! Lots of learning here in your article! I was wondering, how often should we publish new content?

Thanks Emmerey! Everyone has different opinions on how often to publish, I would suggest picking a schedule (whether weekly, monthly, etc.) and just trying to be consistent with that schedule so your audience knows what to expect.

Hi Liz! Thank you for responding and for the tips! 🙂

Oh, how I wish I found this blog post when I first started writing, haha! I spent so many hours trying (and failing) to create good blog posts – I’m sure this will help so many new bloggers. I found that the subhead of my posts made the biggest difference so I can definitely vouch for you on that one.

Great post 🙂

Thank you Elise!

I loved your comprehensive post, which would have come in handy when I started blogging in 2008.

Headlines and subheads are important, but I can get stuck in my head and over analyze them (use the headline analyzer from Advanced Marketing Institute) for emotional value. Oh well. I guess that’s the accountant in me. 🙂

Thanks again for the post! I always refer people to the website because of the value the writers provide. The courses are great, too.

Thanks Amandah! Yes Jon’s site and courses are amazing 🙂

Fantastic article, I’ve been writing my own articles for about two months now. Before that, I had zero experience in blogging and writing. I read blogs how to guides online and tried my best.

I’ve improved quite a lot, I still need more experience and reading your article has given me more confidence in my writing. Thank you.

So glad to hear that, Giovanni!

Great article! I’m working on an putting together an ultimate guide post, and this sparked some ideas.

We know very well, every post start with a powerful headline, it is the mainthing which have potential to engage audience for maximum time on post. Here you have shown amazing way to craft a powerful headline for a superb post.

These are really great points and need to implement before crafting a headline for post. A perfect headline needs lot of research to make it outstanding to crawl on internet. Eventually, thanks for sharing your valuable tips with us.

With best wishes,

Thank you for this article, this is what i needed and was searching for. I would like to start writing next summer and need tips like this. 🙂 Hope I will build a content that I will be later proud of.

This article is very amazing since i am a new blog writer it helped me a lot. Your article was a real learning exercise to me and also its giving me lot of boosts to write more.

Excellent read, your dedication shows in your content indeed. Great job! Quite a lot to take in, but most certainly worth applying. Learning to write high quality blog posts have a flip side to the coin, as online writing jobs become quite a favorite.

That’s a great point, Deon!

Nice read, it was a worth to read full article. It really represents the completeness of information that you have presented for every newbie blogger. Thanks for sharing such a nice topic.

Thanks for reading, Anveksha!

Writing a blog post that gets a real audience attention is a challenge, finding a mouth-watering topic is a real plus in writing a blog post. So I ‘ll give a +1 to the point choosing a good topic.

Hi Liz, great stuff, my favorite part of this post is selecting a mouth-watering topic, proper topic selection helps you to engage more traffic.We should alway provide unique information to the reader of which they haven’t heard about it ever before.

Agreed Bhavesh! Thanks for reading.

Hey Liz, you wrote an incredibly detailed post on a familiar topic in a splendid manner. I like the fact that you have offered plenty of advice that’s either new to me or breaks the norm. I agree with you that headlines that have numbers in them perform better than non-numeric headlines. I read a recent post by Neil Patel in a similar vein and he has tons of research that proves the same.

Additionally, the approach of making the benefit clear right at the outset is beneficial for the CTR. However further reading and engagement would depend on whether the author actually delivers the promised goods.

Thanks so much, Amanda!

Thanks for the article Liz, it will really help me to write down an article, although my english is not good and i am learning it through online portals and hopefully soon i will be able to write some good articles.

Hi Liz, This is the longest posting i ever read. Full of useful points i need to apply on my blog and certainly need a lot of practice to master it. I usually run out of ideas after 700 words, always stops around that number. Great post.

Glad you enjoyed it, Yunar!

I have been trying but no traffic so which is the main issue , what do you suggest to get traffic for free and organic not long term

This article is an awesome checklist and will save us the trouble of Checking out the Blog Launch Formula video where Glen gave a kick ass presentation on the same topic. This is also a great resource for training new writers. Bookmarking this.

I will keep in mind next time while i will write a blog.

Wonderful post, you are going to be the next Neil Patel. Have you written on ” Site traffic”. I mean I have awful traffic on my blog. How can that be improved. Anyways, I am going to implement your tips on writing from next time.

Thank you for this beautiful post. Your post will be helpful for us in writing an effective blog post on our site.

Great post Liz! Thank you for sharing these tips on how to write a good blog post.

I have a lot to learn creating blog posts. Hopefully the tips on this page will help me to create something I’m proud to post online. I have many posts I’ve started but never feel they are ready. I best dust them off (update them) and get them posted. 🙂

I really appreciate your way of expressing all the points. It will really help me to write an awesome blog post. So thank you so much for providing this gem to us. Keep posting these type of articles. Thanks.

This was a great article. I will definitely apply these methods in my blog posts. Still, have a long way to go. Thanks a lot!

You mentioned each and everything a writer should follow. I have read hundreds of post related to content writing, and this is one of the best instruction posts for writers. I appreciate your hard work. 🙂

Thank you very much for this informative post. Really comprehensive. I am going to use these step which you have mentioned.

Liz Longacre, one of the best articles I have read on blogging. This has covered all the basic tips and tells you not to write mediocre blogs. Catchy headlines and emotional connection are two major factors in a post that you have to practice. I like how you have meticulously discussed about blogging here. Amazing article and thanks a ton.

I love adding inspirational bits in the end. I agree that blogposts should be written to change people’s lives.

Always go back to edit. No one writes perfectly in one go. Don’t be afraid to edit.

Really appreciated how you walked us through the process of writing a great blog post. Loved point #3 about “engaging the senses” I am using this point to make a previously dry review about small business startups more engaging to my readers

Really great blog post. I’ve been an SEO for nearly 6 years now and I’m very good at keyword focus, coming up with topics, and writing and executing. That being said, design is one area that I find escapes me the most.

I really enjoy the boxes you use to break up the text in the post, with the “examples” sections. How do you achieve this effect? It reminds me a lot of other nice blogs I see like Brian Dean’s and how he uses on-page elements to keep people on.

I have really enjoyed this piece and others and look forward to using your tips to improve my own site and grow! Thanks

Fantastic article! So much great data!

Thanks so much, Chris!

What a great and very in-depth article to improve our blogs! The examples of decent headlines and sub-headings versus exceptional headlines and subs are very helpful. We can clearly see the huge difference side by side and using your tips can now create better headlines ourselves. Obviously, it will take a little practice and some revisits to these tips, but I am looking forward to writing better blog posts and website pages. Thanks for all the help and advice.

So glad you found it helpful DJ Emir!

Hi, Thanks for your fresh post. Here I have a question for you. If I am starting with blogger is there any problem with this? I am here that after sometime google will disable account? So which platform is better for me? Thanks

I personally wouldn’t recommend starting with Blogger. Jon actually has a great article on this topic: https://smartblogger.com/how-to-start-a-blog/

Best of luck!

Nice post on how to write blog 2019, You really nailed it. Am impressed. Keep it up!

Thanks so much, Charles!

Hey Liz, Thanks for the wonderful post. Few questions: 1) How important is the questionable headline (nowadays every other articles headlines with how/what..?) 2) How important is the length of the content, 1500 or more as most of the top bloggers suggest? 3) If anyone decides to write an article of 1500 or more words. Is it good to break it down into sub-headers or paragraphs will do the same as sub-headers? Would be curious to know your thoughts! Thanks,

Hi Kuldeep, I might experiment with different types of headlines to see what works best for your audience but as mentioned in this post, ‘how to’ headlines are a great one to start with. In depth articles are good for SEO and perceived value but you can experiment with shorter articles as well if you like. For posts over 1,500 words, yes I would recommend breaking things up with subheads. My best advice is the more you write, the more you learn what works best for your audience so just keep writing 🙂

Hi Liz, Thanks for your feedback. So its more about diving deep into your own data to see what works & action accordingly.

Hi Liz, Thank you for sharing this informative article. I learned new things from you. It helped me a lot and I hope that it will also help others. I appreciate your efforts. Have a good day ahead.

Thanks Vicky, so glad this was helpful to you.

Hi Liz, Thank you for sharing this informative article. I learned new things from you

You’ve very welcome, Mirza!

Great, great article! I’m a total beginner, in fact i still have to write my first full post. And I have been very nervous lately because I had no idea how to develop it. This guide helped me so much to point me in the right direction and cleared my thoughts. Thanks!!

So glad to hear it, Alberto! Congrats on your first post!

Very useful tips on how to make money from blogging. What a great post, the information is well organized and very comprehensive. I can imagine the effort you put into this and especially appreciate you sharing it.

Thanks so much Adam.

Hi Liz, I am so grateful to have found your article. I’m an artist, and have finally gotten to a place where I am able to concentrate more on my art and to have an actual web page, (thanks to the help of my daughter) and to begin blogging.( I know that it is essential in today’s world for artists.) I’ve done a lot of research, as well as have a background in writing. You’re article is clear and informative, and I can’t wait to get started. Thank you!

So glad to hear it, Susan! Best of luck with your blogging & artistic endeavors!

Hi Liz, I have read it four times. Every time I got something new from the same source. The is an example of evergreen content.

Following your guideline, I have published a post today. I myself understand it become better than Else more posts in my blog.

“Without a headline, they have no roadmap to follow. And so their post goes in multiple directions, leaving readers feeling dizzy, confused and disoriented.”

This quote helps me a lot. Thanks for your efforts and generosity to us.

So glad this was helpful to you, Hasan!

Got briefly explained within you post “How to Write a Blog Post in 2019: The Ultimate Guide” love it. I’ll try in my blog techrecur. Appreciate your work, Thank you.

You’re most welcome!

I’ve noticed a lot of the examples of blogs used in the advice of Smartblogger articles always assumes the writer intends to write a “How To” blog, especially so in this article, particularly the section about motivation and advice the person can’t ignore.

What if someone actually wants write a blog to entertain and enlighten people, or change minds, or share thoughts, or do something other than cater to the endless deluge of problems people have and their need for self-help? For example, I might like to write articles analyzing the philosophical themes or real world accuracy in fiction, or give my thoughts on controversial social issues, or some other kind of article focused purely on engaging discussion and analysis.

This article’s focus seems too narrow and ill-equipped to give advice on such article topics.

Hi Jonathan, this post is meant to be a guide for beginner writers but by no means is it meant to cage you in. Please feel free to be as creative in your writing as you like!

I agree with your thoughts as you said that catchy title is a necessity of a perfect article. It should be like this if someone read this then he/she should click on the title to read the article. I have work experience on Uc news with 30+ million impressions on my article. In the start, I used to write the simple title with all details in title due to this CTR was so much low but when I start using curiosity in my title then my CTR increase like 5times to 7 times.

That’s great, Aaron! Thanks for reading!

Great Post. It’s by far the best guide for blogs I have read. I really liked how you said all the things in a not so boring way. In total Agreement with the thought of the catchy title. Keep writing such amazing blogs.

Thanks so much for your kind words, Oshin! So glad this was helpful.

Thanks for sharing this helpful & wonderful post. i really appreciate your hard work. this is very useful & informative for me.

thanks for sharing with us. thanks a lot.

Regards FutureTricks

You’re most welcome & thanks for reading!

Liz this is truly fantastic. As someone who with a team of 14 blog writers I loved this. You took a huge topic and made it manageable. What I really loved was this was all about SEO, keywords, meta tags, blah, blah. It was about creating damn good writing. Take good care of your girls.

Hugh, I so appreciate this. Thank you so much for these kind words.

Hi there, thanks so much! As far as the design here goes, I’m not quite sure, Jon’s team actually took care of that.

I agree with Step #5. Gone are the days that we write with a very formal and serious tone. The goal of a blog post is to entertain and that’s what I’m doing with my blog right now. I’d like to entertain as well as educate my readers. Thanks for this comprehensive blog post.

Regards, Valerie

Thanks for reading, Valerie!

very useful tips on how to make money from blogging. What a great post, the information is well organized and very comprehensive

This is probably the most comprehensive guide to writing a blog post I’ve seen yet and I’ve read a lot of them. I’m a freelance writer in my real life so I thought writing amazing blog posts in my blogging life would be super easy — but not so much. I’m really struggling to create killer headlines that grab attention. That’s a great tip on comparing subheads to your headline to make sure they match, and that they don’t give too little or too much away.

Thanks so much, Rebecca! I can imagine how different it must feel to jump from freelance writing to blogging!

A Very Very Comprehensive article for copywriters like me for building content especially for small business blogs.Thanks for the Share Liz..

Thanks Prasad!

This is a really comprehensive and well-explained article. Great work !!!

Thanks for sharing this inspiring article which can help many to decide on the choices they make for a better blog writing experience.

Thank you Liz for this wonderful writeup. I’m not a very good writer but your article has helped improve my skills. Thanks for your help

Hey Liz Thanks a lot for your helpful article. I always try to write about somethin. But i can not write. Because i had not any writing skill and i do not khow how to write a proper article. After reading this helpful article, i think that i have learnt something and which help me to increase my writing skill. Thanks Liz

I learned so much! It was a lot of information but your format helped so much. It made note-taking so much easier! Thanks for a great article!

Hi, Liz, nice article. These tips will definitely improve anyones blogging skills. Thanks for sharing.

Hello Liz, What a masterpiece and an insightful guide! I wish I discovered this guide before I started my blog. Noted that I have been doing things wrongly, but I am glad that someone has opened my eyes. Thanks, Liz for this

hey Liz, I am to this, thats why i was confused how to start blogging. But after ready you guide, i found my lost confidence. Thanks a lot for sharing.

I was actually looking for the format of a blog but this is very helpful and I will keep this in mind.

Liz, I used to think I was good at writing until I started blogging. Now I realize how bad at this I am. Your guide is a great roadmap. Thanks

I totally agree with you that creating clear, concise and curiosity-invoking headlines makes a blog post more interesting!

Agreed with you Liz. Amazing information you have shared with us. Everyone should read this.

Well, like you said, give credit where its due. I believe this is one of the few articles that read from top to bottom. I was researching tips on how to write articles and blog posts that will engage your audience and I found your blog post. I already sent this article to my content team and advise them on reading through your article from top to bottom, because there is value to this. Thank you LIZ.

Liz – I just bookmarked this article (and I NEVER bookmark blog articles). My favourite is “quality over quantity”

Hi Liz, thanks for the article I must say I learnt something new today

Attention grabbing headlines and data driven posts are a way to go. You also want to include influencers in your post so as to help later when you start promoting. Thanks for sharing 🙂

Hello Liz Most of post that i read in past one thing is common that is user intent. It is the base of any article and post the intent is most useful thing. When you write something the basic information as writer is intent.Thanks for great work & good to know some more information Cheers !

Your step by step guide will help me to write well optimized the blog posts for my site. Thanks for sharing this with us.

A very good guide. Content is King and every blogger knows that. Writing a Quality blog post is very important in blogging. You have crafted some amazing tips to write a good blog post. Keep Going.

very informative guide on Writing a Blog Post, i will use your tips for my blog, i want to increase my user engagement by writing google quality article, now i know how to do this, thanks for sharing this guide

Dear Liz, I don’t know which words used to tell you that this guide is the richest complete article I have ever found on the web. I read this article for at least 4 hours line by line to make sure I didn’t miss even one line.

I congratulate you deeply. I love all the sincere advice you share in the article, especially when you say you have to be generous and leave advice that is hard to forget. Share everything with the reader, it’s like attracting him to register or buy services. Without lying to you, the character you talk about in the conclusion is me. ahahah.

I am the one who always concludes the articles and I throw a new tips or advice in the conclusions. I learned a lot. Sincerely, thank you and I would not hesitate to recommend this guide to other friends even if they are more French-speaking.

Most alluring articles I have read in recent days. The hardest part is to articulate the strategies that would understand people with ease. You are a girl boss in articulating strategies. I am going to work out this strategy in my upcoming articles. Keep posting interesting ones.

I have recently started writing blogs for a company that I work for called Job Vacancy Result. I am also planning to start with my own blog page. This content was surely insightful. Helped me understand the nitty-gritty of Blog writing. Thank you!

This is something perfect. I was looking for this guide for so long. finally! I would like to implement it on my blog as well. Thank you.

Hello Liz, thank you for the extensive instructions! That saved me some beginner mistakes. I only recently started my own blog (on finance and saving money) and have been on your side ever since when I want to know something about WordPress and the like.

Best regards, Fadila

Hey Liz, Thanks a lot for bringing this entire information in one post. This is really helpful. I would definitely get back with the results after implementing them.

Fantastic! Your step by step guide will help me to write well optimized the blog posts for my site. Thanks for sharing this with us.

This a fantastic post. Your subheading is so accurate and intriguing, which made me read the complete content. The checklist is definitely handy.

Thanks, Abhisek

Your blog is a great resource for me as I am building my own. I think I’m going to learn a lot from you.

Excellent post. Wanna thank you so much for bringing this such an informative article to us. It really gonna helps many of us.

Thankyou again Best Regards 🙂

Very good article. Thanks for sharing such an informative blog. 🙂

I always wonder, why my blog post doesn’t outrank my competitors. Then I Google it to find how to write a great blog post, thankfully I reached here. I got the answer and am ready to craft a blog post that fulfills users’ intent along with search engines. Thank you, Liz.

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The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post

Updated: April 29, 2022

Published: June 01, 2017

Even though we all are crunched for time, spouting off a mediocre blog post for the sake of hitting a deadline isn't worth it. Considering our audiences have access to countless other articles, it's unlikely that they'd settle for a half-baked attempt.

We get it, though: It can be difficult to keep track of all the right blog components when you've got a full plate of projects. There's a lot to remember when crafting a solid blog post -- which means there's also a lot to forget.

To make sure nothing slips through the cracks and every one of your blog posts is both comprehensive and useful to your readers, we've created a rundown of everything you need to remember when you start writing. Bookmark this blog post, and make sure you've completed this checklist the next time you press "publish."

How to Write a Perfect Blog Post

1) headline.

Every great blog post starts with a headline that grabs the reader's attention, and compels them to click and keep reading to learn more. Internet readers have very short attention spans -- around eight seconds in length -- and the headline is one of the critical first elements that help readers decide if they want to click and stay on your site. In fact, 60% of readers don't read past the headline, which presents a big opportunity. Here's how to write a great headline:

Brainstorm a Working Title

Start with a working title in mind and brainstorm how to make the angle as interesting as possible. This is the phase of blogging where you start with a general topic and narrow down exactly what you want to write about that topic.

For example, if I want to write about the topic of "blogging," I need to come up with a more specific working title first. And those working titles depend on the format of my blog post. Whether you're writing a listicle, an explainer article, or a how-to guide, brainstorm a few titles to guide your research. Here are a few ideas:

Once you have an angle you want to pursue, it's time for keyword research.

Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research will help you create a headline that will perform well on search engine results pages (SERPs). Your headline is one of many factors Google considers when ranking results on SERPs, and an optimized title will help people find the information they need more easily.

Tools like Google's Keyword Planner , SEMrush , and HubSpot's keywords tool can help you determine exactly which terms people are searching for, and which will be easier or more difficult for your new blog post to rank for.

"Blogging" is a broad search term, and when I dropped it into SEMrush, more than 75,000 keyword results were returned. We recommend targeting long-tail keywords that are more specific to the exact audience you're targeting -- which you can learn more about by creating buyer personas .

When I searched for "business blogging," on the other hand, I found keywords with lower search volume, but would be more specifically targeted to the audience I'm trying to reach.

Once you've nailed the keyword you're targeting, you can create your final title, as well as your headers (more on that later). For the purposes of this example, I chose, " The Definitive Guide to Business Blogging."

Craft a Title

When it comes to the art of the perfect blog post, we've done some analysis and looked at how our own titles have performed. Here are the consistent principles we found:

We also found that headlines ending with a bracketed clarification -- for example, "The Definitive Guide to Business Blogging [New Data]" -- performed 38% better than titles without that clarification.

If you're having trouble trimming down the length of a title, run it through SEOmofo and Twitter to see how the title will appear on SERPs and when it's shared on social media.

2) Meta Description

The meta description doesn't live on your blog post -- it lives somewhere different that's just as important.

The meta description refers to the HTML attribute that explains the contents of a given web page. Basically, it's a short description you see on a SERP to "preview" what the page is about. Check it out below:

The headline, URL, and meta description work together to convince searchers to click on a link to read the entire blog post, so you'll want to put thought into what to write for this piece of your blog post, too.

In our analysis, we found the ideal meta description length is under 155 characters.

3) Featured Image

Featured images usually sit at the top of a blog post and are another element to draw readers in to learn more. The image should reflect what the story is about, intrigue readers, or provoke them. It shouldn't be too literal or obvious, and it can simply be aesthetically pleasing, too.

Here's an example of one of our featured images. It features a mobile phone and a bright yellow color -- fitting, considering I was writing about Snapchat:

Make sure you choose featured images that you're legally able to edit and distribute. Here are some of our suggestions:

4) Introduction

The introduction needs to quickly hook your reader and convince her to read the rest of your blog post. It also has to let the reader know what your post is about, so she knows what she's getting. Nobody likes clickbait, so you want to make sure your post is about what the headline says it is.

Whether your approach is humor, interesting and surprising facts, or asking a question, find a way to make the first lines of your blog posts as attention-grabbing as possible. Write an introduction that would make you want to keep reading an article -- a quick few paragraphs to draw the reader in and let him know what he's about to read.

Here's an introduction my colleague, HubSpot Staff Writer Aja Frost , wrote that does this effectively:

Frost uses a cliffhanger approach here -- and now I want to read more to learn about how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. For more introduction inspiration outside of HubSpot Blogs, I recommend reading posts on Medium and Buffer .

5) Sub-Headers

Sub-headers are another on-page SEO element that helps your blog post to rank in Google Search. Sub-headers organize and break up your blog post into different sections to signal to Google (and your reader) what the post will cover.

Sub-headers should be written with H2 tags or smaller -- never H1 tags, which signal a title. Use sub-headers to split up sections of your blog post -- making sure to integrate the keywords you're using this post to target.

In this particular post, I'm targeting the keywords "perfect blog post," which I've used in my title and the first sub-header.

6) Body

The meat of your blog post -- separated by various sub-headers, of course -- is where your readers will undoubtedly derive the most value. In our analysis, the ideal blog post length is roughly 2,100 words , but that will vary depending on your topic. Medium found that posts that took seven minutes to read earned the most engagement and attention.

Whenever it's possible to use data and numbers, do so. Numbers written as numerals (23) instead of words (twenty-three) have been shown to attract reader attention when they quickly scan what they're reading online. Additionally, numbers represent facts -- which are unimpeachable and most trusted by your readers.

If you're using numbers or data in your blog post, add [Data] or [Research] to your headline for additional impact, as we discussed earlier in the post.

8) Multimedia Elements

We've told you a few times that your reader is having trouble staying focused, so wherever it's possible to use multimedia content to break up the blog post and re-engage your reader, add images, videos, audio recordings, and social media posts. Changing up the format of your blog post will provide additional value to your reader while making sure their eyes are focused on what they're reading and seeing.

This pic sums up our #Mondaymood. What's yours? 🗒🖊☕️ A post shared by HubSpot (@hubspot) on Mar 27, 2017 at 5:12am PDT

Works, huh?

9) Conclusion

When you're ready to wrap up and sign off, make sure to let your reader know the article is closing. Your conclusion doesn't need to be lengthy, but it should serve to recap the blog post the reader just finished and provide more resources and guidance, if wanted. More on that next.

10) Call to Action

Finish your conclusion with a meaningful call to action (CTA) for your reader -- whether it's advice, a content offer, or a link to another related blog post. Use the last lines of your post to leave the reader feeling like he or she learned something from you -- and like there's, even more, to learn from you, creating the desire to click a link or CTA image and read more. The Blog Starter provides a ton of different methods to keep readers engaged, establish credibility, and build your readership.

For more ideas on how to write a killer blog post, learn from our analysis of 175,000 B2B and B2C blog posts.

What's your go-to blueprint for a blog post? Share with us in the comments below.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to Write a Good Blog Post: 12 Expert Tips (2023)

H ave you ever read a great piece of content that really stuck with you? Are you wondering how to write a good blog post that makes an impact? Writing great blog posts isn't easy. But it's not rocket science either!

In today’s article, I’ll tell you what makes a good blog and share some tips on how to write a good blog post that’ll bring in a lot of traffic. So let’s begin!

What Makes a Good Blog Post?

If you think that writing a good blog post just means using the right words, you’re mistaken.

There are a lot of other factors that contribute to making your blog post a success.

In fact, it’s possible (and even pretty common!) to be a great writer but not so great at blogging .

How’s that possible? Well, suppose you drafted an article that’s very well-researched and detailed and includes all the information your readers are looking for.

But it’s SO well-researched and informative that your paragraphs are really long and it’s hard to read. Maybe you forgot to add images or other media content in the fear of interrupting the flow of your article. Because it looks like a big wall of text, people are more likely to hit the “back” button than to stay and read the whole thing.

How to write a good blog post? Avoid "walls of text"!

Do you think people would call that a good post?

So apart from the words themselves, you also need to consider…

To help you publish an amazing piece, I’ll show you how to answer all these questions and more.

Ready? Let’s get started with our expert blog writing tips.

Expert Tips for Writing a Blog Post

Being a good writer is tough. But with a little practice and some research, it won’t take you long to join the ranks of other great bloggers.

So let’s check out how you too can come up with a blog post that you have always wanted to create when you started a blog .

1. Choose a Good Topic

The first step towards writing a blog post is to pick a good topic.

You’ll need to find out what your followers want to know and read about, so your post will continue to get traffic after it’s published.

Try to base the post on reader feedback, a known problem in the industry, or competition analysis .

Blog writing tips - start with a good idea

Platforms like BuzzSumo can help you figure out what topics are trending. Check out our list of SEO tools for more suggestions on how to come up with blog post ideas that are search engine optimized.

If you need help, here are some blog post ideas to get you started.

2. Do Your Research

Once you have your idea, make sure to research the front page of Google and your main competitors at this stage to see how you can improve on what’s out there. If you can’t write a high quality post that’s better than theirs, don’t bother!

You don’t need to be an expert on the topic, but you do need to do your research to make sure you’re adding value.

3. Take Notes and Start an Outline

While you do your research keep a notebook handy where you can take down the important points and outline your topic.

Okay, if not a notebook at least keeps a Google doc tab open. I like using Google docs because, unlike using a notebook, I don’t have to bother about losing it.

4. Start Drafting Your Blog Post

Now that you have the outline, you can sit down to write your post. I generally like drafting it directly on my WordPress dashboard. It saves a lot of time and extra effort if I don’t have to copy and paste it from somewhere else later.

Are you struggling to start writing, or keep getting stuck or distracted? See our tips on how to write faster and you’ll be churning out more posts in no time!

5. Hook Your Readers With a Great Opening

If you can hook your readers with a good opening consider half your work to be done. Because if your introduction is boring, people wouldn’t bother to read the rest.

Many writers find it easier to write the body of the blog post first, and save writing the intro for last.

A good way to write a great introduction is to pose a question addressing the reader’s problem. Then you can tell them how reading your post can help them tackle it.

This is a great way to grab your readers’ attention, and they’ll definitely want to read it till the end in the hope of finding the solution.

6. Write Like You Talk

Don’t overlook the style and tone of your writing. Both these elements can make a big difference.

Writing like you’re talking to your reader can make them feel like they’re having a conversation with someone, rather than actually reading a post.

How to write a good blog post - write conversationally

Your readers will feel like you’re talking to them one-one-one to help them figure out a problem that you can relate to. This is great for building a loyal readership.

7. Make It Scannable

People usually don’t read blog posts word-for-word. Instead, they scan them for the information they’re looking for.

That’s why it’s important to format your posts in a way that’s easy to scan. It’ll help your readers to get the info they’re looking for quickly, so they’re more likely to stick around your blog.

Here are a few ways you can make your blog posts scannable:

If you use these tips to make your text visually engaging, your readers will be more likely to read the whole post.

8. Use Images for Visual Engagement

A simple image has the power to make a boring post much more fun and engaging.

What you fail to explain in words, can be done with just a single image or a screenshot. Besides, it breaks the monotony of words and offers a refreshing visual break to the reader keeping them engaged for longer.

9. Include a Compelling Call to Action

Your post can’t be called a successful one unless you can convince your users to take action on the site.

What should your call to action ( CTA ) be? You could ask your readers to:

It’s best to stick to one CTA so your readers aren’t distracted.

For your CTA to be compelling, put yourself in the readers’ shoes and talk about the benefits of taking action. What’s in it for them?

Tips for writing a blog post - include a call to action

10. Add a Featured Image

Believe it or not, your readers won’t waste more than 2 seconds to decide whether or not to click on your post. If you want a positive response you need to have a plan.

Adding an eye-catching featured image to your post is a great way to get more clicks, shares, and engagement.

Shutterstock, Unsplash , and Pixabay are great platforms to help you find an appealing image to use. You can also use Canva if you like them edited. If you need more help, here’s how you can create great featured images for your blog posts .

11. Level Up Your SEO

How to write a good blog post - optimize it for SEO

If you think you know how to write a good blog post but it doesn’t get any traffic, you’re missing a step!

For your post to have a lot of readers, you need to level up your SEO, we have published a separate post dedicated to SEO tips for bloggers . If you’re using an SEO plugin like All in One SEO (assuming you have already installed it on your site), a lot of your work is done.

You need to add a focus keyword, add a title with the keywords in it, and also add an SEO title and meta description.

Your text also needs to have more than 300 words. However, I would recommend you to keep your word count to at least 1000 words.

Further, the images in your post need to be properly optimized too. Make sure they’re the right size and have descriptive names before you upload them. Each image should also have proper alt tags and categories.

For more details, see our ultimate SEO guide for bloggers .

12. Publish at the Right Time

Now you’re ready to publish!

The final step is to read out your post to yourself. This helps you identify errors and lets you rectify them before you hit the publish button. Do a quick read over for spelling and formatting but don’t waste too much time.

Hit publish at a peak time. For me that’s between 8 am and 10 am on Monday, Wednesday or Friday on East Coast USA time.

And that’s how to write a good blog post! Wasn’t too difficult, was it? Just follow these quick steps and see how you can master the art of writing a good blog post in no time.

Meanwhile, if you want to get more traffic quickly, here’s a guide that can help you.

Examples of Some Perfect Blog Posts

It wouldn’t be right to finish this post without showing you some of the most perfect blog posts that I’ve seen out there in the wild.

Do You Have a Perfect Blog Post?

Have you ever written a blog post that went viral or brought you a heaps of awesome results? I’d be really keen to hear about how you did it!

Before you publish your next post, use our ultimate blog post checklist to make sure you create the perfect post.

If you liked this post then be sure to check out guides on how to start a blog and how to install WordPress .

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thanks for sharing wonderful article

When I was learning about blogging in 2016, I found your blog, ShoutMeLoud, Backlinko, Neil Patel, SPI and WPBeginner very helpful.

You guys always offer helpful and highly informative articles.

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you, Inu!

great article thanks for the information

You’re welcome!

Great post, I really find it very useful as I’m thinking to start my blog so it really helps me.

Thanks, Daisy, let us know when you start your blog.

David, I am a great fan of your writing. I totally agree research make sure you’re adding value.

I notes these points and found them helpful, I will try to apply these on my work and will tell you about the results soon.

It was a great post! I liked how you have made this blog visually appealing that allows users to read it without toggling between tabs. Good work!

You certainly understand what you’re referring to, thanks for the info.

Thank you, for this amazing blog, everything is well explained step by step.

Fantastic article, I’m a big writing fan. I fully cooperate with work to ensure that you contribute positively. Inshort, I really find it really interesting, because I guess it encourages me to start my article.

I am going to start my blog writing career. The guidelines that you have described were so much precise & easy to understand. I am really thankful to you.

Glad you found the article helpful, Ovi. Good luck on your writing career! If you’re interested, you might want to check out our guide on freelance blogging as well. 🙂

Thanks for detailed information.

I always visit WPBginner and Blog Tyrant whenever I get stuck.

Curious to know the plug-in that you guys are using to create the numbered list.

Thanks Santosh! If you’re referring to the numbered headings in this post, I think they are custom.

This is really helpful, thanks.

Great article, with lots of useful tips.

I appreciate you and hopping for some more informative posts. Thanks for sharing us.

Thank you for the information , it’s very useful to me, I just started blogging this month and get frustrated in designing my theme, so I decided to leave it until I have money to buy a customizable theme, so I just want to focus on writing my blog post. Thank you very much, it will really help me a lot.

Hey Bilikis, have you checked out Blog Tyrant’s post on the best WordPress themes for bloggers ? It includes some free, customizable options!

Hello. I am extremely happy to come across this post that gave me accurate information on writing a high-quality blog post. Thank you!

It’s very helpful your words for a beginner like me. You have explained very well with easy words. Thank you very much.

Love from Kerala, India.

You put the you in thank you!

doesn’t tell me how to get the words to wrap nicely around the images or how to fix the big gaps between paragraphs with photos.

Hi Susan, here’s a guide on how to add and align images in the WordPress block editor .

Great post! Thanks so much for the ideas and info!

Your post is very helpful, thank you for sharing the ideas, I look forward to writing a better blog post.

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How to Write a Good Blog Post: 7 Practical Steps for Modern Bloggers

You don’t learn how to write a good blog post overnight …

Sometimes it seems like content writers are magicians, because we have the power to create great business blogging out of nothing.

An important point to note about magicians, though:

They don’t really do magic. 🙂

Instead, they study and practice specific behaviors until they can create that illusion of creating something out of nothing.

And of course, all creative people do the same . We study and we practice our craft, making consistent improvements to our content ideas, and (if we’re lucky) building habits that lead to more consistent output.

Today’s post will help with the “consistent output” part.

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The hardest part of writing a good blog post

I don’t think I’m alone in finding Starting the hardest part of writing, although writer’s block looks a little bit different for everyone.

Even if we’ve already learned how to create digital products , we don’t know what we’re going to write about yet. We’re not sure what the structure will be. We don’t have the first sentence yet.

The ideas are all running around in our heads like kittens with ADD, and we have no idea how to get them corralled.

For creative work you want to do consistently, like blog posts or podcast episodes, it’s a lifesaver to have a familiar, repeatable process you use every time.

Then you don’t put things on your calendar like Get the blog post done. You schedule a 20-minute block to Draft subheads.

7 steps to write the best blog post for your topic

Here are the steps I follow to create a great blog post.

Any writer at work can use this simple process to learn how to write a good blog post — as many blog posts as they need, actually, without tears or frustration.

Instead of thinking like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, think like a gardener.

1. Generate smart topic ideas

Start lots of seedlings …

Any time you sit down to write without a solid idea of what you’ll be writing about, you’re setting yourself up for frustration and wasted time.

You’ll be better off going for a short walk and bringing a pencil and an index card. On your walk, write down any article ideas that come to mind. (Not necessarily the one you’re writing.)

Productive writers know they have to catch as many of their ideas as they can — both the good ones and the silly ones.

An “idea seedling” can be a post idea, but it can also be a theme for:

Capture all of them. Make a habit of carrying something with you that can capture notes. Most of us can use our phones and an app. But go with whatever works. My friend Victoria makes a great case for 3×5” index cards.

If you find that you’re constantly running dry on ideas, boost this habit. Make a commitment to capture at least five ideas for content every day — even stupid or boring ones . The more content ideas you capture , the more will come.

2. Prepare for quality writing time

Make sure you’ve got soil, water, and sunlight …

Gardens, of course, need those things for the plants to grow.

As a writer, you have certain conditions that support doing your best work when making a living online .

You probably need to get away from distractions or interruptions in order to write a good blog post. (Turn off electronic notifications, at least during your work blocks.) You probably have equipment you prefer. You might have a little ritual that gets your writing brain going.

Quality writing is what Cal Newport calls deep work .

To hear yourself think, you need time, space, and privacy.

3. Outline your content

Set down stakes …

Once you have all these seedlings, what happens next?

For blog content, I like to start with some subheads . They form an inherent structure (kind of like the framework you’d grow a tomato plant on) that you can quickly eyeball to see if the final version will be relevant and useful.

They also come in handy for writing scannable content that can catch a reader’s attention quickly and entice her to take the time for a more thoughtful read.

Other writers find a mind map really helpful at this point. Mind maps don’t work well for me, but if they’re your cup of tea, go for it.

Once your framework is in place, you can start anywhere. You don’t need to start at the beginning to write a good blog post — just jump in where you feel moved, and draft a paragraph or two.

You probably won’t be ready to complete the draft yet. (If you are, just move to the next step.) But capture any words or phrases that occur to you. Expand any points, make a few notes of stories or examples, and track down the links you’ll want to refer to .

4. Draft a good blog post to start

Write freely …

When you’re ready to get some draft copy down, do it fast.

Unless you’re a very experienced writer, don’t stress too much about grammar, usage, spelling, word choice, or even logical flow.

At this point, it’s not uncommon for those ADD-kitten ideas to dart off in all kinds of crazy directions. That’s fine. It’s not a sign of bad writing .

Get your thoughts on this topic out of your head and into some words, and then we’ll figure out what to do with them.

If you end up with some tangents that definitely don’t fit into this piece of storyselling , those become new idea seedlings. Move them over to your idea seedling system whenever it won’t interrupt your writing flow.

5. Go deeper

Talk to yourself …

If your fingers won’t move on the keyboard, try talking to yourself. If you were talking with a friend, client, or colleague about this blogging topic, what would you say?

(Privacy does come in handy here. Not all of us have the social confidence to talk to ourselves aloud in a coffee shop.)

What makes you angry about this topic? (That always creates interesting work.) Anything frustrating about it? What do you wish people would do differently? What did you used to do incorrectly? How have you improved?

Transcribe your own mutterings as quickly as you can. Don’t worry if they look goofy on the page. We’ve got plenty of time to fix that.

6. Edit your good first draft into a great blog post

Prune and thin …

Once you have a bunch of words typed into your framework, you’re ready to prune it. Everyone who knows how to write a good blog post is also an excellent content editor .

What’s the main idea of this post ? (It’s often different from what you thought it would be when you started.)

Which parts of this post have a lot of energy? Could you move them to the beginning, to create a more powerful introduction ?

Which parts of this post belong somewhere else? Remember, they’re idea seedlings, so you don’t lose them by cutting them out of this piece.

Read what you have aloud. As you become a master of how to write a good blog post, the weird stuff, the odd word choices, and the random tangents will start to jump out at you.

My pruning time is two to three times longer than the time I spend writing the original draft.

Take it through as many pruning sessions as you reasonably can. It usually works better to do a pruning pass, then let the post rest for a little while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

When I prune, I look for:

You’ll have your own list you develop over time.

7. Set yourself up for future success

Plant more seedlings …

A thorough edit is important for creating quality work, but there comes a point when you reach “ good enough ,” click Publish, and move to the next idea.

That’s why you need to pair your creativity routines with a content calendar . Ship it, learn from it, start the next piece.

Writing and gardening happen in cycles. There’s always something new coming up.

If you get stressed out about a writing piece that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to be, that’s a sure sign you need to be writing more to uncover how to write a good blog post.

Worrying about your writing is not writing. Kicking yourself for all the ways you fail to measure up is not writing. Even endless edits are not writing.

And once in a while, a piece that you weren’t incredibly excited about turns out to be a fan favorite . We aren’t necessarily terrific judges of how well a particular piece of writing will work out for us.

Capture some more ideas. Start growing the next one. Write until it’s done. Prune until it’s pretty good.

Then keep going.

Want to learn more about blogging that works? Grab our free ebook below …

Sonia Simone

Sonia Simone was a founding partner of Copyblogger Media. These days, she helps content writers become fiercely creative and insanely productive. Check out her brand-new free report on 7 Things Prolific Writers Do Differently -- written especially for content writers.

Reader Interactions

Reader comments (30).

August 30, 2017 at 7:54 am

Thank you for these tips. I usually adopt the majority of the points you talked about here and they have always work for me.

August 30, 2017 at 2:55 pm

Nice post. What works for me, whether it is a post or a report or anything longer than one page text, is starting with end in mind (© S. Covey) and so called “snowflake method”. I start by outlining the end and then work on the content quite similary to what is described in “setting stakes” part of the post working from general to specific gradually developing the content. I think this is the best method for those who have tendency to ramble and digress (like me). If I had to represent it visually it would be a fishbone diagram rather than a mind map.

August 30, 2017 at 3:05 pm

Interesting!

There’s a lot to be said for using some kind of habitual framework — it makes the writing easier, and it often gives a shape that makes the writing better.

August 30, 2017 at 4:06 pm

I so dig all of these tips Sonia. Loving ’em.

I have learned this; everything flows to you. Ideas. Seedlings. All flows your way. If you try to stalk ideas, or desperately grab at ideas, these post ideas will flee. Because force negates. But if you take a nice walk or pull back for even 5-10 minutes, to chill, and to allow the tension to dissolve, you will let in the idea.

I wrote and published my 300th guest post on Blogging Tips today. Toss in 300 plus video posts on the Huffington Post and hundreds other guesties and I have seen how relaxing, slowing down and calming down, user power and not force, can help you become kinda prolific 😉

August 30, 2017 at 7:47 pm

Wow! 300 guest posts! That’s amazing Ryan. By the way, it’s nice to see you out on the web again. You’ve got some great work under your fingers.

August 31, 2017 at 9:49 am

Creativity is a very natural state for the human brain, and I agree, a lot of times when we tighten up or try to make it happen, it likes to run away.

Just like a puppy — if you want to teach it to come, turn and run away — it will start chasing you. 🙂

August 30, 2017 at 7:44 pm

I absolutely love this post and surprisingly I found that I naturally follow some of these steps. Your comparison to a garden fits perfectly.

Some of the things I need to get better at is picking out some of my tangents and adding them to a ‘seedling list’. I also need to spend more time ‘pruning’ my posts.

Most importantly like you said though is to just get out there and start writing. Thanks for your awesome advice.

Matt Hutson BookMattic

August 31, 2017 at 9:51 am

Thanks, Matt!

It takes a little time to develop that habit of “pruning” away what’s not relevant to this piece of content , but when you start to realize how many starts you now have for new pieces, it gets pretty natural. 🙂

August 30, 2017 at 10:37 pm

I really like the seedling analogy. It makes a lot of sense to create a whole bunch of potential topics, nurture them a little bit and see whether they develop. I also like the concept of simply offloading all of your thoughts into the document and then to spend 2-3 times as long pruning, thinning and shaping that article. It makes a lot more sense then sitting there straining over the words and trying to get it perfect from the outset.

August 31, 2017 at 3:29 am

I love this process. I use Morning pages to plan what I need to write during the day. There’s something about pen and paper and free writing that helps me nail ideas.

When I sit down to write I tend to start with the same phrase every time. It’s never going to be the start of my post but it gets me writing and then I’ll keep going. For example. Hello and welcome to this wonderful blog post on…

I also have ideas when driving, I can’t wait for self-driving cars so I can actually note them down while they are fresh. Maybe the car will become my writing space?

August 31, 2017 at 9:53 am

Really cool technique with starting with the same phrase! That one is new to me!

I did Morning Pages for quite a few years, these days I just scribble things in my bullet journal without quite such a formal practice. That scribbly time is surprisingly helpful for creative productivity. Or maybe by now, I shouldn’t be surprised any more. 🙂

August 31, 2017 at 3:48 am

I’m a budding movie blogger and freelance writer.

I have come to understand that creating great content is a process not some spontaneous event. Although, it can be for some.

I do get ideas and the first thing I do when they come is write them down on Evernote.

Then I do my research before drafting content, but this article has just open my eyes to some better techniques on converting my ideas to fantastic content.

I also believe there are particular periods of the day that we get ideas on what to write.

For me, it is the few minutes before I go to bed. So, I always keep my phone close, to write them down when they come.

August 31, 2017 at 6:35 am

Love the idea of seedlings – right now I am looking after my 92 year old mum for a couple of weeks and minding the grandchildren. Many seedlings have arisen from those very facts even if I am far too busy to repot them at the moment. That said, posting on my blog keeps the creative juices flowing and I have reused some seedlings from a few years ago for the latest post. I have had different writing spaces over the years. They range from a bedroom when children were small to a barn attached to our house more recently. Today I have a desk in the centre of the house as I find I write best when life goes on around me. I would say it is essential to have the ability to ‘zone out’ when necessary though. I did write an entire novel in the garden one summer because the smell of honeysuckle was so inspiring…

August 31, 2017 at 3:02 pm

I’ve never been good at sitting down at a screen and coming up with great ideas. Like u mentioned, I seem to do better going “low-tech” (pencil and paper) for the bones of a post. Also, I try to never publish something in the same sitting that I “complete” it, as i always find final improvements after taking a walk. thanks for the post!

August 31, 2017 at 3:40 pm

Loved all the tips but my favourite one is about the sub-heads and their importance. They act as the framework/skeleton of your blog post and so important to let the reader scan through the things if he is in a hurry.

The additional point I learnt from this article is that you mentioned to start from anywhere within these sub-heads. This gives more flexibility. I have always started from the first sub-head and finished on the last. I am going to try your recommendation now to start anywhere and whatever I feel best about to write about.

Thanks again.

September 1, 2017 at 1:08 am

Since I write from personal experience on my blog, and have only been doing it a few months, I still have a lot of material to write about. Deciding what I want to write about next is my biggest problem right now, but I have come up with additional ideas about future posts while discussing things with my partner. It would probably work with other people discussions, he’s just the only human I really ever speak to, since I work from home and am surrounded by 10 cats and dogs. Loved the kittens with ADD analogy! lol I can soooo relate. lol

September 1, 2017 at 11:21 pm

I get great ideas while showering, driving, running, and researching on the web. I got a scuba diver’s underwater writing slate for the shower, and a digital voice recorder for the car (one button start=much easier.) When I’m running I record on my phone, or I stop and send myself an email. If I don’t get that idea down immediately I might never remember it. Researching on the web goes like this: I was reminded of Google Trends somewhere, I knew about it, but I needed a refresher, so I headed over there, searched for one of my topics (I’m only going to be writing copy about my biggest passions and experience for now) and found out that topic has a huge spike every year on Thanksgiving. From this I asked myself who specifically this information could help and how could it help, and used that information as my copy’s basis.

September 7, 2017 at 9:28 pm

Great solution to the long-running “why do I get all my really good ideas in the shower” problem!

September 2, 2017 at 11:02 am

Love the analogy! Its so straight forward and simple. I know that doesnt mean easy though.. Very interesting the talking to yourself part, I’ll try that for my nest blog post!

September 3, 2017 at 4:35 am

At the time of writing a post, I get several ideas for my next posts. I use my cell phone to write down those ideas in a note. Whenever I want to write a new post, I just go through that note. In this way, I never run short of post ideas.

However, thanks Sonia, for this beautiful post.

September 4, 2017 at 12:53 pm

Thank you for the article. I love step one. I think that stepping away from everything helps to clear the palette, especially when stepping means taking a walk outside, even if it just around the grounds of the office. There’s something inspirational about nature – even the little bits of nature we find in an office complex.

September 5, 2017 at 4:59 pm

Great post, Sonia! Shared this in my socials, too. Love the garden analogy. My writing process is surprisingly like that. I write (seedling) drafts in my WordPress and Evernote apps when ideas pop in my head. It can be anything—words, phrases, a line from a book I’ve read, etc.

I also refer back to it when I need more ideas for future content. You never know when those random thoughts would come in handy. Oh, and yes to subheadings—it keeps my content together. It also helps me prune my ideas along the way.

September 7, 2017 at 9:27 pm

I even put subheads in my emails, if they get long.

Subheads are wonderful.

September 8, 2017 at 9:09 am

Indeed they are. I don’t get why so many don’t use them, especially in heavy B2B articles.

September 6, 2017 at 7:50 am

Hi Sonia, Your advice on putting down ideas, all kinds of them is perfect! It essentially helps you revisit everything that your brain came up with while you were thinking real hard (you won’t miss profiling a single ADD kitten that’s scrambled around your mind.) Also, yes, pen down everything you like when creating the initial draft of your work. What’s not helpful can always be omitted or reframed if it makes sense to keep it later. All in all, your pointers on how one should go about their writing makes utmost sense. Kudos!

September 7, 2017 at 3:28 am

Creating a successful blog post today is like preparing a recipe for a very tasty food. If the cook is gifted, the food prepared for the guests will be extremely appreciated, otherwise the guests will eat from it, but next time they go elsewhere. Hard work is also a required element in the ‘cooking a good post’ recipe. A tasty food aka a good blog post will become popular due to the fact that all people who eat that food or read the post will tell others how good it is, so the name of the cook or the blog post will become viral.

September 7, 2017 at 6:23 am

Hi Sonia, The title of the blog is very nice. I like the concept of simply offloading all of your thoughts into the document and then to spend 2-3 times as long pruning, thinning and shaping that article.

September 7, 2017 at 4:06 pm

I love this post! The idea of having a ton of seedlings is spot on. I do this for my clients as a freelancer and for my own blog. I almost always have an “Idea” file open on my computer and I use the notes app on my phone, too. It’s so much easier to write when you can choose from 25+ good ideas instead of having to come up with one on the spot.

Great analogy to soil, water and sunlight, too. This hits is home for me as I love to be outside in our canopy writing (weather permitting, of course). I literally get the sunlight and I am near the soil during my writing.

Distractions are the worst thing in the world for a writer. Even a small interruption can throw you off track.

Writing freely is what I am all about. In fact, I write in Notepad instead of Microsoft Word because I find the squiggly lines distracting. This allows me to write without editing at the same time. There’s a reason for the editing process, but it doesn’t belong in the writing process.

Great Post Sonia. I really enjoyed it!

September 7, 2017 at 9:26 pm

I write in Notepad as well. #oldschool

I’ve also been writing for the web so long that I just add in markup as I go, so instead of using an italics function, I’ll add tags. It actually throws me off when I (it happens occasionally) write something that won’t be displayed in HTML.

September 12, 2017 at 4:46 am

This was super helpful!

I often find myself frustrated with writing blogposts, so it was great to see how I could approach it in a different way. I will definitely try to go outside on a walk with a piece of paper to get inspired rather than forcing ideas for blogposts at home. Thanks for some solid content :-).

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Our 8-Step Guide for How to Write a Pro Blog Post

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’re undoubtedly familiar with blog posts. After all, you’re reading one right now. Blog posts are the individual entries that comprise a blog, like episodes of a TV show or entries in a journal.

Blogging can serve multiple purposes. For one, it’s a great way to establish yourself as an authority on your area of expertise. It can also be an effective way to drive traffic to your website and educate people about the topics you’re passionate about. Additionally, a blog is the perfect place to showcase your writing .

Write with confidence Grammarly helps your blog posts shine Write with Grammarly

What is a blog post?

A blog post is a single piece of content published on a blog, a shortened form of the now-archaic term weblog , which is an online platform for publishing written content . A blog can be a section of a website or a standalone website of its own. The blog you’re currently reading is an example of the former, while The Pioneer Woman is an example of the latter. Both are composed of blog posts, pieces of content that each cover a single topic and may (but don’t have to!) include images and videos alongside the written content.

Written content is a key component of a blog post. A YouTube channel isn’t a blog because it’s purely video—it can be considered a vlog , short for video log . Similarly, a feed of purely still images, like an Instagram account, isn’t a blog.

In the earlier days of social media, when platforms like MySpace and Live Journal dominated the scene, blogging and social media were much more entwined than they are today. Now, they’re largely separate, though many bloggers promote and cross-post their work on their social media accounts to drive traffic to their blogs and promote their personal brand.

Types of blog posts

Blog posts can be standalone pieces or parts of a longer series. They also come in a variety of formats:

In a how-to blog post, the blogger explains the steps the reader needs to take to complete a task. Recipe blog posts are a popular example of a how-to blog post.

Also known as a “listicle,” a portmanteau of list and article, a list-based blog post is one that’s organized as a list of related entries. This could be a list of products, historical events, quotes, images, or unusual and intriguing facts, the kind of listicle Cracked.com made famous. You’ll find list-based posts on lots of blogs, like BuzzFeed , Bored Panda , and right here on the Grammarly blog.

News article

A news article blog post links to a trending news article and provides the blogger’s thoughts on that news article. It isn’t just a repost of the news article; it includes insights that build upon, speculate about, agree, or disagree with the information covered in the news article.

In this kind of post, the blogger introduces a person they’ve interviewed and provides some background information about the interviewee and their work. Following this is a transcript of the interview, sometimes interspersed with additional information written by the blogger. You can find interviews on many different blogs, such as Rotten Tomatoes’ blog .

In a review post, the blogger reviews a movie, video game, TV show, book, product . . . anything, really. What’s Good at Trader Joes? is a well-known example of a blog that focuses on product review posts. A review post can focus on one product or piece of media or it can be structured like a list-based post. You can find examples of the latter on 99designs , where they often review design software and website platforms.

A personal blog post, like a personal essay , is where the author discusses their personal experiences, thoughts, and/or opinions. Usually, you’ll find these kinds of posts on personal blogs rather than corporate or professional blogs. However, a blogger who usually publishes other kinds of blog posts might publish personal blog posts from time to time to build a more personal connection with readers.

An explainer blog post is similar to a how-to blog post in that it provides a thorough, objective explanation of its topic. The difference is that this kind of blog post isn’t necessarily presented in a linear, step-by-step format and doesn’t necessarily explain how to complete a task.

This type of blog post might explain the social and economic trends that led to a specific historical event or the basics of a given topic. Coinbase’s blog contains lots of explainer posts, such as a piece on how to keep your cryptocurrency secure.

Sometimes, blogs publish lengthy explainer posts that aim to provide comprehensive overviews of their topics. These blog posts are often labeled “ultimate guide” or something similar.

Image-based

As the name implies, an image-based blog post is a post that focuses on images. The post could be an infographic or it could be a post consisting of multiple images. No matter which it is, it contains at least some copy to give the reader some context for the images—that’s what makes it a blog post and not an image gallery.

How to write a blog post

Ready to start blogging ? Follow these steps to write a great post and effectively reach your target audience.

Set up your blog

Before you can write a blog post, you need to actually have a blog. If you already have a website, find out if you can create a blog on the platform you’re using. Many of the templates available on widely used website platforms like Squarespace and Joomla make it easy for you to start blogging right on your website.

If you aren’t able to create a blog through your web hosting/design platform—or if you don’t have a website—you’ll need to build your blog from scratch. There are lots of ways to do this, some involving more technical skills than others. You can opt for an out-of-the-box platform like Wix or Squarespace, or you can go with a more DIY option like WordPress.

Setting up your blog means determining a budget for your blog. You’ll need to pay for the following:

Running a blog can be free, but keep in mind this generally means you can’t use a custom domain name and you’ll probably have ads on your site. For a low-budget personalized blog, expect to spend about a hundred dollars to set everything up and cover a year’s worth of hosting. In some cases, blogs cost thousands of dollars to build and operate—these are usually high-traffic blogs with custom-designed templates requiring a large amount of bandwidth.

As your blog grows, you can offset costs by selling ad space on your blog. Another strategy some bloggers use to reduce costs is affiliate marketing, which is where you link to an affiliate partner’s online product listings in your content; you receive a cut of the revenue they make through your placement of their link(s).

Blogging without your own website

Instead of setting up their own blogs, some bloggers opt to publish on large, public platforms instead. One of these platforms is Medium. Another is Tumblr, which hearkens to the early days of social media by combining social and blogging features in one platform.

If you stick with blogging and make a name for yourself, you can also explore guest blogging on larger, established blogs. Many of these blogs publish mostly, or even only, posts by guest bloggers. And you can get paid for doing it!

Choose your topic

Once you’ve got your blog up and running, it’s time to choose the topic for your first post.

What can you easily and passionately write about? If your blog is affiliated with your business, brainstorm ideas for blog posts that provide value to your target audience while promoting your brand. For example, let’s say you run a dog-walking business. Think about the kinds of things your clients would want to read about—the titles they’d click on, read, and ideally share with others. You might come up with a few different topics:

Ask your clients about the kinds of topics they’d like to read about on your blog. You might be surprised by what they suggest! Another great way to come up with topics to cover on your blog is to take a look at the kind of content others in your industry are publishing. That doesn’t mean you should steal ideas or plagiarize their work; find ways to take inspiration from competitors’ blog posts and cover similar topics from a different angle and in your own unique voice.

Write an outline

With any writing project, following the writing process enables you to craft a thoughtful, well-developed piece. Blog posts are no exception. After you’ve determined a topic for your first blog post, create an outline . List your working title and the key points you want to hit in your post. These key points will likely become separate sections, each with its own header and subheaders.

An easy way to write an outline for your blog post is to follow a similar structure to an essay . Your blog post starts with an introduction , which is then followed by body sections and then finally, the conclusion . But unlike an essay, a blog post’s conclusion includes a call to action. (We’ll talk more about that in a bit.)

Once your outline is complete, it’s time to start writing! There are lots of great, free apps you can use to write a blog post , like Google Docs and WriteRoom.

Hook your reader and keep them scrolling to the end

In any kind of writing, the hook is one of the most important parts. This sentence or paragraph is the part that grabs the reader’s attention and promises that their curiosity will be satisfied if they keep reading.

There are lots of ways to hook your readers’ attention , and the ideal way for each blog post depends on the audience and the subject the post is covering. One popular type of hook is to present a startling fact. To go back to our example titles for the dog walker, an effective hook for the post on pet-safe ice melts might be about how toxic many standard ice melts are to pets’ paws. Another effective way to hook readers is to directly address one or more of their pain points . For the example title about acclimating a dog to a new harness, this kind of hook might acknowledge a few things: how frustrating it is to get a dog to let you put a new harness on them; how this wastes precious walking time; and how you could waste money on harnesses your dog refuses to wear.

Give your readers a solid call to action

A call to action is a short phrase that asks the reader to do something. In a blog post, this might be to leave a comment, make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or simply to read a related post next. Calls to action generally make use of direct-response copywriting principles, like making very specific requests and creating a sense of urgency. Here are a few examples of calls to action:

Don’t forget to edit and proofread!

Read through the draft carefully and take note of any spots where your writing feels awkward, choppy, or even excessively wordy. Editing resources like Grammarly, various writing books, and even your own network of fellow writers can help you become a stronger editor by making you more attuned to issues in your work.

Enhance your blog post with engaging, relevant images

Why do kids like picture books? Because the illustrations bring the story to life.

The same thing happens when you include images in your blog posts. Images break up the text and give your readers short breaks as they work through your content. In explainer and how-to blog posts, they can also help readers visualize the points you’re making in your text—and even help them avoid making mistakes by demonstrating what their project should look like as they complete it step by step.

Use SEO strategies to reach a wider audience

SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is a category of strategies bloggers and other website operators use to increase their websites’ visibility. The better your SEO strategy, the higher your website ranks, or shows up, in search engine results. The goal is to have your blog be the first listing that comes up when people search for specific keywords.

Keywords are just one component of SEO. Here are other ways to improve your blog’s SEO:

Your website platform might include analytics tools you can use to see how well your blog and individual posts are performing. By “performing,” we mean how many people visit your website and how long they spend on the website, both indicators of your content being effective.

Tips for writing a great blog post

Keep it conversational.

A blog post is a relatively informal, often fun piece of writing. Although there are plenty of technical blogs on the web, you’ll notice that even these tend to maintain a fairly conversational tone when explaining niche and complex topics.

Notice how most blog posts use the second person and speak directly to the reader. You would never do that in a piece of academic or professional writing. Also notice how plenty of blog posts, on topics ranging from how to finish highly technical projects to completely subjective movie character hairstyle rankings, give you a sense of the author’s personality by including short asides, personal opinions, and sometimes even broken grammar rules to mimic speech patterns.

Keep in mind that breaking grammar rules to achieve specific effects and working your personal voice into your blog post is not the same thing as writing and publishing an unedited post that simply ignores grammar rules. If you’re going to break the rules, you need to do it carefully and with a clear stylistic reason for doing so. For example, you might opt for sentence fragments, rather than whole paragraphs, in certain sections of your blog post because this magnifies your words’ impact. Take a look at this to see what we mean:

I’d applied to 10 colleges in total. Five of them, I knew I was a shoo-in. Four of them, I thought I had somewhere between an OK and a pretty good shot at getting in. And the last one, my holy grail of higher ed, I was all-but-certain they’d never accept me.

Then the envelopes started coming in. Thick ones, thin ones, glossy colorful ones, and nondescript white ones that could easily be mistaken for junk mail.

And then it arrived.

The letter I’d been waiting for since seventh grade.

My acceptance letter from my dream university.

See how this blog post emphasizes key sentences by making them stand-alone paragraphs? That’s one way bloggers make their posts sound and feel like in-person conversations. Also notice how this excerpt includes informal language like “shoo-in” and literary devices like a synecdoche (referring to acceptance and rejection letters as “envelopes.”)

Research trending keywords

As we mentioned above, using SEO strategies in your blog post will help it reach a wider audience. If you don’t care about reaching a wide audience and just want to write your blog for yourself or to share with close friends and loved ones, don’t worry about this tip.

But if you do want to reach a wider audience by having your blog post rank higher on search engines, take the time to research relevant keywords for your post. Soovle , keywordtool.io , Google Search Console , and Google Keyword Planner are all useful tools you can use not only to test out how well a specific keyword ranks, but also to find related keywords you can include in your blog post. With these tools, you can also find inspiration for future blog posts through other keywords related to your initial search.

Cut down walls of text

Nobody wants to read a wall of text, but sometimes they’re necessary in academic pieces like research papers.

They’re never necessary in blog posts.

A wall of text is generally defined as a paragraph that takes up several lines. They’re intimidating to readers and when they see them, a lot of people scroll past or even stop reading the blog post completely.

When you find a wall of text in your writing, break it down into two or more paragraphs . By doing this, you’re improving your blog post’s readability score, which doesn’t just make it more appealing to readers; it increases your SEO ranking.

Basically, a good blog post is scannable. As you read your first draft, take note of any spots where you feel slowed down or otherwise like you can’t easily scan the information. Those are the spots to break into smaller sections.

Whatever you write, do it with confidence

Correct grammar and a consistent tone are the keys to not only maintaining reader attention, but also to effectively communicating the points you make in your blog post. After you’ve edited and proofread your post, have Grammarly give it one last look to catch any mistakes or inconsistency in tone so that your blog post reads exactly how you want it to sound.

This article was originally written by Karen Hertzberg in 2017. It’s been updated to include new information.

How to Write a Blog Post (That People Actually Want to Read) in 9 Steps

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If a blog post is published and no one reads it, is it still a blog post?

Anyone can write a blog post. But not everyone can create one that people want to read.

In this post, you’ll learn how to write blog posts that actually get readers.

Let’s get started.

Step 1. Find a proven topic

A proven topic is a topic that people want to read about.

If you’re familiar with the niche, then this shouldn’t be a biggie. You probably already have a lot of ideas you want to cover. Open Google Docs and write all of them down (use a notepad if you prefer analog).

Otherwise, there’s no better way to find proven topics than to write about topics people are searching for. After all, if there are many people searching for the same topic month after month, then it’s very likely it’s something they want to read about.

Here’s how to find these topics:

The Matching terms report, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Shop around a little and look for the topics that interest you. Make a list—5 to 10 should be enough to start with.

Ideally, they should have some traffic potential too. Our metric, Traffic Potential, is the estimated amount of search traffic you can potentially gain if you rank #1 for that topic. You can see if a topic has Traffic Potential by looking at the TP column.

Step 2. Decide on the angle of your post

With more than 4.4 million new blog posts published each day, your blog post has to stand out. Otherwise, it won’t get discovered and no one will read it.

The key ingredient here is novelty.

According to Julian Shapiro , there are five novelty categories:

For example, check out this blog post by finance writer Morgan Housel :

An example of a blog post written by Morgan Housel

He states something that is counter-intuitive to what most people know and think. The best idea or “truth” doesn’t win—instead, the best story does. This is incredibly compelling to people in his field of finance. Indeed, it stands out from the other news-based, fact-driven kind of articles they read.

Morgan does this all the time. He rarely writes about finance directly—instead, he’s always looking at the topic from the lenses of history, biology, anthropology, psychology, and more. It makes his posts unique, and the angle of his articles always stands out.

It’s what you must do. So take your time and think of an angle that is unique and novel to your target audience. Use these questions to get started:

If you’re blogging with SEO in mind, then you’ll likely have to match search intent. Search intent is the why behind a search query. We can look at the current top-ranking pages to figure it out.

Specifically, we want to understand the three Cs of search intent:

For example, let’s look at the topic of “date ideas”:

SERP overview for the query "date ideas," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

If you’re writing about this topic, you may have to create something similar.

But note that this is not a rule but a guideline. Even if your post is ranking high on Google, it still has to stand out from the rest of the ranking articles. So it goes back to finding a novel and unique angle for your article. If you can create one that’s better than the other top-ranking articles, go for it.

Step 3. Create an outline

The hardest part of writing is facing the blank page. It is possible to sit in front of your computer for six hours and churn nothing out. It happens to the best of us.

Creating an outline “solves” this problem. When you have an outline, you’re not writing from scratch. Instead, you’re filling the “gaps” in it.

What’s even better is that you don’t have to create the outline from scratch either. Spend enough time online, and you’ll realize that most blog posts’ structures are pretty much the same.

So don’t be afraid to use templates. For example, we use this template for almost all our list-style posts:

Here are three more templates for other blog post styles you can use.

When you have the skeletal structure in place, the next step is to figure out what you need to fill in, especially the H2s, H3s, H4s, and more. Here are some ideas to help you out:

A. Use your personal experience and expertise

Nothing beats your own experience and expertise. If you know there’s a right way to do something, use that knowledge to create your outline.

For example, I’ve been breakdancing for more than 10 years now. If I had to create a blog post on how to do the six-step, I wouldn’t even need to do any research—I can simply pour the information directly from my brain.

B. Run a content gap analysis

If there are subtopics that almost all the top-ranking pages cover, then it’s likely that they’re important to readers too.

Here’s how to find these subtopics:

Here, you’ll see that these pages are ranking for subtopics like:

And more.

If you’re writing a blog post on “inbound marketing,” they’ll likely make good H2s.

Note that your goal is not to copy and rephrase the top-ranking pages. The internet’s full of that—cookie-cutter content no one’s interested in.

Your goal is simply to use top-ranking pages as inspiration. If they make good points, you can consider including them in your post. If they’re stating something that’s completely wrong, then even better—take the chance to correct the misconceptions.

Step 4. Write your first draft

With your outline in place, it’s time to flesh that skeleton out into a rough draft.

I write mostly in Google Docs. An immediate perk is that I can turn the headings I’ve created into actual headings. I just have to click the “Styles” dropdown on the menu and change them:

You’ll be able to see your outline on the side too:

Outline of this post, as shown in Google Docs

From here, use your headers as a guide and write your first draft. This stage is all about “getting it out.” That means:

I know, I know. It’s easier said than done. Still, try to minimize interruptions. There’s time to edit for perfection later—this stage is all about getting everything down on paper (or screen) so you have something tangible to work with. As author Shannon Hale writes:

I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.

One “trick” you can consider is to use the Pomodoro Technique . It’s my go-to if I’m stuck, distracted, or procrastinating.

The basic idea: Set a timer for 25 minutes, write as much as you can, then take a break for five minutes. Rinse and repeat. You can use a Chrome extension like Marinara to automate your Pomodoros.

Here’s what it looks like in the wild:

Step 5. Polish and edit your post

“ I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” Vladimir Nabokov, Novelist

Here’s the surprise: Even though the activity is known as “writing,” the magic is not in that. Rather, it’s in the editing phase where the true blog post appears.

This stage—after you’re done with your first draft—is all about editing, polishing, trimming, and rewriting.

My recommendation is to only edit after one or two days have passed. Why? Because you’re too emotionally invested when you’re first done drafting. The time gap will be helpful to remove this attachment so you can actually edit with fresh eyes.

Here’s what you can do during the editing process:

You should also pay extra attention to your intro, as that is how your reader will decide if they will continue reading.

When you’re done with the self-editing, get feedback from someone else. If you have an editor to show your draft to, great. Otherwise, a friend or colleague works absolutely fine as well.

What’s important here is to get an impartial pair of eyes on your work.

Chances are that a third party will be able to point out things like logical loopholes and poor flow that you won’t be able to spot on your own.

We do this for every blog post at Ahrefs. We even “call out” the contributors:

We show the contributors for each Ahrefs' blog post in the author's box

When they’re done, incorporate their feedback where relevant. Build off their ideas and opinions to produce the best piece of work possible.

Take the time to think about each point that was made. Set aside your ego and really try to see things from a third party’s perspective: Which points do you agree with, which are you unsure about, and which do you definitely not agree with?

Make edits based on the suggestions you believe in and leave out the things you feel strongly against (but be sure to have a logical explanation for doing this). If you’re on the fence, it all comes down to how much you trust the person giving you feedback.

Also, be careful not to accidentally adopt the writing style of a third party, especially if they give feedback in long form or if you’re incorporating many of their suggestions. Again, if possible, take a break from drafting and work on something else. Then, when you come back to it, try and rewrite the section in your own voice and style.

Now is the time to rewrite sentences until they “sound right” or rearrange your points over and over again until they flow the best they can.

Keep getting feedback and revising your draft until you’re happy with the final product.

Step 6. Create an amazing headline

“ On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” David Ogilvy, Advertising Tycoon

Your headline is one of the most important aspects of your blog post. It determines whether someone decides to click through and read. So you should take the time and polish it until it is compelling.

Don’t stop on the first headline you create. Come up with a few and see which one looks best. Viral site Upworthy notoriously created 25 headlines for each article it published.

A reply on Quora by the former editor-at-large at Upworthy

I’m not asking you to create clickbait headlines like it. But the exercise can be a fruitful one. As singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran puts it, and I paraphrase, “It helps to clear the wastewater from the faucet.”

That said, here are some tips for writing better headlines:

Step 7. Sprinkle on your on-page SEO

Even if you’re not blogging with SEO in mind, you’ll want search engines like Google to find your post and rank it. After all, Googling is still one of the major ways people discover new content to read online.

It’s a good idea to follow simple SEO best practices for every blog post you’re publishing. At the basic level, you should:

If you’re using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, installing plugins like Yoast or RankMath can make doing all of this a cinch.

Step 8. Publish your post

You’re finally ready to publish your post!

Upload your post into your CMS. Or if you’re using WordPress and have some budget, consider using Wordable . This allows you to do a one-click upload from Google Docs into WordPress. Really easy.

Then give it another quick look to make sure all’s looking good. Finally, hit “publish”!

Step 9. Promote your post

It’s the truth—blogging is extremely competitive today. Your content, no matter how good, will not be discovered by itself. You need to go out and let people know it exists.

Consider using some of these tactics to promote your content:

Final thoughts

Hopefully, this post has shown you writing a blog post that people want to read is not a difficult process. You can do it too.

Now, go on and get started—that blog post isn’t going to write itself.

Any questions or comments? Let me know on Twitter .

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How To Write A Blog Post People Actually Want To Read – 15 Tips

How to write a blog post (that people actually want to read!). Learning how to create great blog content is a skill you can develop and hone.

If you are a new blogger, you may be fretting on how to write your first blog post.

If you are feeling nervous about this task, don’t worry! Writing great blog content is really not as difficult as it feels in the beginning.

Once you get that initial article out, everything becomes easier.

As an affiliate partner of various brands and sponsored content, HerPaperRoute may earn commission on qualifying purchases. Disclaimer | Advertise With Us

Here are 15 practical blog tips on how to write a good blog post that will keep readers excited and coming back for more.

How To Write A Blog Post People Actually Want To Read

You may have hated English class in school. You may have been bored to tears studying grammar rules and Shakespeare.

You may have never thought of yourself as a writer. But look at you now, starting a blog of your own and becoming a blogger!

A blogger is, at the very core, a writer.

But being a great blogger has very little to do with grammar rules or perfect punctuation.

Readers don’t really give a hoot if you can’t identify an adjective clause (I just Googled it and I’m still confused).

They care more about interesting topics and how they’re presented.

The secret to writing good blog content is…

The secret to writing good content is telling a unique story about interesting topics. That’s it.

But there are a few simple ways to make yourself a better writer and ensure that you consistently produce quality content.

I promise these rules and tips will make you a better blogger and are not as boring as your high school English class!

How to write a blog post that people actually want to read - become a blogger become a better writer #blogtips #howtowriteablog #bloggingtips @blogtips_ blogtips.com

The Basics Of Writing A Blog Post

Before I share these 15 blogging tips for how to write a blog post that people want to read, I first am going to explain the very basics.

Literally how to write your first blog post , from a technical standpoint.

As in, where you go to create a blog, to begin with, and what exactly you do to publish an article one you get there.

How To Write Your First Blog Post Step By Step

To write your first blog post, first, you need a blog.

In a nutshell, all you need to do to make a blog is purchase your web hosting ( bookmark this page to get an epic deal on hosting and a free domain) and then you follow the prompts to install WordPress.

And then: read this step-by-step guide with pictures showing you how to start a blog .

Once you have your blog, you will log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Posts Add » New

This is what the WordPress editor looks like (Gutenberg editor).

how to write a blog post that people actually want to read - wordpress blogging tips

And this is what the older version of the WordPress editor looks like (or with the Classic editor plugin installed):

how to start a blog for free, how to write a blog post, how to write your first blog post, how to write a good blog post, blogtips.com

From here, give your blog post a title, upload a featured image, and write your content.

Here are some cliff notes on how to create good blog content that is effective and SEO-friendly

Once you are ready to publish, simply click the blue ‘publish’ button.

That’s it! That’s all there is to it, for how to write your first blog post , technically speaking.

To learn more about SEO, blogging and how to monetize your blog, enroll in one of our blogging courses for beginners .

How To Write A Blog Post People Actually Want To Read – 15 Blog Tips

Now let’s discuss how to become a better writer, and create content that people will be excited to read.

Here are 15 tips for writing awesome blog content.

1. Be yourself

First and foremost, be yourself.

There is so much similar content on the Internet, but there is only one you .

It’s important to put your original spin on every topic you write about and to let your personality shine through.

2. Keep it simple

A brilliant online marketing guru once said “Write content for the Homer Simpsons of the world and you will have great success.”

Don’t use big words and complicated language just to sound smart.

3. Write what you want to read

This may be the most important tip on this list.

Write about topics that interest you in the format you wish the information was delivered.

Create articles around questions that you’re curious about finding the answers to, research them, and present them in your own style.

4. Write as if you’re speaking directly to the reader

This is the best advice I can give to those who don’t consider themselves to be “writers.”

Write as if you’re having a face-to-face conversation with your readers and you’re trying to explain something to them.

5. Let it flow

When you have an idea for an article, just write it as a stream of thought without making corrections or stopping to research specific facts.

One of the most important tips for writing a blog post is to just put fingertips to keyboard and write .

Let it flow from your mind to the keyboard and go back and polish it afterward.

6. Less About You, More About The Subject

If you were the main character in all of your blog posts, they’d probably get boring after a while.

Use less “I” in your articles and more “you” when you’re teaching something.

Or practice writing articles with neither in it.

Your English teacher would call this writing in the third person, or simply narrating events in your article.

7. Inform And Entertain

Your goal should be to both entertain and inform your readers with your articles where they tell a story in some fashion with a theme, a setting, characters, facts, action, a lesson or opinion, and a conclusion.

This will give great value to the reader and make them want to share it or revisit your site.

8. Use Hegelian Dialectic

One easy strategy to write an interesting blog post is by using the Hegelian dialectic: problem, reaction, and solution.

In other words, identify a problem within your subject, explain the reaction to this problem, and outline the possible solutions.

This is especially useful when you are trying to figure out how to write a blog post for an affiliate product you are promoting.

Example : How To Avoid The Instagram Shadowban With This Trick

9. Lighten Up

Don’t think that you need to put on a super formal tone in order to be authoritative and respected in your niche.

You can entertain and educate your readers without being stuffy! In fact, the less formal you sound is usually better.

People read blogs to learn from a real human being – not a robot.

So don’t be scared to write how you would talk to a friend, and keep things light and upbeat.

10. Frame Out A List

Everyone likes a good list article like the one you’re reading now.

They’re perfect for our attention deficit world because they give useful information to the reader quickly.

To write effective list articles, frame out the bullet points of your list before you do anything else.

Once you’re happy with the focal points, then write your intro, detail your bullet points, and conclude the article.

Here are some examples of list articles:

11. Make it easy to read

Reading online is different from reading a book. Long dense paragraphs are very cumbersome to read online.

Therefore, write easy-to-read content with short paragraphs of only 2-3 sentences broken up by a space between paragraphs.

12. Keep It Clean

Maintain a standard font throughout the article with the possible exception of bold or enlarged headlines.

Nothing is more annoying and distracting than multiple font styles, sizes, or colors in a single blog post.

As a general rule, don’t use ALL CAPS or bolded phrases as it can diminish the importance of the rest of the content.

13. Be Factual

It probably goes without saying, but if you want to build up trust with your audience, make sure the facts in your articles are well sourced.

Don’t assume something is right because you heard somebody say it somewhere.

Google it and link to the source, especially with controversial topics.

Blogging tips PDF Daily blogging routine day in the life of a blogger Blogging startup kit #blogtips @blogtips_ #bloggers #bloggerlife #startingablog #bloggingtipspdf BlogTips.com

Let me know where to send your FREE new blogger startup kit:

14. Use Images

Notice above, how I included an image about my toolkit for new bloggers? This is a free resource kit I provide to help make becoming a blogger easier.

You probably slowed down to look at it, didn’t you?

That’s because images are powerful tools for blog posts. In fact, pictures may be the best aid for writers.

As the saying goes, pictures are worth a thousand words. We are all drawn to images.

If images are well placed throughout a blog post, they’ll lure your audience to read entire articles they may otherwise just gloss over or skim.

I like to use images that are ads for affiliate products too. It’s a great way to bring attention to affiliate offers.

To learn more about affiliate marketing, enroll in my complete profitable blogging course .

15. Proofread

Proofreading is without question the most important task to do before publishing an article on your blog.

Always write with the Grammarly extension running, as it corrects your spelling and grammar on the fly. Grammarly is free!

For your final proofreading, try to put yourself in the shoes of the reader instead of as the author.

Fix any obvious errors and polish the rough edges out of the article.

Even better, have someone else proofread the article if possible.

Pro Tip: Print out your article on an actual piece of paper and read it. For some reason, it’s much easier to catch errors on paper!

How To Write A Blog Post People Actually Want To Read – Conclusion

Following these simple rules for how to write a blog post will help you create great content that people actually want to read.

Furthermore, if you followed this guide on how to write your first blog post, I also want to mention that it’s normal to feel nervous about hitting ‘publish’ for the first time.

You may feel uneasy about putting yourself out there publicly, or worry that your writing won’t be ‘good enough.’

My advice is to push on through, ignore any doubts and just DO IT! You will be a great blogger, all you need to do is start writing.

Remember, even professional writers never stop working to improve their craft by learning new writing techniques.

So what are you waiting for? Now you know that how to write your first blog post is pretty simple. So all you need to do is start writing.

You’ve got this!

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Stay connected with us by becoming a HerPaperRoute.com member below, and I will send you an amazing resource kit to help you start, grow and monetize your blog – free of charge!

Also, follow HerPaperRoute on Pinterest and Facebook , and join our Facebook Group for bloggers too.

Chelsea Clarke is a Business Intermediary, investor and educator. Chelsea is the founder of HerPaperRoute where she teaches entrepreneurs how to use content marketing and funnels to rapidly grow and their business. And NicheInvestor.com a marketplace for website investors to buy and sell niche online businesses. More About Chelsea Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

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Blog Post Examples: How to Get Started On Your Next Blog Post

Brett has been starting, growing, and monetizing websites since 2014. While in college, he began to learn about digital marketing. After graduating, he continued to build a diverse portfolio of websites while working a full time job. After years of building the portfolio on the side, he made the jump to run his websites full time.

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Like many things in life, blogging is easier said than done.

You might have a great concept for a post, but when it comes time to write it, it just doesn’t come out the way you want it.

Or even worse, you get a nasty case of writer’s block and spend hours staring at a blank page with nothing to show.

If you’re having trouble getting the gears turning for your blog, then keep reading.

This article will teach you everything you need to know about writing your next blog post and give a few insightful examples to encourage and inspire you.

Blog Post Basics: A Primer

First, we need to start with the basics.

A fundamental understanding of blogging will help you structure your posts better and allow you to write more smoothly.

vector illustration showing how to publish a blog post

A blog post is a short blurb of information posted on the internet as part of a larger chain of posts, aka a blog.

The content of a blog post usually pertains to a theme that can change from Blog to blog.

Food, travel, sports, tv shows, and music are some of the most common types of blogs, though you can find a blog on just about anything.

For a general overview of how to write a blog post, here is a list of steps.

No blog post is the same; each one will contain different materials.

As a general rule of thumb, most blogs should have a relevant title, a captivating headline, hyperlinks, embedded media (pictures, videos, music, etc.), keyword-based metadata, sub-headings, and end with a light call to action.

Blog posts should be concise and straight to the point.

There shouldn’t be any technical jargon (unless the post is for a specific niche) or fluff/filler text.

Each thought should be about 2 – 4 lines long and separated by multiple headings.

While the length may vary from post to post , the average high-ranking blog post usually falls between 1500 and 2000 words.

Blog Post Templates

Blog posts can be an irritating and tedious process regarding formatting, but you can save a lot of time and effort using templates.

image showing a generic blog post template in a browser window

A blog post template is a pre-designed writing formula to help you organize and structure your writing.

It’s like a pre-existing mold you pour your original content into, then customize.

Templates are proven methods that many bloggers use to unlock their content efficiency.

Templates save tons of time and effort by organizing your work and providing bloggers with a foundational starting point where you don’t have to stare at a blank page for all eternity.

Templates also work with search engines, meaning a proven format is most likely to rank higher in Google searches and create more organic traffic.

There are four main parts of every blog post template:

Types of Blog Posts to Consider Writing

You’ll find that many blog posts on the internet fall into a certain category.

Since these formats are so popular, choosing one of these types may increase your Blog’s odds of being found.

If you’re stumped and aren’t quite sure where to start, here are a few excellent blog examples to go off of and take inspiration from:

First Blog Post Examples

The best first blog post you can have is one that introduces who you are and why you started your Blog.

This post should be friendly, and welcoming and incentivize readers to come back or read further.

A Girl’s Guide to Home DIY

In this post, the author informally introduces who they are and describes their blog.

This introduction is fun and creates a likable personality to which readers can relate.

The Friendly Teacher

In this one, the author is light-hearted and honest.

They introduce themselves through a list of short statements that are sincere and written from the heart.

Everyone starts somewhere. You don’t have to have a huge website or long list of posts to be great.

Many exceptional blogs have humble starts and maintain high-quality content while staying simple.

Wandering Earl

The Wandering Earl is a great example of a person who loves traveling and created something from their passion.

The site didn’t start with any grandiose scheme, but continues to run with a simple yet effective format.

A Cozy Kitchen

It’s just a cooking blog about a girl and her dog.

The site’s design is sleek, cute, and each blog post retains a recipe recounted by the author’s experiences.

Lifestyle blogs are something anyone can do!

They’re a way for people to share their experiences with others and have become quite popular in recent years.

The Blog Abroad

The Blog Abroad is about a woman and her life experiences – nothing more, nothing less.

It shows how versatile a blog can be while still remaining simple and easy to manage.

Julie Blanner

This lifestyle blog is one made for everyday living.

There are recipes, house decor, and DIY projects.

Fashion blogs are another popular category of blogs that always seem to captivate their audiences.

If fashion is your thing, you might want to consider getting started on your own fashion blog.

Wendy’s LookBook

Another person who created something from nothing, Wendy’s LookBook is a beloved fashion blog with a great template and lots of personality.

The Egg Canvas is an artsy blog with tons of material on fashion, skincare, and dietary routines.

There’s something charming about how the site is structured, and there’s tons to learn from its style.

For even more blog post examples, check out the following that we’ve included below.

1. The Friendly Teacher

Hannah at The Friendly Teacher does a great job with her first blog post .

It’s an intro that goes over:

She also announce a giveaway on the page, which is a nice way to kick things off.

Overall, the page is an intro, so it won’t get much traffic over time, but it does do a great job of introducing Hannah, her personality and what she hopes to accomplish with her blog.

2. Gimme Some Oven

I came across Gimme Some Oven when researching mom blog name ideas . Ali keeps it short and sweet on her first post, and this is how it goes for many first blog posts.

3. Fun Cheap or Free

My wife and I follow a lot of Jordan Page’s advice and content at Fun Cheap or Free.

Her first post is straightforward and mentions her goal of highlighting creative ways to save money. I also like that she includes contact information for readers who do come across the post.

4. Young House Love

The first post at Young House Love offers a quick glimpse into what’s to come from bloggers John and Sherry.

It’s quick and to the point, and acts more of a preview than a full introduction to the couple and their blog.

5. Happy Hooligans

The Happy Hooligans’ first post is a great one: it introduces the blog, the goal and also has some nice calls to action to comment, email Jackie or follow them on Facebook.

I also like that the intro posts includes internal links to other blog posts – if you’re going to create an intro post, it will be the most “aged” post on your site, so it’s a great idea to link this page to more content-heavy ones.

6. Michael Hyatt

This post is an interesting example because Michael set up this site as a way to “communicate with our employees on some sort of regular basis.”

He does a great job of laying out why the blog could be effective, and explains what he expects to do with the blog.

Overall, this is a great intro because it explains the how and why behind the blog and its creation.

7. A Girl’s Guide to Home DIY

Lauren at A Girl’s Guide to Home DIY does a great job with her first blog post , which goes over:

This is one of the best intro posts I came across because there’s a clear story line in Lauren’s content.

She also adds it to the top navigation of her blog for good measure, so this intro post probably gets more traffic than your typical one.

8. Sylvie’s Suitcase

Sylvie has a great intro post that reviews her previous blog, Cotton Tales, and why she focused on travel content with her new blog.

She also includes a few photos and a good idea of what readers can expect from her blog.

9. My Debt Epiphany

Chonce at My Debt Epiphany has a great intro post , going into her background and what her blog will cover.

I also like that she includes a nice bold call to action using ConvertKit, so her intro post can capture more leads than the standard first post.

10. IKEA Hackers

Here’s a quick and easy first post that goes over the basics, and tells readers that Jules is not paid by IKEA to do content.

Nothing crazy, but gets the point across.

11. Cherished Bliss

Ashley at Cherished Bliss posted her first post as a way to update people on her Etsy store.

It’s less of a robust intro and more of an update post, which is a great idea if you have an existing platform or audience from social media, email, Etsy, etc. that already has an idea of what your content, services or products are all about.

12. Domestic Imperfection

Ashley at Domestic Imperfection gets right to the point: this blog is “about all things domestic.”

It’s not a long intro, but it does include an example project so readers can get an idea of what to expect from Ashley’s content.

13. Trips with Tykes

Trips with Tykes’ first post from Leslie covers all the basics: her background and why she started her blog.

14. Have Baby Will Travel

It looks like this post is the first of Have Baby Will Travel’s “updated” blog, and Corinne does a good job of including a call to action to email with input.

15. Beneath My Heart

Here’s a solid all-around intro post from Traci that covers a little background, a little story and some pictures – as well as a call to action to join her email newsletter.

16. At Home with Ashley

Ashley uses her first blog post to spell out her blog vision and purpose.

“I believe my calling in life is to create beauty and I want to help you (yes, you!) have a beautiful life,” she writes. “So here I am blogging about the process.”

17. DIY Beautify

Cindy’s first post on DIY Beautify is all about fear and the pull to create cool things. That’s what blogging’s about for a lot of bloggers, but she does a good job of laying it out simply.

19. Citygirlmeetsfarmboy

This one’s short and sweet and explains that Citygirlmeetsfarmboy is all about “how the world is better when people do what they love.”

Pro Tip: Use Blog Writing Tools for Efficiency

A common misconception is that all beginners should start on a blank document and write everything themselves.

That’s not true, as there are various tools out there to make blog writing exponentially easier.

vector graphic showing an illustration of the best ai writing software

Frase.io is an AI writing tool that can generate short blurbs of content based on the specifications you put in.

Not only will this save you tons of time, but it will also optimize your content so that it’s engineered to rank higher on search engines.

Will it do everything for you?

But it can help you by researching analytics, creating content briefs, and implementing keywords to help people find your site.

Another excellent AI writer is Jasper .

Like Frase, Jasper is a cohesive AI writing software that uses SEO techniques to generate creative content for social media and blog posts.

It’s an amazing way to significantly speed up the writing process and ensure that your content is both high quality and optimized to rank high in search engines.

Navigating your first blog posts doesn’t have to be an agitating, time-consuming experience.

There are so many tools and examples to work with nowadays that starting a blog has never been easier!

If you follow all the templates and examples outlined in this article, you should have no problem getting to work on your next blog post.

Are you looking for more tips and insights on blog writing?

Check out even more helpful guides:

Still stuck on what to write about? Check out our list of over 200 blog ideas for even more inspiration and guidance.

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How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide

This post was last updated on May 24, 2021.

When you create a blog , you have the opportunity to dive deep into your favorite topics, highlight your expertise, and build a community of readers interested in your work. Whether you want to start a blog from scratch or make blogging part of your business strategy, publishing content online is an effective way to share your knowledge and ideas with the world.

That said, composing a winning entry takes practice. In this A to Z guide, you’ll learn how to write the perfect blog post - from choosing the right blog topics and picking the proper format for your articles, to selecting strategic images that generate interest and engagement. By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll have a clear idea of how to create strong blog content that effectively communicates your ideas and stands out from other articles on the web.

Ready to get blogging? Get started with Wix today.

How to write a blog post

Brainstorm blog topics

Refine your topic with keyword research

Define your audience

Create an organized outline

Write engaging content

Craft an irresistible headline

Choose a blog template

Select a blog domain name

Pick relevant images

Implement calls-to-action

Optimize for SEO

Edit and publish your blog post

Promote the final article

01. Brainstorm blog topics

When writing a blog post, whether you're guest posting for someone else or writing for your own blog, you’ll want to cover topics that bring value to your readers and fall in line with their interests, as well as your own. Rather than trying to find the perfect topic right away, start by jotting down different ideas that come to mind.

There are several places you can look to spark new topic ideas:

Browse other blogs within your niche. If you’re starting a travel blog , for example, simply Google “travel blog” to see what your competitors are writing about.

Use Google Trends to find out which topics are trending.

Look for current events and recent news stories related to your field.

Find out what people enjoy learning about by browsing online courses on Udemy , Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning .

Once you find some interesting ideas online, think about the unique ways you can approach those topics. Consider the various ways you can play around with topic ideas to come up with something that isn’t only trendy and relevant, but that’s also original and fresh.

Let’s say, for instance, that you want to write about chocolate chip cookies. There are a few different angles you might consider taking here:

A how-to post that instructs readers how to do something with clearly ordered steps (e.g., “How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies from Scratch”)

A curated list that offers a set of recommendations for your readers (e.g., “The Top Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes”)

A tips and advice post that provides expert guidance and resources. (e.g., “Tips for Making Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies Extra Gooey”)

A definition-based blog post that helps explain the meaning of a term or topic (e.g., “What Are No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies”)

A top trends article that highlights what’s currently popular (e.g. “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes From This Year”)

A personal or business update that lets you unveil something fresh or recently unknown (e.g., “My New Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Revealed”)

Get brainstorming with these best blog ideas , and check out our professional guide on how to start a blog for more helpful tips.

How to write a blog: define your web audience

02. Refine your topic with keyword research

Part of writing a blog post involves keyword research. This crucial SEO practice is used as a marker to see which terms you can potentially rank high for in certain online searches.

Once you’ve chosen a direction for your blog post, you’ll need to figure out the chances of its success on search engine result pages - which ultimately means getting more eyes on your content. In order to succeed, conduct keyword research to find the most relevant queries for your topic.

You can find keywords for your own articles by using various keyword research tools. If you’re new to blogging, you’ll probably want to start with free tools such as Answer the Public , Ubersuggest , and Google Keyword Planner . Afterwards, you may want to upgrade to more advanced tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs .

While conducting keyword research, keep in mind that the more specific the phrase, the more closely it will match your audience’s intent. On the other hand, broader keywords tend to have higher search volumes - meaning more people are searching for them each month.

Think about the benefits of opting for a broader phrase, like “chocolate chip cookies,” over a more precise phrase, like “how to make chocolate chip cookies.” Choosing the right keywords means striking a balance between high search volume and high intent.

Once you’ve selected your keywords, you can use them to shape the structure of your content. Google those phrases to find out which articles have successfully targeted those same keywords, and spend some time browsing their content. This will give you inspiration for your own article in terms of what to include and how to structure it.

03. Define your audience

Now that you know what you’ll be writing about , you need to find out who you’re writing for . Anticipating the kinds of people who will be reading your posts will help you create content that is interesting, engaging and shareable.

Of course, your audience largely depends on your type of blog . If you run a baking blog, you’ll probably be writing for an audience of people who love baking and are seeking recipe inspiration. Even more specifically, if you run a healthy baking blog, you’ll be writing for people who similarly love baking but who want to make their culinary creations healthier. It’s important to keep these nuances in mind when crafting your content, since your goal is to write articles that resonate strongly with readers.

So, how do you figure out your audience in the first place? Start by taking another look at the other blogs in your field. Consider who they seem to be writing for, and the kinds of assumptions they’re making about their readers’ interests and lifestyles. For example, you might find that most of the blogs address a particular gender or age group.

You can also use online forums to find the main questions asked by your audience, or visit Facebook groups to read what topics they like or talk about. This will help you create content that piques their interest, sparks their curiosity and answers their questions.

Whether you're starting a book blog , a fashion blog, travel blog or something else - defining your audience should come first.

04. Create an organized outline

The key to learning how to write a blog post is doing thorough research and planning before you create the article itself. After deciding on the topic and blog format , you’ll need to build the mold for your content. Creating an outline is critical, as it ensures your article will have a strong foundation that you can build on as you write your blog post.

Start by creating subheaders, which are the backbone of an organized outline. These small but mighty pieces of content help you break down your article into bite-sized sections - making it easier for you to write and more digestible for people to read.

If it’s a step-by-step guide or a list of tips, start building your outline by listing out all the main points clearly, as in the example below:

Outline: How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies from Scratch

1. Gather your ingredients

2. Mix and knead the dough

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

4. Scoop mounds of dough onto baking sheet

5. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Add bulleted notes within your introduction and under each of your subheaders. This will help you formulate your main points.

If you find yourself getting stuck, use one of these blog post templates to guide you through the outline process.

05. Write engaging content

Now that you’ve sketched out the blog post, you can begin typing away. Keep in mind that blog posts, like many other types of writing, typically include three main elements: an introduction, the body text, and a conclusion.

Let’s start with the introduction. In the first few sentences of your article, you should already grab your readers’ attention. Begin with a relevant quote or statistic, tell a short story, or share an interesting fact. Then, set the tone for the article by sharing a brief summary of what you’re going to talk about in the body text. This gives your readers a reason to keep going.

Next, fill in the body text. In your outline, these are the bullet points beneath each subheader. This is the meat of your blog post, so it should be clear and compelling. Avoid fluff and repetition, and instead offer deep value by sharing your knowledge, research, and insights.

A concluding section isn’t always necessary - in fact, our blog rarely uses one - but it can be useful in the case of storytelling or when wrapping up a very extensive article. You can tie your main points together using a short bulleted list, or by sharing some closing thoughts in a few sentences. No matter the case, you’ll want to end on an engaging note.

06. Craft an irresistible headline

When writing a blog post, you don’t only need strong content; you’ll also want a powerful headline . A great headline entices readers and enhances your blog design , ensuring that they actually click on your article in the first place.

Learning how to write a catchy blog title doesn’t have to be hard. All you need to do is keep the following points in mind: clarity, specificity and offering an answer or solution.

Writing a good headline also depends on how well you put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Use the title to promise readers that your blog post will provide valuable insight that will benefit them in some way, whether by satisfying their intellectual curiosity, teaching them something new, or helping them solve a problem. This will increase the chances that they’ll click on your article and read it.

Here are some examples of headlines that we are quite proud of, to give you a general idea for your own content:

Create a Powerful Free Landing Page in Under an Hour

20 Best Time Management Apps to Organize Your Life

How to Design an A+ School Website (With Examples)

Make a Change: Using Photography as a Tool to Raise Awareness

If you're looking for inspiration to get started, try out this free title generator .

07. Choose a blog template

Writing your blog post may be your first priority, but you’ll also want to package it in an appealing way. Having an article with strong visual appeal is crucial for striking the right chord with your readers. The best way to customize your blog's design is by starting with a free blog template .

Professional designers have created all these blog layouts, and they're fully customizable to reflect your blog's messaging and tone. For inspiration, check out these blog examples to see how others have transformed these templates into beautiful, content-rich powerhouses.

If you’re writing a blog about organic ingredients, for instance, using a natural color palette on your site will set the right tone for the type of topics you’ll be writing about. This same color palette should also be used for your blog logo , as well as on your social media platforms.

08. Select a blog domain name

You should host your well-crafted blog on your domain site address in order for readers to discover it. When it comes to naming your blog , you can gather ideas from a blog name generator and see if the domain name is available.

Spend time thinking about how your blog and domain name fit in with the blog post topics you will cover. Make sure that your name reflects your blog’s persona, topic and niche.

Once you have finalized your name, choose your domain name (also referred to as a URL, for example, www.wix.com). Typically, your domain name will be the same as, or at least similar to the name of your blog.

09. Pick relevant images

Likewise, you should also enhance your blog post with a few great images that illustrate your main points. It’s important that your pictures add value to the subject, rather than serving as placeholders. Pay extra attention to your featured image - this will be the main visual below your blog’s title, and it’s what readers will see when they browse your articles from your blog’s homepage.

With Wix, you can add a professional photo gallery to individual posts and embed your own pictures within your articles. You can also choose from an array of media content from Wix, Shutterstock, and Unsplash directly within your site’s editor.

10. Implement calls-to-action

In the same way a blog is meant to inform people about specific topics, it can also be used as an important tool that motivates readers to take a certain action. This includes everything from subscribing to your blog to making a purchase.

This element is referred to as CTA, or call-to-action, and is presented as an embedded link or button that states your objective in an alluring manner. Some of the most common call-to-action examples for blogs include “Subscribe,” “Download our e-book” or “Sign up.”

Using CTAs can help you transform your website traffic into engagement and, eventually, profit. While your immediate goal is to get more readers, you may eventually want to monetize your blog further down the road.

11. Optimize for SEO

When it comes to SEO for bloggers , a strong SEO plan involves optimizing your content both before and after writing the blog post. Not only does this include doing keyword research prior to the outline phase (mentioned in step 3), but it also includes using those keywords to polish your final piece.

This begins with sprinkling relevant keywords throughout your article. Let’s say you’ve chosen to target the keyword “business strategies.” Use this exact phrase in your headline, throughout the body text, and 1-2 subheaders if it’s a natural fit.

Next, include this keyword in your metadata. This is the preview text you’ll see for every article on Google, and it includes a title (known as the meta title) and short description (the meta description). You’ll also want to add the keywords to the URL of your article, as well as in the alt text of your blog post’s images. Use these SEO features to give your blog an overall performance boost. Lastly, and make sure you know exactly how long a blog post should be to best rank your post.

12. Edit and publish your blog post

With so many common blogging mistakes out there, you’ll need to thoroughly check your article for grammatical errors, repetition and any other unprofessional content. Furthermore, make sure your ideas flow coherently throughout each section, signaling a clear and purposeful message to readers. You can read about other essential aspects of blogging in this comprehensive blog post checklist .

We recommend asking a friend or colleague to give your blog article a once over before it goes live. Direct them to look for any discrepancies or ambiguity. It’s also important to emphasize quality over quantity in order to keep your readers interested. Then, once you’re happy with your written work, it’s time to hit publish.

13. Promote the final article

Once you’ve written and published the blog post, take the necessary steps to make sure it gets read. Two of the most effective ways to promote your blog post and get readers are email marketing and social media marketing.

Email remains one of the most reliable platforms for marketing, as it allows for a direct communication channel between you and your audience. This highly effective digital marketing strategy involves sending out customized emails to prospective users with the aim of converting them into loyal fans. If you’re interested in getting started, this powerful email marketing service can help you send custom newsletters for your blog.

Beyond emails, sharing your article on social media can also go a long way. For example, if you want to accrue a wide audience, promote your blog on Facebook or Instagram, which have one of the largest and most diverse user bases.

Whichever channels you choose, make sure to actively engage with followers on a day-to-day basis. This will ensure that you not only write a great blog post, but that you get people reading your article, too.

Looking to really get your blog off the ground? Take a look at our Build Your Own Blog online course to get you started.

By Rebecca Strehlow

Marketing Expert & Blogger

By Cecilia Lazzaro Blasbalg Small Business Expert & Writer

Promote Your Site

This Blog was created with Wix Blog

Johnny Holland

How To Write A Blog Post

Let me show you how to write a blog post!!!!!

Writing a blog post can be a daunting task, especially if you’ve never done it before. But with the right steps and tips, you can craft an engaging post that will draw in your readers and leave them wanting more.

In this blog post , we’ll go over the basics of how to write a blog post, from brainstorming to promotion, so that you can create awesome content that resonates with your audience.

No matter what topic you’re writing about or who your intended readers are, follow these simple steps to write an effective blog post.

Defining blog posts

When it comes to writing blog posts, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. However, there are some elements that all great blog posts have in common. In this section, we will go over what makes a blog post effective and how you can structure your own posts to maximize engagement and reach. First and foremost, a good blog post is interesting. It should offer new insights, perspectives, or information on a topic that is relevant to your audience. A boring or unoriginal blog post will not capture attention or generate shares. In addition to being interesting, a good blog post is also well-written. This means it is clear, concise, and easy to read. No one wants to slog through a poorly written article with grammar mistakes and typos . Take the time to proofread your work before hitting publish. Finally, a good blog post is shareable. It should have social media buttons so readers can easily share them with their networks. A shareable post will also have an eye-catching headline and engaging images or video. If you want people to read and share your blog post, make sure it looks appealing when it appears in their feed.

8 easy steps to writing a killer blog post

Assuming you have something worth saying, and an audience to say it to (more on that later), here are eight easy steps for writing a killer blog post: 1. Find your focus. What is this post about? Narrow it down to one main point, topic, or theme. 2. Start with a catchy headline. Something that will make people want to read on. Spend some time on this step – it’s important! 3. Write a great opening sentence. Just like a good book, you need to pull people in from the very beginning. Make it interesting, exciting, or thought-provoking. 4. Structure your content in an easily digestible way. People skim online content, so use short paragraphs and clear headings to make your post scannable. 5. Use images, videos, or infographics to break up the text and add visual interest. Readers are more likely to engage with your content if it’s presented in an engaging way. 6. Write compelling copy that engages the reader and drives conversions. Remember, you’re not just writing for the sake of writing – you want people to take action! So make sure your copy is persuasive and convincing. 7. Include calls to action throughout your post to encourage readers to take the next step. Whether it’s signing up for your email list or purchasing a product, tell them what you want them to do!

Do some target market research

Before you start writing your blog post, it’s important to do some research on your target market. This will help you determine what topics to write about and what tone to use in your writing. To start, take a look at your target market’s demographics. What is their age, gender, location, and income level? What are their interests and hobbies? What is their education level? Knowing this information will help you narrow down your topic choices and decide how to best appeal to your target audience. Next, take a look at what other bloggers in your niche are writing about. This will give you an idea of what topics are popular among your target market and what kind of content they are looking for. Make sure to keep an eye out for any gaps in the market that you could fill with your own blog post. Finally, don’t forget to consider your own interests and expertise when choosing a topic for your blog post. While it’s important to write about topics that will interest your target market, you also want to make sure that you’re passionate about the subject matter. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to write a compelling blog post that engaged readers will want to come back to time and time again.

Plan out your blog post

Before you start writing, it’s important to take some time to plan out your blog post. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your article is cohesive. To start, ask yourself what you want to achieve with your blog post. Are you trying to inform your readers about something? Or are you sharing a personal story? Once you know what you want to write about, Think about who your target audience is. This will help you determine the tone and style of your writing. Next, make a list of the points you want to cover in your article. This will serve as the outline for your post. Try to keep each point concise so that your readers can easily follow along. Finally, decide on a catchy headline that accurately reflects the contents of your article. With a clear plan in mind, you’re ready to start writing!

Carefully consider your headline

Your headline is one of the most important aspects of your blog post because it’s what will draw readers in and make them want to learn more about what you have to say. A great headline will be interesting and informative, and it should give readers a taste of what they can expect from the rest of your article. When crafting your headline, be sure to avoid clickbait tactics that would only serve to frustrate readers. Instead, focus on creating a headline that accurately reflects the content of your article and creates a sense of anticipation for what’s to come.

Get started with your first draft

Assuming you have your topic and target audience in mind, it’s time to start writing! Don’t worry about making it perfect, just get your thoughts down on paper (or screen). You can always go back and edit later. Start with a catchy headline that sums up your main point. Then, write a sentence or two introducing the topic of your blog post. The body of your post should flesh out your main idea with supporting details and examples. Finally, end with a conclusion that wraps up your ideas and leaves the reader with something to think about. If you get stuck along the way, try taking a break or coming back to it later with fresh eyes. And remember, there’s no right or wrong way to write a blog post – just be yourself and have fun!

Pay very close attention to SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most important aspects of writing a blog post. Why? Because if your post isn’t optimized for the search engines, it’s not going to rank in the search results and people won’t be able to find it. And if people can’t find your post, they can’t read it and you won’t get any traffic. So what do you need to do to make sure your blog post is optimized for SEO? First, you need to choose a keyword or phrase that you want to rank for. Then, use that keyword throughout your post – in the title, in the body, in the keywords section (if you have one), and in the tags. You also want to make sure your blog post is well-written and informative so that people will actually want to read it and share it with others. Finally, once you’ve published your post, promote it! Share it on social media, submit it to social bookmarking sites, and ping search engines like Google and Bing. The more exposure your post gets, the better chance it has of ranking in the search results.

Add visual content

Visual content is one of the most important elements of a successful blog post. Readers are more likely to engage with and remember content that includes images, infographics, videos, or other forms of visual media. When selecting visual content for your blog post, it’s important to choose images that are relevant to the topic and add value to the article. Avoid using generic stock photos whenever possible. Instead, try to use original photos or graphics that you have created yourself. If you’re not a skilled designer or photographer, there are still plenty of ways to find great visual content for your blog post. There are many free online resources that offer high-quality stock photos and illustrations. You can also find creative commons videos and audio files that can be used in your blog post. Just make sure to read the terms of use for any visual content you use from third-party sources before publishing it on your blog.

Proofread and edit only after writing your blog post

After you have written your blog post, it is important to proofread and edit it before publishing. This will help ensure that your post is free of any typos or grammatical errors. It is also a good idea to read over your post a few times to make sure that it makes sense and flows well. Once you are happy with your post, hit the publish button and share your article with the world!

Blog post responsiveness is essential

When it comes to writing a blog post, responsiveness is key. Your readers want to know that you’re listening to their comments and feedback and that you’re responsive to their needs. Here are a few tips to help you make sure your blog posts are responsive: 1. Pay attention to the comments section. Make sure you’re replying to comments and engaging with your readers. 2. Take note of what readers are saying on social media. Use social media as a way to gauge what topics are resonating with your audience and consider writing about those topics in your blog posts. 3. Use surveys and polls to get feedback from your readers. Ask them what they want to see more of on your blog, and use their feedback to guide your content strategy. By following these tips, you can ensure that your blog posts are always responsive to your reader’s needs.

Final Notes

Assuming you’re happy with your blog post, there are just a few final things to do before you hit publish. First, double-check all your links to make sure they’re working. There’s nothing worse than a broken link in a blog post! Next, take a look at your images to make sure they’re all displaying correctly. If you’re using WordPress, you can also add alt text to your images in case they don’t load for some reason. Finally, read through your post one last time to make sure there are no typos or grammatical errors. Once you’ve done that, hit publish and share your post with the world!

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How to Write a Blog Post

Last Updated: July 28, 2022 References Approved

Finding Your Style

Opening the post, writing and organizing, editing and closing, managing your blog.

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 27 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 87% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 52,678 times. Learn more...

In our current digital age, blogging is a great way to reach a wide audience of readers. Maybe you want to blog about your love of cats, or the most recent presidential debate. Or maybe you are blogging to promote a product on social media. Whatever the reason, a good blog post takes time to craft and get just right so it will be worth reading.

For example, you are writing a blog post about how to make chocolate cake on your personal food blog. Of course, there are many recipes for chocolate cake online. So what makes your recipe stand out? Are you adding interesting ingredients like salt or candy? Or are you using a unique technique to make the chocolate cake?

Remember that your blog has an unlimited amount of space for posts and images. So don’t be afraid to focus on one aspect of a topic and then expand on another aspect in another blog post.

You can also include a “tweet this quote” option on a quote from the post, or add a share button for Facebook or Twitter. [19] X Research source

Think of tags as keywords, terms, or categories that relate to the post. Avoid a laundry list of terms and only include terms that apply to the topic of the post. [20] X Research source

Focus on images that look interesting, are easy to understand, and trigger an emotion in the reader. [22] X Research source

If you are writing a personal blog post, it may be useful to read the post out loud. That way you can check that the voice sounds natural and casual.

If you are updating your blog on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, keep it consistent so your readers know when to look for new content on your blog.

Responding to reader comments also allows other readers to have conversations with each other on your blog. This builds reader loyalty, and creates a space where readers feel like they can talk and “belong”. It also gives the content of the post more depth by including other opinions and impressions from readers.

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About This Article

To write a blog post, start with a short, bold title, like "My Amazing Chocolate Cake Recipe," so it grabs the reader's attention. Then, introduce your topic by asking a fascinating question or posing a problem your readers can relate to. Next, separate the main body of your post into short, easy to follow paragraphs. Finally, add a call to action in the conclusion, like asking readers to retweet the article. For tips on how to add tags to your blog post, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to write a blog post that ranks in 2023?

If you’re not 100% sure how to write a blog post that clicks with readers, don’t sweat it. The reality? Blogging is a major struggle for most businesses out there.

And hey, we totally understand why.

From coming up with ideas to actually putting pen to paper digitally, a worthwhile blog post requires some serious effort.

That said, the benefits of blogging are worth racking your brain for. The traffic a blog post brings and the conversions you can get, all organic, can do wonders for your business. whether you're starting a small business blog or looking to grow an existing one, you can build a solid blogging strategy.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide breaking down the anatomy of a good blog post and how to write one yourself.

What is a good blog post anyway.

A good blog post is one that appeals to the reader on an emotional level.

Think about it: why do we read blogs in the first place?

We read them because we want to gather information in an interactive way. We’re looking for a connection. And that’s why the best blog posts are those that make us feel something. They might make us laugh, cry, or even think about things in a new way.

But whatever they do, they manage to connect with us on a deeper level. Of course, not every blog post needs to be an Oscar-worthy tearjerker. But if you can tap into emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, or fear, you’re well on your way to writing a great blog post.

Apart from this, you also need to make it SEO-friendly for search engines so you can rank on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

Here’s an example of a blog post ranking for a search term.

How to write a blog post that ranks

Writing a blog post that ranks is no easy feat. You could invest hours upon hours into creating the perfect piece of content, but if it doesn’t hit the mark in terms of SEO, you might as well have not written it at all.

But it isn’t impossible!

Here’s a step-by-step process blog writing process to create a blog post that not only ranks well in search engines but also resonates with your audience.

Step 1 - Pin down your target audience.

It’s no secret that one of the pillars of a successful blog is great content.

But what’s often neglected is the fact that great content starts with understanding your audience.

Your content will vary greatly depending on who you’re trying to talk to.

For example, a blog about budgeting for stay-at-home moms is going to look and sound a lot different than a blog about budgeting for business professionals.

The former might offer advice on how to save money on groceries and household items.

While the latter might focus on how to save money on business expenses.

The point is, if you want to write great content, you need to first identify your target audience first. Once you know who you’re writing for, the rest will fall into place.

Step 2 - Choose a topic

The internet is always abuzz with the latest trends. And as a savvy blogger, you know that writing about what’s trending is a great way to get more eyes on your content. But with so many topics to choose from, how do you know which one is right for your blog post? One way could be using tools like Google trends. Another tool you can use to find unlimited blog post ideas is AI article ideas generator . This AI writing feature helps you generate unlimited ideas for your blogs and articles in seconds. All you need to do is, fill in your topic as input and hit "Generate.”

Step 3 - Keyword research and planning.

No matter what industry you’re in, chances are, many other writers are writing about the same topics that you are. That’s why you must have a strong keyword strategy in place.

By understanding what keywords people are searching for, you can ensure that your content is visible to them. Not only that, but you can also use keywords to target specific audiences.

For example, if you’re a B2B company, you might want to use keywords that target decision-makers. On the other hand, if you’re a B2C company, you might want to use keywords that target people who are ready to buy.

Use tools like Semrush, Surfer and Google Keyword planner to do Keyword research and planning.

Wondering what a good SEO strategy can do for your blog? How about we give you a real-life example? Here’s a blog post on How Calm Business Is Using Content & SEO To Win In B2B by Ross Simonds.

Step 4 - Select a blog type.

Do you want to write long-form articles? Or share quick tips and tricks? How about a brief interview?

While selecting your blog writing format , you need to keep your goal in mind and how you want to deliver that information.

Here are a few of the most popular blog formats to help you get started:

1. Standard blog post : A standard blog post is a traditional article format, typically anywhere from 400-800 words.

2. Listicle : A listicle is a list-based article, usually with a catchy headline like “5 Ways to…” or “10 Tips for…”.

3. How-to : A how-to article is exactly what it sounds like – a step-by-step guide on how to do something.

4. Interview : An interview format is a great way to add variety to your blog and give your readers some insight into other people’s thoughts and experiences.

5. Case study : A case study is a detailed look at a specific project or campaign. This format is usually used to share lessons learned or best practices.

6. Review : A review is a helpful evaluation of a product, service, or experience.

7. Op-ed : An op-ed is an opinion-based article that offers a unique perspective on a current issue or topic.

8. Video : A video blog post is a great way to add some visual interest to your blog. You can create your own videos or embed them from YouTube or Vimeo. Create unique visuals for your video using an AI art generator .

9. Podcast : A podcast is an audio blog post, usually in the form of an interview or discussion.

10. Infographic : An infographic is a visual way to represent data or information. This format is excellent for complex topics or data sets.

Choose the one that best fulfils your purpose, and you’re ready for the groundwork.

Step 5 - Time for research

Any good writer will tell you that research is a critical component of writing a great blog post.

After all, you can’t just sit down and start writing without any direction. Not only does this make for a disorganized and all-over-the-place post, but you also run the risk of writing something that’s not even remotely accurate. No bueno!

The first step in writing a research-based blog post is to, well, research. This might include reading articles, watching videos, or even interviewing experts in your field.

Once you’ve gathered enough information, it’s time to start organizing your thoughts. This is where an outline comes in handy, helping you to structure your post in a way that’s easy to follow.

From there, it’s all about fleshing out your ideas and turning them into a cohesive and readable final draft.

Step 6 - Construct the outline

The best blog posts have a few things in common: they’re interesting, they’re easy to read, and they’re well-structured.

The latter is where many writers trip up.

After all, it can be tough to know where to start — or what to include in — a blog post.

First things first: what’s the goal of your blog post?

Are you trying to educate your readers? Drive traffic to your website? Sell a product?

Your answer will dictate the structure of your outline.

For example, if you’re trying to sell a product, your blog post might have a more traditional structure with a beginning, middle, and end.

On the other hand, if you’re trying to drive traffic to your website, you might want to consider a more evergreen format.

Once you know the goal of your blog post, it’s time to start filling in the pieces. Here’s an essential structure for a standard blog post:

Introduction

Of course, you can (and should!) tailor this structure to fit your specific needs.

Let’s say you’re writing a how-to post, then you might want to include a step-by-step guide in the body of your post.

Or, if you’re reviewing a product, you might want to include a section for pros and cons.

The important thing is to have a general framework in place before you start writing. This will make the writing process much smoother — and help you create a better blog post overall.

Creating a good blog structure or outline can be overwhelming sometimes. What if you had an option to create optimized blog outlines in a click without putting in much effort?!

Yes, it’s actually possible with AI Article Outlines Generator .

For instance, this blog post can be written in a hundred different ways using the outlines generated by the AI Article & Blog outline generator.

Step 7 - Start writing your first draft.

Now that you have a strong understanding of what to write in a blog let’s start putting all of that together.

The first step is to get all of your thoughts down on paper (or, more accurately, on-screen).

This is what’s known as the first draft, and it’s important to get all of your ideas down before you start editing and fine-tuning your work. An easier way to create your first draft faster is to use Instant Article Writer . This smart AI writing feature can write a 1500-word blog for you in one click and with just one input - topic. Watch it live, in action.

Try to write without overthinking or worrying about making things perfect – just get your ideas down, and you can polish them up later.

And if you feel stuck at one point, in between paragraphs, and want to write ahead, go to the Doc-style Sonic Editor , copy-paste the content you have with you, and click on “Write with AI.”

To write a great first draft, include a powerful introduction, followed by the body (as per your blog outline), and then write the conclusion . A great conclusion followed by a CTA at the end , can help readers know what they have to do next. You can summarize the article to conclude your article simply. Also, a paraphrasing tool can be very useful here as it gives multiple conclusion options and also make changes in the tone of the article.

Moreover, if you want to write a detailed blog post (of more than 2000 words), we recommend using Article Writer Generator which walks you through a 4-step process to write an optimized blog post in minutes.

Check out this Article Writer 4.0 tutorial to know more.

Step 8 - Include visuals

People are visual learners, and including images, infographics, videos, or even just well-formatted text can help break up a long post and make it more digestible.

Not to mention, posts with visuals tend to get more engagement on social media and so AI image generators can be of great help here.

So if you’re not already incorporating visuals into your posts, now is the time to start.

Here are a few tips:

Step 9 - Link, link, link.

One of the best ways to improve your blog posts is to include links to external and internal sources.

External links show that you are well informed about the topic you are writing about and that you are not afraid to share information from other sources. This adds to your credibility as an expert on the topic.

Internal links are just as important. They help improve your website's SEO by showing Google that your website is relevant and authoritative. They also help keep readers on your website longer, which is a good thing for your website's metrics. Sometimes to include an internal link you need to expand sentences to make the link insertion look natural.

Both external and internal links are essential for a well-rounded blog post. So make sure to include them appropriately.

Step 10 - Slug and meta description

A slug is a unique identifier for a post or page. It is typically a short, descriptive string that appears in the URL for the post or page. Include your primary keyword here.

The meta title tag is the title of your post, and it should be no longer than 60 characters. The meta description is a summary of your page or post, and it should be no longer than 155 characters.

How to write a good blog post that ranks

The meta title tag and meta description are both HTML elements and can be found in the <head> section of your page or post. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you can edit your meta title tag and meta description from the sidebar while publishing.

In case you’re finding it confusing to write attractive, SEO-friendly Meta tags, just use the SEO Meta Tag Generator (Blog posts). With minimum input requirements, this AI writing feature will create the perfect Meta tag title and description for your blog post in no time. Read more about how to use SEO Meta Tag Generator for a better understanding.

What Makes a “Good” Blog Post?

Most blog posts are, quite frankly, pretty average.

Sure, they might be informative and well-written, but they don’t really stand out from the crowd. So, what separates a good blog post from a great one?

There are really only two things that matter: engagement and shares.

If your post can get readers to comment, share, or otherwise interact with it, then you’re on the right track.

Simple: because that means you’ve struck a nerve. You’ve said something that resonates with people and has made them want to engage with your content.

And when it comes to shares, it’s all about reach. The more people see your content and think it’s worth sharing, the better. It doesn’t matter how long your post is or what topic you write about — if you can get people to engage and share, you’ve succeeded in writing a great blog post.

Elements of a blog post that rank and convert

Search engines can’t read plain text or view images or videos. Instead, they just understand the language of zeros and ones, which is what the HTML code contains. And that’s why we need to take a few relevant steps while writing the blog post to ensure the robots understand.

Here are the important elements of a blog post that can help you rank and convert better:

Title and Headings

When search engines crawl your page, things like the title (H1 Tag) and sub-headings (H2, H3, H4, H5….) are the first things it recognizes. Placing your primary keyword in the title, heading and subheadings help them recognize what you’re talking about.

Bullets, numbers, bold, and italics

Just like the Headline tags, these also get highlighted in your blog. Include your secondary keywords here to make an optimized blog post.

This is the text that describes the visuals (Images, Gifs, videos, etc.). Put your primary or secondary keyword in the alt text to help search engines understand what your image is about.

Introduction, body, and conclusion

Try including your primary keyword in the first paragraph (i.e., introduction) naturally. You can repeat your primary keyword 2-3 times and the secondary keyword at least once throughout the blog post.

URLs and anchor text

Focus on using keywords in the URL and anchor text in a way that makes sense for your readers. For example, if you're writing a blog post about the benefits of meditation, you might want to include the keyword "meditation" in your URL and anchor text.

Meta Tag Title and Description

Add your keywords to both the meta title tag and meta description because they help search engines understand what your page or post is about. They also help searchers decide whether or not your post is relevant to their search.

Blog Post Examples to Model

Let’s have a look at this blog post from Brittany Berger. It talks about how to remix your content marketing ; It’s short, to the point, and uses a conversational tone. Moreover, their visuals attract attention and make the blog post easy to scan.

2. If you’re wondering how to write a blog post that is long and informative, read this Ultimate Guide to Creating a Sales Process by Hubspot. It summarizes the entire process quite well, leaving you with quality takeaways.

3. Another great example is this blog post on tips for content marketing . This is a perfect example of a listicle blog post.

4. Now, let’s have a look at a “How to” blog post. The How to Ace Your Self Introduction in Interview blog post ranks first on Google when searching for a long-tail keyword. Isn’t it a perfect example of a visually-pleasing blog post?!

What to write in a blog to make it rank better?

If you spend time creating quality blog content, the rewards will follow. Google and other search engines will begin to see your site as an authoritative source of information, which will lead to higher rankings.

As your blog posts gain traction and attract more readers, you’ll also start to see an increase in social media engagement and shares. All of this leads to more website traffic and, ultimately, more conversions.

Now the question is, what to do when you don’t understand where to start or what to write?

What if you’re going through writer’s block ?

The solution is pretty simple: Take help from an AI writing assistant !

Writesonic ’s 80+ AI writing features will assist you throughout your blog writing process. Just give your input, click on generate, and voila!

Shrutika Joshi

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Feb 03, 2023

How to Write a Blog Post: Practical Tips for Beginners

Blog posts remain one of the most popular and effective forms of content. That’s why many companies include blogging as one of their main digital marketing efforts to spread brand awareness and generate leads.

Creating blog posts is an excellent way to share your passion, showcase expertise, and improve your writing skills.

However, writing a blog post can feel like a challenge, especially for beginners with no clue how to start their first draft.

Thus, it’s essential to be strategic before crafting a post, from choosing a topic to editing the draft before publishing it. Doing this will save time and help you create great quality content.

In this article, we’ll dive deeper into each of the eight steps on how to write a blog post and share pro tips to create successful blog posts.

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Video Tutorial on How to Make a Blog Post

Need a refresher on how to make a blog post in WordPress? Check our quick video rundown below:

1. Choose a Topic to Write About

The first step before you start a blog is finding a topic to cover in your first blog post.

One excellent method to identify relevant blog topics is to do keyword research , a process to find search queries or keywords that a target audience enters into search engines. Doing this helps a writer discover topics people care about and check their popularity.

Before doing keyword research, try listing up to ten terms that relate to your blog niche. Consider using tools like Google Docs or Todoist to create this list to access this file at any time.

Enter these terms into a keyword research tool such as Ahrefs or KWFinder to find more keyword suggestions that you might not have considered.

Discover topics by finding questions related to your niche using Answer the Public or SEOScout’s Keyword Questions Tool . Enter a word or phrase into these platforms, and they will show a list of questions related to that term.

Use SEOScout’s Keyword Questions Tool to discover topics and questions related to your niche.

Additionally, there are other topic-searching tips to try:

Once you have a collection of topics or target keywords, revise the list by considering these:

2. Research Blog Post Ideas

After collecting some topics, pick one to get started with and find a good blog idea or format that matches the subject.

Choosing a suitable format can help increase the site’s chance to rank on Google’s search engine results pages, making it easier for potential readers to discover your content.

There are many types of blog posts to choose from, and each provides a basic outline.

Some of these blog post types include:

How-to post – a how-to article is a step-by-step guide that educates readers on a specific activity. Here’s an example of a how-to post by Vicky Newbold Nutrition , which shares a step-by-step guide to make a poke bowl:

A how-to article example that explains steps to make a poke bowl.

A curated content example by Hostinger that shows the latest eCommerce statistics.

Before picking your first blog post format, identify the search intent behind the topic’s main keyword. This shows what users are attempting to accomplish when they enter a query, allowing you to match the content with their expectations.

There are three types of search intent:

To see the search intent behind a topic, simply enter the term into Google using the Incognito mode. This way, the results won’t be biased by your past search history.

Then, analyze which type of intent is most common on the results pages. After that, make sure to write a blog post that is aligned with this intent.

3. Aim for an Engaging Title

Now that you have a blog topic and format, it’s time to write a good blog post headline.

A title is the first element that people notice. That’s why it’s crucial to come up with a catchy title to convince visitors to click and read your blog post.

Before you start to write a blog post, try creating a working title – it’s a temporary title that describes the topic and works as the starting focus point for writing.

A working title doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be specific enough to guide the blog post. When you finish writing the blog content, it’s time to focus on making a perfect post title.

A good headline is anything that’s educational and evokes curiosity, like “How to…” and “Step by Step.” Those are some of the headlines that do really well.

I would also look at what does well on the social web – that’ll give you an idea of what headlines people like and what direction you should go as well.

Digital Marketing Expert and Entrepreneur

Refer to the following tips to come up with a great headline:

Add numbers – if you’re creating a list post, consider using numbers in the headline since a title with a number performs better than other types of headlines. Additionally, including a number can tell readers how long an article will be. Here’s an example of how we used a number in our tutorial about profitable things to make and sell :

Hostinger’s article about profitable things to make and sell, which includes number in the headline.

HeadLineAnalyzer can provide feedback on what to improve in a title.

4. Create an Outline

Creating a content outline is the next important process before you start writing a blog post.

An outline is the basic structure of a blog post. It’s designed to help the writer create quality content faster and more efficiently.

By preparing a content outline, bloggers can keep their blog posts focused and on-point by planning out and arranging their ideas.

To start outlining, use a writing tool such as Google Docs , as it comes with a document outline feature that helps organize the text.

When creating an outline, make sure to include the blog post’s main topic and working title. It’s also essential to add the article’s headings and subheadings to the outline.

A heading is a short phrase that represents what a specific section of an article is about. Meanwhile, a subheading is a text placed under a heading to expand on what the heading says.

Headings and subheadings organize a blog post’s intent and lead the readers through the article. They also help separate a lengthy post into parts, making the content more scannable for the readers. Additionally, well-crafted headings and subheadings make content quicker to rank on search engines.

Here is an example of a heading and subheading in our article about how to start a food blog :

Hostinger's article about how to become a food blogger.

Find relevant subheadings to include in the outline when searching the blog topic on Google and looking at the top ten ranking articles. Identify the section headers of these pieces and choose the ones that are useful and applicable.

Here are some other tips to consider when creating an outline:

5. Write Your First Draft

Once the outline is ready, use it to guide your writing.

However, before you begin writing the first draft, make sure to determine the point of view (POV), which is the angle from which a writer explains the topic. Many new bloggers overlook this process, not committing to a POV from the start and jumping from one perspective to another when writing.

There are three primary POV types to choose from. Commonly, the most compelling blog posts use the second-person point of view, as it puts the readers and their problems at the center of the conversation.

Create that personal touch. Put in stories, personal experiences, respond to your comments – let people know that you’re there to help.

Just put in all the personal touches so people know that it’s not just another blog. You’re a person behind it and you’re here to help others.

Once you figure out what POV to use, start writing the first draft of the content.

A blog post is made up of three parts: introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction

An introduction is the first paragraph of a blog post that appears below the title. It lets readers recognize the post’s focus and engage them to read the article further.

Here are the three essential elements to keep in mind when you write a blog post introduction:

The blog post body is where a writer elaborates the main topic of their content into some paragraphs.

To write a blog post body, use the outline created to make the body’s paragraphs flow well.

Since readers tend to skim when consuming an article, it’s essential to keep each of the paragraphs short and cover only one main idea.

To make an effective paragraph, ensure it also contains the following aspects:

Make sure to choose simple rather than complex words when forming a sentence to make a post easy to understand for most readers.

Also, remember to use transition words to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from one paragraph to another.

A conclusion is an essential element of a blog post, summarizing the main idea presented in the body of your article. It provides closure for the readers and reminds them about the importance of the content.

Here are a few tips for writing a blog post’s conclusion:

6. Make Use of Visual Elements

One of the most effective ways to keep readers interested in your blog post is to include visual elements.

According to Creatopy and Orbit Media’s research , all bloggers in the study use relevant images in their articles, showing how crucial visuals are for their posts.

A visual element can be used to separate blocks of text, making it easier for readers to scan and digest the article. It also helps to strengthen the post’s message and make it simpler to understand.

There are many types of visuals to use to make a blog post visually appealing. Some of them are:

Use Lighshot to take great quality screenshots.

When adding visual elements to a blog post, remember to do it at regular intervals.

According to BuzzSumo , articles with an image every 75-100 words receive double the social media shares as articles with fewer images.

Also, remember to optimize the images before using them on your blog – big files can consume more space and make the site slower. If adding videos, host them on a video hosting platform since they can take up server bandwidth and storage space.

7. Proofread Your Work

Once the first draft is done and it has some visual elements, it’s time to double-check your work and ensure no mistakes are left before sharing the post.

Whether you’re an experienced writer or a new blogger, it’s crucial to spend some time editing the post to make it clearer and more concise. At the same time, this step can save you from returning to the blog post later to make new changes.

Remember that editing is more than just fixing some writing issues. It also includes ensuring a blog post has all the necessary elements to make it more appealing and engaging.

To start editing your first blog post, refer to this checklist:

8. Publish and Promote

After writing the blog post, it’s finally time to publish it on your site.

Before publishing the content, ensure its URL is short, descriptive, and contains the blog post’s title – changing the URL after a post is published can affect its ranking and search traffic.

Another element to focus on before publishing your first post is the meta description, a summary of what the post is about. Try crafting a readable, compelling narrative using related keywords to improve the organic click-through rate.

Once the post is published, start promoting it to bring in the readers. Without letting people know about the content, potential readers have no way of finding it.

Here are some excellent methods to promote your blog for free :

Guest post on popular sites – guest blogging can also be an opportunity to drive referral traffic. To find sites that accept guest posts , go to blog directories like AllTop and OnTopList . Also, make sure to look for websites that allow adding links to your site.

Every time I write a blog post, I do the following things:

1. I email out the people I’ve linked to and ask them, ‘Hey, I’ve linked to you! Check out my post, feel free to share it on your favorite social web.’ And a lot of people will do that because they’re flattered.

2. I would go on social networks like Twitter, see who shared other people’s content that was similar to mine, and I hit him up asking to share my content. And I let them know, ‘Hey, if you ever want me to share your content, let me know.’

3. I cross link. So every time I post a new piece of content, I’ll go to my old pieces of content that are related and link back to the new one.

4. I use the backlink opportunity report in UberSuggest , and I see who’s linked some of my competitor URLs. If someone’s linked up to three, four of your competitors, but they haven’t linked out to you, chances are they’re willing to link to you because they link to multiple competitors. So I hit them up, tell them how my content is better, more thorough, more detailed, and better for their audience, and ask them for a link.

Tips for Creating a Successful Blog Post

Now that you know how to write a blog post, let’s see some other tips to make your posts successful.

Understand the Target Audience

A target audience is a group of people who can resonate with the content and have the potential to become loyal readers.

Understanding your target audience helps to write a blog post with the language and tone that appeal to them.

To learn more about your potential reader, start by collecting their demographic data. This includes their age, income, location, hobbies, gender, and job title.

Try using a social listening tool like Awario to identify demographics that discuss the post’s target keyword on social media.

Once you have the demographic information of potential readers, consider creating a reader persona – it’s a semi-fictional person created to represent the ideal reader. It usually includes a name, face, personality, and goals.

Utilize a persona generator like Userforge to easily create a reader persona. By having a persona, bloggers can imagine as if they’re writing a blog post for someone they know.

Search engine optimization ( SEO ) is the process of improving a site to increase its visibility on SERPs.

According to BrightEdge , 53% of all web traffic comes from organic searches. That’s why SEO is vital for bloggers , as it helps their sites rank high in search results and increase search traffic.

One of the on-page SEO practices you should do is creating the image alt text , which describes what a picture is about. Doing this will help Google understand the context of the image and improve the site’s accessibility.

Using internal and external links is one of the most effective WordPress SEO tips to apply when you write a blog post. Internal linking allows visitors and search crawlers to navigate a blog easily. Meanwhile, external linking to relevant pages that are well-ranked helps improve a site’s authority.

I typically write 15-20 articles before I really focus on SEO. And if you’re on WordPress, there’s a lot of SEO plugins like All-in-One SEO or Yoast SEO that just help ensure that your site’s pretty optimized, so you don’t have to worry too much.

Remember to regularly monitor the posts’ SEO performance using Google Search Console , a free tool that displays any keyword a site currently ranks for in Google.

Use Call-to-Action (CTA) Signals

When you write a blog post, remember to include a call-to-action. This element directs readers to any action a writer wants them to take.

Many bloggers use CTAs at the end of their blog post’s conclusion. A call-to-action can use different forms:

There is also a variety of CTAs that can be implemented in blog posts, including:

When creating a CTA, be sure to use strong words that stimulate action, like “join” or “download,” for instance. Consider also using words with a sense of urgency, like “now” or “today.”

Publish During the Peak Hours

Publishing a post when your audience is online helps it get their attention and generates more traffic to the page.

Various studies can help determine the best time to launch a post. One of them is the research by Shareaholic , which states that the best time to publish a blog post is early morning on weekdays .

Try to post in the mornings within your time zone or whatever time zone that you are targeting people, it tends to do better.

So if I’m targeting people in Europe, I would do it in the mornings, maybe like 8am time in the UK. That way you can get the email traffic and social shares. And it just tends to do better. Posting afternoon or night doesn’t do as well unless it’s breaking news.

Once the blog has some traffic, use Google Analytics to get some peak time insights – this tool shows the number of visits broken down by day and hour.

Keep experimenting with different posting times and see what time works best for your blog.

How Can I Earn Money With My Blog Post

Blogging can also be a way to make money online . A beginner blogger can make up to $100/month .

Here are a few ways on how to make money blogging :

Creating relevant and engaging blog posts is the first step to making a successful blog.

To craft quality content, you must plan every step of the writing process. Doing this prevents you from facing writer’s block and ensures the content provides value for the readers.

In this article, we have covered eight steps on how to write a blog post. Let’s recap what we’ve discussed:

To make a successful blog post, remember to keep your target readers in mind, apply the best SEO practices, include a CTA in the content, and publish it during peak hours.

We hope this article encourages you to write the first post and start growing your blog. Feel free to leave us a comment if you have any questions or have some blogging tips to share.

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Amanda is a WordPress and digital marketing enthusiast with a passion for helping others grow their businesses and careers. She enjoys producing content that is both informative and helpful. When she's not working, Amanda loves hiking, reading books, and filling her bullet journal.

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How to Write an Awesome Blog Post in 5 Steps

Writing a blog post is a little like driving; you can study the highway code (or read articles telling you how to write a blog post) for months, but nothing can prepare you for the real thing like getting behind the wheel and hitting the open road. Or something.

How to write a blog post student driving

“Wait for it… wait for it… BASS DROP.”

Now that I’m done thoroughly mangling that vague metaphor, let’s get down to business. You know you need to start blogging to grow your business, but you don’t know how. In this post, I’ll show you how to write a great blog post in five simple steps that people will actually want to read. Ready? Let’s get started.

P.S: Great news for you:

>> 9 Free Blog Post Templates

You’re welcome.

How to Write a Blog Post in Five Easy Steps [Summary]:

Now let’s review each step in more detail.

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 1: Planning

First, a disclaimer – the entire process of writing a blog post often takes more than a couple of hours, even if you can type eighty words per minute and your writing skills are sharp. From the seed of the blog post idea to finally hitting “Publish,” you might spend several days or maybe even a week “writing” a blog post, but it’s important to spend those vital hours planning your post and even thinking about your post (yes, thinking counts as working if you’re a blogger) before you actually write it.

Does your blog post have enough circles and crosses?

Long before you sit down to put digital pen to paper, you need to make sure you have everything you need to sit down and write. Many new bloggers overlook the planning process, and while you might be able to get away with skipping the planning stage, doing your homework will actually save you time further down the road and help you develop good blogging habits.

📗 Learn how to write better ad copy with our free guide: 10 Tricks to Get the Click

Choose a Topic That Interests YOU

There’s an old maxim that states, “No fun for the writer, no fun for the reader.” No matter what industry you’re working in, as a blogger, you should live and die by this statement.

Before you do any of the following steps, be sure to pick a topic that actually interests you. Nothing – and I mean NOTHING – will kill a blog post more effectively than a lack of enthusiasm from the writer. You can tell when a writer is bored by their subject, and it’s so cringe-worthy it’s a little embarrassing.

Don’t go there.

I can hear your objections already. “But Dan, I have to blog for a cardboard box manufacturing company.” I feel your pain, I really do. During the course of my career, I’ve written content for dozens of clients in some less-than-thrilling industries (such as financial regulatory compliance and corporate housing), but the hallmark of a professional blogger is the ability to write well about any topic, no matter how dry it may be. Blogging is a lot easier, however, if you can muster at least a little enthusiasm for the topic at hand.

You also need to be able to accept that not every post is going to get your motor running. Some posts will feel like a chore, but if you have editorial control over what you write about, then choose topics you’d want to read – even if they relate to niche industries. The more excited you can be about your topic, the more excited your readers will be when they’re reading it.

If you’re really desperate for inspiration, check out our list of eight blog topic generators to get you going, or these eight tricks to come up with unique blog ideas .

Write an Outline For Your Post

Great blog posts don’t just happen. Even the best bloggers need a rough idea to keep them on-track. This is where outlines come in.

An outline doesn’t need to be lengthy, or even detailed – it’s just a rough guide to make sure you don’t ramble on and on about something tangential to your topic.

For example, this is the outline for this post that I sent to my editor before getting to work:

Introduction

[Quick summary explaining what the blog post will cover]

Section 1 – Planning a Blog Post

– Things bloggers should do before putting pen to paper – outlining, research etc.

Section 2 – Writing a Blog Post

– Tips on how to focus on writing, productivity tips for bloggers

Section 3 – Rewriting/Editing a Blog Post

– Self-editing techniques, things to watch out for, common blogging mistakes

Section 4 – Optimizing a Blog Post

– How to optimize a blog post for on-page SEO, social shares/engagement, etc.

Section 5 – Conclusion

– Wrap-up

The purpose of this outline is to make sure I know what I plan to cover, in what order the various sections will appear, and some bare-bones details of what each section will include.

Outlines keep you honest. They stop you from indulging in poorly thought-out metaphors about driving and keep you focused on the overall structure of your post. Sometimes I’ll write a more thorough outline (and sometimes I won’t bother with one at all), but most of the time, something like the outline above is perfectly acceptable.

Whether you write your outline in your word processor, on a piece of paper, or even scribbled on a bar napkin, do whatever works for you to keep you focused.

Do Your Research

One of the biggest secrets professional bloggers (myself included) don’t want you to know is that we don’t actually know everything. Truth be told, sometimes we don’t know anything about a topic before we sit down to write about it.

Pro tip: you don’t actually need a passport to write a travel marketing post.

This doesn’t mean that all bloggers are insincere fakers. On the contrary, many bloggers’ natural curiosity is what makes them great at what they do. If you blog for a living, you have to be comfortable jumping from one topic to the next, even if you don’t know anything about it. What allows us to do this, and to write authoritatively about subject areas that are new to us, is knowing how to properly research a blog post.

It almost goes without saying, but relying solely on Wikipedia as a primary source is almost always a bad idea. Yes, Wikipedia does have thousands of excellently researched articles, but it’s not infallible, and erroneous facts do make their way into articles without site editors noticing. Plus, every verifiable fact on the site is cited from links elsewhere on the web, so why cite the middleman?

Lou Diamond Phillips was a total beast in ‘La Bamba.’

If you’re relying on third-party information to write your blog post, choose authoritative sources. Official associations, government websites, heavily cited research papers, and preeminent industry experts are all good examples. Nobody is right all the time, though, so approach every source with a the practiced skepticism of a journalist and question everything until you’re positive your information is solid.

Check Your Facts

A few years ago, I edited a piece written by a colleague focusing on the highlights of a major technology conference. The writer, under a seriously tight deadline, had done a bang-up job of writing great copy in virtually no time, but he failed to properly check his facts. He cited an article from Forbes in which the writer claimed Steve Jobs was using PowerPoint on stage – something that never happened. It was lazy journalism on the part of the Forbes writer, and an easy mistake to make on my colleague’s part, but the result was the same; one poorly researched article directly impacted another because both writers failed to do their due diligence.

How to write a blog post Steve Jobs PowerPoint quote

All it takes to tank your credibility is one glaring error. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s crucial to avoid gaffes like this. If you’re just starting out, your credibility and authority will take a major hit if you publish inaccurate information, and even if you have a blog with millions of loyal readers, your regulars will be all too eager to jump all over your mistake – just take a look in the comment sections of publications such as Wired or TechCrunch to see how quickly this can happen.

In the event that you fall prey to a well-executed hoax, repeat widely circulated misinformation, or simply make a mistake, own up to it right away and be transparent about your edits. If you try to slip something past your readers, you can bet that they’ll call you out on it, further compounding the damage. Be honest, be accountable, and fix it – fast.

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 2: Writing a Great Headline

Everyone and their grandmother has an opinion about headlines . Some say you should be as specific as possible (to avoid misleading your readers and manage their expectations), while others recommend taking a more abstract approach. Vague headlines might work just fine if you’re Seth Godin, but for most of us, being specific is better.

How to write a blog post funny headline example

Some headlines practically write themselves.

There are two main approaches you can take to writing blog post headlines. You can either decide on your final headline before you write the rest of your post (and use your headline to structure your outline), or you can write your blog post with a working title and see what fits when you’re done.

Personally, I don’t adhere to a rigid strategy one way or the other. Sometimes I’ll come up with a strong headline from the outset and stick with it, whereas other posts will take a lot more work. Although sites such as Upworthy arguably ruined internet writing with their clickbait headlines, the process behind the site’s headlines has merit, as it forces you to really think about your post and how to grab your audience’s attention.

How to write a blog post Upworthy headline rules

Your approach to headlines should also vary depending on your audience. For example, let’s look at these super-specific headlines from around the web:

The exact figures presented in these headlines are all framed within a context of providing actionable advice to other marketers and startups. “Case study” blog posts like this often perform well, due to their transparent nature (which pulls the curtain back from successful growing businesses and the people who run them) and the “how-to” angle (which attracts people who want to accomplish the same thing by following real-world examples).

How to write a blog post funny how-to article

People LOVE how-to articles.

That’s all well and good if that’s what you’re looking for – which, in my case, is rare. I didn’t read any of these posts, simply because it seems that at least half of the blog posts in my RSS feed are structured in this fashion (including this one). They’re great for the sake of example, but I glossed right over them because they’re so similar to the dozens of other posts I see every day telling me three hacks to grow my startup by X percent in Y months.

Another common technique is posing a question in your headline. Done well, this can be extraordinarily effective, as it is in these examples:

However, this technique is also growing tiresome, and fewer publications are utilizing it these days (thankfully alongside the always-irksome “You won’t believe…” headline). If you opt for asking questions in your headlines, be sure it’s a question your audience will be genuinely interested in.

Writing headlines for blog posts is as much an art as it is a science, and probably warrants its own post, but for now, all I’d advise is experimenting with what works for your audience. If your readers want hyper-specific case studies on how to do stuff, by all means let ‘em have it. Don’t, however, do something just because someone else is, especially if it’s not resonating with your audience.

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 3: The Writing Part

So, you’ve done your research, settled on a headline (or at least a working title), and now you’re ready to actually write a blog post. So get to it.

Be sure to actually turn your computer on before you start writing.

However, I’d recommend getting as much done in one session as possible. This makes it easier to stay focused on the topic, minimizes the chance that you’ll forget crucial points, and also lets you get the damned thing out of your hair faster.

Even if you work more effectively in short bursts, try to maximize the amount of writing you get done in those sessions. The more times you have to revisit a draft, the more tempting it is to add a little here, and a little there, and before you know it, you’ve gone wildly off-topic. Get as much done as you can in a single sitting even if you prefer to draft a blog post over three or four writing sessions.

Like most skills, writing becomes easier and more natural the more you do it. When you first start, you might find that it takes a week (or longer) to write a post, but with practice, you’ll be knocking out great posts in hours. Unfortunately, there are no “hacks” or shortcuts when it comes to writing – you have to put in the time at the coalface.

NOTE: A lot of people struggle with writing introductions. A great strategy is to write the introduction last. Just get into the meat of the blog post, and worry about the introduction later. Here are five easy ways to write a great introduction .

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 4: Using Images Effectively

Writing for the web is an entirely different animal than writing for print. Oftentimes, people simply don’t have the time, will, or ability to focus on lengthy blog posts without some visual stimulation. Even a well-formatted blog post consisting solely of text is likely to send your reader screaming back to Reddit or Twitter within minutes, which is why it’s so important to include images in your posts.

Images Help Your Blog Post Flow More Effectively

One of the most important reasons to include images in your blog posts is to break up the text. Many people scan blog posts rather than pore over every word, and interspersing images throughout the copy will make your post seem less intimidating and more visually appealing.

Images Make Great Visual Punchlines

Everyone likes a good laugh, and a well-chosen image can help lighten the tone of your posts and inject some much-needed humor into a piece. This can be particularly effective if you’re writing about a dry (or flat-out boring) topic.

How to write a blog post funny picture example

This image has nothing to do with blogging.

Images Make Complex Topics More Easily Understandable

Let’s face it – sometimes, digital marketing (and hundreds of other niche topics) isn’t the most accessible subject to newcomers. That’s why images are an essential part of your blogging toolkit if you’re hoping to expand your audience. Diagrams, charts, infographics , tables, and any other visual assets can help your readers understand abstract or complex topics and grasp the points you’re trying to make.

📗 Free guide >> The 120 Best Words & Phrases for Marketing With Emotion

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 5: The Editing Part

Actually writing a blog post is hard. Editing a blog post is harder . First and foremost, in addition to just traditional spell check, run your blog post through a grammar checker like Grammarly to fix any contextual mistakes.

But it by no means ends there. Many people mistakenly assume that editing is simply striking through sentences that don’t work or fixing grammatical errors. Although sentence structure and grammar are both very important, editing is about seeing the piece as a whole and, sometimes, being willing to sacrifice words (and the hours it took to write them) for the sake of cohesion.

So here are some self-editing tips and suggestions on how to tighten up your writing so that it packs a punch and keeps your readers scrolling.

Avoid Repetition

Few things are more jarring to read than repetition of certain words or phrases. Once you’re done with the first draft of your blog post, read through it and check for words that can be replaced to avoid repeating yourself.

Repetition – avoid it.

BONUS: Every writer has a “crutch” word or phrase. This is a word that, no matter how carefully they might try, the writer simply cannot help themselves from including in their work. Identify what your crutch word is, be vigilant, and make sure it doesn’t appear more often than it needs to.

Read Your Post Aloud to Check Flow

This is a trick that many writers learn in workshops. If a piece reads awkwardly out loud, it will probably read awkwardly in your reader’s mind. It might seem a bit weird, but force yourself to read your post aloud to check for wordy bottlenecks or contrived sentences. Find yourself struggling with the flow of a sentence? Rework it until it rolls off your tongue.

Have Someone Else Read Your Work

This is crucial for inexperienced or casual bloggers. Asking a friend or colleague to check your work isn’t an admission of weakness or a sign of failure – it’s a commitment to making your work as strong as it possibly can be.

Consider asking someone else to read your work.

Ideally, ask someone with editing experience to proof your work. Also, be sure that they understand you’re not looking for help spotting typos or grammatical errors (but if they do, great), but that you want to hear their thoughts on the flow of the piece and whether it makes sense structurally. Do your points come across well? Is your position on a contentious topic clear? Does the piece prompt the reader to think or challenge an existing belief? Is the advice you’re offering worth following? These are all questions that having another set of eyes read your work can help answer.

Keep Sentences Short and Paragraphs Shorter

Nothing will intimidate or outright anger a reader faster than huge walls of text. It’s a common mistake for inexperienced bloggers to make, and one I see far too often in a lot of online articles.

Sentences should be as short as possible. They’re easier to read, making your audience’s job easier. Shorter sentences also reduce the likelihood of going off on tangents. For example, I recently came across a sentence in an opinion piece in Wired that had no fewer than seven subordinate clauses, an editorial sin of almost unimaginable magnitude.

Paragraphs should also be short and sweet. The shorter the paragraph, the more likely your readers are to keep going. The “rules” of paragraph structure have been bent a little since web-based publishing became the norm, but try to keep individual ideas isolated to their own neat, short little paragraph.

Accept That Your Blog Post Will Never Be Perfect

There’s no such thing as a perfect post, and the sooner you come to terms with this, the better.

I’m not advocating for publishing sloppy work, nor am I saying you shouldn’t be obsessive about the details. I am saying, however, that even the best blog posts could always be better, but time is always against us. Again, unless you’re Seth Godin, you probably need to publish more than one post a month, so agonizing over every post will sap you of the desire to write and waste precious time – not to mention likely to incur the wrath of your editor or content manager.

Make every post as good as it can be, learn from the experience, then move on.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Cuts or Adapt on the Fly

You may have forgotten, but I originally included a section in the example outline for this post that dealt with optimizing blog posts for SEO. I fully intended to write this section, but when I looked at how my first draft was shaping up, I realized this was too substantial a topic to tackle in an already lengthy post. As a result, I made the decision to cut this section from the post altogether. I purposefully left the outline intact to demonstrate that you shouldn’t be afraid to make editorial decisions like this.

Unless there’s something you absolutely MUST include (say, a section that your sales or managerial team is expecting in a post that you agreed to deliver), your outline is not carved in stone. Remember – an outline is a guide, not an immutable series of commandments. If something doesn’t work, whether it be a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole section, don’t hesitate to make the cut. Be ruthless with your work.

That’s All She Wrote…

Blogging is one of those jobs that seems easy until you have to do it. Fortunately, it does get easier, and with time and practice, you’ll be blogging like a pro in no time.

If there’s an aspect of writing a blog post that I didn’t cover, or you have specific questions about my process or anything generally blog-related, let me know in the comments – I’ll answer them as best I can.

Now take up thy pen, go forth, and blog like a badass.

Meet The Author

Originally from the U.K., Dan Shewan is a journalist and web content specialist who now lives and writes in New England. Dan’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications in print and online, including The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Pacific Standard magazine, The Independent, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and many other outlets.

See other posts by Dan Shewan

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How to Write a Blog Post: The 3 Best Blog Post Templates

by Joe Bunting | 47 comments

How do you write a great blog post? Do you wish you had a blog template to guide you in this writing process? One that gets your blog clicks, is shared on social media, and grows your online audience with readers who will not only benefit from the content you're sharing, but also keep coming back to learn more?

There are thousands of marketing tips and formatting tricks you can use to grow your blog and get more readers, but the reality is that unless you're writing great content, no one is going to want to read your blog, no matter how many creative ways you market it.

Here's the hard truth: the single best way to accomplish your writing goals with a blog is to write better blog posts.

So how do you write better blog posts? In this guide, we're going to talk about what it really takes to write a great piece of content. I'll share the three best blog post templates , templates that we have personally tested here on The Write Practice to generate millions of reads. (Yes! Millions!)

Then, we'll give you a step-by-step process for writing blog posts so that you can start improving your blog and helping your target readers today.

Do These Blog Post Templates Work for SEO Free Blog Post Template Worksheet Template #1: “Problem Soved” Template #2: Encyclopedic Template #3: Conversation Starter Practice

How I Discovered These Blog Post Templates

As a creative writer, it took me about seven years to find my own style of blogging. I tried everything, including:

I've written blog posts to sell products as a marketer, to teach, as a creative writer to share my art—but most of all, I've written blogs to connect with people all over the world.

Even better, in experimenting with all of these different styles, I've found my own style. It's worked. As of the end of 2020, my writing has been read by about 30 million people, received over 100,000 comments, and been shared on social media hundreds of thousands of times.

Now, every time I start writing a new blog post, I already have a template and structure in mind. One I know will accomplish my blogging goals before writing it.

This allows me to work much faster and avoid writer's block.

More importantly, it also helps me make sure I'm writing something that will connect with my readers, because the biggest mistake I made when I started writing—the biggest mistake I see most writers making—was that I cared more about connecting with myself than my reader.

The opposite of my blogging intent!

Great Blog Posts Begin With the Reader , Not the Writer

Blogging is not about you, Writer.

The first thing I do when I'm editing a blog post is look for the word “you” in the intro. If it's not there, and if the word “I” is there instead, I know there's a problem. I'm going to have to rewrite it.

Why? Because good blog content is not about you.

Blogging is about your reader.

If you want to explore your thoughts and feelings, that's great. Write a journal. You can even publish your journal online. That's totally fine. Just don't expect anyone to want to read it.

If you want to grow a blog, you have to start with the reader and what they want, the problems they're experiencing.

It's not about you. It's about your reader. And if it's not written for them, they're going to notice this immediately.

So if you're ever out of post ideas, just ask yourself, why are my readers struggling? Or better, go straight to your readers, write a new blog post, and ask them, “Hey, what problems are holding your goals up right now? How can I help you solve those problems over the next few months?”

Not sure what this questioning would look like? Here's an example of a post I recently wrote doing this . I got dozens of new topic ideas, just from this one step.

It's a step you absolutely can't skip.

What About SEO? Is This Important to Know When Using a Blog Post Template?

All but one of these blog post templates are designed with search engine optimization in mind, and in my own writing, they have generated millions of searches.

As an example, one of my most popular articles of all time is about how to write a story . It perfectly follows the “Problem Solved” template, which I'll share below. Since it was first published in 2013, it has been read over 1.8 million times.

Here's a screenshot that shows its growth in readers over time.

All that's to say, these templates work, both from a connection standpoint and an SEO perspective.

At the same time, one thing the writers I coach often ask me is, “Should you really change how you write based on what Google thinks?” My answer is probably yes. Here's why:

That means that SEO can be an amazing resource to better understand our readers.

Should you pander to SEO? Keyword stuffing will help you hit every possible search term—but it might ruin your writing along the way by making it incoherent to readers. Should you stuff in keywords anyway?

Of course not!

But you can take cues from keyword research and organize your content in a way that both readers and search engines will understand. Which is great for the reader and you!

Thus, as I talk about each of these templates, I'll share how I think about them from an SEO perspective, and how they can work in your overall SEO strategy, if you have one.

Download the Free Blog Post Template Worksheet

Make the most out of these blog post templates with a free blog post template worksheet that will help you create a blog post outline for each of these templates.

Download it here »

The “Problem Solved” Blog Post Template

I developed this blog post template out of the three-act story structure:

In the same way, great nonfiction blog posts present a problem that your reader is experiencing, empathizes with that problem, and then solves the problem.

The difference between a blog post and a fictional story is that when you write a blog post, your character is your reader, and the story you're telling is how they can solve their own, unique problems.

The key to this template is making sure you lead with the problem. Most people want to start with the solution, but until you show your reader that you understand their problem, they won't give you their attention.

Have you ever had a friend who tried to solve your problem before listening to you and empathizing for your situation by showing they personally understand it? Because of this, did you immediately feel like they didn't fully grasp your problem despite their determined problem-solving-suggesstions?

It's disappointing—if not frustrating—isn't it?

Starting off a blog with the solution instead of an understanding of the problem fits the same concept.

From an SEO perspective , the downloadable template is extremely effective because so many people are searching for solutions to their problems. They type questions like, “How do I deal with my family?” and “How do I lose my holiday weight?” and hope they can find the perfect answer.

If you can show that you understand searchers' problems and have the best solution to that problem, then Google and other search engines will be much more likely to deliver your content to searchers because your content will have a far more thorough grasp of their situation.

Which means your blog will actually help readers when they read it.

Which also means that time they spent reading your blog was worth their time and attention!

The ideal length of this blog post template is 2,000 to 2,500 words. You want to write the definitive guide on this topic, and that means you must be thorough. You want your blog to be the ultimate gathering of research that is specific to solving that reader's focused problem.

How does this template work? Let's begin with the post title and then talk about the five elements. All of these are important for your blog's success.

Post Title: Focus on the Problem

In this template, post titles should always reflect the problem you're solving. Sometimes you may be able to allude to the solution as well, but this is a problem first approach.

Titles for this template might include terms like “How to,” “10 Steps,” “3 Secrets,” “5 Tips,” or “The Ultimate Guide to ____.”

Whatever your title, make sure the problem is stated.

1. Identify the Problem

The first step to write a better blog post is to write your lead. Also known as lede for journalism geeks, this term describes the first paragraph, the hook of your story where your job is to grab the attention of the reader,

How do you hook your reader? Identify a problem that your reader desperately wants solved.

Is your blog about helping people condense all their waste into a single mason jar each year? Is their problem related to finding ways to reduce their waste? Talk about this.

Cover all the scenarios that are probably holding them back. (Another way to describe a lead is your premise .)

Length: one to three paragraphs.

2. Make the Problem Personal

Remember what “act two” was above (make the problem worse)? The next step is to make the problem personal, either by making the problem seem even worse or by telling your unique story in relation to the problem.

Making the problem personal is the key.

When you've personally experienced the same problem your readers are currently suffering, you have a unique experience and perspective about the problem itself and therefore have undergone your own trials and successes when attempting (and eventually accomplishing ways) to overcome it.

Have you ever heard the old saying that you can tell the same story but differently?

This is what you're doing by making your blog-problem-solving personal.

Telling the same problem that others have experienced and maybe even blogged about before—but making it different. You're bringing your fresh take on how to solve it because, yes, you've been there, too.

How do you fit into this problem? What is your personal connection to this problem?

As Robert Frost said:

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”

Don’t just give us information, but summon the emotion to tell your story in a way that makes your audience care , connect, and want to take action.

This will help you create a sense of trust and identify with the reader, talking about what makes their problem so annoying.

The blog becomes genuine because you are sincere about their problem. Because you've suffered in a similar way, it's clear that you personally want them to overcome it.

You become a concerned and considerate friend.

Length: two or five paragraphs.

3. Tell a Solution Story

Now that you’ve talked about the problem and made the problem personal, talk about how the solution to that problem was discovered.

Note: You're not giving the solution to your problem yet, just talking about how one person, maybe you , discovered the solution.

This is a great place to use case studies, customer testimonials, or your own story about how you discovered the solution to the problem.

Length: three to five paragraphs.

4. Solve the Problem in a Step-By-Step Guide

At last! This is where you finally explain the solution to your reader's problem.

Most people start their post here, with the solution. However, that's a huge mistake.

Skipping to the solution before you've fully explained the problem is like skipping to the climax in a novel without all the plot points that came before it. If you do, you might find that your article comes out flat.

So make sure that you don't get into the solution, the core points of your post, until you're halfway through the article.

Length: as long as you want, but minimum of three paragraphs, depending on your post length . (Remember that the ideal length of a blog is 2,000 to 2,500 words.)

5. Call to Action (CTA) — Preferably Placed in Your Conclusion

It's not enough to tell people how to solve their problem. You have to tell them to go do it, showing them each of their next steps.

Teach them how to put their problem solving into action now . Today.

Encourage them to seize the present.

Give them the practical steps that they can undertake after reading your blog's content.

This might also be where you tell them to purchase your product, to become an email subscriber, or download a free resource.

Another word for this final piece of the template is a “conclusion,” and it always surprises me how many people skip it.

However, it's the single best place to connect the dots and show how your solution actually solves your readers' problem.

Assimilating your call to action with your conclusion is a smart way to tie up your blog with purposes.

But You're Not Quite Done

What makes blogging different than print newspapers or magazines? Blogging is interactive .

That's why a blog post is never finished until you've added a question to stimulate discussion. Scan to the end of a few blog posts from top bloggers and you'll find that they always include a question to their readers.

Give it a try!

Think of one insightful question that will move readers to reflection, and also hopefully engagement in a communal reflection with other readers in the comments .

Length: one or two sentences.

A Note About Subheadings

No one likes to read a giant block of text, so each of these sections should be separated by subheadings to break up the article and make it easier to read.

Not sure how to use headings and subheadings? Check out our formatting tips for writers here .

Examples of the “Problem Solved” Blog Post Template

All of these posts follow the template above, connect with the reader, and rank well in search engines.

The Encyclopedic Blog Post Template

Wikipedia is the thirteenth largest website in the world, in major part, because it gets so much traffic from the top site in the world, Google.

And by writing encyclopedic blog content in your field of expertise, you can build your authority in a topic, gain readers, and help thousands of people.

It makes sense, right? When you don't know the definition of a concept or what happened in an obscure civil war battle that someone is talking about, what do you do? You google it! And then, you likely click on the Wikipedia page hovering at the top of the page, just like millions of others.

And by thoroughly defining these topics within your expertise, you can capture some of that readership.

From an SEO perspective , writing encyclopedic content, especially in a deep niche that Wikipedia hasn't covered yet, is one of the best ways to gain search traffic.

For example, in early 2020, I published a deeply researched article on Freytag's Pyramid , delving into the origin of plot diagram, how it has been taught, and how it has been misunderstood.

I read over a dozen articles and a full book to research the concept, and it took me two full weeks to write, but when it was finally published, it was a huge success. It was read 89,237 times in its first year.

Now it's the second post (behind Wikipedia) if you google “Freytag's Pyramid.” Check out the screenshot of how it grew in search traffic. Not bad, right?

Blog Post Template Encyclopedic Screenshot

This post follows this type of blog post template.

The key to this template is information pacing. You want to get to the definition of the topic quickly, but not so quickly that the reader will quickly click away when they get their answer, and then draw the reader deeper into the content (and your calls to action) through the rest of the post.

How do you do that? Let's dive into the template.

Post Title: Focus on the Key Topic

Post titles using this template highlight the topic, usually at the very beginning, often followed by a colon and then a short description of the contents of the article.

Example titles might look like, “The Battle of Gettysburg: 4 Reasons the Union Won the War,” with the topic at the beginning.

Sometimes writers will even use this template to compare and contrast two related topics, like our post “ Pantsers and Plotters: Pros and Cons of Story Structure .”

Whatever your topic, make sure it's stated clearly in the title, usually right at the beginning.

1. Introduce the Topic Through the Reader's Intent

As we mentioned, the key to this template is pacing. Personally, I try not to give the definition away right away, but instead lead into it, and into the readers motivations for reading the post, first.

Because even as you're trying to be encylopedic, your blog is not an encyclopedia. You still want to connect with the reader and show your unique voice. Or else what differentiates you from Wikipedia.

Start by leading into the topic through the reader's own intent. Ask yourself, why would someone look for information on this topic, what problem are they trying to solve, what is their unique context.

Then, just write out those questions, problems, and contexts, and in the last paragraph of this section, talk about how you will answer those questions, solve those problems, and provide that context in your article.

2. Define the Topic

Now that you've introduced the topic, you're ready to define it.

As concisely and definitively as you can, share the definition for that topic.

Here's an example from my Freytag's Pyramid post:

What is Freytag’s Pyramid? Freytag’s Pyramid is a dramatic structural framework developed by Gustav Freytag, a German author of the mid-19th century. He theorized that effective stories could be broken into two halves, the play and counterplay, with the climax in the middle. These two halves create a pyramid or triangle shape containing five dramatic elements: introduction, rising movement, climax, falling movement, and denouement or catastrophe.

The goal is to define your topic well enough that Google can pull it as a featured snippet in the first spot for that Google search. This means your definition must be both short and extremely clear.

Length: one to two paragraphs (no more!).

3. Provide Context on That Topic

Now that you've defined the topic, provide more context. After all, a short definition isn't enough to understand that topic.

So now you have the chance to show off your knowledge, drawing the reader deeper into everything you've learned about that topic.

You might explore:

As long as you use subheadings (and, perhaps, table of contexts) appropriately, you can go into as much detail as you want. The ideal length for encyclopedic posts is approximately 2,400 words, and this is where you can give the most detail.

Length: five or more paragraphs.

4. Provide Specific Examples for That Topic

Once you've fully defined and explored the context of the topic, give one or two case studies or examples.

Most people don't learn well through abstract ideas. They learn best through examples and stories.

Do you have a memorable story about pitching your historical fiction novel at a writer's conference, and now you're writing an encyclopedic post about how to pitch your novel to agents?

Perfect. Share a bit about that experience here.

Take your concept and apply it to one or more examples, studying how the topic can be applied to your particular example. Even better, use visuals like charts, screenshots, handouts, or infographics.

For my Five Act Structure article, I realized that to truly get a sense of how the five act structure worked in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , I needed to create an annotated copy of the entire play.

So I did, marking up the tragedy in a Google Doc to show the beginning and end of each act and giving notes on how Shakespeare used them.

You don't need to create a 25,000-word document as a case study, but this is a great place to provide value to your reader.

It also gives them a visual representation to retain in addition to written information, which makes the blog more than an entertaining read for a handful of minutes. It becomes memorable. It motivates action.

5. Give Step-by-Step Advice on How to Use That Topic Well (optional)

If it makes sense for your topic, a final way to go deeper is to borrow from the “problem solved” template and give a step-by-step solution to the problem that your reader is facing as it relates to the topic.

Alternatively, you can share more resources from your blog or other websites to better understand the topic.

If you have them, internal links are encouraged!

6. Conclude by Restating the Reader's Intent

Writing a conclusion is one of the biggest missed opportunities. This is your chance to cement what you've covered with your reader and end on a high note.

Restate the reader's intent for reading your article, and talk about how you answered those questions, solved those problems, and gave context.

This is also your chance to give a final call to action, where you tell them to purchase your product, to become an email subscriber, or download a free resource.

Length: two to five paragraphs.

7. End With a Question

As we talked about in the “problem solved” template, blogging is a conversational medium.

Add a final question to invite discussion on the topic in the comments .

Length: one to three sentences.

The Conversation Starter Blog Post Template

There are many reasons to write blog posts: to grow your audience, get more customers, and test ideas. But one of the best reasons is to lead a conversation.

Our third template is designed to start a conversation that leads to a large number of comments.

From an SEO perspective this isn't very useful, but from an engagement perspective, this is great, and it's one of the best ways to connect emotionally with your audience.

The key to this template is to keep the focus on the conversation topic while also sharing your own perspective. But if you push too hard on your own perspective, you'll drown out the other voices.

Instead, be vulnerable, sharing your perspective from a place of openness, and then invite others into the conversation.

Last, keep blog posts like these short, no more than 500 words, ideally around 300 words.

Here's how the template works:

Post Title: Focus on the Conversation Topic

Of all the templates, the title is least important in this one.

It can be short, like the subject of an email you might send to a friend, or long, like a deep question you might ask someone over coffee.

The key is to make sure people know what we're going to be talking about so they can join the conversation after reading the blog.

1. Introduce the Conversation

The flow of this template is like a conversation you might have with a friend.

You might lead with a question, like, “What do you think about the state of the battle against climate change?”

This can be done in just a sentence or two.

2. Share Your Perspective, Ideally With a Story

Then you might share your point of view, such as, “I think we're doing okay, but not nearly as good as we could be, and here are a few reasons why.”

Even better, you might tell a story about an experience you had related to that topic.

3. End With a Follow-Up Question

But you don't want to go on and on, so you ask a follow-up question. “What do you think?”

Keep it simple. The real magic will happen in the comments.

This blog template is created to spark lengthy discussions—even if the longevity for such engagement might be temporary.

It's about consistently connecting with your community, which is equally important as providing substantial, informative “how to” or encyclopedic content.

How Do You Learn to Write Great Blog Posts?

I've found that these three blog post templates explored in this post work best in most situations, but that doesn't mean you should abandon exploring your own.

It took me a long time to discover templates that worked for me. Along the way I experimented with several different templates, some of which worked and which I still use (like my writing prompt template), and others that I've abandoned.

You need to find your perfect templates, too, and the only way you can do that is through practice (we're fond of that around here).

So don't take my word for it. Go try out these templates and others and figure out what works best for you. (And don't forget to have fun while you do it!)

Download the Free Blog Post Templates

Ready to write? Download the free blog post templates and use them to craft your own brilliant blog posts.

Get the templates here »

A good writing process starts with readers. What is a problem your readers are experiencing right now? How could you help them solve it? Let me know in the comments .

Write a blog post using these five steps. First, pick a problem that you know how to solve, and then write a blog post sharing the solution. If you post it on your blog, share the link in the comments section for the community to see how you did!

And as always, don't forget to have fun! Happy writing!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

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by Kaelyn Barron | 1 comment

But while lots of things factor into the success of a blog—from its domain name to its email list—the most important element is the actual content.

Even if you consider yourself a pretty good writer, blogging has its own rules. Learning how to write a blog post that your readers care about is the first thing you should do once you’ve decided to start a blog.

How to Write a Blog Post in 12 Steps

Follow these 12 steps to get started on a quality blog post that will attract more readers to your site. Once you’ve mastered blog writing, you can also study up with paid or free blogging courses to learn more advanced skills.

1. Understand your goals.

The first thing you should do before writing your first blog post is understand your goals. Why are you writing? Do you want to entertain readers? Inform them? Persuade them? Teach them a new skill?

Do you plan on blogging just as a fun hobby, or are you hoping to monetize your blog and turn it into a business?

Getting these goals clear in your mind will help direct you as you create content and make other important decisions related to your blog.

2. Understand your audience.

Then, what you should always do when starting a new blog post—whether it’s your first or 1,000th—is take some time to understand your audience.

What do your readers want to know? What do they need to know? What questions do they have? What are they typing into Google to find those answers? How can your own knowledge or expertise help them?

Remember that your ultimate goal should be helping your audience solve a problem. Keep this in mind as you plan the structure and outline of your content—you’ll want the answers to be accessible, easy to find, and as clear and straightforward as possible.

Give your readers the answers they need without wasting their time or making them guess what you mean.

3. Brainstorm a list of ideas.

Next, brainstorm a list of ideas that you might like to write about and research further.

Create a list of potential topics that are more or less consistent with your blog’s theme, and that you think would be interesting or of value to your target audience.

You can keep this list in an Excel spreadsheet and use it to conduct your keyword research in the next step.

4. Do keyword research.

Once you’ve thought of a few ideas that will definitely be of interest to your readers, it’s time to do keyword research.

Every day, billions of searches are conducted on Google. Each phrase or word someone types in to Google is called a keyword or keyword phrase.

Sites and browser extensions like Ubersuggest , Google Keyword Planner , or Keyword Surfer can help you determine the popularity of any keyword (by giving you the monthly search volume for that term) and also show you the top sites ranking for that keyword.

While many so-called SEO gurus recommend targeting low competition search phrases, we say shoot for the stars.

Write content that has the potential to reach a huge audience because even if only 1% of your articles rank on page 1 in Google using that strategy, you’ll get way more traffic than you would if you played it safe and only aimed at writing articles about keywords with low search volume.

Once you find an ideal main keyword, that will become the central idea of your post. It will also determine how you optimize your post (see step #9).

When it comes to deciding what kind of post you will write around your main keyword, there are several common formats, but the one that’s best for you will depend on your goal and your audience’s needs.

You might write a:

5. Organize your content into an outline.

As with any kind of writing, it’s always good to start with a solid outline . You can create a loose outline, or a very detailed, structured one. It’s up to you! But you’ll definitely want an idea of where you’re going with this post before you get started.

Using your main keyword and related keywords, map out the most logical, intuitive flow for your post’s content.

You’ll thank yourself for doing this later, as it’s pretty effective at combatting writer’s block and will help you save quite a bit of time.

Check Google for Frequently Asked Questions

When you enter a search term into Google, you’ll notice that almost always, a section called “People also ask” comes up, usually toward the top of the results.

This is a great opportunity for you to get inside your readers’ minds, and these are definitely questions you’ll want to list (and answer) within your post, at least for the ones that are truly relevant.

Below is a screenshot of the suggested questions that pop up when I search “how to write a blog post”:

These questions are also great indicators of how you should outline your content and where you should focus most of your attention within that particular topic. You can include relevant ones as headers in your outline.

6. Read the top 10 posts for that keyword.

Before you start writing the body of your blog post, take a peek at what’s actually working and in demand.

Search your keyword and skim through the first 10 results. These are the top ranking posts for that keyword, and they reflect what your audience is looking for.

Take note of how these posts are organized, and think about how you could add to them or make them better. Perhaps you could make the content clearer, better organized, or more comprehensive.

Make sure that you’re only paying attention to your relevant competitors. If you’re writing a how-to post, for example, you probably don’t need to study a news article (unless it’s relevant and you want to mention that information in your post).

7. Write the body of your blog post.

Now that you’ve done your research and prepared a solid outline, it’s time to actually write the body of your post.

Unless you have a great hook already in mind, feel free to skip that for now and jump into the first body paragraph (see #7 below).

Use your outline as a guide and expand on all of your points until you feel you’ve explained the topic as best you can for your readers and answered any questions they might have.

Aim to write the very best piece of content ever written in your market. You should thoroughly and completely solve the problems your audience is having based on the keywords you’re targeting with each blog post.

The more value you add in your blog posts and the more thoroughly you help your audience solve their problems, the more people will naturally share your articles with other people, leading to more links to your website, more traffic, and better search engine rankings.

Provide free downloads, checklists, and templates to make it easier for your readers to get results. Add helpful images and graphics to help them better understand the information they need to know.

Do additional research as necessary, and be sure to properly cite any sources that you use to write the post. Don’t try to edit while you’re writing; wait until you’ve completed your first draft.

8. Write a killer intro.

You may have learned this little trick back when you started writing essays in grade school, but even if you didn’t like it back then, it can definitely help save you time when it comes to writing blog posts.

That’s because the introduction should be interesting enough to immediately hook your reader (without being too lengthy).

Because a great intro is so important, it will probably require a bit more thought and time, unless you already have something brilliant in mind (in which case, write it down, ASAP!).

So to avoid losing 45 minutes typing, deleting, and retyping again, just start by cutting straight to your main content, using the outline you made in Step 4.

As you write, some ideas will likely come to you for a solid intro, and when you’re done, you’ll know exactly what your post is about and how best to introduce it.

9. Write an excellent headline.

When brainstorming a working title for your article, start with the topic. For example, the topic of this post might simply be “blogging.” The working title could be “How to Write a Blog Post.”

Think about your target keywords when writing a headline. What problem are you solving for the reader? How would they search for an answer to that problem online?

Then, you can get more specific or creative in the subhead. For example, one of our posts is titled, “ Where to Donate Books: 11 Places to Give Away Your Old Reads .” The main keyword for that post was “where to donate books,” while the subhead provides more specific information about what will be included in the post.

You can also try using a blog post title generator . Some will generate hundreds of title options to choose from, while others provide insight into the quality of your title and offer suggestions on how to improve it.

10. Proofread and format your post.

Once everything is written, do a thorough proofread of your post. Check for any typos and misspellings, and ensure that there are no ambiguities that might confuse or mislead your readers. All of your points should be clear—don’t make readers guess what you’re trying to say.

You can check out our guide on how to proofread to make sure no errors or glitches slip through. You might also use a proofreading software like Grammarly to give your work one extra sweep-through.

Then, it’s time to format your post in a way that’s neat, visually appealing, and optimized for SEO. Ideally, your post will contain subheads that organize the post, much like the flow of an outline. (If you’re using WordPress, you can use H2 and H3 headings and subheadings).

Scroll through your post and make sure the layout and formatting is intuitive and easy to follow. Also make sure that anything you want to link to has a link (and that it works!).

Add images where you think it makes sense to do so. Use free stock photo sites to find free images without copyrights, or do a Google Images search, click on “Tools,” then “Usage Rights,” and select “Labeled for Reuse.”

Also make sure that all links are functioning and lead to the right site, that you’ve checked your facts, and that you’ve chosen a category and tags (if applicable) in WordPress for your post.

11. Optimize your post.

Optimizing a blog post is such a large topic that it warrants an entire post (or more) of its own, but we’ll start by covering some basic on-page SEO bases that you should cover.

Another tip: Don’t try to cram in keywords in every crevice you find. Their inclusion should feel natural and flow with the rest of your content. If it feels like to much of a stretch to make a keyword work, it probably is, and your readers will pick up on that awkwardness (and maybe even assume you don’t know how to write).

You can also use tools like PageOptimizer Pro , which helps identify opportunities for improvement in your post’s on-page SEO. Check out this interview with Kyle Roof , the software’s creator, who explains how it works.

Other plug-ins you should use to optimize your post include Squirrly and Yoast (but never use more than one!)

12. Publish your post.

Congratulations! You’ve brainstormed, researched, written, edited, and optimized—now it’s time to publish your post so you can share it with the world!

When it comes to scheduling, it’s important to be consistent. Think about how often you’d like to post—every day, or only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?

Try to vary the content you post each day or week (i.e., don’t post 3 list posts in a row). You may also find it very helpful to create an editorial calendar so you know exactly what you need to write when you sit down to create a post.

How Do You Structure a Blog Post?

Your blog post should begin with a clear introduction, then follow a structure like that of an outline.

Put the most important information toward the top of your post, and include headers or other elements (like bullets) that will help readers to easily find the information they are looking for.

Download our blog post structure template to see an example of how you should build your blog post.

Tip: Keep paragraphs short!

The average paragraph length in a blog post is usually much shorter than what you’d find in a novel or other types of publications. (No 5-sentence rule here!)

In general, 1-2 sentences per paragraph will suffice. You’ll want your post to be easy to read, and you also don’t want to overwhelm or discourage your readers with too many words crammed together. So yes, size matters!

How Many Words Is a Blog Post?

In order to rank well in search engines, a blog post should be at least 300 words in length.

Longer posts tend to rank more easily than shorter ones, mainly because in longer posts, there are more opportunities to mention keywords (without awkwardly stuffing them in), as well as images that are tagged with that word.

However, longer posts also require strong writing skills. Many amateur writers might struggle to write a 1,000-word post (or more) that’s still readable and flows easily.

That’s why it’s important to format your blog post in a way that’s easy for readers to follow, breaking the text up when you can with images, graphics, bullets, headers, and other features. Just make sure that any images you add are clearly relevant to the content and actually serve to enhance your post, not just take up space.

Why Blogs Matter in Business

Having hundreds or thousands of popular blog posts on your website will help you build your brand, generate a river of steady and consistent traffic, and help you become a thought leader in your field.

Having a successful blog also allows you to diversify your income streams through building a bigger email list, affiliate marketing, hosting ads on your website, and much more.

You might also attract more joint venture and affiliate partners to promote your products and services, bring you interview, media, and PR opportunities, and maybe even a lucrative book deal from a major publisher.

Building Your Website

If you’re thinking about starting a blog but don’t yet have a platform, you’ll definitely want to check out our guide to creating a WordPress website .

It covers everything you need to know with simple, easy-to-apply steps, so even if you have zero tech skills you can still set up a fully functional website in just 30 minutes!

Blogging Tips

Your blog can be a powerful tool for connecting with an audience and making your voice heard. It also gives you the power to help others by providing information, entertainment, or inspiration.

Whether blogging is a hobby or a valuable marketing strategy for you, always strive to produce the best content possible for your readers using tips like the ones above.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

Kaelyn, I’m somewhat new to blogging but I love to write. I found your article very informative and helpful. I also noticed that you followed the very same format and outline you explained in the article to create this blog post, so kudos to you for walking the talk, if you get my drift. :-)

Shaken Knot Stirred (a.k.a Joan)

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How to write an engaging blog

Find some specific resources to help you in the writing of your blog.

General best practice on writing a blog

(1) The importance of a title - Writing a catchy title can help people get interested in your post. In an academic context especially, it might be good to show your audience that your content can be just as entertaining as a good book or social media. Make sure you reveal the theme of your content in those first words. Be wary: being catchy does not mean turning to clickbait. It is favourable if your reader knows exactly what they will be reading about in this context.

(2) Spoilers can be good! - This counts for more than your title. Don't tease your audience and wait to tell them exactly what they'll be reading about: state your theory, argument or theme from the very beginning. You might want to use headlines and summaries to give readers a little snapshot of what your writing will consist of.

(3) ' You talkin to me?' - Decide on a tone for your blog. It is true that writing for an academic blog is not like writing a dissertation. However, this does not mean it is the same as writing a caption for an Instagram picture of your holidays. It is crucial that you reflect on who your audience is going to be and adapt your tone to match that. Make sure your blog posts are honest and relatable – if people are reading a blog about your theme and not an article, it is to get a sense of the author as well: don't forget to be you.

(4) Make your content scannable - How are you going to organise your thoughts? There are different ways to blog. Some might prefer to directly address the audience and mimic direct speech whilst others might want to narrate in a reflective manner. This is a decision you can make based on the type of blog you will decide to use. A key point to structuring and formatting your blog is to make it scannable : people will get a visual idea of your blog before they even get to reading it.

(5) 'Oh I just skimmed through...' - Keep your paragraphs and sentences short: most people only read 20% of a page. Having fun with language can be fantastic but simpler writing will help people relate to what you are telling them whether they know about the subject at hand or not. Use headings to break your page up so it is easier to scan. Find out more about how people read on the web .

(6) What is that about? - Asking your readers questions can be a great way of involving them. When writing, ask yourself 'why should they care?'. You don't only want to be recounting your thoughts, you want to be sharing it with other people. Making the reading experience more interactive will make people feel involved and interested.

(7) Make it visual! - Adding media to your blog can be another great way of making readers relate and feel part of your experience. Visual tools can help your reader see what you are describing, but they can also give them the opportunity to relax from the reading effort. This is especially the case if your writing is a quite dense academic text. Images add an interesting opportunity for formatting, structure and narration.

(8) Proof-read, get critical and edit! - This is perhaps most people's least favourite part. Sadly for you it is essential: proof reading and editing your text will help you cut out pieces that aren't useful. Getting a friend/colleague to read it for you will give you another perspective on your work and enable you to assess whether you have written for the right audience. Do not be afraid to ask for feedback. Getting feedback should be a very constructive and helpful process.

(9) Archiving appropriately - There is nothing more confusing for readers who are looking through your content than having a monthly site archive and no search bar. Make sure people can find what they are looking for without having to click a million times. Categorising and tagging posts is not time consuming and can be really helpful for your audience.

(10) Don't let readers forget about you! - Posting regularly and promoting your work is especially important if you want people to visit your blog regularly. Creating a schedule might help you keep on track – because posting regularly means you have write regularly. Thankfully, there are many ways for you to promote your work other than relying on loyal readers. Social media links and enabling search engines to index your blog can help so make sure that you explore your settings to maximise your crowd.

Want to learn how to create a blog post step by step? Try this Lynda course about writing a compelling blog post .

Guidance for specific types of blogging

Do you need more personalised guidelines? We have put together some writing tips based on professional, research, community and learning & teaching type blogs.

Blogging for professional development

Blogging for teaching, learning and assessment

Make sure you consult our [exemplar Learning and Teaching Blogs] for an idea of how these work.

Blogging for research

Blogging about community or student experience

How to Write a Blog Post in 2023 The Ultimate Writing Guide for Bloggers (and Free Blog Post Template)

Learning how to write a blog post that people will actually want to read (and still drives meaningful traffic to your blog) doesn’t need to be difficult. In this ultimate guide to writing a successful blog post, we’ll be covering everything from the basic mechanics to optimizing your content for converting readers.

Sure it takes time, effort and practice to become a strong writer. But if you want to learn how to write a blog post that’ll bring you new readers and captivate your existing ones, you can get started on that—and make significant progress—right here today.

I’ve been blogging here for 10+ years, and in that process I’ve gone from fumbling around with learning how to start a blog , to perfecting a step-by-step writing process that brought my blog over 4.4 Million readers last year alone.

How to Write a Blog Post That Get's Traffic (Google Analytics Screenshot) Proof of Readers on ryrob

In today’s guide about how to write a blog post, we’ll be touching on everything from how to better understand your readers, to my formula for generating creative blog post ideas that’ll captivate reader attention, how to write winning headlines that encourage more clicks, how to structure a blog post for maximum readability, storytelling and much more.

How to Write a Blog Post in 2023 (Free Blog Post Template and Step-by-Step Tutorial)

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. When you purchase a product or service using my one of my affiliate links, the company compensates me, which helps me run this blog and keep this type of content free of charge to you. Know that I also only recommend products I personally stand behind.

Now, there’s no way to put this lightly, so I’m just going to come out and say it…

Bloggers looking to promote their blogs , grow traffic or even maintain their existing organic search rankings, face an uphill battle heading into the future.

For starters, Google is sending less organic traffic to websites today, even cannibalizing their own ad revenue, in favor of keeping searchers on Google-owned properties or providing them immediate answers in the form of featured snippets like this right here (where my guide to starting a blog is often featured):

How to Write a Blog Post and Rank #1 in Organic Google Search (Screenshot of Example Ranking)

On top of that, there’s been an increasing trend toward plummeting (free) social reach and engagement on the major platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. According to the latest blogging statistics , most blog posts actually get less than 4 social shares and 0 backlinks.

And while it comes as no surprise, competition for eyeballs is skyrocketing with more than 4 million new blog posts published every day .

There’s a race to the top in providing genuinely helpful, well-researched, transformational content for readers today.

That’s why learning how to write a blog post that stands far above the competition (in providing immense reader value) is so crucial in 2023.

Despite more competition than ever before, therein lies the opportunity. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort to learn how to write a blog post that can balance the delicate tasks of both entertaining and solving your readers challenges, then you’ll have no trouble rising above the others in your industry.

In spite of all these challenges to learning how to grow a blog , blogging remains one of the most effective ways to teach, inspire, and engage an audience.

So what’s a blogger to do in today’s world?

After spending hours analyzing my most successful blog posts (articles that have been read millions of times), I’ve put together this step-by-step guide about how to write a blog post that will help you increase traffic, find your target audience and keep them coming back for more. Plus, I’m including access to my free blog post templates you can use as a framework for getting started on writing your own high-traffic blog posts.

If you want access to my free blog post template (in the form of a copy & paste Google Doc), then you can grab it right here—including my SEO blog post writing checklist and a fully completed example to guide you along the way— get my free blog post template .

Want to Learn How to Write a Blog Post?

Grab my free blog post template for creating compelling content.

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Now first, if you’re totally new to blogging today, I’ve also put together the ultimate guide to getting started with your blog . Actually getting your blog online and well-optimized is the first step to learning how write a blog post that’ll attract readers, and my 25,000 word guide to starting a blog will position you best for going on to bring thousands of readers to your blog in the near future.

Alright, now let’s dive into my guide about how to write a blog post that’ll captivate readers and drive more traffic to your blog.

1. Get to Know Your Blog Audience

Before you even begin learning how to write a blog post, you’ll need to pick a niche to blog about and identify a range of blog post ideas that’ll actually capture the attention of your readers.

Approach writing a blog post like you would start a conversation—begin by finding common ground .

To deliver value to your readers, you need to write about things they want to know about, not just what you want to tell them.

How to Write a Blog Post and Find Relevant Content for Your Readers

Do you really know what your target audience is interested in?

If not, then that’s your absolute most important mission at this stage. Keep in mind that understanding your audience is much different than the activity of simply doing keyword research and identifying opportunities that could bring in readers. That’s attempting to solve your traffic problem backwards.

Use My Free Keyword Research Tool

Free Keyword Research Tool (AI-Powered) SEO Keyword Research and Ideas

Try my free AI-Powered Keyword Tool to get dozens of research-backed ideas for keywords & topics to write about on your blog today.

The goal is not figuring out which topics are popular in general. You’re trying to figure out what your audience wants to know, as it relates to your own interests.

Anyone can spend ten minutes researching which keywords get a ton of search traffic on the Internet and start writing a blog post to go after those phrases.

But that’s not how you build genuine relationships (or devise a long-term blog business plan ) with your readers and leave them wanting to come back for more.

Short-term content hacks will only take you so far—and search engines are getting much better at surfacing only the absolute best, most reputable, trustworthy and authoritative content to their users.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to start pinpointing meaningful blog topic ideas I know I’ll need to write a blog post about for my readers—by first answering these kinds of questions:

Dive into my epic list of 201+ blog post ideas you can use to come up with compelling content for your blog today.

If you invest the time into polling your readers and truly understanding where they come from (including everything from their feelings on the name of your blog to the topics you’re covering), you’ll learn how to write a blog post that cuts to the core of their needs.

On a more granular level, here are a few more precise tactics to uncover the topics your readers are most interested in learning about:

Because I feel so strongly about this, I’ll say it one more time…

The journey to learning how to write a blog post people will actually want to read begins (and as you’ll soon see, ends) with understanding those people first.

The closer your connection to your readers, the more authentic your content will be in the long run.

2. Write a Clever Headline for Every Blog Post

How to Write a Clever Headline for Your Blog Posts (Screenshot of Writing)

The importance of mastering how to write a headline (or title) that’s intriguing, can’t be overstated when you’re learning how to write a blog post.

Strong headlines are marketing tools in themselves. They represent your blog post across social media platforms, in Google search results, and within emails.

Before people even start reading the blog post you wrote, your title is already shaping their opinion of it.

In fact, 6 out of 10 people report only reading a blog’s headline before they share the post on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Need Catchy Blog Title Ideas?

Blog Title Generator Tool (AI-Powered) SEO Blog Titles Screenshot of Tool

Try my free AI-Powered Blog Title Generator Tool to get dozens of SEO-friendly headline ideas to make your blog posts stand out today.

So how do you write a captivating headline that’ll encourage people to read, click and share?

Let’s start with a quote from one of my favorite marketing mentors, Seth Godin , where he succinctly sums up the fact that… great ideas come through working in volume.

“Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.” – Seth Godin

The tactical blogging lesson we can extract from Godin here, is that while it’s important to spend some time on the headline when learning how to write a blog post that’ll encourage clicks and shares—you also can’t afford to allow yourself to get hung up trying to craft the perfect headline—you’ll eat through time and have little to show for it.

This is especially true as you’re just starting the process of writing your blog post and you’ve still got a blank page staring back at you.

Instead of spending hours on a headline up front, start with a simple working title that you can change later.

For example, when I first started on this article you’re reading right now, my working title of “How to Write a Blog Post” was intentionally very simple.

As I moved through the process of how to write a blog post outline —and then onto actually writing the article, the headline took more shape as I identified and clarified all of the working components required to produce the definitive guide to learning how to write a blog post.

Before originally publishing this guide, the full title became “How to Write a Blog Post in 2023 (Free Blog Post Template): The Ultimate Writing Guide for Bloggers” which is significantly expanded (and more interesting) for potential readers who stumble upon this guide on social media, in search engines or otherwise.

Headline Example of How to Write a Blog Post Title That Attracts Readers

Let’s break down a few elements of how to write a blog post headline that’s captivating:

As I’ve said already though, the final version of this headline didn’t come until I’d fully written and edited this post.

And looking at it today, it’s already changed quite a bit from it’s original version—which is a reflection of listening to my audience, monitoring how many clicks it gets in organic search results and through paid advertising experiment.

While it’s tempting to wait for clarity before taking action, the truth is that clarity comes through action.

Just start writing and the headline ideas will flow as you progress.

As time goes on as you move from just learning how to write a blog post and into a more comfortable place as a writer, headlines will also become more natural for you to craft.

Leverage the curiosity gap . Write an irresistible headline that teases what’s in the piece without giving it away completely.

Curiosity is one of the most powerful human emotions, and wielding it effectively is all about balance. The trick is to provide just enough information to drive people to learn more, but not so much that they don’t feel compelled to investigate further.

Lastly, be sure to optimize for search and social. These two channels will be major sources of traffic for your content , so you need to be concerned with how your article headlines will be read and interpreted on these platforms.

Using keywords to increase your chances of showing up in search results is always a good idea (more on that later), but you need to give yourself every opportunity you can to help engineer a headline that can accurately reflect your content and go viral on social.

3. Hook Your Readers From the Start

How to Write Blog Post Introduction (Hook and Lead in Examples)

You have one sentence, two at most, to entice readers and draw them into reading your blog post. Journalists call this the lede .

And just like meeting someone for the first time, first impressions with a blog post are critical and affect whether we choose to get to know someone better—or make our way to exit.

As you’re learning how to write a blog post, here are a few do’s and don’ts for crafting an interesting introduction:

The easiest strategy for crafting compelling lede is to answer the who, what, where, when and why as soon as possible.

And this may sound counterintuitive when just learning how to write a blog post, but another useful strategy is to start with your conclusion first .

In the age of short attention spans, people have grown tired of wasting time on clickbait blog posts that go nowhere—which is why it pays dividends to invest in learning how to write faster , too.

So instead of trying to bait readers in to consuming a full article before reaching the answer they’re seeking—choose to learn how to write a blog post that gives them their answers right away, then use the rest of your content to show them why (and go into further depth for those who are particularly engaged).

The quicker you can establish relevance to your reader, give them a strong reason to believe they’ll find what they’re looking for in your blog post, the more likely they’ll be to dig into your piece and share it with others.

4. Answer Questions with Your Blog Posts

Example of Blog Post Featured Snippet Question and Answer (Screenshot of Google Results)

Google has gotten very good at figuring out not just what topics people are searching for, but what their intent is .

That’s why it’s different learning how to write a blog post today. It’s no longer just about delivering content that matches the words and phrases people are using—it’s all about delivering satisfying answers to reader questions, challenges and problems.

This has resulted in a growing number of zero click searches —results that highlight featured snippets, paid ads, knowledge panels, maps, and videos that answer search queries without sending users anywhere (like the screenshot above).

In the eyes of search engines, your blog has gone from a destination to a source of data.

Search for a restaurant and you’re likely to find a knowledge panel packed with ratings, hours of operation, location and top dishes with the restaurant’s actual URL buried somewhere near the bottom of the featured snippet .

While this is arguably better, easier and faster for searchers to find the answers they’re looking for, it’s bad for bloggers (like you) that want to control the experience for their readers.

However, it’s not all bad news. After all, you’re here to learn how to write a blog post for the way people are consuming content today .

The advent of featured snippets and knowledge boxes means that there are also a ton of new opportunities to get creative and break into these high-visibility featured snippets—thus outranking your competitors and giving yourself the best shot and bringing the most engaged readers to your blog.

They’re also a fantastic way to capture the growing voice search traffic boom that’s being ushered in by Alexa, Siri, Google Home and Cortana.

If you noticed near the top of this guide about how to write a blog post, I’ve included a very clear, hyperlinked menu that’s optimized to encourage featured snippet placements.

How to optimize your blog posts for featured snippet placements (with a hyperlinked menu).

Remember that successfully landing a featured snippet for your blog post will require more than just implementing these formatting best practices—as Google takes into account a myriad of other factors like the number of high quality backlinks the article has, your page load speed, reputation of your websites (and more).

Still, you should always aim for landing a featured snippet as the benefits can be immense. Here’s how to get a featured snippet:

Aside from the obvious benefits of clearly answering the most pressing reader questions in your blog posts, doing so with smart formatting can reward you immensely.

Learning how to write a blog post that’s optimized for getting a featured snippet can help you get a ton of new traffic without needing to invest as much in other strategies like blogger outreach , buying crappy backlinks, guest blogging , paying to get social shares and other costly tactics that don’t pay off the same way.

Point being, it’s a worthwhile endeavor to sit down and craft a compelling blogging strategy for yourself and your core objectives.

Instead of spending money on cheap tactics to get more traffic, invest in learning how to write a blog post that’s 10x better than the competition.

One of the most common blogging mistakes I see (especially new bloggers make), is that they want quick results and they’re willing to try every “trick” and “hack” in the book. Side note—if you want to avoid more blogging mistakes like this, then do some extra studying with my picks for the best blogging books and blogging courses on the market today.

Many new bloggers will do this, rather than confront the cold, hard truth that in order to be worthy of getting the most readers to your blog—you’ll need to invest in writing blog posts that truly do a better job of solving reader challenges, than anything else on the Internet.

That’s why the best blogging advice is often so simple—create truly amazing content, spread the word and you’ll be rewarded for it.

5. Tell a Captivating Story

How to Write a Blog Post and Use Storytelling to Captivate Your Audience (Campfire)

Humans have been telling stories for thousands of years, and for good reason.

Stories stir emotions, forge connections and are easy for us to remember . These three reasons alone are enough evidence that you should learn how to write a blog post in a format that tells a story for your readers to travel along with.

People are coming to your blog to be entertained or informed. Stories are a vehicle that make it easy to give them both.

On top of just the story component of your blog post, people connect with other people .

Sharing your own authentic stories will set you apart from the thousands of generic, content-farm blog posts that go out every day—and will help you connect with your audience on a much deeper level. Author Mark Manson is one of the best examples of learning how to write a blog post that tells fantastic stories and keeps his readers coming back for more.

To this date, my most engaged (successful) content on this blog have been the ones that go deep into my own stories, challenges and lessons learned along my journey as a blogger, freelancer and entrepreneur.

Luckily, storytelling is where I started when I learned how to write a blog post—and that focus on pulling from my own experience has created long-lasting bonds with my readers.

Here’s another fun idea to play around with…

Writing a great blog post can be like bringing a television show to life.

Think of each year (or quarter if you’re overflowing with blog post ideas ) like a new season.

With this frame of reference in mind, that gives you latitude to think about your blog content in terms of answering questions like:

You don’t need to actually emulate the format of a television show, but having a common theme that weaves throughout your blog posts over time will help unify your content and move your readers along a path that will result in more loyalty to your brand.

Learn how to write a blog post that leverages storytelling and you’ll remain memorable to your readers.

If you’re unsure of where to find inspiration for stories to tell as you learn how to write a blog post that’s more personal and compelling, start with:

And if you want a little more guidance, check out my list of 201+ blog post ideas that’ll steer you in the right direction with more clear prompts and inspiration.

4 characteristics of a blog post that tells a captivating story for your readers.

Regardless of how you land on the concept for a story though, every great story must have these four characteristics:

One of the most common story formats we’re all conditioned to expect from a very young age, is the Hero’s Journey .

How to Write a Blog Post and Tell a Story: The Hero's Journey Image

Its most simple format involves a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, then returns home transformed for better or for worse.

If you’ve read or watched The Lord of the Rings (or one of thousands of other books and movies today), then you’ve experienced the Hero’s Journey.

Use the Hero’s Journey as your template for how to write a blog post that tell stories and you’ll keep your readers coming back for more.

6. Make Your Blog Posts Easily Scannable

People rarely read word for word on the web .

Unless they’re extremely interested in the topic, most people will just quickly scan a particular blog post.

Graph of How to Create Content People Will Read (Chart)

Reading behavior should be at the core of deciding how to write a blog post and what your blog layout should look like.

And as I mentioned earlier, the majority of us don’t even fully read the content we share online—whether through social media platforms, over email or word-of-mouth.

Eye-tracking studies have revealed most people read about 20% of the text on a web page. Skim reading is the new normal , so it makes sense that you should write your blog posts in a manner that’s conducive to this consumption behavior, right?

In one usability test by Nielsen research, scannable and objective copywriting resulted in 124% better usability compared to a more traditional blog post format with larger blocks of text.

Sticking with our theme of learning how to write a blog post that’s formatted for your readers to actually consume the content—here are a few tips for creating scannable content your audience will enjoy:

While it may be discouraging to learn that people won’t read every word you write, that’s a truth that needs to be embraced.

Learning how to write a blog post that’s easily scannable will force you to focus on only the most critical information your reader needs to know. My list of the best blogging job websites is a great example of creating easily scannable long-form content.

Plus, being able to trim the fat will make you a stronger and more effective writer in the long run. And if you want to go into greater length, turn to learning how to write an eBook that can serve as a better destination for your much longer-form content.

7. Invest in Thoughtful Design

How to Write a Blog Post with Impactful Design Layout (Screenshot)

Humans are very visual creatures, and that’s important to keep in mind when it comes to learning how to write a blog post that’ll capture their visual attention long enough to provide meaningful value to your readers.

More than 50% of our brains are used to process visual information , compared to just 8% for our sense of touch and 3% for our sense of hearing .

In his book Blink , Malcolm Gladwell described the system our brains use to make split-second decisions outside of our conscious awareness, the Adaptive Unconscious . It’s constantly scanning our environment, evaluating stimuli and making judgments based on how things appear.

Because of the importance our brains place on the way things look, improving the visual appeal of your blog can increase perceived credibility, trust and value.

Conversely when you write a blog post with unappealing designs, inconsistencies, or visual errors, it can quickly chip away the trust and authority you’d otherwise gain with readers.

Thoughtful design is crucial in keeping your blog readers visually engaged and entertained.

Here are five proven ways to improve your blog’s visual aesthetics, so that readers will want to stick around:

Keep in mind that this should all be done on a budget—especially while you’re in the beginning stages of learning how to write a blog post (and build your readership).

Rather than hiring a graphic designer to create an entirely custom layout for your blog, I recommend using one of the best WordPress themes like Elementor or OptimizePress that comes with an array of well thought-out, mobile-friendly template designs already built-in to the product.

Screenshot of Mobile-Friendly Blog Design and Layout (Examples)

A heavily customized version of GeneratePress is the theme that now powers my blog, but as a non-technical blogger, it’s a little more challenging to learn than a visual theme like Elementor or OptimizePress.

8. Be Authentic in Your Writing

How to Be Authentic in Your Writing (and Build Connections with Readers) Community Image

In today’s era of sleazy marketing gimmicks, fake news and paid influencers, people are more skeptical than ever.

Think about it… we’re inundated with all kinds of messaging and we’re getting better and better at quickly moving away the moment we smell something fishy .

Bringing real authenticity to the way you decide how to write a blog post can build a powerful connection with your readers.

One recent study found that only 48% of people in the US trust brands , down from 58% in 2017.

That makes it more important than ever to learn how to write a blog post that forges a genuine connection with your readers—built on a foundation of trust, rather than gimmicky tactics just to keep them on the page long enough to extract some advertising dollars.

Authenticity can help your blog stand out and will absolutely benefit your business in three major ways :

Not surprisingly, some brands are really nailing this today.

Patagonia is all about creating great products without causing unnecessary harm to the environment and they consistently put their money where their mouth is.

They donate millions to environmental causes, teach their customers how to repair their clothing so they have to buy less, and even discourage people from buying their products if they don’t really need them .

This unwavering commitment to their values has earned them a level of brand loyalty that is unrivaled in their industry.

Clever Blog Writing Example: Patagonia Campaign (Screenshot)

Buffer, a social media management tool company, is also very well known for their authenticity & transparency in how they’ve gone about choosing to write on their blog.

They’ve famously written about their financial challenges and layoffs, published the salaries for all of their employees, and even shared their revenue figures . This radical approach to transparency has earned them a ton of free press and a large, passionate user base (including yours truly).

Being radically transparent in your blog posts can be a massive competitive advantage.

So how exactly can you be more authentic when you’re learning how to write a blog post?

One of my most popular blog posts of all time here, is about my most painful business failure .

It first tells the story of how I invented a product in college, and the ensuing journey that led to eventually losing $6,537 on the business after a couple of years trying to grow the company. I then get into all of the lessons I learned along the way—reflecting on what I’d do differently both for myself and the benefit of readers.

And because I wrote a clever headline for it (“ How to Create a Product Nobody Wants and Lose $6,537: The iStash Story “), that post went viral on HackerNews and brought in my first couple thousands readers to this blog. The rest is history.

If English isn’t your native language, I know it can be a challenge to start crafting stories (and headlines) like this overnight.

Take some time to brush up on your English writing abilities with language learning mobile apps like Babbel, Duolingo, Rosetta Stone and others.

The more you practice your reading & writing, the greater your ability—to learn how to write a blog post that connects with readers—will become.

9. Make Your Blog Posts Portable (and Mobile-Friendly)

The Importance of Mobile-Friendly Blog Posts and Portable Content (Illustration)

Everybody knows that content has to be viewable across all devices today—that battle was won long ago.

But mobile-friendly design alone is not enough anymore. You need to learn how to write a blog post that can be digested in more ways than every before.

People are constantly on the move—and the way they consume information is always changing. That means re-learning how to write a blog post for the ways in which readers want to digest your content.

Your blog posts need to be portable to fit different lifestyles, not just different devices.

Someone may start reading your blog post on a laptop at work, then hop on a bus to head home—making it more preferable to listen to a podcast version or watch a video of you talking through the concepts covered in the written post.

To adapt to these new behaviors, it’s crucial to break your pieces of content up into different mediums so that your audience can quickly consume content in a format that makes sense for them at the time, plus allows them to easily pick back up where they left off last time.

Taking this additional step to make your content more accessible should be seen as an investment.

It’ll not only make your blog posts more accessible to a wider audience, but will also show that you recognize we all learn differently and that you’re going above and beyond to deliver standout content—that does a more diverse job of attempting to solve reader challenges in different formats.

This is the way of the future when it comes to learning how to write a blog post readers will benefit from.

To get started, try turning your existing long-form blog posts into:

Converting your content into different formats can even help people with difficulties (or disabilities) that prevent them from reading, to benefit from your blog.

Accessibility with your blog posts is no longer optional.

Doing what you can to make your work easier for everyone to enjoy is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business.

Sure, you’ll need to have the right website template , choose from amongst the best website builders and actually make a website that’s responsive in order to present a readable blog—but accessibility also extends into having multiple consumption formats for your readers that may not be able to physically read your content.

Learning how to write a blog post that can easily be converted into other content formats is key as we move forward.

10. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity

How to Write High Quality Blog Posts (Consistently) Example Image

In the early days of blogging, consistency was key.

Merely writing blog posts with some degree of regularity was enough to build an audience and grow your traffic .

While it’s still important to have a regular publishing cadence, the market for blogging in virtually every category has grown extremely competitive & saturated. Today, quality beats quantity every day of the week.

In 2023, the success of your blog is far more dependent upon how much you can stand out from the sea of competitors also writing about the same topics as you. As you’re determining how to best compete with higher quality blog content, seek to answer these questions:

Find your competitive advantage and lean into it with the goal of better solving your readers challenges.

If you can successfully do that, then you’ll be well on your way to taking over as a real force within your niche.

One of my greatest competitive advantages is that I can go into far greater depth than most in my industry when I sit down to write a blog post.

How long should a blog post really be?

While there’s no exact answer for everyone, longer posts perform better in search results, which means longer posts are what readers (often) want. The ideal blog post length for most article topics is 1,500 – 2,500 words. How many words is too few though? I’d recommend you try to avoid going under 1,000 words for any blog post that you want to rank well in organic search.

Now, if you take a look at the articles here on my blog, you’ll see that most of them (including this guide) are well over 5,000 words in length. That level of depth is done with a purpose—and because I’m not afraid to shy away from answering the questions, concerns and smaller topics that come up during the process of writing blog posts on such big topics (like how to write a blog post).

On the other hand, articles we write on my girlfriends blog, Vegan Anj , are often on the shorter side & address questions about life as a vegan that can be addressed more quickly. I’ll be soon taking a similar approach with my new side blog, VeganTable too.

Learning how to write a blog post that truly stands out will take some time.

Investing more time into each blog post you publish will naturally translate into releasing new content with less frequency, but ideally in much greater depth.

When I go to write a blog post here on my own site, it’ll usually take at least couple of weeks from start to finish. That’s because each and every article I publish goes through a rigorous process of research, blog outlining , writing, editing and then formatting with images, tweet quotes, custom graphics and such—all before it’s finally published for the world to see.

But it’s that level of care, depth and detail that’s helped me to rise above the competition in my niche.

And this is working well for more than just me, too.

Brian Dean , the SEO master behind Backlinko, is one of the world’s foremost experts on creating high-quality content that ranks well in search engines.

Brian Dean Podcast Interview with Ryan Robinson About SEO in Blogging (Image)

He only posts a few times a year, but each piece he writes tends to be just about the single best article on the topic.

In fact, one of his best SEO tactics is the skyscraper technique (which I’ve written about too). This method boils down to finding an existing popular post and making it better through improved content, design and exploring more diverse content mediums.

Posting regularly is still necessary to grow and maintain your audience, but it’s much better to slow down your cadence and put out original, high-quality content, than it is to publish subpar content on a daily basis.

11. Show Them the Numbers

The Benefits of Using Numbers and Figures in Your Blog Writing (Screenshot)

As we talked about earlier, most people are pretty jaded about gimmicky content these days.

Who can blame them? Most of us have been duped, conned, and defrauded at one point or another online.

To make your content stand out, show data to back up your claims, increase your credibility and illustrate your points wherever possible. This is a core principle of how to write a blog post that’s firmly convincing.

That’s a major reason why I originally decided to share monthly income reports with my readers—to show them that I’m not just writing about what to do in order to start a profitable blog , but I’m actually putting my own advice into practice here on my blog (with transparent results). I even go into the nitty-gritty details around expenses and share best practices on financial topics like how to manage taxes for bloggers , which provides an immense amount of value to those looking for a lot of advice.

Increasing My Authenticity with Readers Through Income Reports (Screenshot)

Original data and research are huge differentiators that can help your blog rank higher in search results, build backlinks, and increase your authority, influence and credibility.

The first step to learning how to write a blog post that leans on credible data is gathering the actual data itself.

Some of the best sources for tracking down original data to include in your blog posts are:

Another clever way to use data in your blog posts is to put a new spin on existing research done by others.

This is a smarter place to start than investing a ton of time (and financial resources) into your own original studies as you’re still learning how to write a blog post that can effectively communicate data.

Here are a two smart ways to leverage existing studies out on the Internet, into unique content for your own blog:

Now, for those of you more visual learners, I’ve worked with a talented designer to bring this infographic about how to write a blog post to life…

How to Write a Blog Post in 2023: Infographic

Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments!

How-to-Write-a-Blog-Post-Infographic-by-Ryan-Robinson

Want to share this infographic on your blog too?

Shoot me an email to [email protected] and I’ll hook you up with hi-res files 🙂

Final Thoughts: How to Write a Blog Post That’ll Captivate Your Readers

While the competition for clicks increases each year and organic traffic from Google continues to shrink, there are still incredible new opportunities to expand your reach and build an audience this year.

But that increased competition doesn’t mean you need to throw in the towel on your blogging ambitions.

The bar for what constitutes transformational content continues to be raised—and this is your call to rise to the occasion as a blogger.

In order to write a blog post that can stand the test of time (and rank high in organic search results), it’ll require a growing time investment on your end. Now, it’s up to you to determine whether or not that work is actually worth it. If you ask me… it definitely is.

Following these steps, you’ll learn how to write a blog post that’s poised to stand taller than the rest.

And for a deeper dive into how to attract more readers to your content, read my Ultimate Guide on How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog .

👋 Oh and remember! If you want access to my free blog post template (in the form of a copy & paste Google Doc), then you can grab it right here—including my SEO blog post writing checklist and a fully completed example to guide you along the way— get my free blog post template .

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

Blogger, podcaster and recovering side project addict. Head of Content at Close. Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog , make money blogging and grow a profitable side business. I also write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Business Insider and more. Let’s chat on Twitter about our feelings (and blogging, I guess).

200 replies to “How to Write a Blog Post in 2023 (Free Blog Post Template): The Ultimate Writing Guide for Bloggers”

I had to pick now jump in real quick to let you know that you always inspire me.

This post has me legit excited, because I know I just got some A-List info in a way that had never been explained to me before. 😁

Fresh content.

Agreeing with everyone else, the research and thoughtfulness that you bring to the most useful content around.. on ANY subject… Man, your articles and the way you break it all down help me to understand what I really want to accomplish with my own writing.

It’s actionable stuff! I can understand what you’re teaching. So, yeah, I can follow your suggestions.

I appreciate that. I also admire your approachability with your readers. You are always genuinely excited for us and real with us. I wish every blogger knew how important that engagement is for most of us readers and learners.

Plus, you lead by transparent example.

We need the newest information on this topic, but it gets straight up tedious.

You make it fun to learn.

Thanks for great insight.

Wow, thank you SO much for the very kind words Melissa 🙏 I’m super grateful for your feedback here too—wishing you luck with your blog growth this year too.

Ryan does lead by transparent example, you’re spot on Melissa. Your words are so brilliantly evocative and completely expresses my own experience of reading this article (in better words than I could) I’ve no doubt your own writing journey will go from strength to strength.

Ah, thank you so much for the incredibly kind words Kate 🙏

I love this pose and the information you’ve shared Ryan.

Thanks, Shubham!

Solving material you have given to Google, I must say a genuine content! Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Hashi!

What an amazing article! I really loved everything you shared in this post. I am a blogger too, and writing blog posts is a big part of my routine. I will be following the methods you shred to enhance the quality of my posts. I really loved the tutorial you shared, it had so much information that is going to be invaluable for several readers including myself. Thanks a lot for sharing your template, I am looking forward to using it as well.

Thanks so much for the kind words, John. Good luck with your blog, looks like you’re doing things right! Keep it up 🙂

Amazing guide, Ryan!

Thanks Lauren 🙂

This blog post covers the basics of great blog articles. Your point about quality is key and it underlines the strategy of many successful bloggers, such as yourself.

Glad to hear it, Charlotte! Thanks for the kind words 🙂

I have subscribed to get more updates.

Glad to hear it! 🙂

Really awesome post I have gone through. I am planning to start a blog. Also would like to know is ther ami post you have about tips to increase speed as it would be helpful to me Thanks and glad to read your post

Glad to hear that, Sohil! I’ll be wishing you luck 🙂

Check out my full guide to starting a blog that talks about plugins for speed optimization: https://www.ryrob.com/how-start-blog/

Excellent infographic!

There is so much to consider when creating a great post, and all of these parts work together to make or break the success of each post.

But with the right tools and systems in place, it’s not as daunting as it looks.

Thanks for the tips, cheers!

You’re welcome, Patrick! Glad you found this guide + graphic so helpful 🙂

[Overwhemed]! This is packed and driven. It took me more than weeks to digest this content. A lot of redirects that wiggle my mental. However, it clears my quest

Whew, thank you so much for the kind words Ismail! Good luck with your blog writing 🙂

Man am I glad I found this article today. It’s exactly what I didn’t know I needed! This is single handedly the most informative and useful article I’ve read on the subject. Its engaged me in a way no previous article has, and I feel a new burst of creativity that I’m excited to pour into my own baby blog. Rob you are a master of words.

Wow, Kate you’re too kind! Thank you so much for sharing this—and whew, I’m wishing you luck with your new blog! ❤️

In today’s era guest posting is really important for SEO….Very nice blog post. I certainly love this site. I have got backlinks with your awesome tips by guest posting

Ah, that’s great to hear!

I’m really happy about this post since I adore this posture and the facts you’ve provided. I must say, excellent material! Continue your wonderful work.

Ah, I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks, Samuel!

Ryan, This is a great post covering all the required bases.

I see a lot of blogs whipping up content based on cursory keyword research.

I personally suggest to my blogger friends that they find out what their audience really wants and then start creating content that actually adds value. Keyword research is supposed to supplement that research.

About writing killer headlines: I try to follow all the best practices but it’s not always there 🙁 hopefully these tips will help 🙂

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Siddharth! Couldn’t agree more 🙂

Be sure to try out my AI-powered headline writing tool here: https://www.ryrob.com/blog-title-generator/

Want my free template for writing a successful blog post?

Grab a copy of my free blog post writing template and fillable SEO checklist (in Google Doc format) to write more successful blog posts today.

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10 tips for an awesome and SEO-friendly blog post

Writing blog posts requires skill. To keep your reader interested, you should think about the structure of your content and keep it enjoyable. If people like and understand an article, they will be much more inclined to share it with others – and that will increase your rankings. So, if you want to improve your writing skills and your rankings, start with these tips on how to write an SEO-friendly blog post!

For some, writing for SEO purposes and writing to attract and captivate your audience seem like two conflicting goals. I totally disagree. Sure, the words you want to be found for should be in a prominent place if you want an SEO-friendly blog post. But, over -using keywords severely hampers the readability of your text, which you definitely don’t want to do. In fact, a high keyphrase density can even be a signal to Google that you might be stuffing keywords in your text, and that can negatively affect your rankings.

This post provides tips on writing blog posts that are SEO-friendly and readable. These two goals should always go hand in hand as we believe that writing in understandable language gets you more visitors and keeps them on your site.

Master SEO copywriting and other vital SEO skills by getting Yoast SEO academy Premium . This gives you access to all our courses and the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!

Before you start: do keyword research

Before you start writing , you have to do keyword research . If you want to dominate the search results, you’ll have to figure out which words your audience actually searches for. These are the topics you should write about and the keywords you should use in your text.

When you’ve done your keyword research and have a list of focus keywords to write about, it’s time to get on with writing. Here are 10 tips to help you end up with an awesome blog post!

Writing tips for SEO-friendly blog posts

Above all, your blog post has to be a good piece of writing. When starting a new blog post, many bloggers just start writing, typing whatever comes into their heads. While this may work for some people who have natural writing talents, others may need some help. Personally, I always follow these ‘rules’ when I write a new blog.

1. Think before you write!

Before you start, think carefully about the message of your piece. What do you want to tell your readers, or which central question do you want to answer? What’s the purpose of your article? And what do you want your readers to do at the end of the page? Write down the answers to these questions before you begin and think about the search intent someone may have. An easy way to get an insight into this is by looking at the search results for the search term you want to rank with.

2. Devise a structure for your post

To write a readable and SEO-friendly blog post, you need to create a clear structure . This means that every post should have:

In a few sentences, write down what you want to say in all three sections. You’ve now created a summary of your post. This will help you create a structured and readable blog post. Now the real writing can begin.

3. Use paragraphs and headings

Everybody uses paragraphs, but not everybody uses them well. Don’t start each new sentence on a new line just because it looks nice. Also, try not to make them too lengthy , as each paragraph should have its own idea or subject. Ask yourself what the main idea of each paragraph is. You should be able to summarize that main idea in one sentence. If that’s not possible and you need more sentences to explain the main idea, you simply need to use more paragraphs .

Proper headings also help your readers understand what a specific part of your text is about. If you want people to find their way through your articles, use subheadings to lead them. Subheadings help readers scan your page, and clarify the structure of your articles. They’re not just important for readability, but for SEO as well . That’s why I would also advise using your keyword in some of the subheadings . I do mean some of them, as using your keyword in every heading will make the text clunky and unnatural. This will put people off reading further.

4. Use transition words

Transition words help people scan through your text and understand the relationship between sentences and paragraphs. For example, let’s say that there are three reasons for people to buy your product. You should use signal words like: ‘first of all’; ‘secondly’ and ‘finally’. Also, words like ‘however’, ‘similarly’ and ‘for example’ give a clear signal to your readers. Readers will instantly get that a conclusion will follow after words like ‘to sum up’ or ‘in short’. Transition words are therefore very important to add structure to your text.

5. Use related keywords

Stuffing your article with your focus keyword makes it less attractive to read, and it can also hurt your rankings. Google is getting smarter, and it wants you to write content that users will love. It doesn’t want you to use your focus keyword in every other sentence and has other ways to analyze what your text is about. One of the ways that Google understands the topic of your text is by recognizing synonyms and other keywords that are related to your focus keyphrase. That’s why you should use synonyms and related keywords throughout your copy.

Synonyms are relatively easy to think of, but thinking of the right related keywords is a bit more challenging. That’s why we’ve introduced a new feature in our plugin that helps you find related keyphrases right away. Based on your focus keyword, our plugin can generate a number of related keyphrases with the click of a button! Along with how many times that keyword is searched for and what the search trend looks like. This feature is powered by SEMrush and can be used in both our free and Premium plugins. So use this related keyphrase feature !

6. Optimize the length of your article

Make sure your blog posts have a minimum of 300 words but keep the length of your article balanced. Google likes long articles, however, if your article is too long it can scare users away. I would advise to only write long articles when you know you’re a skilled writer. It’s asking a lot of your visitors to read your entire post when it’s lengthy. Check out this article if you’re not quite sure how long a blog post should be . And remember to keep using your focus keyphrase throughout your text to make sure you end up with an SEO-friendly blog post!

7. Link to existing content

If you’ve already written content on the same topic as your current post, don’t forget to link to and from these posts. It will make your new blog post, and the existing posts, stronger because you’re showing authority on the subject. As well as that, your link structure is also important for your rankings in Google. And let’s not forget that linking to other content about a subject is great for your readers, as they may be interested in reading these related posts too. It helps them navigate your site.

We call this internal linking and both your readers and Google will thank you for it. It helps them manage your content and understand relationships between different content on your site, so take some time to link to and from your previous content. Our internal linking tool can help you by suggesting relevant pages and posts on your site that you can link to.

8. Let other people read your post

Before publishing your post, make sure to let someone else read it first. Ask them whether they understand the main concept of your post and invite them to correct any typos and grammatical errors. This can help you by providing an objective view of the readability and attractiveness of your text. If you have someone in your team who happens to be an expert on the topic you’re writing about, make sure to run your post past them. That way they can check whether you’re covering everything you need to and give suggestions to make your post even better.

9. Add content regularly

Regularly adding new blog posts to your website tells Google that your website is alive. This is important because if your site isn’t active, Google will crawl it less often and this might negatively affect your rankings. But don’t just post for the sake of posting. Make sure that everything you post is high-quality content : informative, well-written articles that entertain readers and fit their search intent .

If you have difficulty posting on a regular basis, it might be a great idea to create an editorial calendar for your blog. This allows you to structure this process in a way that fits you and your team. It’s also a good idea to update your old blog posts once in a while to avoid them getting stale.

10. Use our Yoast SEO plugin

The analysis tool in our Yoast SEO plugin helps you write readable and SEO-friendly blog posts. Start by choosing the most important search term you want people to find this particular page for. This is your focus keyphrase. After you fill this in, our plugin runs all kinds of checks to see whether your post is optimized or still needs improving:

If you write a relatively SEO-friendly blog post (based on the aspects discussed above) the plugin will indicate this with a green bullet. Posts and pages with green bullets will help you improve the ranking of the pages on your website.

Note that not every dot has to be green for the overall SEO score to be good. For instance, these are the results of this post, which does have an overall green bullet for our focus keyphrase “SEO-friendly blog post”:

analysis results Yoast SEO sidebar showing bullets

Kind of a cool way to get feedback on your content, right? When you use the Yoast SEO plugin you’ll find this feedback in the Yoast SEO sidebar next to your post and in the Yoast meta box under your post (while editing). If you’re interested in learning more about all the aspects this analysis tool looks at, read our article on how to use the Yoast SEO content analysis tool .

The days when a few SEO tricks were enough to get your website to rank well in Google are long gone. Nowadays, quality content is king. And good content also leads to more links, shares, tweets and returning visitors to your website. Of course, there are always other things you can do to maximize the SEO friendliness of your post, but the most important thing is to just write very, very good posts! Still not sure if your blog post is ready to publish? Take a look at this checklist for your blog post to make sure you’re good to go!

Marieke is the head of strategy at Yoast and founder of Yoast SEO academy. She loves coming up with new ideas and products to make SEO attainable for everyone, and ensure a healthy growth for Yoast!

Coming up next!

Learn inbound, 2023, yoast seo news webinar - march 28, 2023, 8 responses to 10 tips for an awesome and seo-friendly blog post.

Olá muito boas dicas estou usando para melhorar meu ecommerce de bijuterias e folheados está sendo muito bom! Obrigado! ☺️

Obrigado Flávia! Boa sorte com o site :)

This is very well thought out! I enjoyed reading your article . Thankyou and keep these good articles coming

Thank you, that’s good to hear. We publish new content on our blog on a regular basis :)

very helpful post. But this works when you are targeting long-tail keywords. You can not outrank high da websites by using these tactics. That is why focusing on keyword research is very important.

Hi there! Thanks for your comment :) What kind of keywords you can focus on depends on how competitive the market is and how well-known or authoritative your company is in that area. So these tips don’t just work for long-tail keywords, but you are right: it’s always important to start with keyword research to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords :)

Hi, I am using your Yoast SEO plugin for my WordPress website it is very effective and helpful my many blogs ranked on SERP page 1 all because of your SEO Plugin.

Thanks for using our plugin and that’s great to hear, keep up the good work!

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How to write a blog post that people will actually read and share

Written by by Brent Barnhart

Published on September 16, 2019

Reading time 12 minutes

If you’re not 100% sure how to write a blog post that clicks with readers, don’t sweat it.

The reality? Blogging is a major struggle for most businesses out there.

And hey, we totally understand why.

From coming up with ideas to actually putting pen to paper digitally, a worthwhile blog post requires some serious effort.

That said, the benefits of blogging for business are worth racking your brain for. The correlation between businesses that blog scoring more traffic, conversions and leads is well-documented .

The takeaway? Learning how to write a blog post is an invaluable skill no matter what you’re selling.

That’s why we put together this guide breaking down the anatomy of a good blog post and how to write one yourself.

What makes a good blog post, anyway?

Before we get knee-deep into how to write a blog post, let’s talk about what the best blog posts have in common.

Although blogging is certainly a skill, you don’t need to be Shakespeare to start writing ’em.

Instead, simply consider the common threads between blog posts that actually get read and shared.

They solve a problem

Listen: people don’t wind up on blogs by accident.

When we seek out content, it’s because we have a problem that needs to be solved or a question that needs to be answered.

Perhaps you’re looking for the perfect ramen recipe. Maybe you’re looking for marketing tips.

Either way, we’re often hunting for content that provides a solution.

Heck, the Sprout Social blog is a shining example of what we’re talking about. We’ve put together hundreds of posts dedicated to solving problems and answering questions on behalf of marketers.

But solving a problem or answering a question is only half the battle.

After all, there are dozens (or hundreds) of blog posts out there covering any given topic.

So not only should your blog post solve a problem, but also do so in a meaningful way.

This might mean breaking down a complex topic with a more digestible approach or going in-depth on a topic that needs addressing in detail.

Considering that most high-performing blog posts around over 1,000 words according to Orbit Media , conventional wisdom tells us that top-tier posts go beyond basic information and dig into specifics.

Sprout’s own “ Best Times to Post on Social Media ” is a great example, brimming with original data and graphs. That’s exactly why it’s one of our top-performing posts.

They’re easy to read

This might seem like a no-brainer, but readability is easy to overlook.

Spoiler alert: most readers have microscopic attention spans.

If your post puts ’em to sleep within the first few seconds, chances are they’ll look elsewhere for information. This is especially true in a day and age where people can simply watch a video in lieu of reading a blog post.

As a writer, it’s your job to find a balance between relaying in-depth information and keeping your audience’s attention.

You can’t expect folks to slog through a wall of text. Instead, you should make a point to avoid jargon and present your content in a style that doesn’t make you sound like a robot.

For example, The Verge ‘s “ How to Choose a Fitness Tracker ” is a fairly straightforward example of a simple post that gets the job done. Written at a 9th-grade level and broken up by subheaders and images, the post is easy to scan and understand for just about anyone.

Meanwhile, this post from marketing expert Brittany Berger manages to deliver a valuable lesson in marketing with a simple sentence structure and conversational tone. Presented as playful with a distinct voice and plenty of visuals to break up the text, readers naturally move from line to line wondering what comes next.

Developing a writing style comes with practice. The beauty of blogging is that you aren’t typically tied to strict formatting guidelines of traditional writing “rules” that might make your content sound stuffy.

They’re optimized (but not too optimized!)

Given the fierce competition among marketers and search engines alike, optimizing your content for SEO (and social!) is a must-do.

Optimization is yet another balancing act, though. From keyword stuffing to clickbait and beyond, writers can’t afford to sacrifice readability and quality for the sake of trying to score clicks.

But as proven by tons of bloggers out there, it’s possible to find that balance between writing for humans and search engines. For example, posts like “ How to Build Your Social Media Marketing Strategy ” are able to hit on crucial keywords in a way that’s natural and doesn’t distract the reader at all.

Learning how to write a blog post involves understanding how to use keywords in a non-spammy way

If you keep these three principles in mind each time you sit down to write a post, you’re already way ahead of the curve.

How to write better blog posts: Our foolproof framework

Okay, so how do you take these tips and put them into action when it comes time to write?

Good question!

Staring at the proverbial blank page is one of the worst feelings in the world for blog writers.

That’s why we recommend having some sort of framework in place when it comes time to write a blog post. This rings true whether you’re starting a post from scratch or are revising older content. Below is our list of tactics and tools to help get you going.

Choose a blog post format before you start writing

Instead of relying on a cut-and-paste blog post template that might come off as cookie-cutter to readers, we recommend simply picking a blog post format before you start writing a post.

Doing so will make it much easier to organize your ideas and actually start writing.

Below are three types of blog posts that typically get shared around. Although these certainly aren’t the only types of blog posts, they’re can be adapted to just about any topic with ease.

Let’s briefly break down each of these types of blog posts and why they work so well.

How-to blog posts

The concept of a how-to post is self-explanatory. Such posts provide an opportunity to take a deep dive into a specific topic. How-to posts have very specific search-intent and allow you to target niche audiences looking for expertise.

Given that many Google searches are centered around “how to” queries, it’s no surprise that many businesses use them as the foundation for their blogs. For example, brands like Campaign Monitor put together tons of how-to guides covering specific topics for their audience of email marketers.

"How-to" blog posts attack a specific problem for readers

Listicle blog posts

However, it’s hard to ignore their popularity and why they’re all the rage in the first place.

After all, listicles are easy to digest at a glance and can be skimmed by busy readers. Additionally, subheaders can help people zero in on key points without necessarily having to read an entire article.

Listicle formatting is easy for readers to skim

Additionally, lists are straightforward for writers to put together and can help break down larger topics into smaller pieces. For writers and readers alike, this sort of simplicity is a win-win.

Question-based blog posts

These types of posts address a specific question readers might have, helping writers hone in their focus on a single topic.

Unlike how-to posts, these types of blogs don’t necessarily teach readers how to do something but rather provide insight to the topic at hand.

These types of posts can be broad in scope but do well to pique the curiosity of the reader. This headline and post from The Takeout is a great example of a question-based blog that’s click-worthy at a glance. Even if you weren’t curious about meatless meats before, chances are you are now.

Question-based headlines do well to pique your readers' curiosity

Make sure your headline packs a punch

There’s an oft-cited claim that 80% of people will decide whether or not to read something based on its headline.

Meanwhile, 60% of people will actually share an article on social media without actually reading it.

In a day and age dominated by clickbait headlines , bloggers are tasked with writing compelling headlines that attract readers without pulling a bait-and-switch.

How do you make it happen, though? Most of the examples we’ve cited so far represent click-worthy, shareable content that you’d see passed around social based on their headlines.

Perhaps what’s most important is framing your article as presenting can’t-miss.

For example, “ The Most Important Social Media Metrics to Track ” doesn’t just cover any social metrics: it covers the most important ones .

Or consider the “must” in “ 9 Skills Every Social Media Manager Must Have .” By presenting these skills as must-have, readers naturally want to see if their own skills match up the post.

See how that works?

To figure out whether or not your headline packs a punch, tools such as CoSchedule’s headline analyzer can be a game-changer. In short, the tool assigns a score to your headlines based on readability, “power words” and other elements that drive people to read and share posts.

CoSchedule's headline analyzer can help hone in your blog post headlines so they pack a puch

This tool isn’t the be-all, end-all of headline writing but can definitely help you brainstorm ideas.

Double-check your content and formatting for readability

Conventional wisdom tells us that most people read at a 7th-grade level.

Translation? Businesses should strive to avoid language that’s too lofty, if possible.

Remember: you’re not writing a college essay. Rules such as “five to seven sentences per paragraph” that you learned in English class don’t exactly fly in the blogging world.

Tools such as the Hemingway Editor can help you identify opportunities to make your content more readable. The cut-and-paste app detects words and sentences that might be confusing to readers and highlights them throughout your text.

The Hemingway Editor can hep double-check that your blog posts are readable

Many writers also use tools like Grammarly to avoid common grammatical issues and awkward phrases. This is an especially useful tool if you’re new to blog writing or don’t often write long-form content.

We should note that while readability checkers are definitely useful, you shouldn’t expect anything you write to be totally “perfect” based on these tools. The checks they run represent just one set of guidelines, and as you develop a unique writing voice you’ll inevitably vary a bit from them.

Your audience matters too: for example, let’s say you’re writing about a technical subject are addressing a college-educated audience. A higher readability grade is just fine in these cases.

But also consider that it’s possible to cover technical topics without completely going over your readers’ head. Case in point, Wired ‘s “ AI and the Future of Work ” touches on a topic for the tech-savvy but is written as an accessible 9th-grade level.

You’ve probably noticed by now that so much of figuring out how to write a blog post is a balancing act. The more you write, the easier it is to find those balances over time.

Format your post to be scroll-friendly

Formatting is a huge aspect of readability and shareability for your blog posts.

Think about how the format of your point can naturally draw your reader from one sentence to the next.

That’s why most bloggers restrict their paragraphs to no more than three sentences. This helps create a sense of flow and likewise won’t overwhelm anyone reading a post via mobile.

Posts should also be broken up frequently by subheaders, again making your content easy to scan. Many bloggers try to insert a subheader at least every 300 words.

Beyond subheaders, visuals are also a critical component of format and readability.

Considering that 65% of people consider themselves to be visual learners, don’t neglect the importance of giving your readers something to look at beyond text.

Note that we typically include a variety of examples, images and screenshots throughout our posts here at Sprout. Most bloggers include three to four images per blog post , but writers should feel free to include as many visuals as they see fit.

What sort of visuals are we talking about, though?

Going beyond stock photos or screenshots, consider how you can whip up a graphic or quote with the help of a tool like Canva .

Canva is a fantastic tool for creating images for your blog posts

Bear in mind that you can also use social embeds to break up your blog posts, too. For bloggers using WordPress, social links you copy-and-paste will immediately populate without issue.

Agencies, forget quick wins. It's time to play to your existing strengths. #ThinkActAdapt #AgencyLife https://t.co/qsRiFzlcGt — Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) September 10, 2019

The takeaway here is to find opportunities to keep your readers scrolling with the help of headers and visuals. Doing so not only helps make your pieces more entertaining but also provides a visual representation of whatever you’re blogging about.

Mind what optimization means for SEO

SEO is central to just about any blog strategy.

Of course, sacrificing readability for the sake of SEO is a common mistake among bloggers competing for keywords.

Again, the concept of balance rears its head. For starters, take the time to do proper keyword research via SEO tools and start with keywords you might realistically rank for.

If you’re using WordPress, tools such as Yoast can help you tick the boxes of search optimization while ensuring that your content is reader-friendly.

Yoast suggestions are an important piece of optimizing your blog posts for SEO

Like the other tools highlighted above, you shouldn’t worry about your posts being absolutely “perfect” from an SEO perspective. Few posts will ever get the total green light from Yoast. Simply use such as tools as a guide to double-check that you aren’t missing any obvious opportunities for optimization.

Quick blog writing tips and tactics to keep in mind

By now you probably have a good idea of how to write a blog post.

Your job isn’t quite done yet, though.

Becoming a better blogger is an ongoing process that’s far from over once your posts go live. To wrap things up, here are some quick tips for bloggers to create high-performing, share-worthy content over time.

Analyze your top-performing blog posts

If you want to figure out which of your blog posts are your “best,” look no further than your analytics.

In addition to traffic for individual posts, consider how metrics such as bounce rate and clicks can clue you in the posts that readers interact with the most.

Google Analytics can help you keep track of your blog traffic and social shares

The same rules apply to metrics such as social shares and clicks. Through social analytics , you can discover common threads between the types of content that your readers share.

Don’t forget to promote your content on social media!

Given the hours involved in putting together a quality post, content distribution should be a top priority for each post you publish.

And consider how social media is central to promoting your blog to current and new readers alike. Through Sprout’s social media scheduling and publishing suite, you can schedule and reschedule your posts across social media to maximize your readership. Additionally, tools such as Viralpost ensure that your blog-centric posts go live when readers are most likely to see them.

Be willing to practice and learn from other bloggers

This might be cliche, but becoming a better blogger doesn’t happen overnight.

Through consistent reading and writing, you can develop better writing habits and style all your own. When you spot a blog post that you find engaging, take the time to dig into why it clicked with you.

Was it the writer’s voice? Was it the level of depth that the post went into? Paying attention to these points and emulating them in your own writing can put you on the path to more compelling content yourself.

How to find and pay blog writers

It’s totally understandable that for many brands and marketing teams, doing all the writing in house is a daunting task. In that case, you’re most likely looking for outside assistance in the form of freelance bloggers.

Onboarding and managing freelancers brings its own set of tasks, but can be well worth it to expand your publishing scale.

One of the most common questions when starting the search is how much you should be paying for a blog post. This can vary greatly based on expertise, the uniqueness of your content or brand niche, and the need to research or source images for the posts you’re requesting.

You might find a writer in the $25 to $150 range for one article on a simpler topic or shorter word count. Posts on more complex topics requiring detailed research, interviews or stats may start at $150 and go much higher depending on factors like the word count or experience level of the writer.

Ready to start writing better blog posts?

Writing a high-quality blog post isn’t a simple as it seems.

At the end of the day, your end goal should be to produce better content than what’s already out there.

Whether it’s through a distinct sense of style or in-depth information, you can figure out how to write a blog post that provides value to your readers.

With the help of these tips and plenty of practice, you can do exactly that sooner rather than later. Learn more about the fundamentals of a winning content marketing strategy to improve your blog.

Resources for you

The creator economy: making dollars and sense out of social partnerships, [workbook] social listening step-by-step in 90 minutes, the sprout social index, edition xviii: us forecast, prepare to launch with a social media campaign brief: template, recommended for you.

What is viral marketing (and does it work in 2023)?

16 unexpected ways to use WhatsApp for business

Leveling Up

How we use advocacy to overcome social media challenges at Sprout

Social media engagement: what it is and tips to improve it.

Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

Content Creation

How to Write a Blog Post (Even If It's the First Time)

Michelle Ofiwe

Businesses and brands have always understood how important it is to stand out. With the widespread adoption of the Internet, many have turned their focus to producing more informative, engaging digital content.

Though a good social media presence is key, businesses can always benefit from maintaining a blog on their website.

Even few short blog posts could make a big difference for your SEO. But if you’ve never written a blog post before, getting started could seem complicated.

In this guide, we’ll share some helpful tips for writing a blog post that can help you site attract more organic traffic.

What Is A Blog Post?

Why are blog posts important, creating a killer blog post, types of blog posts, tracking content performance, final thoughts.

A blog post is an individual entry or article written by an author for a blog. Blog posts can include content like text, images, infographics or videos, and are usually hosted on a blog section of a commercial website, or on a domain reserved for blogging.

Blogs posts are an efficient way to share information, interact with your audience, and increase your online visibility. For businesses, blog posts can focus any aspect of operation, from customer testimonials to recent achievements.

Ultimately, blog posts invite your audience to build a connection with your brand or business. But to build a dedicated audience, your posts must be well written, useful, and optimized.

Promoting your business is not an easy task, especially in a highly competitive digital marketing environment. Your blog is your dedicated platform to share on the topics that matter most to you and your audience.

Of course, you can still promote your products, services, videos, podcasts, interviews while creating content that is useful to your audience. But remember: your blog posts shouldn’t read like sales copy — that isn’t useful to the reader (or fun to crawl.)

Blogs themselves are incredible visibility tools. Blog content lives on your site, which encourages users to click through and spend more time engaging with it. When optimized well, your blog posts can help you rank for important keywords or qualify for a featured snippet .

Equally important, high quality and useful blog content makes you seem more trustworthy to users. They’ll know to visit your website for answers to their questions or problems.

Each individual blog post is another invitation to search engine crawlers to crawl and index more of your site. You can treat blog posts like individual webpages when optimizing them, so it’s important to customize their titles, meta descriptions, and images.

Basically: good blog posts can boost traffic, brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. But what exactly is considered a “good” blog article?

Though topic will always vary, most successful blog posts are able to answer a question, solve a problem, or provide relevant information for a user query.

There’s a lot of (good and bad) advice out there on creating successful blog posts. With time and careful measuring, you’ll know what truly works best for you and your business.

Here are a few process tips we’ve learned while developing the Semrush blog:

1. Identify Your Target Audience

A good place to start is by defining your target audience — the people you want to see and interact with your blog post once it’s up.

If you’re a blogging pro, you likely already have built and learned a bit about your audience. If you’ve never written a blog post, you can turn to your website’s analytics for a clearer idea of your audience driving your traffic.

Another great way to research your potential audience is competitor analysis. Sounds roundabout, right? In reality, your blog will likely have a few competitors when it comes to ranking and attracting organic traffic.

Competitor analysis allows you to see the keywords, questions, and phrases that drive organic traffic to them. This can help you determine relevant keywords and blog topics to write about later.

Our .Trends solution includes powerful competitor analysis tools to help you get started. Enter your competitor’s web address in the Domain Overview tool for a high-level review of your competitor’s traffic, including their top organic and paid keywords.

The Organic Research tool shows you their website’s top pages — review this for any popular blog posts with high traffic.

2. Pick an engaging topic and title

It’s okay to keep this simple. You want a topic you can write comfortably about, and that your audience is already searching for.

Of course, there are no real limits when it comes to brainstorming topics. If it’s about your business or helps your audience, it’s likely worth writing about.

If you’re not sure how to start brainstorming, there are plenty of tools that can help. Our Topic Research tool automatically generates “content ideas” around your targeted keyword. You can even see the popular questions and headlines related to your topic:

Speaking of headlines: if you struggle with brainstorming titles for your blog posts, the Topic Research tool can help with that too.

Use the Mind Map view to generate a list of suggested titles for your blog post, and questions you can answer with your content.

For blog posts, titles are pretty important. If your title isn’t engaging, people won’t feel inspired to click on it.

Your primary keyword should be present in your blog post’s title — as well as its body, meta description, and URL. But avoid “keyword stuffing” — try using the keyword as you would in natural conversation.

Your blog post’s title and body content will depend on your style and tone of voice. It helps to use subheadings to organize your content in a way readers and crawlers easily understand.

3. Organize Your Blog Post’s Content

In its most simplest form, a blog post has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Your body can be further organized into sections with subheadings (H2, H3, etc).

The introduction is a critical element of the article. An eye-catching introduction convince readers to stay longer and read your post. Your introduction may also be used as an excerpt if your blog post is shared on social media.

Use the introduction to explain how the article will approach the solution to what the reader is searching for. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading your article.

Include your primary keyword in your introduction. This helps crawlers and readers understand what your blog post is about.

Subheadings

Using subheading tags (e.g. H2 & H3) is an excellent practice for good writing and SEO. Subheadings help search engines crawl your pages more effectively, and lets readers find the content they need quickly.

If your blog post is a book, subheadings are the chapters. Choose the ones that allow you to organize your content easily. Using the example from above, if you were writing about “harley davidson parts,” your subheadings might include “part types,” “where to buy parts,” or “average costs of parts.”

Use Bullet Points

Again, if we want to write blog posts that are easy to read and crawl, we’ll need to organize our content strategically. Bullet points are another method of displaying useful content.

Readers can skim bullet points to find their answers quickly. You can use bullets or numbering for lists, when documenting a process, or to break up content in shorter, more digestible paragraphs.

4. Use your Keywords in Your Blog Post

Your primary keyword can appear anywhere in your blog post — but focus on including it in your title, subheadings, introduction, and conclusion.

There’s no hard or fast rule on how many times your keyword should appear in your post. Remember: we want to avoid keyword stuffing, so avoid the temptation to include it in places that are awkward to read or don’t make sense.

Use our SEO Content Template tool for SEO-friendly pointers before writing your content. The tool generates a template of recommendations based on your target keywords . This template provides recommendations about text length, readability score , semantically related keywords to include, potential backlink targets and more.

5. Optimize Your Blog Post Before Publishing

Try to optimize each blog post as much as your blogging platform allows. Optimizing your blog post’s individual SEO is a crucial step to improving your search rankings.

Our SEO Writing Assistant is a powerful optimization tool for preparing content for publication. When you’ve finished writing your content, you can use this tool to improve your blog post’s SEO in real-time. Simply paste your copy into the Quick Checker to receive tips to improve your post’s readability, tone of voice, and SEO quality.

Check out more of our blog SEO tips for a more in-depth review of blog SEO.

A blog post's performance is based foremost on its relevance and creativity, but elements such as word count, structure, and visuals (like images, videos and infographics) are important too.

According to this study , long-form texts (7,000+ words) see better performance as they generate almost four times more traffic than articles of average length (900-1,200 words).

Here are three common post formats that work well for popular blogs:

It’s not a surprise that everyone likes reading lists. People process information presented in a list far more quickly than in long-form text.

Lists are a great way to simplify information in an easy-to-share format, and they let the user easily choose what they want to read. Lists are a good way to get organic traffic and are more likely to go viral than other types of articles.

Research by Global State of Content Marketing Report 2020 concludes: “Blog posts that contain at least one list per every 500 words of plain text get 70% more traffic than posts without lists.”

The How-To Post

Many people search online to discover how to do something. People use search engines to find solutions to their problems, like "how to make flan" or "how to fix a vase.”

This type of blog post is an opportunity to show potential customers that you are knowledgeable about a specific topic. If your information is relevant, they’ll be more likely to revisit your website for future content needs.

How-to and tutorials posts increase your credibility and expertise and get your visitors to trust your content.

Checklists and To-dos posts

Checklists and to-do posts are similar to “how-to” lists but with a major difference: their goal is to guarantee nothing is forgotten.

These articles tend to focus on how to do something more accurately. They work as a quick and efficient guide when your audience is short on time.

You can even create a to-do list template and share with your audience via download. Providing a useful resource is another way to build trust with your audience.

After writing a good blog post, how do you know if your hard work’s paying off?

Page traffic is one of the many metrics considered for the performance of a post. But traffic alone isn’t everything. If someone visits your website but doesn't find the content useful, they will leave the page quickly to find something else.

In that case, a page view doesn't mean positive performance. You’ll need to track different metrics to add context to your traffic data and understand how your audience is engaging with your content.

Consider these questions when reviewing your traffic data:

These metrics will help you make more informed about your audience's interactions with your site.

Writing your first blog post doesn’t have to be a challenging experience. Sharing your expertise and knowledge with your audience is a good thing for your audience and for your SEO, so it’s worth the effort to maintain a blog on your site.

When writing your blog post, start with research, organize your content, and measure your post’s performance. Each step can help you better target your audience, write useful content, and improve your search engine rankings.

How to perfect your prompt writing for ChatGPT, Midjourney and other AI generators

Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney

Disclosure statement

Marcel Scharth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Generative AI is having a moment. ChatGPT and art generators such as DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney have proven their potential, and now millions are wracking their brains over how to get their outputs to look something like the vision in their head.

This is the goal of prompt engineering: the skill of crafting an input to deliver a desired result from generative AI.

Despite being trained on more data and computational resources than ever before, generative AI models have limitations . For instance, they’re not trained to produce content aligned with goals such as truth, insight, reliability and originality.

They also lack common sense and a fundamental understanding of the world, which means they can generate flawed (and even nonsensical) content.

As such, prompt engineering is essential for unlocking generative AI’s capabilities. And luckily it isn’t a technical skill. It’s mostly about trial and error, and keeping a few things in mind.

First, let’s use ChatGPT to illustrate how prompt engineering can be used for text outputs. If it’s used effectively, ChatGPT can generate essays , computer code , business plans , cover letters , poetry , jokes , and more.

Since it’s a chatbot, you may be inclined to engage with it conversationally. But this isn’t the best approach if you want tailored results. Instead, adopt the mindset that you’re programming the machine to perform a writing task for you.

Create a content brief similar to what you might give a hired professional writer. The key is to provide as much context as possible and use specific and detailed language. You can include information about:

If you want a longer piece, you can generate it in steps. Start with the first few paragraphs and ask ChatGPT to continue in the next prompt. If you’re unsatisfied with a specific portion, you can ask for it to be rewritten according to new instructions.

But remember: no matter how much you tinker with your prompts, ChatGPT is subject to inaccuracies and making things up . So don’t take anything at face value. In the example below, the output mentions a “report” that doesn’t exist. It probably included this because my prompt asked it to use only reliable sources .

Art generators

Midjourney is one of the most popular tools for art generation, and one of the easiest for beginners . So let’s use it for our next example.

Unlike for text generation, elaborate prompts aren’t necessarily better for image generation. The following example shows how a basic prompt combined with a style keyword is enough to create a variety of interesting images. Your style keyword may refer to a genre, art movement, technique, artist or specific work.

The following images were based on the prompt leopard on tree followed by different style keywords. These were (from the top left clockwise) synthwave , hyperrealist , expressionist and in the style of Zena Holloway . Holloway is a British photographer known for capturing her subjects in ethereal and somewhat surreal scenes, most often underwater.

Midjourney generations for _leopard on tree_.

You can also add keywords relating to:

With Midjourney, you can even use certain specific commands for different features, including ––ar or ––aspect to set the aspect ratio , ––no to omit certain objects, and ––c to produce more “unusual” results. This command accepts values between 0-100 after it, where the default is 0 and 100 leads to the most unusual result.

You can also use ––s or ––stylize to generate more artistic images (at the expense of following the prompt less closely).

The following example applies some of these ideas to create a fantasy image with a dreamlike and futuristic look. The prompt used here was dreamy futuristic cityscape, beautiful, clouds, interesting colors, cinematic lighting, 8k, 4k ––ar 7:4 ––c 25 ––no windows.

Midjourney accepts multiple prompts for one image if you use a double colon. This can lead to results such as the image below, where I provided separate prompts for the owl and plants. The full prompt was oil painting of an ethereal owl :: flowers, colors :: abstract :: wisdom ––ar 7:4 .

A more advanced type of prompting is to include an image as part of the prompt. Midjourney will then take the style of that image into account when generating a new one.

A good way to find inspiration and ideas is to explore the Midjourney gallery and style libraries .

A career of the future?

As generative AI models enter everyday life, prompting skills are likely to become more in-demand , especially from employers looking to get results using AI generators.

Some commentators are asking if becoming a “prompt engineer” may be a way for professionals such as designers, software engineers and content writers to save their jobs from automation, by integrating generative AI into their work. Others have suggested prompt engineering will itself be a career.

It’s hard to predict what role prompt engineering will play as AI models advance.

But it’s almost a given that more sophisticated generators will be able to handle more complex requests, inviting users to stretch their creativity. They will likely also have a better grasp of our preferences, reducing the need for tinkering.

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How To Write Good Content That People Will Love in 2020
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How To Write A Good Blog Post
How to Write a Good Blog Post in 2020
How to Write a Blog Post in 2020: The Ultimate Guide
Ultimate guide to write a perfect blog post

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How to Write a Blog Post in 2023: The Ultimate Guide
Your blog title will be your map, your writing navigation system, letting you know which literary roads to choose and which to avoid so that readers reach the intended destination as easily and efficiently as possible. Follow these 8 rules to craft your killer headline: Headline Rule #1. Pick a Mouth-Watering Topic
How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide
Choose a CMS and set up your blog. Customize the look of your blog. Write your first blog post. 1. Understand your audience. Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience. Ask questions like: What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?
The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post
1) Headline. Every great blog post starts with a headline that grabs the reader's attention, and compels them to click and keep reading to learn more. Internet readers have very short attention spans -- around eight seconds in length -- and the headline is one of the critical first elements that help readers decide if they want to click and ...
How to Write a Good Blog Post
The first step towards writing a blog post is to pick a good topic. You'll need to find out what your followers want to know and read about, so your post will continue to get traffic after it's published. Try to base the post on reader feedback, a known problem in the industry, or competition analysis.
How to Write a Good Blog Post: 7 Practical Steps [2023]
You don't need to start at the beginning to write a good blog post — just jump in where you feel moved, and draft a paragraph or two. You probably won't be ready to complete the draft yet. (If you are, just move to the next step.) But capture any words or phrases that occur to you.
How to Write a Blog Post in 10 Steps
Here's a list of tips that can help improve your blog posts. 1. Address a compelling topic. The most popular posts address a compelling topic that will appeal to your target audience. Once you've settled on a topic that fits your blog's area of focus, it's time to put your writing skills to work and start to craft the corresponding blog post. 2.
Our 8-Step Guide for How to Write a Pro Blog Post
An easy way to write an outline for your blog post is to follow a similar structure to an essay. Your blog post starts with an introduction, which is then followed by body sections and then finally, the conclusion. But unlike an essay, a blog post's conclusion includes a call to action. (We'll talk more about that in a bit.)
How to Write a Blog Post (That People Actually Want to Read ...
In this post, you'll learn how to write blog posts that actually get readers. Let's get started. Step 1. Find a proven topic A proven topic is a topic that people want to read about. If you're familiar with the niche, then this shouldn't be a biggie. You probably already have a lot of ideas you want to cover.
4 Helpful Tips on How to Write Great Blog Posts
1. Thoroughly Research Your Blog Topic. Researching your blog topic beforehand helps you write in-depth and informative posts for your audience. Even if you already know quite a bit about the ...
How To Write A Blog Post People Actually Want To Read
How to write a blog post (that people actually want to read!). Learning how to create great blog content is a skill you can develop and hone. If you are a new blogger, you may. 15 Practical blog tips on how to write a blog post that people will love. ...
20+ Blog Post Examples That You Can Use For Inspiration
How Do You Write a Blog Post? For a general overview of how to write a blog post, here is a list of steps. Step 1. Choose an idea. Step 2. Research your topic, and target audience, and check out similar articles. Step 3. Create a title and an outline. Step 4. Implement keywords to optimize searches of your topic and reach your target audience.
How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to write a blog post Brainstorm blog topics Refine your topic with keyword research Define your audience Create an organized outline Write engaging content Craft an irresistible headline Choose a blog template Select a blog domain name Pick relevant images Implement calls-to-action Optimize for SEO Edit and publish your blog post
How To Write A Blog Post
3. Write a great opening sentence. Just like a good book, you need to pull people in from the very beginning. Make it interesting, exciting, or thought-provoking. 4. Structure your content in an easily digestible way. People skim online content, so use short paragraphs and clear headings to make your post scannable. 5.
How to Write a Blog Post (with Pictures)
If you are writing a blog post on your favorite camera on the market, you could use a title like: "The Best Point and Shoots Out Right Now". Or something more formal like: "My Top Ten Best Digital Cameras on the Market". 3 Write a captivating opening. This is the hook that will get people to start reading.
How to write a blog post that ranks in 2023?
How to write a blog post that ranks Step 1 - Pin down your target audience. Step 2 - Choose a topic Step 3 - Keyword research and planning. Step 4 - Select a blog type. Step 5 - Time for research Step 6 - Construct the outline Step 7 - Start writing your first draft. Step 8 - Include visuals Step 9 - Link, link, link.
How to Write a Blog Post: Practical Tips for Beginners
Video Tutorial on How to Make a Blog Post 1. Choose a Topic to Write About 2. Research Blog Post Ideas 3. Aim for an Engaging Title 4. Create an Outline 5. Write Your First Draft Body 6. Make Use of Visual Elements 7. Proofread Your Work 8. Publish and Promote Tips for Creating a Successful Blog Post Understand the Target Audience SEO
How to Write an Awesome Blog Post in 5 Steps
Step 1: Plan your blog post by choosing a topic, creating an outline, conducting research, and checking facts. Step 2: Craft a headline that is both informative and will capture readers' attentions. Step 3: Write your post, either writing a draft in a single session or gradually word on parts of it.
How to Write a Blog Post: The 3 Best Blog Post Templates
PRACTICE. Write a blog post using these five steps. First, pick a problem that you know how to solve, and then write a blog post sharing the solution. If you post it on your blog, share the link in the comments section for the community to see how you did! And as always, don't forget to have fun!
How to Write a Blog Post: A 12-Step Guide for Beginners
Follow these 12 steps to get started on a quality blog post that will attract more readers to your site. Once you've mastered blog writing, you can also study up with paid or free blogging courses to learn more advanced skills. 1. Understand your goals. The first thing you should do before writing your first blog post is understand your goals.
How to write an engaging blog
A key point to structuring and formatting your blog is to make it scannable: people will get a visual idea of your blog before they even get to reading it. (5) 'Oh I just skimmed through...' - Keep your paragraphs and sentences short: most people only read 20% of a page.
How to Write a Blog Post in 2023 (Free Blog Post Template) Tutorial
Let's break down a few elements of how to write a blog post headline that's captivating: Use numbers: I use the current year in the headline, making it (1) stand out visually in organic search results and (2) very quickly communicate to readers that this guide is up-to-date for them.
10 tips for an awesome and SEO-friendly blog post • Yoast
In a few sentences, write down what you want to say in all three sections. You've now created a summary of your post. This will help you create a structured and readable blog post. Now the real writing can begin. 3. Use paragraphs and headings Everybody uses paragraphs, but not everybody uses them well.
Tips for Writing a Blog Post in Under 60 Minutes
Write A Magnetic Opening (5 minutes) Your lead serves as the gateway to the rest of your post, so you want it to be inviting, entertaining, and full of promise. Some rules for writing a hypnotic blog post opening: Rule #1: Keep your first sentence short, snappy, and snackable. Short sentences boost content readability.
How to write a blog post that people will actually read and share
Considering that most high-performing blog posts around over 1,000 words according to Orbit Media, conventional wisdom tells us that top-tier posts go beyond basic information and dig into specifics. Sprout's own " Best Times to Post on Social Media " is a great example, brimming with original data and graphs.
How to Write a Blog Post (Even If It's the First Time)
1. Identify Your Target Audience. A good place to start is by defining your target audience — the people you want to see and interact with your blog post once it's up. If you're a blogging pro, you likely already have built and learned a bit about your audience.
How to perfect your prompt writing for ChatGPT, Midjourney and other AI
Image created using Midjourney. Prompt: oil painting of a child with their grandparent enjoying a moment together and looking at each other. The child's face is full of wonder and the ...
How to Write a Blog Post in 6 Steps
Before you can start cranking out great blog post after great blog post, you need something to write and publish content on. Luckily, the internet is chock full of CMS options, ensuring you'll find the perfect one for you and your workflow. Customize the Look of Your Blog. This is technically optional, but you should still do it. Plus it's fun.