How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to write a blog post depends on the level of expertise in developing a particular topic. A blog post needs to have a great topic, and in fact, one that covers something that excites people most. The number of well-paying niches offer a great opportunity for bloggers to make money online. It is, therefore, paramount to understand the best tactics to adopt to succeed as a blogger. The steps discussed herein provide a step-by-step guide on How to write a blog post.

How to write a blog post

Find an interesting topic

The most essential element of how to write a blog post is having a persuasive topic.

A title forms the first point of connection between a blogger and the reader. It is the first thing that a reader sees before even clicking on the link to your post.

Your title needs to stand out of the million titles from million bloggers writing similar content as yours. This means that a blogger needs to come up with a brilliant title for each blog post. The words forming your heading should be informative enough to drive the reader into clicking on your website.

Bloggers need to spend a considerable amount in choosing a title that triggers the reader’s desire to read the post. You should ensure your claim is click-worthy. It should provide a reader with what they are looking for.

Consider having a title with a magnetic effect on the reader’s attention. It should also be clear from the beginning to avoid wasting the reader’s time.

Use the right tone in your blog post

The tone in blogging differs depending on the target audience of each post. After understating your audience, it becomes easier to pitch the relevant tone. The tone used in a cooking blog cannot be similar to that of professional content.

Aligning your tone to your audience, however, does not mean that you lose your personality I the blog post. It merely means that you should consider the relevance of tone to the audience.

Considering your audience’s level of intelligence will come in handy in choosing the right tone. A blog meant for top-level individuals requires professional frameworks and strategies. In contrast, a blog post intended for the freelance level provides more of a step by step guide or more of a conversational tone.

Bloggers connect with their readers through the tone. Using the right tone that resonates with your audience helps you achieve the intended purpose of your blog post. Below is a list of four significant tones bloggers can use depending on the type of blog and niche.

• Humorous or serious
• Factual or educational
• Conversational or formal
• Authoritative or informational

As a blogger, consider getting your tone right.

Know your audience needs

Most bloggers write up blog posts for commercial purposes. Regardless of the reason behind writing a blog post, every blogger targets a specific group as the audience.

A reader of a blog often looks for specific information to satisfy their information need. A blogger needs to understand the target audience before starting to write.

A blogger needs to conduct in-depth research on what the audience of the specific niche looks for in blog posts. That way, a blogger will end up writing blog posts useful to a particular audience. Having the target audience in mind helps a writer maintain the relevance of the information to a specific audience.

Format your post 

Blogs contain a more significant percentage of words and few images. So considering a more substantial proportion of the content includes terms, it must become appealing. A blogger should ensure excellent formatting of blog posts.

Below are ways you can format your quality blog post

• Segment your post into short paragraphs
• Include a brief conclusion- a summary of your post
• Consider using subheadings
• Include bullets

Bullets are considered an essential formatting strategy to keep your reader interested to the end. However, long your post, with bullets, you can make it as simple. With bullets

• • • • • You create mini-headlines
        • You highlight the crucial information
        • A reader effortlessly skims through the work
        • Create specificity in your content
        • You spoon-feed your audience with information

Use optimized images appropriately

Research shows that the human mind tends to be attracted to visually appealing content quicker. It is easier for one to read a post with images than one with just words. Images add an attractive look to your blog post.

Therefore adding images not only add quality to your blog post but also makes it captivating to the reader. Images also increase engagement with your audience compared to reading plain text.

A lot of words without images lead to the grey-scale. However, with pictures, a blogger gets rid of the grey-scale.  Images also help readers process information faster compared to text-based content.

Images help you break the monotony by acting as a break in-between content.

You can find numerous images that are copyright-free images for your blog. However, if you have a personalized blog, it is better off if you take your photos.

NOTE: Ensure the images are relevant to the content of your post.

Make your post easy to ready

A quality blog post should give a reader a gist of the post easily. Your blog should be generally easy to read. As stated earlier, formatting makes your blog post easily readable. Your subheadings should be descriptive.

Most blogs take the conversation approach with the reader. A quality blog post should, therefore, be easy to read and understand by your intended audience.

Some bloggers may think that because they are trying to educate their readers, they should use complicated words that make their blog posts look standardized.  An easy to read blog attracts readers of all spheres regardless of the intended target audience.

It is a blog! Not a research journal. Keep it informative but engaging and light for your readers.

[sg_popup id=”486″ event=”inherit”][/sg_popup]

Incorporate authoritative sources

Do not assume that because your blog should be easy to read and understand that you can write just about anything. People love authentic information with sources they can validate.

For your blog post to rank as of high quality, consider using relevant and authoritative sources to support your sources.

Types of authoritative sources of information

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Research articles
                                          2. Trade associations
                                          3. Government agencies
                                          4. Expert materials
                                          5. Authenticated News outlets
                                          6. Publications among others

As much as you are writing your own opinion, consider citing authentic sources to your information. Bear in mind there is somebody out there who will read your blog post and take the information seriously.

For example, if you have a health-related content blog, and you have an article on ways to lose weight naturally at home. A reader struggling to lose weight will use your information for the weight loss advice. It is good to ensure that your information has authenticity and truth. Authoritative sources provide that you do not mislead your audience, and that is important in how to write a blog post.

Authoritative sources give your blog post authenticity. Backed up information also provides a reader with a sense of reliability.

Consider being informative (content density)

The main reason behind a reader visiting a blog is to source information. Apart from knowledge, people read blog posts to look for answers to their questions or just to learn something new.

Through reading your blog, a reader might;

• • • • • Get inspired
        • Learn something new
        • Have a change of mind about an issue
        • Gain more knowledge about an issue

As a blogger, it is essential to put such issues in mind when writing blog posts. Most bloggers assume that posts that very long exhibit quality and standardization.

Long blog articles indeed signify well-researched content. However, a blogger who wants to achieve a quality blog should not only consider the length of their post but how to inform every post. The density of information should matter. A blog article can be as short as 500 words but very informative compared to a 3,000-word post.

That does not, however, mean that the length of your article does not matter. Research shows that most of the posts that appear top of the search results have an approximately 2000 word count.

Let your content be long but exciting and densely informative. Whether lengthy or short, let the blog post be straight to the point and add value to the reader.

Include a call to action

A blog like any other social post should be interactive. A quality blog post should keep your audience by offering a call to action (CTA). Below are types of calls to action a blogger can engage

• • • • • • • Asking readers to share the post
            • Asking readers to comment on the post
            • Engage readers through answering surveys in social media
            • A link to a website for readers to visit
            • Rate a post
            • Suggest content they would love to read about
            • Follow you on social media
            • Purchase a product

A call to action keeps the reader engaged, making them feel them part of the blog. It also strikes a conversation between the readers and the blogger.

As a blogger, you should have a clear to call to action section after every blog post and key factor on how to write a blog post. It should stand out for readers to notice and indicate the intended purpose.

If you want your readers to take action with your post, you have to ask them to. Otherwise, they will just read for information and move to the next website.

Install SEO analysis tool in learning how to write a blog post

SEO refers to a Search Optimization Engine that ranks your website for easy visibility in google search results. The primary purpose of SEO is merely ranking your content in different search results.

The SEO simply makes changes on how to write a blog post in the following ways

• • • • • • • • Title creation
              • Creating description for your website
              • Adding best alt tags your images
              • Structuring your website with the best headers
              • Choosing the right URL
              • Anchor text utilization
              • Inbound and outbound links
              • Focus keywords

The most common SEO tool for bloggers is the Yoast SEO plugin.  The plugin is self-directing since it shows you things that need correcting for optimization.

Rank Math Plugin is slowly becoming an ideal tool for any person perfecting their skills on How to write a blog post. It has powerful features that provide better content structure than Yoast Plugin. Bloggers mainly earn money through traffic generated by search engines on their websites or blogs. It is, therefore, essential that a blogger ensures optimization of the website and posts.

As a blogger, you should not ignore SEO if you want to optimize your posts and website in general.

How to write a blog post by being brief

Knowing how to communicate is essential in knowing how to write a quality blog post. In writing, a writer should consider the time a reader will spend in reading a particular page before getting the necessary information. Most blogs prefer a six to 8 paragraphs posts. Others require a 1000 word blog post. However, for most blog posts, short posts are the best. This is still debatable but a very essential factor of How to write a blog post.

Most readers prefer reading precise posts. If the post is long, one can write in batches. You can do two short posts twice a week rather than writing one long post once.

Constantly provide updated information

Focusing on current or trending topics is another strategy that a blogger should use to create the How to write a blog post. The information should be enduring through time. The information should be short-lived but useful over a long term basis.

Your blog posts should maintain search visibility over a long time. You should, therefore, consider having in-depth, in-depth, informative posts that add more value to the pool of information on the internet over time.

Your article should sustain massive traffic to the website in the current time and the future. Additionally, as a blogger, one should revise and review their posts regularly to update the information for fresh, quality content. Updated information ensures the blog stays current with information as time goes by.

No one likes outdated information and this an important factor to consider if you want to know How to write a blog post. Your audience should feel value from your blog every time they visit with contemporary details.

How to write a blog post by choosing right topic

The first step to blogging is choosing a niche. After selecting a niche, one should choose a topic they are comfortable writing about.

For instance, if a blogger chooses a health niche, a blogger can choose one of the many subsections of health. For example, one can make blogging about mental health, women’s health, weight loss, healthy diet, or physical exercise.

Choosing a specific topic of expertise gives one authority over the information they share. One needs qualification on the information they share with readers.

In defining your audience, you also specify the best topic that may interest your readers within your chosen niche and explore it through blog posts.

For a brand to become an authority, it needs to have the expertise and be qualified in its field. A doctor is best suited to write health-related blog posts; a fitness expert can specialize in fitness articles while a therapist can write articles on relationships.

Once you know your niche, then go all in to be the expert surrounding that topic and cover every facet with the articles that you write. Expertise gives the writer authority over information as a specialist. As a specialist, you have a guarantee of providing informed details helpful to the readers.

Observe coherency as way on How to write a blog post

Observing coherency is essential if you want to know How to write a blog post. A blogger can ensure consistency in various ways. The first one is through having a posting schedule. A posting schedule follows a pattern that even helps readers schedule their visits to your blog post. A posting schedule also ensures consistency in posts.

Achieving coherence requires information planning before one starts writing. As a writer, a blogger should have an outline of their information and how they purpose to write it down to achieve meaning and pass information to the audience.

Another way of of writing a quality blog post is through sticking to one idea in every paragraph. One idea per paragraph eliminates confusion which is mostly caused by putting many ideas in one section. Each paragraph should carry a topic sentence, an idea, supporting ideas, and a conclusion.

To create coherence in blog posts, a writer should consider using transition signals. The transitions help the reader create connections between information. Transitions also help in creating a sequence when reading. A proper progression in paragraphs helps in creating a logical sequence.

As much as writing maybe your passion, information shared should be carefully structured to meet readers’ needs. You should have the target audience in mind as well as aim at being informative. A quality blog should be brief but follow coherence. Installing an SEO ensures optimization to your blog posts giving your blog a higher rank in search results.