If we do not have sufficient knowledge, confusion takes away our confidence. On the other hand, when we have proper knowledge things are going smoothly. In this regard, we are ready to take sufficient knowledge of how to write a blog post.
Consider this fact. Every day on the internet almost 7 million blogs are posted. (Source: internetlivestats.com). You can also click on the above internet live stats to explore many statistics live. Let’s come to the topic. These 7 million can look even bigger because all bloggers are not posting every day. So how you can stand in this crowd? So it is essential to know how to write a good blog post.
For convenience, the guide will be provided easy and structured way. Just you have to follow step by step process and in the end, your excellent post is ready. So without delay let’s jump into this fruitful journey.
30 vital steps on how to write a good post
Can you guess what will be the first step? Yes, choosing a topic.
1) Choose a topic:
When you select a topic to write is the first stair where you put your leg.
Choosing a topic depends on your particular niche. For example, my niche is to help a blogger. So how to write a blog post is a topic here.
Sometimes our mind is out of topic. No problem, you will get a full guide here. Here are two different types of effective solutions:
i) Through self-effort: write 5 topics every day even if some topics may look not useful. If you have done it. You have always a bonus topic to write about.
ii) Through free tools: Check out this blog for that. 25 best free blog idea generating tools. The more you spend your time with these tools you have enough content ideas stored in your content box.
Apart from that keeping eye on your competitors’ topics may also help you to brainstorm your mind.
Immediately after choosing the topic, the next vital step is
2) Keyword analysis:
Is your topic viable to your users? Is this topic satisfies your demand, eg. CPC rate? All are needed to properly research before writing. These things are the pillars. The more you are strong in keyword research, the better you find the result. Here Four important parameters are checked:
- Search volume
- SEO difficulty
- Paid difficulty
- Cost per click (CPC)
When it matches your demand then fix this topic. For example here is how to write a blog post is fixed.
Now the next step is
3) Keep your all keywords ready:
You understand the keyword market well. Now you have to read all the keywords you want to use. So you can apply them in the right place whenever needed. Most blogger target 1-3 SEO optimized keywords in a blog post.
For example, here are a few keywords for ready-to-use.
- How to write a blog post?
- How to write a good post?
- How to write good blog posts? etc.
Now one vital task needs to be done.
4) Research and read the top post on google on this particular topic:
Search your keyword topic in google. Read the topmost post. You may read 5 top posts or 10 top posts depending on your choice.
The more you carefully read all the posts better you can write about them.
Understand it, they are already popular posts. So their structure, quality, and information everything give hints about how a popular post will be. It is not said to copy any portion. It will be dangerous which we will discuss in the letter. Just understand the topic as much as possible. Also, note what they missed. You can understand it once by thorough reading and pointing out some information. Or you can take an overview of it and visit the same site again whenever needed.
5) Estimating total words in blog/ blog size:
You are about to start writing a blog. Before this taking, a rough estimate of blog size can be helpful sometimes.
Blog size refers to how many words in total are used in a full blog.
Ideal blog size: It depends.
- If you are for marketing and add product description only then it may be short. It also depends upon consumer behavior.
- If it is about a single-term explanation again it may be small.
- In another case, if you want to guide comprehensively of a topic it can be big enough.
So it will vary accordingly.
However, you will also get some more useful information on blog size.
- Generally, a minimum of 300 words is expected to write a post.
- Many marketers choose 300 – 1000 words to write a post.
- Blogger prefers to write about 1200 words post.
- Many websites confess that they have ranked in google mostly in 1700 – 1800 word posts. It is a suitable target for a blogger.
- However many websites declare that a good post has 1000 – 3000 words.
However, there are more important things to consider when thinking about blog size.
- Just estimate your blog size and write without bothering about size over quality.
- Your main target is the solution of meeting the need of the audience. This fulfillment will be the priority.
- Give clear information to the audience. For example when you tell the ideal blog size. Don’t consider they already know about it. Give insight properly about it. After all, we are not familiar with all the time about each term. That is about important consideration.
You have done great work. You are all set now. Your playground is ready. It’s time to play. So start it.
Here is first shot to play is
6) A catchy and interactive title:
For attracting your audience most important thing is a strong, catchy, and interactive title. A person has to click first before reading your blog or content. So if your title is not capable enough to attract them, you have to lose many audiences. Let’s understand some points about how a title will be capable enough to attract the audience.
i) Using strong words:
Consider below two:
a) A guide for writing a good blog
b) A comprehensive guide for writing a good blog
Can you note the difference?
So using Best guide, complete guide, etc you can increase your rate to click on the title. Note to mention that content must be matched with the title.
ii) Emotional Word:
Again consider these two.
a) Complete SEO guide for ranking
b) Complete SEO guide for ranking in 1st position.
If emotionally or even subconsciously audience is attached to this word, the clicking rate will increase. Here 1st position creates a better chance to click.
iii) Neither too big nor too small:
If the title is too big, google does not display it completely in SERP (Search Engine Result Page). A moderate size title (generally 8-14 words) is best for most of the angles. However, nowadays long titles get generally more shares. So reminding about the current trend of a long-form title like 11-14 words can be a good choice.
iv) Include the main keyword in the title:
It is for search engines. If a keyword is within your title then the search engine will display it easily. So include the main keywords for the best benefit.
Sometimes it is difficult to understand whether all the criteria are fulfilled properly or not. So here are the solution. Use the following tools to check the title score. Change your title until you will reach your desired score.
b) Best Free Headline Analyzer
There is one more method to choose a title. In the same search of Ubersuggest, you will find top post titles.
You can get the idea from these titles. You can check for 8 advanced blog post templates to save your time and effort to format the post including titles.
7) Creating an awesome Thumbnail:
Yes, here experience matters. You can understand that the thumbnail plays a great important role for motivate readers to read your post.
A thumbnail is an image for creating an attachment to readers in the first impression. It has the following advantages:
i) Increase retention rate: When readers click on your title and see an awesome thumbnail, it will attract people. They can believe that you are proficient and professional. It will increase the retention rate (the amount of time they spend) on your blog.
ii) More clicks on social media:
When you share this post on social media the chances of clicks will be increased for a good thumbnail. Even many famous bloggers believe that thumbnails and titles are the main reason for most clicks on social media. You can also verify it by watching your activity. When you scroll and see an awesome thumbnail, you generally click. Right?
iii) Promote your website: Many followers want to connect with you even on different platforms. Thumbnails efficiently give this opportunity.
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| Sample thumbnail for promoting on social media |
You put your all social network (website, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc) name in the thumbnail.
8) Introduction:
It is the first comprehensive writing area where you can influence people to read full posts. A good introduction creates hope for getting benefits from your post. So they will effectively consider your point. Let’s know comprehensively about the introduction type as per the promise of a complete guide.
Type of introduction
i) You know what they seek:
You may notice digital marketers can influence you with a few words. But behind that, they already know what you are seeking. So you can assure the audience that you are well-known for their need. After that conversation is easy for them. For more clear understanding, here is an example of an introduction given-
What is the most effective way to write an excellent post? How to write a popular post for increasing engagement on social media? How to create a unique blog to rank on the top page of google? Are you thinking about these questions? You will be proficient enough in these (and many more) after completing this post. You will find every step easily and systematically that can be applied in your post. So without delay let’s dive into this beautiful journey.
Here you consider their problem and enough solution for them. Authenticity is important in long run. Promise only which you can deliver.
If you want to include keywords as questions then collect those questions in these two free tools.
However, you can know 50 various SEO tools including these two comprehensively in this post. You also come to the words SEO frequently. So this post will clarify the concept. 50 best free SEO tools for improving the website performance.
ii) Use popular quotes:
Let’s say, you are going to write about the importance of education in the world. So you can write quotes below format-
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
— Nelson Mandela
When we look at our civilized world is not education the prime factor? … (insert your quality words as you wish).
iii) Use the relevant statistics:
Just saying that keeping posts is important and an introduction is not an effective way. You have to say something strong. Right. When you use statistics with proper sources, it adds practical value to your audience. See this example.
i) Consider this fact. Almost 7 million blogs are posted every day on the internet. (Source: internetlivestats.com). So writing an excellent post is more mandatory than optional. …(Your own words).
It gives authentic information.
Quality introduction features:
These three things have to remind of while writing a quality introduction.
- You understand the need of the audience.
- Gaining trust for your effective solution to this topic.
- Generally, 100 – 200 words are considered a good word choice for an introduction in a blog post.
An introduction is the beginning of writing. So here few more things to remind you of the excellent post.
9) Internal and external linking:
Internal linking indicates when you link a text to another post on your website. After clicking on it the audience is on your website. It is an important on-page SEO technique.
External linking indicates when you link a text to the post of another website. After clicking on it the audience is switched to another website. External linking is a vital off-page SEO strategy.
However, you are guided completely here. But on-page and off-page SEO strategy is well used by blogger. You can check the Complete guide about on and Off page SEO for it.
Internal linking provides easy navigation to the audience. External linking indicates you care for your customer and provide them with useful quality information from a different area.
This type of linking will be continued up to the end of the writing. Just give them the quality information which they need.
10) Keyword density:
You have to write a good post in a way that likes search engines. So knowing these rules are very important.
Keyword density indicates how many SEO keywords are used/total words in this blog and multiplied by 100 for percentage value. 0.5% are standard use of title keywords. That means one time SEO keyword in 200 words. However, 1 to 2% is also considered a good density.
It is a broad concept and if you want to know more then click here keyword density guide with 10 tools.
11) Proper Heading (H1 – H6) arrangement:
It is an important aspect. Google used this heading for crawling. Crawling refers to when search engines read the page and try to understand it.
H1 is the largest, H2 is the second largest or large, and so on.
H1 is used for the title. Using one H1 title for one page is a good choice. However many also consider 2-3 headings in the whole blog post.
H2 is used for subtitles. It is used headings inside the page.
H3 for points you want to explain.
Smaller font can be used for a description of the image or some less considerable thing. But it is at your discretion.
12) Make bold important words:
It is to grab the attention of readers in important areas. When you bold the important text the value is increased of your post. A behind logic is the audience will easily catch the most important matters.
Making an effective Body for write a good blog
13) Comprehensive explanation:
Now it’s time to give a complete concept to the audience. Give enough information to make a quality post. If your body is good enough then customers will revisit your site. They can be your permanent customer by default. They will search by name of your website. It will increase authenticity and will help to rank on Google. Apart from that clicking on an affiliate link or conversion can be easy. Conversion is the term used for when a customer reads your post and is ready to purchase your recommended product.
14) Never copy the content from another site:
Generally, research is used for enhancing knowledge about that topic. It is also used for finding faults or missing things in another post to include in your post. When you copy any portion of the content directly it is subjected to copyright. It has legal actions and several examples of the huge amounts of penalties. So using your skill to create a unique post is recommended for risk-free earning from the post.
15) Use images, videos, gifs, etc for better retention:
People like visuals. So if you use it in your post they will spend more time on your page. This type of retention rate will get lead to increase rankings in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages. If you are on the top page then it will cause huge traffic, conversion, etc. Traffic indicates the persons visiting your website.
Caution: Do not attach the random image you find on the website. Generally, they are copyrighted. That means you may have to face legal claims.
There is some copyright-free site for legally downloading images and videos. If you want unlimited stocks of copyright-free images and videos then click on the post 100% free 25 websites of images and videos without any copyright.
16) Compress/ optimize image size:
It is an efficient factor all proficient bloggers used as an SEO technique. Less your image size, more good for page speed. We will know about speed soon. So
First, do not download large-size images like 5200*4800 or 20 MB. Download small-size images like 1280*1080 or 640*420 type images
Or less than 5 MB.
Second, compress it using a compression tool.
The less your image size, the more will benefit. But you need to also consider the need for image quality. Find lots of free compression tools in this post 35 free Image optimization tools (Online, Software, and App)
17) Use alt tags for images:
Alt tags or alternative tags are used in images. It facilitates images a text until it is downloaded. So it helps in the first response. The first response time is the first time taken to open your pages. So alt tags help in reducing first response time.
18) Reminding about page speed:
If your response time is greater than 4 seconds then you will lose a large number of traffics. In this bust era, people don’t want to wait. So late upload speed is harmful.
In remote areas internet speed is slow. So their first response time is even more. So reducing it by small size images, compression, alt tag, etc is a good idea for an effective strategy.
Page speed is not binding to these factors only. There are several factors included here like using canonical text.
19) Graph, chart, Graphics:
Line Graphs, Pie charts, Graphics images, etc attract people more than usual. It helps people to understand the scenario at a glance.
Usually, graphical representations have better engagement.
Using graphics will catch the attention of your audience.
Using self-made illustrator help to prove your understanding of the topic.
20) Reader-friendly:
It is a very important aspect you have to consider when writing anything.
The best thing is to write in a way that you are talking. Maintain a good flow. Write in a way that is interesting for your audience. Creating curiosity about the next thing is also good creativity.
21) Easy to scan:
It is a common behavior found among most people that they start skipping the content and start to scan it. So keep the paragraph small so it is easy to scan. Making points, bullet points, bold, underlining, graphs, etc are helpful to do it in a better way.
22) Check whether the body meets your audience’s needs:
After completing the body part check it.
If you are a reader and read the post then you will be satisfied. Do edit wherever needed. Make sure it fulfills the needs of your audience. It has one more advantage. You have now confident about your content. It will help to draw an awesome conclusion.
23) Conclusion/wrap-up:
It is a vital part of two main aspects
- If the conclusion is good then people reconsider reading your post after reading the conclusion. Neil Patel (founder of Ubersuggest) says that anyone quick scrolls the post and reaches in conclusion. After reading it they again consider reading the whole post.
- It also decides how you grab the mind of readers. If your final imprint is good then there are high chances of sharing the post. Most importantly they like to comment. It increases engagement in a post. Ultimately it helps to rank blogs in SERPs.
For that consider these two points:
Summary: Give a quick summary of what is covered in the whole content. In that way, after reading the conclusion there is a chance to reconsider reading the post.
Engaging end style:
End your post in such a way that helps to generate more comments.
You can end with the question like
a) That’s all about our idea. Let us know what is your view in this regard.
b) Is anything forgotten by me? Remind me of your experience or beautiful thoughts. Your value-adding will be reminded by us.
You can also throw a debatable matter. For example – Cookies are appreciated for marketing help or should be abolished for security issues.
It solely depends upon your audience, your niche, and many more factor. You will know the best about it. Consider it and create an engagement end in your post for your best benefit.
Now it’s time to give proper credit.
24) Reference:
After the conclusion writes the reference as a point.
Here you have to give more websites link. It must be related to your whole post. Generally, some top-ranked blog links are given here. It also helps to crawl search engines and understand your content. However, few authenticated external link increases your blog value in SERP’s eye. It also helps the audience to know more.
25) Be a good editor:
When we write a long post it is obvious that something is left. So you should work as a great editor for that.
Check if there are any mistakes.
Is there something to add?
Or missed something like adding an alt tag.
Simultaneously,
Check readability
In the general sense, it may look like your post is perfect. But readability plays a very important factor. If long sentences are used then it may be difficult to read. So give your effort to make it easy.
Free tool to check readability: Hemingway
26) Proofread it (using Grammarly):
Grammarly is a tool that provides you suggestions for any spelling, grammar or punctuation corrections for free.
It is almost used by every blogger. After that, your post has standard quality.
27) Check plagiarism:
A good post must be plagiarism free. Plagiarism refers to any content or portion of content that matches another website’s content. It may be knowingly using the wrong path. And also unknowingly. So it is better to check for the release of fresh content.
Free tool for plagiarism check: Small SEO Tools
Correct if any copied content is discovered.
Great, your post is now completed. But some more things to consider for the best benefit.
28) include labels:
Labels are categories of blogs. It helps search engines to know about your blog. People also get help from it.
Organizing your content is the actual use of it. For example, you have written different types of blogs. These may be beginner, SEO, template, WordPress, etc. You can include one or two among them to organize them properly. Here this post can be categorized under SEO. So “SEO”, or “SEO, Beginner” can be a label here.
29) Generate a custom permalink (if needed):
When you share a post an automatic permalink will generate. But sometimes it is hazy to understand. Because full coverage is sometimes absent. So a custom link can be generated in such a case. Here adjust the link size.
By doing this audience can easily understand the post by seeing the link.
30) Write an attractive search description:
When you search google few blogs are visible. Below the title, some words (approx 150) are given. It is called search description
It helps readers to understand what can be found on the page.
It is an opportunity for bloggers to attract an audience.
So write a search description carefully which matches the content. Use it in a way that users will click the post after reading it.
Wrap up for how to write a good post
So 30 vital steps guide from the very beginning to post publish is presented here. Now you are familiar with how to write a good post for the utmost benefit. By following these steps you will end up with an excellent post. It is very common to miss something in the first reading. So don’t hesitate to know about each step carefully again. You can share if it looks useful. And if something is missed provide your thought on it. Thank you.