Your organic content is going to be a big part of what brings traffic to your website.
It’s the milkshake to your fries, and what brings all the boys to the yard.
Visitors will be directed to you through their search engine results based on the keywords they’ve used. It will benefit you and your business to make sure it’s your content over your competitors that show up at the top of that search engine result page (SERP).
Learn how to write a blog post that will convert your visitors to fans.
Elements Of A Blog Post
A blog post allows you to thoroughly explain a topic. Its main purpose is to increase website traffic, convert sales or obtain leads, and position you for thought leadership.
There are other elements, in addition to structure, that you will need to include.
- Target Keywords: Basic SEO is knowing what your target audience is searching for. Using a variation of those words will help your article show up in searches. There are eleventy-billion tools to use. I happen to like Answer The Public, and Keyword Tools.
- Image: For every image you use, add the right metadata using one of your keywords.
- Call To Action (CTA): Include a clear CTA at the end of your post. This will direct your readers toward the next action you expect from them.
- Word Count: Your blog post should have at least 300 words. Anything less than that, your blog will be considered ‘thin content’. In 2020, the sweet spot is 1,800 words. However, you don’t have to obsess over the numbers. End your article once you’ve completed every thought you outlined on the page.
Structuring Your Blog Post
When you write a blog, explain your chosen topic better than anything your competition offers.
Once you’ve compiled your research information, it’s time to start writing.
There is a definite ‘best practice’ to the form and function of a blog post.
- Outline: Once I decide what my topic is, I create a skeleton based on the subheaders. For example, in this article here, my outline included headers based on points I plan on covering. Including structure, elements, and types of blog posts.
- Title: There is an art to creating engaging blog post titles. It should be no more than 70 characters long and still set your reader’s expectations about what’s ahead. Use a tool like the Coschedule headline analyzer. This will help you create clickable headlines.
- Introduction: Your introduction is your bait and hook. Its job is to capture your audience’s attention and entices them to read the entire post.
- Subheadings: H2s, aka Headline 2, are usually what is used here. Targeted keywords are super relevant to your subheadings. But, they also will let your reader understand what they’re going to get from each section of the post.
- Bullet points: When you offer a lot of information within a paragraph, break those up into bullet points. Bold the first word or sentence to make scanning easy.
- Write: As mentioned in this post, it’s not about the quality of your writing, it’s more to do with the information you provide. Your words have to be clear and concise. You need to be the best possible source for any information about your business or product.
- Edit: Before you publish, you need to make sure your grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling are on point. Grammarly is a great free editing tool.
- Images: Your featured image should be toward the top of your blog post. Longer posts may have images scattered throughout to break up all the text. Free stock photos can be found on sites like Unsplash or Pixabay.
- Publish: Once you’re satisfied with how your article looks in drafts, just tap that publish button and put those words out to the online world.
19 Types of Blog Posts
There are many different styles of blog posts you can write.
We’ve compiled a list of ideas you can pull from.
- Thought leadership: Your industry-related articles will cement you as an expert in your field.
- Listicles: Just like it sounds, a list of “things” within a specific topic, along with an explanation.
- Newsjacking: When significant industry news breaks, use your blog to report on it.
- How-To’s and Tutorials: This post, How To Create A Blog Post, is an example of a how-to post!
- Reviews: Talk about a new product or tool your company uses that you like for starters.
- Announcements: Maybe you have a new product or update coming out. Broadcast it on your blog.
- Videos with the transcription: If you have created videos, embed them into a blog post, and transcribe the content.
- Series: Another one that is exactly like it sounds—a series of articles on a related topic.
- Case studies: Talk about your success and how you got there. Include graphs and charts.
- Interviews: Interview experts in your field. Or highlight coworkers.
- Inspirational stories: People love a feel-good story.
- Frequently asked questions and answers: Address those FAQs and give in-depth answers.
- Event summaries: Perhaps you spoke at a digital summit. Or you attended one. Write about it!
- Commentary on pop culture: Loads of stuff is going on in the world, and sometimes it’s fun to take a break from your related industry and talk about celebrities.
- Gratitude Stories: What are you thankful for?
- Customer question responses: Being in touch with sales and customer service departments will help to create this type of post.
- Your business history: Who are you? How did you get here, and how did you achieve success?
- Checklist or cheat sheet: Take a task, bullet point it out, and explain how to do each item on the list.
- Industry-related myths versus facts: Do things related to your industry drive you crazy? Talk about what people think, and then show them how it really is.
Getting into the swing of writing blog posts will take practice, time, and determination before it becomes a habit.
You can write a blog post that ends up on page one of Google if you keep at it!