To write your first blog post, follow my recoomendation and use them as a checklist
Especially in my summary section, I summarize the required steps to follow for your first blog post
Actually I was very reluctant on writing this post about the 10 steps on how to write great blog post
As I also struggle while writing all of my blog posts for so many reasons like
- English is not my primary language and I always tend to write basic vocabulary (you don’t need dictionary when reading my blog posts)
- I take around more than 15 hours to write a blog post of 2000+ words as I do a lot of researches to make my post informative and provides value to my readers
- I don’t want to pay someone to write my initial posts (first 20 to 30 posts) as I want to make sure that they are very well covered and authoritative
- When I revisit my old posts which were written more than a month ago, I realize that they need a lot of editing (by the way, I recognized that this is a very healthy feelings as again it makes your blog posts leaning into perfection)
But I realized that the more I read about my topic the better I write
And I always follow what I am going to show you below
This works well for me on writing an amazing, authoritative, long post that attracts my readers like magnet and provides value to them
Bounce rate from Google Analytics is the best indicator on how your blog performs well from readers’ perspectives
Recommended anything less than 70%
Now below are my 10 steps on how to write an excellent blog post
Consider your audience in advance (generate your idea)
Think about it if your audience is generalized or specialized
If generalized like in this blog post then I have to provide a lot of more content to cover every aspect in my post
But if your audience is specialized then only focus on the technical details only
For example if your post is about how to configure w3 total cache plugin
Then it is acceptable if I covered How to install W3 total Cache
But it will be completely irrelevant to discuss what is WordPress or What is a blog
Again if your blog post is generalized
Then you need to come with relevant content to cover your initial topic or idea
For example when I was looking for ideas on this post, I went to google and I searched for how to write an amazing blog post, it returned back these searches right after AdWords
Or at the end of every Google search page result
This will provide you with great ideas on writing long post which is informative and covering everything about your topic
Think about attention grabbing title
According to Forbes 59% of readers share articles on social media based on the titles
Without even reading them so coming up with the right attractive title increases the chance of readability and sharing on social media
These 2 websites Linkbait Title Generator and Portent can provide you with titles for your post, I use them sometimes
I suggest to give them a try
Plan your images ahead
Adding images to your blog posts will make your contents look visually appealing
As a picture is worth a thousand words
Sometimes investing time to pick a high quality images can decrease your bounce rate
Also images increase your image search engines traffic but you have to optimize few things like Alt text and providing a meaningful name for your images
Attractive images can bring you more social media shares for users who love visual content
And this helps to drive more traffic just from social media sites
Reminder to optimize every image size you upload to your blog to get a better Google page load speed
Adding lot of images with their original sizes can hurt you website in terms of page load speed
I always use W2E Image Optimizer (no affiliate link) to automatically optimize all my images once I upload them
Don’t forget to check my resource page for the best places to download images from stock images and graphic design tools
Write nice introduction before you dive in (don’t forget the Lead In)
It is really nice to write an introduction before you list all your bullet points
Try to make your introduction acts as a teaser by raising some concerns and asking questions before you start
There is no specific word counts
But keep in mind that you have to put the Lead In if writing a post with lists (like this one) by saying something like Now below are … or let us start the list with …
List all your main points in your blog post
Here is what I do when writing any blog post
I put the title not the final one
But the once that keeps me focused on what I am writing my content about
I skip the introduction for now and I start with the list of all my main points
Then I search the internet to see if I can increase my lists
If I find a website with 10 lists and others with 13, I try to come with combined lists
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. (Gustave Flaubert) Click To Tweet
Plus I do brainstorming for all my points until I believe I am satisfied with the result and then title can finally be updated to reflect my list
For example in this post, I collected all my bullet points and I found no more points to add
So I updated my title to be 10 Steps on How to write your first blog post
Be useful and informative
Always try to provide useful links even if they are not affiliate links remember you are blogging to keep good impressions on your readers
And being the good Samaritan will benefit you if readers share your blog posts only when they feel like you are really providing values to them
Do you best to illustrate your content with images especially if it is a tutorial of any kind
Optimize your blog post for SEO
This point itself can be a separate blog post
But I will try to make it concise and clear under the following points
Do keyword research
By using Google Adwords Keyword Planner you will be able to depict what your blog post keyword(s) will be about for example
I changed this blog post main keyword from write an amazing blog post to write a great blog post although the word amazing is better (I believe) but if users use the word great then I will use it
Go for long-tail keywords
Go for long tail keywords which consists of 5-6 keywords as 1-2 keywords are very highly competitive
Plus they are not reflecting the users’ intention behind them like “SEO” is very tough to pursue and it is not like “Small business local SEO”
Choose your post title well
Always come up with very attractive title that makes the readers eager to click on your blog post, if you are not able to come up with a post title
Try the 5 types of questions (How, When, Why, Where and How)
Include the keyword in your URL
Assuming you are using WordPress as your blogging platform
If so this will happen automatically if you include your keyword in your post as your post will be the URL for your post
For example your URL will look like this doyourblogwithme.com/how-to-write-a-great-blog-post
Optimize your headings
Headings as known as H1, H2 and H3 in WordPress not only makes your blog post easy to read
But also it divides your post into logical sections but also adding keyword’s alternatives can also help you with SEO
Use your image text
2 things to consider when using images on your website
Always rename your image file to your blog post title or any long tail keywords from your Tags so for example instead of using image called PN1S4RT.png rename it to be write-a-great-blog-post.png plus don’t forget to add image alt text as shown below
Update image alt text
Use relevant internal links
Whenever you are writing a new blog post, think about your existing old blog posts and link to them
Actually it would be better if you link to them using their target keywords
Do it in a way that it is totally making sense
For example if you write before about how to choose your web hosting and then you are writing now about steps for building a successful blog
It would be one of these steps is how to choose your web hosting then make the previously bold phrase hyperlinked to your old post
Write a Meta description
Meta description will affect your website ranking
It is just showing 2 lines of what users see when they found your website on the list of searches
So writing a strong description with your target keyword included will encourage users to click on your link to read your post
To add Meta description to your blog post then I recommend to use WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO
Where you will be able to scroll down at the end of your post to specify the Meta description when you are editing your post
Image of Meta description (Not ready yet, I have to make it)
Link to new posts from your old posts
Same like when I asked you to link your new posts to old posts
You can do the other way around by linking your visiting your old posts and look for opportunities to link keywords to your new posts
One way to do this, by going to search for a keyword or synonyms of your target keyword in your post list page (as shown below)
And if you find old post written earlier go ahead and edit it by linking the keyword which you found to the new post
Choose Tags and Categories wisely
Tags and Categories help in grouping related posts together; every Tag and Category which you create will create a URL for you and it will be indexed by SEO
It is better when using tags to avoid keyword stuffing
But think carefully about few tags that can represent what is your blog post about
Target your blog post to be more than 2000 words
I don’t write my blog posts and look at the word counts
It comes naturally that I come close or exceed the 2000 words if I am writing a post about how to, top 10 (it can be any number) or whatever my long post is about
I research it very well to make sure that my article covers my topic better than the top 7 to 8 searches on Google plus Bing as using different search engines bring more ideas
Don’t forget the conclusion
Writing conclusion can benefit you in many ways
It increases your blog post word counts (this is the least benefit to think about it this way)
Also it helps readers to take notes
Sometimes because of how your conclusion is recapped well, it increases your social media sharing
Plus it helps you to create an infographic to share it on Pinterest
Make it actionable
Be very careful when asking readers to take actions
If you are writing about specific product asking readers to buy it looks pushy
But asking them to share it for the benefit of others is acceptable
You can also place your subscription right below your blog post
This helps to take advantage of readers getting notified when the price goes down
Summary for this article and conclusion
To summarize what I wrote above regarding the 10 Steps on How to write a great blog post
Consider your audience in advance (generate your idea)
If audience is generalized then long post is recommended, if specialized then write only about the topic
Think about attention grabbing title
Readers can click to read your blog post based on the title as they don’t know what is written inside
Plan your images ahead
Adding images will make your blog post visually appealing
It will increase SEO traffic if Alt text is provided so add meaningful name to the image filename
Also attractive images and infographic increase your chance for social media sharing
Write nice introduction before you dive in
Introduction acts as a teaser by raising some concerns and asking questions to your readers before you start
List all your main points in your blog post
Always collect all the bullet points (solution to the problem) and then go finalize your title
Be useful and informative
Try to provide useful links and leave good impression to your readers
Optimize your blog post for SEO
- Do keyword research
- Go for long-tail keywords
- Choose your post title well
- Include the keyword in your URL
- Optimize your headings
- Use your image text
- Use relevant internal links
- Write a Meta description
- Link to new posts from your old posts
- Choose Tags and Categories wisely
Target your blog post to be more than 2000 words
Don’t pretend to count the words and add irrelevant content
if you research your topic well, you should be writing more than 2000 words
Don’t forget the conclusion
Conclusion for readers who don’t read the entire articles and you can build infographic from it
Make it actionable
It is not acceptable to ask reader to buy your product
But you can ask them to share it on Social media
Bonus tips to remember before publishing your post
As a bonus, I already brainstormed the required tips which I recommend you to follow before publishing your blog post
Finally if you are starting your first blog post, just follow my instructions above,
Now please share it with your friends using social media to the left hand side or bottom (mobile)