How To Write A Blog Post: The Professional Blog Writing Guide
Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been blogging for years, learning how to write a blog post is something everyone needs to master. Unfortunately, so many people out there are writing blog posts that are thin, not formatted properly and will never be shared by humans or loved by Google bots.
There’s a simple and easy-to-follow formula that you can use to make sure that you’re creating the best content possible, both for your readers and for search engines. If you know how to write a blog post properly, then you can grow your audience, keep readers on your pages and help more people with your blog.
In this post I’m going to show you the secret to how we’ve written so many blog posts that have helped us grow this blog to over 375,000 readers per month and how you can write articles that people will share on their social platforms, helping you to grow your traffic quickly.
How To Write a Blog Post (Blog Writing Basics)
Don’t worry, if you’ve been blogging for a long time and looking for some advanced strategies, we’ll get there later on in this post. But first, we have to cover some of the basics of how to write a blog post. Surprisingly, even some pro-bloggers fail to follow the basic rules of blog writing.
1. Write an Intro
Every good blog post is like an essay. It needs to have a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. The intro to your blog post should be no more than 3-4 paragraphs and in the first paragraph, you should clearly outline what your post will be.
In the case of a travel blog, this might mean making it clear that you have spent more than a few hours at the destination you’re writing about (Did you live there? Spend a week there?). For a tech review, it should be clear that you know what you’re talking about and have personally used the product you’re reviewing for a considerable amount of time.
This is a little something to entice them to continue reading. Sometimes this will come in the form of a short sentence that says something like “read on to find out which places to visit and why I wouldn’t go to some of them again”. This kind of writing can hook people into reading more of your content and helps to keep them engaged.
2. Write “The Middle”
The middle of your content is the meat of the post. Make sure you break up this content well and make it as easy to read as possible (more about blog post formatting later in this article). You should have as much information as you can about the topic you’re writing on.
3. Write an Outro
The biggest mistake that bloggers make when writing an outro is that they simply repeat the intro. This is a big no-no. The outro is one of the most important parts of a blog post because if people made it that far, they obviously like what you wrote. This is your chance to get them to remember you.
Leave them with something to think about. Give them a question to engage with. Offer them something extra like a short ebook on the topic. Get their email if you can. Encourage them to comment. Lead them to more posts on your blog that are about a similar topic.
It’s important to note here that you should never open a new line of thought in your outro. It can be very jarring to a reader – who has managed to complete reading a long post – to reach the end and find that there’s much more that wasn’t discussed in the article.
Research Blog Post Ideas
- 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:
- List post – a list post, also called a “listicle,” is an article written in list format. This content type is easy to recognize as it commonly contains a number in its headline. List articles are also easy to read and skim, allowing readers to quickly understand and get important information.
- What post – this blog post type aims to introduce and explain a specific subject, highlighting the importance and relevance of the concept. A pro tip for writing a blog post using this format is avoiding jargon and only using analogies that readers understand.
- Thought leadership post – the idea behind thought leadership posts is usually to educate the audience about the latest news or trends in an industry. This blog content type is excellent for those who want to be seen as experts in their field.
- Interview post – this content type is excellent for introducing the perspective of an authority figure on a particular subject. It’s also great for developing relationships with experts or influencers within an industry and attracting their audiences to your blog.
- Review post – review blog posts typically talk about the pros and cons of a product or service. According to Podium, 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. That’s why this format is one of the most popular content types.
- Comparison post – as the name suggests, this format compares different solutions to help readers decide. To write a fair comparison article, make sure to include facts and statistics from third-party sources to back up your claims.
- Curated post – curated content is a selection of helpful resources about a specific topic. This type of post is suitable for aggregating content such as statistics or industry examples. Here’s a curated post example from our blog about 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.
- Informational – people with informational intent have a specific question and want to know more about a particular topic. Some formats that might be suitable for this intent are list, how-to, and what posts.
- Navigational – users with this type of intent usually want to visit a specific website or web page. In other words, a page will be irrelevant to their needs unless it’s precisely what they’re looking for. For instance, people who search for “LinkedIn” are usually on their way to the LinkedIn website.
- Transactional – people searching with transactional intent usually plan to buy a product or service and use search engines to do their research. Consider writing blog post types such as comparisons or reviews for terms with this intent.
Aim for an Engaging Title
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.
Expert Tip
- 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:
- Avoid vague headlines – a headline should have a clear value and indicates certain promises. The more precise the benefit, the more likely target readers are to click. Ask the question “What’s in it for me?” on behalf of your reader when writing headlines.
- Prepare multiple titles for each post – according to a study by Orbit Media, bloggers who spend time writing lots of headlines before choosing one see better results. Try creating several titles using different formulas and choose the most appealing one for the blog post.
- Consider a negative title – one excellent method to create a great blog post title that generates clicks is to include a negative sentiment in the headline. A study by Backlinko shows that a negative title has a 7.2% higher click-through rate (CTR) than a neutral headline.
- Ask a question to spark curiosity – question headlines can be a compelling hook to generate interest and draw in readers curious about the answer to the subject you’re asking. Based on Backlinko’s research, titles containing a question have a 14.1% higher CTR than pages without a question in their headline.
- Use a page title generator – utilizing a free tool like Portent’s Content Idea Generator can be an excellent solution for those struggling to come up with great blog posts’ titles.
- Write long headlines – according to BuzzSumo, long headlines work better when it comes to engagement. A long headline usually contains more information, helping readers understand the benefit of clicking on that blog post.
- Include hyphens and colons – titles with hyphens or colons perform better than other headlines. A simple technique for using hyphens and colons is to use target keywords at the beginning and add a compelling title after it.
- Improve the title – use a headline analyzer to provide feedback on what to improve in a title.
Resource:
How To Write A Travel Blog: The Professional Travel Blog Writing Guide
https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/how-to-write-a-blog-post