Writing a killer blog post for your niche audience doesn’t have to be a tough chore. Many people panic thinking about the SEO (Search Engine Optimization), clicks, bounce rate, and the list goes on.
Don’t worry! It may take some time to master the art of writing a blog post, but you will get the hang of it, I promise.
Qualities of a Good Blog Post
When you have your niche, do a quick Google search and skim through the blog posts that have ranked on the first page. You’ll likely find that they have some elements in common:
- There is plenty of useful and quality information
- The post is easy to read, understand, and is engaging
- The text is supported by images, video links or infographics
- There are proper headings and bullet points for quick readability
- The entire post is well-organized with structure and flow
- SEO-friendly content
Failing to check off any of these points, and you may lose a big chunk of your potential audience to your competitors.
Research and Planning
When I first started blogging, the ideas were flooding in and it was easy to lose track. There is so much you want to convey to your blog visitors, but presenting the information in an organized way can be a hard nut to crack.
Eventually, I discovered that I needed a process to follow. It’s the ultimate timesaver trick! Do some research and planning.
Understanding the Niche and Target Audience
The audience for a travel blog is not the same as for a fashion blog, and so on. Every niche is different and has its own share of visitors looking for specific information. They have some questions in mind that you need to address best to stand out from the rest.
Step into your blog reader’s shoes for some time. Think about their passions, interests, choices, hobbies etc. Reading the competitors’ blogs can be a crucial part of your research.
Prepare a Plan for Your Content
Don’t keep everything in your brain – write it down! Whether that’s a pen and paper, or somewhere digitally. Just don’t rely on remembering all of your ideas. As you’re planning, focus on the following:
Choose a Topic
If it’s the first post, you probably have a ton of topics in mind. It’s not about your interest or passion, it’s about providing accurate information and insights on the topic. Not all visitors are the same. What you find interesting may not provide value to your readers.
Visit Quora and social media to see what your target audience is passionate about – the questions they have in mind, what they share etc. Find our what your audience is asking about on Google.
When choosing a topic, make sure you have sufficient knowledge about the topic and can come up with valuable input in an interesting way. If the content is not engaging, the audience will move on.
Target Keywords
Before you start writing, use some keyword planning tools to find the most relevant phrases and words for the specific topic. Don’t miss the long-tail key words. People more often use these terms to find information on the web.
Your keywords should be evenly distributed across the post. Try to use the main keyword in the post title. These target words should match the natural flow of the sentence.
Never do keyword stuffing. It will affect your SEO goals later. Use latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords instead of repeating the primary keyword too many times. Try to maintain a 1-2% keyword density in your post.
Compose a Brief Outline
You need to put a lot of information in your blog post. It requires a proper structure so you can present the information in the right order. An outline helps to keep the flow of your post on the right track.
Take your time to prepare a short outline that will serve as the base for creating your first draft for the post. Here’s an example:
Introduction
Start with what the post is all about, and the points of the article.
Sub-Headers
This will depend on the topic and viewpoints you want to cover in the article. A long-form article of 3000 words may have about 7-8 level-2 (H2) headings with various sub-sections of the article under H3 and H4 headings.
If you have the content idea in mind, try and create these headings and the title of the post while creating the outline. It will ease your writing process later.
Bullets
Have a plan for some bullet points in the article. Don’t push them, but use some wherever required. Bullets can help where you don’t have headings, but some key points to state in short sentences.
Conclusion
Important reminders and your main opinion on the topic.
Write Your Post
You have the resources, the outline, and tons of ideas in mine! Everything you need to start writing the best blog post.
Don’t rush it! Go slow if it’s your first post. Don’t be ashamed even if it takes days or even weeks to finish. Ultimately, quality always wins over anything else.
Add the SEO Elements
We are all writing for the real people, not the bots. So why focus on SEO? Your visitors ask questions in search engines, social media, forums etc.
Optimizing your content for search engines will help Google show your content to your target audience. SEO helps to get targeted traffic – people who actually want to read your post. With ever-growing visitors on your blog, you will be able to rank higher on search engines.
Key SEO elements that need attention:
- SEO Tags: The search engine crawlers use these tags to identify and understand the blog content. They match the tags to the post content to evaluate the accuracy, credibility, and quality of your blog.
- Keywords: As mentioned earlier, key words in your content allows the audiences to find your post. They should be used where they need to be. Use different terms and synonyms to avoid keyword stuffing.
- Links: You need to use both internal and external links in various parts of your post. The external links to authority websites help to build credibility and improve rankings. The internal links are not just for the web crawlers to check your content; they also guide the audience to read other related posts on your blog, engaging them for longer.
Explain Your Point with Visual Content
Some ideas are best expressed with graphic elements rather than just words. Add some images, videos, and other forms of visual content to explain your point.
You need to be very careful about choosing the proper visual content for your post. If the post is about bird food supplies, you can’t just use any pet images. Be specific when you choose photos, videos, or GIFs.
Take care when placing these elements in your content. Don’t use them casually anywhere on the page. The images of bird pellets should be just next to the point where you have mentioned them.
Proofread and Edit Your Final Draft
Don’t proofread the post until you’re done writing the whole piece of content. This will allow you to check if you have repeated any information, any errors, and everything else at one time.
Editing the post as you go will only lead to wasted time. If it’s a long post that you’re writing over a week, you may not remember what you had written in the introduction.
When editing, take note of the following:
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Typos
- Facts and figures
If you are urging to write a pro blog post, it must be supported by statistics, facts, etc. Make sure you have collected the data from an authentic source. You may also want to cite your sources for further reading.
Publish Your Blog Post
If you are done with all the steps above, it’s time to upload your post for publishing. Make sure you’ve used proper heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc).
Don’t forget to add a call to action at the end of the conclusion. This will guide the visitors on what they can do next.
You may ask them to share their views in the comments. You can use reader’s comments as feedback, giving you insights into what you can do to improve the post and get a more polished look.
Summary
Blogging is not a tough job, but it does take practice. It seems impossible when you start reading about all the required pieces, but it gets easier with each post you complete. Whenever you start writing a post, just follow these handy tips.
The practice of writing posts regularly will help you become an expert blogger in no time!
Now that you know how to write a blog post, don’t wait any long! Hit the ‘Create New Post’ button and get those thoughts down!
Happy Blogging!
Pingback: Start a Blog for Free in 2022 - Get Blogging