Hannah Omoye Have you ever wondered how to write a blog post that is clickable and engages your audience on all fronts?
The first time I wrote an entire blog post, I edited and backspaced a lot. Even when I submitted it for review, I was expecting a load of criticism.
Yes, it wasn’t perfect at first, but from that point till now, I’ve learned a lot of tricks in the trade that gets me to a near-perfect blog post that ranks on the first page of Google. I will be sharing these trade secrets in this post, so sit tight and enjoy the ride.
If you are familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you will know it is specific to both the user and search engines. And all the tips in this post will help your SEO strategy.
But if you are not familiar with SEO, You might want to check out our blog post on SEO writing to learn how to incorporate SEO in writing blog posts.
What is a blog post?
In simple terms, a blog post is a piece of writing published on a website to entertain or educate. Usually, blog posts are written content but may contain infographics, images, or even embedded videos which are all used to further the purpose of that post.
Elements of a good blog post
What makes a good blog post?
Usually, I would say SEO, but that is just one of the crucial factors that makes a good blog post. There are several other factors your blog post needs to have.
Here’s what makes a good blog post:
- Readability
- Comprehensiveness
- Visually appealing
- Self-explanatory
- Answers a question
- Skimmable
- Optimized
SEO is basically making sure your content is optimized for search engines, but you also have to think of the people who will read your post.
Now, the fact doesn’t change that SEO cares about the users, but it does not guarantee that every post ranking high has valuable content. I’ve seen high-ranking posts with less value than expected.
Why should you learn how to write a blog post that is engaging?
There are several reasons why your blog post needs to be engaging. Some are
- It increases your chances of getting return visits
- It increases your conversion rates
- It establishes a connection with the audience
- It increases the possibility of users sharing your post on social media
- It moves the readers to comment, and this is a good signal for search engines
How to write a blog post in 14 steps
This is how to write a blog post that magically keeps your audience hooked;
- Choose a good topic
- Research
- Create an outline
- Craft a good headline
- Give an irresistible intro
- Get to the point
- Deliver facts with experience
- Add a personal touch
- Write flow sentences
- Use short paragraphs
- Insert additional references
- Use infographics
- Finish off strongly
- Promote your posts
1. Choose a good topic
When selecting what topic you want to write about, you must first be clear about your niche, target audience, and content bucket.
You also have to choose a topic that you and the audience will love.
Writing can be a bit tasking and overwhelming, so you want to select a topic that interests you, piques your curiosity, and energizes you.
When I have a massive workload, including writing a good and optimized blog post, I opt for topics that I’m more familiar with and are less technical.
By doing this, I reduce the mental stress associated with technical blog posts, meet up with deadlines, and also write a killer post.
Use the right tools to conduct topic research and focus on user-generated content from platforms like answerthepublic and Quora.
Optimize these topic ideas and move to the next step.
2. Research
Ubersuggest and Google pretty much got you covered on research. Research the topic to see if it’s an existing subject that people talk about. Study patterns of previously published posts (the headline, content structure, word count, and outline).
It’s basically fieldwork to get a lay of competitors’ work and do better than what they already have.
Research also helps you optimize your content for search engines. When your topic is a current subject, your keywords are on point, and your writing is superb, search engines will love you.
3. Create an outline
I learned that creating an outline works miracles (not literally, though).
Before creating an outline, I optimize all my ideas and have my headline sorted out. This is to let me fully understand the entirety of the post; what it should and should not contain.
When you fully grasp what your blog post is about, you create an imaginary boundary around it that lets you know when you are going off point and gets you into your audience’s mind to predict what they will want to see in that type of blog post.
Your outline should have three parts:
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusion
Many things can make up the body of your blog post; it could be reasons, elements, factors, benefits, or definitions, depending on the subject at hand.
When I wanted to write this blog post, I made an outline that contained what I thought my readers would like to see.
This isn’t just a guessing game. You need to check other reference posts, research questions users frequently ask around the subject, and insert questions that can easily be explained as part of your main content.
4. Craft a good headline
Recently, I wrote a post about Proven ways you can make money blogging in 2022. It was a perfect blog post with thorough research, statistics, comprehensive explanations, and in-depth points. Still, I was surprised to see other posts doing better because, in my opinion, this particular post was the BOMB!
So, I started analyzing the post and saw that nothing was wrong with the keywords or content, but the headline was the possible cause.
Headline rules you should follow:
- Your headline should NOT be completely different from existing headlines.
- Your headline should have your focus keyword or, at the very least, one of your keywords.
- It should be similar but not the same as any existing headline. You can verify this by adding a quotation mark to the headline and search on a good search engine (Google, Bing, etc.)
- Make your headline a very long-tail keyword. This means making your headline something that a searcher can type out when searching as much as possible. This increases the chances of your post popping up for that search query because it is precisely what the searcher is looking for.
- Your headline should not be more than 70 characters. I keep mine at 60 and the highest at 65.
- Use numbers, trigger words, and add a promise at the end (what the reader will gain from the post).
5. Give an irresistible intro
Now that you’ve gone through all the trouble of getting a good topic, researching, creating a headline, and even an outline, your introduction will determine if your reader will stay through to the end or keep reading. The introduction is where you put your copywriting skills to work.
The introduction can be as long as 10-20 sentences, but what matters most is the first 2-3 lines, known as the hook. This is where you hook your readers and let them in on what you are offering. You want them curious and anticipating the rest of the post.
There are different types of introduction:
- Sharing a story
- Empathizing with a pain point
- Giving mind-blowing statistics
- Asking a question
- Going straight to the subject matter
- Stating a well-known fact
- Addressing a controversy
- Sharing what they will learn at the end of the post
Whichever introduction you decide to go with, you want to make sure that it is delivered well, and don’t forget to add your focus keyword naturally in the first 10% of your post.
6. Get to the point
Your introduction should already give your readers insight into what they are about to read. Get to the point of the post.
It would help if you gave a background explanation before hitting the nail on the head. This is where your outline helps you, and your outline already gives you what you need to write and be on-point.
Although there are times when you suddenly come up with an idea while writing, it’s all good as long as it is related to the subject and not just added words to increase your word count.
7. Deliver facts with experience
The body of your post is expected to contain verified data and facts. Statistics cover a lot, especially from authority websites, but you can also add personal experiences.
If you notice in this post, I have been adding my experience regarding writing blog posts because I want to connect with you and make you aware that I understand the struggles and that I’ve been there as well.
Your experience is also a fact, so make sure to add it to your post regardless of your niche.
8. Add a personal touch
Your personal touch equates to your personality. Let your personality reflect in your writing (if you are a humorous person, sassy, casual, etc.) Your brand tone should be informative, authoritative (I highly advise against this, though), relaxed, luxurious, etc.
Your writing should be identifiable to your audience and shouldn’t differ from one blog post to another.
9. Write flow sentences
Flow sentences are significant when writing blog posts. You don’t want to write a blog post where one paragraph is disjointed from the next.
The reader needs to be able to move smoothly from one sentence to the next, and without this, it is impossible to understand the full intent of the post. You can achieve sentence flow by using punctuations and connecting words correctly.
Also, when you are moving on to the next paragraph, make sure it is not entirely different from the previous one.
If you are bringing up an entirely new point, it is best to use it as a subheading instead, as this lets the reader know that the previous conversation has ended and another one is beginning.
10. Use short paragraphs
Long paragraphs shouldn’t be found in your blog posts. Most readers skim through a post till they find what they are looking for.
Short paragraphs make your post skimmable, which improves the user experience and encourages the reader to go through each line.
11. Insert additional references
Additional references are external links you insert in your blog post to make readers know that they are verified facts. It can also include links to your other content or social media pages.
If you own a website and have a YouTube account with videos related to the subject matter, you can insert links to them naturally within the post.
12. Use infographics
Infographics give a summary of your post in a visual format. Most readers actually appreciate infographics because it saves them a lot of time, and they can easily download and share them on their social media pages.
This is also a win for you because they do the marketing for the post without you paying a dime. Make sure to insert your website URL on the infographics, so it is not pirated on the web.
It is best to insert the infographics earlier in the post and use Alt Text to describe it to search engines.
13. Finish off strongly
Your conclusion is just as important as your body. For readers who usually skim through to the end of posts, your introduction can convince the reader to read through the body.
When writing your conclusion, these are the main points you need to note:
- Summarize the main point
- Keep it short
- Emphasize the benefits
- Use a CTA
- Link to related and relevant contents
- Provide clear, actionable steps for implementing
14. Promote your posts
Your writing doesn’t stop at writing, and you need to promote this on your social media platforms and social apps.
Also, create links to social media platforms that the readers can use when they intend to share your content.
Create awareness as much as you can and sit back for the magic effect.
Concluding thoughts
These tips are essential and should be used for all of your posts. At SARMLife, we’ve kept our blog posts ranking very high on search engines and these tips are what we implement when writing each blog post.
Your next blog post will be able to cross that milestone using these tips.
The goal is not just to have your blog posts visible when people search for them but to be able to hook your readers, reduce the bounce rate for your site, and make them return to your blog.
You should save this post or download the Pinterest infographic and return to it when you want to write your next blog post.
Do you utilize any of these tips while writing your posts, or are some of them new to you? Share other tips you use while writing that have worked out for you.
Related: 8 free tips to optimize your blog posts for consistent SEO ranking
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