A blog is an online platform where internet users will find information or discussion on various related topics.
A blog comprises many posts, usually of the same niche.
Each blog post contains information on a topic that its visitors may find interesting.
Here’s an image of the blog of the world’s biggest review website, CNET.
There are Many Benefits to Blogging!
It’s a great idea if you want to work on your blog. It has many benefits; otherwise, the world’s biggest brands wouldn’t be running a blog on their website.
To mention a few benefits:
Increase Website Traffic: You will get more visitors if you have blog posts.
Earn Through Ads: You can get ads on the blog if you have enough website traffic.
Show Your Skill: Show the world you are an expert in your field.
More Exposure:You or your business will get more exposure as you get visitors on the blog.
Edge over Competitors: A good blog will bring traffic and show them that you know your field.
Get More Clients: Blog visitors are niche relevant people and your potential customers.
Engage Your Audience: Blog helps you keep your clients and audience engaged.
Understand Your Audience: You get instant feedback which helps you understand their needs.
Help the World: Share your knowledge with the people who need it.
Following Passion: You get to follow your passion of writing and becoming an
Now that you understand the meaning and value of a blog, we will start with how to write the perfect blog post.
1. Know Your Niche
Before you start a blog, be clear about your niche.
A niche is your FIELD. It is a part of a market that will be your focus.
If someone asks how to become a blog writer, tell them first to decide their niche.
To mention a few niches:
Health
Technology
Marketing
Travel
Food
There are many more like this.
Your niche could be a compound of more than one niches or a sub-category of a niche.
For example:
You could write a blog on Health and Food.
Or, you could write on a category of Marketing like ‘Digital Marketing’ or ‘SEO’.
You should select a niche that is your passion and has a big market (if you are doing it for the money).
Neil Patel has shared a few great tips on selecting the right niche in the following video.
2. Create an Audience Persona
When learning how to be a good blog writer, you must understand who you are writing for.
Knowing your audience will help you:
Write relevant content
Connect to the reader on a personal level
You can create an audience persona for this job.
An audience persona represents a segment of your audience based on real research.
If you have a blog on exercise, your target audience will include:
Young male and female bodybuilders
Young male and females who want to lose weight.
Elderly male and females who want to stay healthy
You will create a profile for each character listing their needs and personalities.
An audience persona of a weightlifter would include the following information.
3. Make a List of Topics
After deciding your audience, you have to brainstorm topic ideas that they will find interesting.
For example, a fitness enthusiast would want to know information like the one in the below image:
Sit, research, and create a list of topics that are relevant to your blog and audience. You should select the topics that you have the ability to write on.
4. Select Keywords for Each Topic
Blog writing is not just writing. You have to create every blog post for your audience and Google.
You have to index and rank your blog post on search engines to get more traffic.
That’s why I have also shared blog writing tips for SEO in this article.
You start with selecting keywords against each blog topic.
A keyword is a word or phrase used to find information on search engines
Possible keywords for a topic on exercises to build abdominal muscles would be:
When you target a keyword, you are telling the search engine that your blog has the answer to it.
You will find more blog writing tips for SEO below in this article.
5. Research on the Topic
Do you know how to create blog content?
RESEARCH!
It is advised to select a niche that is your passion because you already know a lot about it.
But, you don’t know everything.
Always conduct proper research before you start writing a blog post.
The research will help you understand the topic better, and you will have a reference to every statement.
6. Decide the Writing Approach
There are various types of writing and approaches to creating a blog post.
For a blog post, the most appropriate writing style would be “Expository” – explaining a concept with accepted facts.
The five types of a blog post are:
List (listing benefits, approaches, items, )
How-To (process to solving a problem)
Curated Collection
Newsjacking post
Slide Presentation
Deciding what type of blog you are writing, will keep it in the right sequence.
This article is HOW TOwrite a blog post.
7. Create an Outline
Create an outline after doing the preliminary research on a topic.
An outline will contain the information you are going to cover in the blog. This clarifies the type of article, and what and how you should present every piece of information.
Create the title, headings, and sub-heading of your blog post first – it’s your outline.
You can add or remove headings and sub-headings later if needed.
8. Start Writing
By the time you reach this step, you should know what to write in a blog post.
Start writing only when you have a complete understanding of the topic. You will also do additional research for content in each heading while writing.
Now, to the question: How to write a blog content?
There is a lot to tell…
To cover blog writing tips for beginners, here’ what you should do:
Write like you are explaining the point to a 12-Year-old kid.
Make short paragraphs and sentences. They are easier to understand and user-friendly
Where possible: use bullets, lists, and quotes to design your content.
9. Killer Opening
Start the blog by explaining what the article is about.
A website visitor is looking for a reason to leave. He won’t stay if he is not assured in the beginning that he is on the right page.
NN group conducted a research in 2011 which concluded that a user leaves your web page if you can’t catch his attention within 10 SECONDS.
10. Add Links
Adding links assures the reader and Google that you talk with proof and goodwill.
Links have three purposes:
Providing Reference
Sharing Source
Linking to Additional Information
Your blog looks reliable when you provide a source of information.
If you are using someone else’s information, you have to mention their source; otherwise, it may result in a copyright
Linking to additional information shows that you care about user experience and not afraid to share your visitors with other websites. I anticipated that some of my readers might want to know the types of writing. So, I linked to it in one of the above paragraphs.
There are two types of links.
Internal: Linking to web pages of the same site.
External: Linking to web pages of other sites.
Be sure to use both types of links.
There is no rule about the number of links – just link where they naturally fit.
11. Search Relevant Images
A blog post has to be interesting.
A page filled only with text is boring – so, you have to use relevant graphics in it.
An image should be relevant to the topic that helps clarifies a point. You can use other graphics that are not useful but keep them to a minimum.
Adding short videos and GIF images would also be a great idea.
Here’s a good example.
Set the size of the image and videos according to the design of the website and device. A visitor will view your blog post on a desktop or mobile device.
Make sure the entire blog looks good on all types of devices to provides a good user experience.
Google uses the mobile view as one of the factors to determine the rank of a page.
You can check the mobile-friendliness of your blog using this test tool of Google.
12. Design a Feature Image
Every blog post must have a featured image. Feature image is the one used as a thumbnail and at the top of a page.
A feature image makes your blog and title look more attractive.
13. Take Time to Create a Title
Titles are often underestimated even though they carry great value. A person decides after reading the title if he will visit your blog or not.
Few tips for creating a title:
See the title of your competitors to see how yours can be better.
Edit and finalize the title after you have completed the post.
Take the extra time to brainstorm and write a title that best attracts your audience.
14. Write a Meta Description
Meta Description is an HTML tag. It contains the text displayed under the title.
A Meta description text briefly describes the entire post.
The searcher reads Meta description after the title to decide if the blog has the required information.
Depending on the device, it displays around 155 characters in search engine result page.
Always write a description of the blog after is completed. You will have a better idea of what you offer and how to present it.
Here are a few more tips to keep in mind:
A Meta description should have a call-to-action.
It should be written in an active voice.
Include the focus keyword to show its relevancy.
It should add further value to the title.
15. Blog Writing Tips for SEO
Web content has to be optimized for search engines in order to rank in SERPs.
Keep one thing in mind, the user experience is the best optimization – don’t sabotage it for any SEO trick.
That said, try to use all the following blog writing tips for SEO without disturbing the user experience.
Select Keywords with a Search Volume
Use tools like Keywords Everywhere and KWFinder to search for keywords that are most searched. Keywords with high search volume will bring more traffic.
An article with up to 1,000 words should use only:
1 focus keyword
2 – 3 secondary keywords
Use Keywords in the Content
Use keywords on different places in the blog post in a way they look naturally fit. Try to use the focus keyword within the first 100 words.
Focus keywords should have a density of around 1%.
Use secondary keywords at least once.
Paste your content in Yoast Real-Time Content Analysis, enter keywords, and it will show you their density.
Use Keyword in the SEO Title
Using primary/focus keyword in the title shows the relevancy of the blog with the keyword.
Also, make sure the Title has a viewable length for both desktop and mobile devices.
You can check this too in the Yoast content analysis tool.
Use Keyword in the Meta Description
Use the focus keyword in the meta description to show relevancy and, just like the title, assure its visibility in SERP too.
Add Internal and External Links
Use at least 1 internal and 1 external relevant link in the blog post. Set the link to open in new tab.
Use At least 1 Image
It is SEO requirement to use at least 1 image in the article. Using an appropriate amount of images and infographics make your blog attractive.
Use Keyword in Alt Text of Images
Write descriptive titles of images and use focus keyword in Alt Text of some of the images.
Alt Text is the text that displays when an image fails to load.
Use Headings
Make sure you apply heading format to headlines.
The title is the H1 heading.
H2 is the heading of a paragraph.
H3 is a subheading of an H217.
16. Proofread and Edit
Always proofread and edit the blog post – it’s ‘How to become a blog writer 101’.
Proofreading and editing should be done with complete focus. You have to identify all the mistakes and see how you can make it better.
Remember:
There is always room for improvement – look where you can make improvements in the written article.
One trick is to read from the point of view of your target audience.
Leave a Comment