How to write a killer blog post
A lot of beginner bloggers are often not that worried about how to write a blog post.
You write it, you edit it, you publish it. Right?
Wrong.
There is so much more to writing a good blog post.
Luckily you are not like most beginner bloggers. You are here because you are wondering how to write a killer blog post. A post that doesn’t suck. A post that is super informative, easy-to-read, entertaining and deliciously sticky.
So let’s get to it, follow these 17 steps and find out how to write a killer blog post!
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I may earn a small commission for affiliate links in this post at no extra cost to you. Please read my disclaimer for more information.
1. Brainstorm
Before you start writing, spend a few minutes brainstorming.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the topic you want to write about?
- What is the purpose of your post?
- Who does it benefit?
- How does it benefit them?
- How can you provide maximum value to your target audience?
2. Choose your blog post’s keyword/phrase
Now you have a clearer idea of what your blog post is about, you need to pick a relevant keyword or phrase. (We will use these keywords later on as part of your search engine optimisation (SEO).
I recommend using a phrase as this will be more specific and will match what someone types into Google, like my key-phrase: How to write a blog post.
Think about what you would type into Google to find the answer that you supply in this blog post.
Go to Ubersuggest and type in your key-phrase. Ubersuggest will supply you with the search volume for this key-phrase (how many searches it gets per month) and the SEO difficulty (how competitive this key-phrase is in search engines).
Try different variations of your key-phrase, some will have a higher search volume than others. Make sure to choose the key-phrase that has a high enough search volume (aim for at least 100 searches per month) but a low number for SEO difficulty.
3. Write an outline
A thing I love to start with is a brain dump. I basically write down everything that comes to mind that should be included in this blog post. Next I categorise this content with sub headings and quickly outline the basic gist of what I want to get across. An outline like this helps me to see where I’m missing something, which bits I can leave out and which topics I need to research.
4. Research
Even when you’re a guru in your chosen blog topic, it’s still a good idea to do your research. You might know the overall topic well, but there will always be some sub-topics that you can delve a little deeper into. Think about all the question your readers will have about this topic and try to answer them all. A long informative blog post keeps your readers on your website longer, which is good for your SEO.
5. Write an introduction
Briefly let you readers know what your blog post is about. Talk about a problem that you are about to solve for them. Be personal and relatable, be your readers’ new best friend. It’s often best to write your introduction last because then you know exactly what topics you cover in your blog post.
6. Use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
To make it possible for your blog post to be found in search engines like Google, you need to optimise your post with keywords and key-phrases. Remember the key-phrase you’ve found in step 2? We are now going to implement it throughout your blog post and in the Yoast SEO plugin.
Headline
Your headline (H1) is obviously very important for SEO, it tells Google and your readers what your post is about. Your headline should be your key-phrase but make sure it’s enticing enough for people to click on it. My keyphrase for this post is: How to write a blog post but to make it more click-worthy I turned it into: How to write a KILLER blog post.
Url
If you have used your key-phrase as your post title it should also show up as the url. (If it doesn’t, you can go to Settings > Permalinks and change your permalinks to: Post Name.) DO NOT CHANGE YOUR PERMALINKS if you already have posts published. Only change this before your blog goes live, otherwise all your existing posts will have broken links.
When you have your post name in your url it should look something like this: www.sassyboss.co/how-to-write-a-blog-post. The url should have your key-phrase in it, this is very important for your SEO.
Pro tip:
Make sure to use the right key-phrase in your url from the start. Changing a url after you publish your post will result in broken links and a drop in your in SEO ranking.
Sub Headings
Try to add variations of your key-phrase or other related keywords into your sub headings (h2, h3 and h4). Sub headings are a great way to break up big blocks of text, making your post easier to read.
Body Copy
Make sure to add your key phrase to your body copy.
Install Yoast SEO plugin
For the next few steps you need to have the Yoast plugin installed. Please install this (if you haven’t already) as this is the best SEO plugin.
At the bottom of the page in your blog post editor you can now find a Yoast SEO section. Here you can add the post title and meta description. Summarise your blog post’s content in the meta description and make sure to include your key-phrase.
Here’s an example of my SEO Title and Meta Description:
For more SEO tips please read:
SEO for Bloggers – The Essential Beginner’s Guide
7. Format your post
No one likes reading big blocks of text. Especially on screens, most people tend to scan and read only the bits that they are interested in. To make your blog post easier to read make sure to:
- Keep your sentences as short as possible
- Keep paragraphs short (between 1 an 4 sentences)
- Use headings and sub headings
- Use an easy-to read font
- Use a large font size (16-18 pt)
- Increase your line height
- Break up text with photos, pins, infographics, screenshots, quotes
- Use bullet list (like this one :D)
8. Add a Pinterest pin
Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. It isn’t so much a social media platform, it is more a visual search engine. It is therefore an absolute must that you create a pin and add it to your blog post. This way your readers have an easy way to save your article for later reading.
Like this pin, make sure to save it!
It is easy to create your pins with Canva and you can find free stock photos at Unsplash and Pexels. Pins need to be vertical, the best size is 600 x 900 pixels. Make your pin design stand out with bright colours and a juicy, must-click headline in bold writing. Make sure to create a Pinterest business account and pin your pins to your Pinterest boards and relevant group boards. To drive lots of traffic to your blog use Tailwind scheduling tool for maximum exposure of your pins.
Related reading:
How To Create Tons Of Pinterest Pins Super Fast
9. Optimise your photos and pins
Photos, pins and screenshots are a great way to break up your text. Images that are too big however can slow down your site. No one likes a slow loading site (especially not Google) so it’s important to optimise your images before adding them to your blog.
To compress your image size:
- Resize large images (don’t upload an image that is 4000px wide when 1500px is wide enough) You can resize your images with Gimp or PicMonkey
- Optimise all images with the plugin ShortPixel for faster loading times
Related reading:
How To Speed Up Your WordPress Site
10. Add alt description to your images
Alt descriptions or alt tags describe an image to Google or your reader when an image doesn’t load. It also helps visually impaired people who use a screen reader to understand your images.
If you add a pin with your blog post’s title, make sure to add the title to the alt description. This will help your SEO. For other images, describe the image in your alt tag.
11. Add Categories and tags
When you set up your blog you need to add categories for your blog posts. In the first few months of blogging it’s best to start with only 1 or 2 categories. So every new post that you write should fall into one those categories. This will solidify your niche and attract the right audience. Make sure to categorise every new blog post because you don’t want it showing up as uncategorised. Also add keywords to your tags that are relevant to your post.
12. Make your blog post sticky
Sticky? Yes you’ll want your blog post to be deliciously sticky.
What is a sticky blog post?
A sticky blog post has links to other related posts on your blog.
Relevant well placed links with must-click headlines will leave your reader with no other option then to click through, read another blog post and stay on your blog longer.
Internal linking is good for:
- Your reader: you help them find related topics that they might be interested in.
- SEO: internal links make crawling your site easier
- SEO: they keep people on your site longer therefore reducing your bounce rate
Make sure your linked posts are related to the content of your post. If you read my blog post: How to start a money making blog. You’ll see it has internal links to related topics like: The 7 most profitable blogging niches. Obviously if you are interested in starting a money making blog, you’ll want to know what these 7 profitable niches are.
13. Add a conclusion
Don’t forget your conclusion! Use your conclusion to sum up the main points of your blog post, encourage your readers to leave comments and to share your post on social media.
You can also point them to an email opt-in freebie or other call to action.
14. Add a call to action
What do you want people to do when they come to your blog? Do you want them to sign up to your news letter? Follow you on social media? Contact you to enquire about a service you’re offering?
Just because your reader has stumbled upon your blog doesn’t mean they know what to do when they get there. It’s up to you to tell them.
Call to action examples:
- Newsletter opt-in offering a freebie
- Join my Facebook group
- Buy a product
- Contact me
- Follow me on social media
- Click on affiliate links
Here is my call to action…
Are you struggling to grow blog traffic? Get my free Pinterest guide where I’ll show you how to set up your Pinterest business account and optimise it for MORE TRAFFIC!
GET THE FREE GUIDE
Pinterest Setup For Success
15. Add a comments section
If you write your blog post in the standard editor, your post will automatically have a comment section. But some themes will let you write your blog post as you would any other page, if this is the case, make sure to add a comment section at the bottom of each post.
16. Add Social sharing buttons
Every post needs social sharing buttons. In the standard editor this will be added for you but like the comments section, if you are using the themes editor you might have to add these buttons yourself. A great plugin for this is Social Warfare.
17. Proofread and edit
Once you’ve finished your post, make sure you proofread it. If you have the time, don’t look at your blog post for a day or two and then read it again with fresh eyes. I find this helps tremendously with picking up bad sentence structures, mistakes or typos. A great tool to help you edit your blog posts is Grammarly, a free online spelling and grammar checking tool that will pick up any mistake that you’ve missed.
Okay, these are the 17 steps to writing a blog post.
One more question you might want the answer to is:
What is the best length for your blog post?
Most blog post should have a minimum of 700 words, and research shows that posts over 1500 words get shared on social media a lot more than shorter posts.
Is this because they have more words? No, not directly.
Typically, blog posts with more words delve deeper into the subject they’re discussing. They provide more value for their reader and therefore get shared more often.
Some posts benefit from being shorter however.
If your blog post explains how to hold a baby, it shouldn’t be very long ’cause how long can it really take to explain one simple thing? For specific topics like this, it’s best to keep it short and simple. I’m sure your readers will appreciate it.
Here’s an example of a super short blog post that is still very helpful:
I hope this post has given you a better understanding of how you write a blog post. The main thing to keep in mind is to provide value for your readers. If your readers love your post they will share it on social media and want to follow you for more awesome content.
One more thing: your blog post might be the best thing you’ve ever written, but without promoting it, no one might ever read it. For blog promotion you should use the 80/20 rule, you spend 20% of your time on creating your content and 80% on promoting it.
For more tips on getting loads of blog traffic read my post:
How to promote your blog like a pro
If you enjoyed this post, leave a comment below and make sure to follow my facebook page for more tips and new posts.
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sassy boss
Great stuff. I’m truly new to writing for a blog and articles like this are truly useful.
I’m also a writer and I know all of these major points, but I’m gonna appreciate your efforts to put up all the creativity in a single blog. This blog is so helpful for the beginners and even for the ones who don’t know how to start writing the topic. Thank you so much for being so helpful.
Select the title carefully when you start writing a blog. This is one thing that actually makes the blog interesting.
Thanks for sharing! This was really insightful 🙂
Wow👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽! Probably one of the most well-written blogs on this topic. Very well done and easy to follow. Thanks for writing this!
Thanks for that wonderful compliment Charlene!
Great tips. I’m very new to blogging and these tips are going to help me a lot, thank you.
Great Matthew, good luck with your blog!
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout of your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway, keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one today.
Thanks for the nice words Okuse. Yes my theme is a paid theme and I’ve made some modifications.
great & awesome tips about how to write a blog post. Its a really valuable tricks to writing a blog post for new writer. thanks for sharing us.
Great post! I shared this with my website copywriting service and they found it really informative. Keep up the good work.
That’s great to hear, Thanks Shawn!
The most thorough job I have seen in describing how to write a blog post without having to pay for it. As a checklist person, I appreciated the step by step explanation and especially the printable checklist! Thank you for putting forth such great effort in giving value to this reader. Keep up the fantastic and kind work you are doing for beginners like me.
Rosa
I’m glad you liked my post Rosa, and you’re very welcome!
Wow! The Ubersuggest is probably the best piece of knowledge I could receive. I have not pressed the button for my blog yet but have many posts written and pages made. I have not figured out backlinks, opt-ins, or how what to add for an opt-in. I can check off backlinks now.
Thanks so much!
Marlene
Finding keywords with high search volume that you can incorporate naturally into your writing is no joke.
Yes it’s tricky but it can be done 🙂
I’ve been blogging almost a year and just saw this post. It is an excellent tool. I’m downloading your checklist too! Many thanks for all of this info.
You’re welcome Louise!
Hi Lisa!
That was really insightful, especially because I am struggling with keywords and SEO.
I’ve been blogging for over a year but so far, not much traffic 🙁
I’ll have a look at Ubersuggest.
Many thanks!
Yes definitely try Ubersuggest! I’m happy I could help 🙂
Your post is excellent. Well laid out and super informative!
Thanks Tracy!
Excellent post about how to write a post, will definitely try to follow all suggestions , thanks a lot
Really good stuff. I’m really new to blogging and articles like this are really helpful.
Thanks Jeremiah 🙂
Good advice. I have been struggling with defining my new blog. Along the way, a short 5 months or so, I have come to realize that I am a storyteller. I like to tell stories- of myself, others, both. I am struggling with putting my stories out there because of the audience I was initially trying to attract. Thanks!
Glad it help you Christine 🙂
I really enjoyed this post – really helpful tips about SEO – which I am still struggling with – thank uou
Glad you liked it Steph 😄