You realise you need to start blogging to broaden your customer base and expand your business, but you’re not sure how to start. Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll share with you how to write a powerful blog post with great content that will drive your business growth.
Sadly, many companies begin blogging without a clear notion of what to write about or how it will help them market their brand. And the results are generally nil.
Well, writing a compelling blog post isn’t easy, but it’s not rocket science. It takes learning and practice. You’ll be joining the ranks of other exceptional bloggers in no time, writing blog entries that will generate income online with a bit of practice and research.
There are many tips and tricks to writing a fantastic blog article, but one I learned from a mentor is to create my ideal writing location, where I can feel comfortable and relaxed while putting my writing talents to the test. Because writing is my daily activity, this perfect environment allows me to focus and explore what my readers find interesting and help them in solving a problem or get better informed.
Blogging is the best organic way to increase your Internet visibility. The more blog content you produce, the greater chances you’ll have of appearing in search engines and driving organic traffic to your site. And it is free.
Blogging is a fantastic tool to draw in new readers and encourage them to take action. You know precisely what you want your reader to do when you write a blog. Ensure your content clearly expresses it but don’t “sell” it to them. I’ll take you through the steps you need to use to be authentic, knowledgeable and creative to write an inspiring, and persuasive blog post that will leave a lasting impression on your audience.
How To Write An Effective Blog Post In 8 Steps
In this article, you’ll learn 8 steps to write an effective blog post that will help you speed up your writing and produce more high-quality content easily and quickly. In addition, you’ll learn a few tips on using persuasion to create a quality blog that will generate leads, creating a taste for your products or services your customers won’t resist. Writing your blog posts will provide a lot of creative moments while you’re saving time and building effective SEO content that both the search engines and your customers will love to read.
Before starting, let’s identify what a blog is and how long you’ll need to write it.
What Is A Good Blog Post?
Contrary to what you hear and read online, writing a good blog post is not just using the right words to attract your customers. The appropriate words, or keywords or key phrases, are important, but there’s a lot more to consider when writing a successful blog article.
While creating your blog article, you should keep asking yourself the following questions to ensure the final product is well-written and pruned to generate interest and engagement:
- Is it simple and easy to read?
- Is it visually engaging?
- Does it provide answers to the questions my customers have?
- Does it provide value to attract more visitors?
With the questions in mind, prepare to start generating something valuable to connect with your customers. By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll have a good concept of how to write strong blog content that effectively expresses your thoughts and stands out from other content on the web.
How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?
It’ll take a bit longer to write a post in the beginning. Don’t panic. I know time is a problem. But writing great content is tough. Everyone has their way of writing, and even seasoned writers might sometimes get stuck or need to spend more time researching.
Blogging takes time and practice. The more you write, the better you become, and, additionally, you’ll learn ways to speed up your writing and produce more high-quality content.
TAKE THE TIME YOU NEED TO WRITE A PERSUASIVE BLOG POST TO ATTRACT VISITORS TO YOUR IDEAS, SERVICE OR PRODUCT. WHATEVER YOUR LEVEL, COMMIT YOURSELF TO IT, AND YOU’LL NOT REGRET IT. USE THE TIME YOU NEED TO CREATE HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT.
I’ve been writing blogs, articles and translating for nearly 30 years. I am dedicated to creating exceptional content for every topic I write, either online or printing. Some blogs take longer, but others just come out straight from my mind onto the page.
On average, you’ll need to set aside at least 6 hours to write a 2,000-word piece of good quality. It’s a long time sitting in front of the computer, but it’s worthwhile. Most blog posts you see online are around 1,200- 1,300 words—approximately 4 hours of work. But, given that blog posts with 2,000 words or more attract the most Google search traffic these days, a high-quality 2,000 to 3,000-word post is essential.
How To Write An Effective Blog Post In 8 Steps:
Good articles follow a structure. There is logic in the process and steps must be taken to reach the final result. The better you become the easier and quicker it will be to go through each step. Let’s start with a summary of the main route you’ll take:
The more you know about your audience, the more you’ll be able to figure out what kinds of content they want and how to respond to their inquiries. Your blog post’s content must be relevant to your target audience.
Write what they want to read rather than restrict to what you want to write. Ensure that they like, comprehend, and share your content.
Your blog title is crucial for generating interest, capturing your reader’s attention, and increasing website traffic. Your blog post needs to answer their questions and entice them to keep reading.
You’ll lose readers if your introduction doesn’t entice them to do the all-important scroll down. You can ensure that your content receives the attention it deserves by nailing the introduction.
You already won your reader with your title and if they read past the first few paragraphs. Hooray! A killer introduction will create an emotional bond that they won’t ignore.
Outlining your blog post will assist you in organising your thoughts, deciding what should be included, and ensuring you do not miss any opportunities. The chosen outline should be related to the topic you selected logically and consistently. Good grammar, good tone of voice, good format, good flow of ideas will make your post readable and understandable.
A clear outline should be the start of your blog post writing. Once you selected the main message of the article, which points need to be included, and find support for your ideas, you’re ready to move to the next stage of the writing process.
Using your outline, expand each point. Consider the research you have made as a source of information, and add examples and data with attributes. Get the ideas you outlined and break them into sections and sub-sections.
Make sure you are using bullet points and numbered lists to improve readability. Make good use of the white space to make the reading more enjoyable. Follow a consistent conversation, use words that are familiar to your audience and that they’ll understand. Don’t worry too much about grammar now. Just write the ideas down in a compelling, persuasive way. You’ll polish your text in the next step.
After you finish your draft, take a close look at the content and mark any places where your writing feels awkward or you detect typos or grammar mistakes. Every mistake, no matter how minor, raises the possibility that your reader could conclude that you haven’t worked hard enough on the information you are transmitting.
A call to action is a brief statement that encourages the reader to take action. They should be specific requests with a sense of urgency. The greatest spot for a call to action is at the end of your post because it is at this point when readers are deciding what to do next.
Use SEO strategies to improve the position of your blog as a relevant answer to your customers’ questions. The better your SEO strategies, the higher your ranking will be in Google’s SERPs.
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Now, let’s go through each of the steps in more detail.
1. Understand Your Audience
If you are going to spend all that time and effort writing, you better understand who you are writing to. You need to clearly understand your target audience before starting your post.
Ask yourself questions that will help you understand their behaviour, interests, pain points, and what they are looking for. What do they want to know about? What will inspire them?
Creating a buyer persona is a great exercise. When choosing a topic and hunting for ideas for your blog posts, think about what you know about your buyer personas and their interests. As a blogger, you have the responsibility to serve your audience. And to serve them well, it is imperative that you know and understands them.
Blogging is similar to running a coffee place. The menu is core to your business. It must be by your customers taste to attract them, make them stay and return. Otherwise, there will be no profits. Likewise, if your blog entries aren’t relevant to your audience’s preferences, they’ll be a waste of time.
2. Brainstorm Your Title And Headings
Before writing your blog post, the main thing you must do is choose your headline (that is, your post title). Craft your headline to set the direction of your blog and let your readers know where you are taking them.
Use your senses to discover the best way to make your reader feel understood. Put yourself in their shoes. What do they think when they are searching? What are their pain points? Analyse their intent when they search online. I usually end up writing at least 3 to 4 headlines before deciding on one.
Yep, sure. Headlines are crucial elements. The headline can be polished afterwards, but it must be well-defined before starting the writing. Your readers will need this clearly defined destination to trust that you’re helping them reach their intended destination as quickly and as efficiently as possible. It is part of their positive user experience.
If you are having trouble writing your title and headlines, there are online tools that work with you to brainstorm outstanding titles and headlines for articles and blogs. One example I use is Small Business Trends.
Persuade Your Readers, Invoke Their Interest
Your title must provide a taste of what is to come, an answer to the problem your customers are trying to solve. It would be best if you tried to lure them, catch their attention, and invoke their curiosity.
Your title must:
- Provide enough information on your topic.
- Be clear and accurate.
- Have a persuasive power.
- Use some keywords in it.
- Be short, preferably under 65 characters in length (around 8 words).
Ask yourself questions that your customers would be asking about your product. Write the title as someone would search for it. It must answer the searcher’s intent. Are they looking for information, a tutorial, an infographic or are they looking for a specific product that can solve their problem? Always make sure your title is related to your reader’s intent.
Tools to research your keywords are Ahrefs, Moz, Ubersuggest, Wordtracker , among others. After deciding the topic, check the user intent by googling the keyword. You will be able to see who is using that keyword and what competition you will get.
3. Write A Captivating Introduction
You’ve done so well with your title. Don’t lose your readers now. Your readers are still with you. Grab them with the introduction.
Have you noticed that newspaper articles start with an introduction called the “lead paragraph” before the support paragraphs? The lead paragraph has answers to “who”, “what”, “when”, “why”,” where” and “how”. It presents the skeleton of the story.
Reading the skeleton, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’ll find when reading the text body. The skeleton will either induce or send you away. If your readers like the ideas presented by the introduction, they will read the text where more information, quotes, details, etc., are communicated.
Journalists call this the inverted pyramid. It is a metaphor to show how they prioritise information delivery. The basic, most valuable information comes first, in the initial sentences. The rest of the content comes after, in order of diminishing importance.
By now, I hope you can see that the introduction must explain the purpose of your post and how it will help the readers solve their problems. The introduction should entice the reader to keep reading by demonstrating how the content will specifically assist them.
That is also why the use of the pronoun “you” is so important. The reader should feel you are focusing on their needs; it’s essential you aim at the needs and wants of your readers. The high emotional value increases your blog post’s chances of being read and shared.
IN OTHER WORDS, ANSWER THEIR QUESTION
When responding, keep these three things in mind:
- Try to respond in the first paragraph, or if possible, in the first sentence.
- Add value to your readers, including interaction, engagement, benefits – relate to them to help them solve their problems.
- Show empathy. Show your readers you understand what they are going through and use their language to talk to them.
4. Outline Your Blog Post
After defining the topic of your post, create an outline. Write the key points you want to discuss, following a logical explanation of what your target audience wants to get from your post. These main points could be formatted into sections, with suitable headers and sub-headers producing an organisation where your ideas flow naturally.
To write the outline, follow the same structure recommended for essays: an introduction, the body sections and the conclusion with a call to action.
Decide how you want to layout your ideas to transmit your message and the order they should be to clearly communicate value to the readers, so they naturally follow your process and reach the result.
5. Write Your Blog Post
Statistics show that quality content can increase organic traffic by 2,000%. Google puts a lot of importance on content quality and searches intent. Good articles have a much better chance to succeed on Google’s SERP.
Use Sub-Heads
People don’t read blog posts; they scan them. Your sub-heads allow your reader to scan your post and find value in what they scan. Sub-heads should be abundant to make reading enjoyable and clear. They make the reader curious about the topic and encourage them to want to keep reading it.
Most importantly, keep the commitment to match your heading and sub-heading to the title content. Don’t lose yourself in prattling on and on and forget your main topic.
Format
Making your post as easy to read as possible is what formatting is all about.
The layout should be simple and clear. Avoid using “big words”. Speak as if you’re speaking to a friend, using short sentences and short paragraphs using a language that is familiar to your audience.
Use bullet points or numbered lists to make the ideas clear for understanding and supporting your main point. Make good use of white space to make the blog post visually enjoyable and easy to follow.
Include relevant images to break the text. There are lots of photos free for commercial and personal use—link to the attributes and the author as gratitude.
Keep Your Audience Engaged
It can be difficult to end a blog post, and some authors have such a tough time doing so that their conclusions all sound the same. The way you end a blog post is determined by the purpose of the post. Don’t use your conclusion to give the readers new information. You had the post to do that.
In the conclusion of your articles, give the readers motivation. They read the post and learned from it. Motivate them to do what they are capable of. Conclusions are an important part of your blog entries since they direct your reader to the next step. Empower them to take action. Straight away.
Both the target audience and Google are getting smarter every day. And they reward great content in different ways. Write your blog post for humans but keep the search engines in mind. When writing your blog post, maintain consistency, offering the best value you can from your products or services.
Provide valuable information to keep readers engaged longer. Don’t neglect to measure your blog post’s success through total visits, new subscribers, the average length of stay, and page views per visit social shares.
6. Proofread And Edit Your Post
Once you have your first draft done, read it to look for typos, grammar errors, and sentence improvement. Ensure your post is free from careless errors or typographic mistakes. You want your blog post to look like a professional publication, conveying the message clearly and precisely.
Don’t be afraid to cut parts of it if they diverge from the main point. If some issues don’t agree with your title, remove them. Save them for another blog if you want.
About 50% of people hire an editor to edit their blog posts, and the same proportion edits their posts themselves. Use the method that you prefer, according to your preferences or abilities, but make sure your blog content is spotless.
Check your tone of voice, get feedback, and revisit your article until you are happy with the final result. Here are some things to look for while editing a post:
Content
Ensure the text is clear and precise on the information you communicate and as condensed as possible. Your reader is not reading a novel. Go straight to the point. Double-check for links and attributions. A broken link might jeopardise the entire article. Are all the facts correct, backed up and all sources legitimate? Double-check them.
Include Visual Aids
The success of blog postings is inextricably linked to images. If possible, use real-life photographs rather than stock photos as they get better SEO. Add unique images, videos or audio content relevant to your topic.
Look for opportunities to build charts, graphs, videos, custom infographics or tables to make data more visually appealing and digestible. Add visuals to your blog to complement and support what you’ve written. They break long texts making them easier to read and improving the authenticity of the information. Proofread
Check spelling and grammar. I use Grammarly to run a spellcheck on my posts. I see this help as an extra welcome set of eyes on my writing, primarily because I work alone. But don’t let the spellcheck do the whole proofreading process for you. They are outstanding, handy tools, but they are machines. Do the proofreading yourself, looking for inconsistencies, missing punctuation, missing words, spelling mistakes.
Preview Your Post Before Publishing It
Looking at the preview allows you to see the article in a different light, which may highlight further mistakes. Ensure you have double-checked for broken code or other errors. I have the habit of reading the preview out loud. It’s easier to catch mistakes that could still be there as a result. And reading the text aloud makes me hear the rhythm and flow of the text.
7. Insert a CTA
Give your readers something to do after reading your post. Congratulate them for getting to the end and offer them a reward. Maybe a download or an upgrade guide on solving the problem you’re talking about. When you encourage your audience to take action, you are using a CTA.
A call to action (CTA) is a link within your blog post to encourage readers to do something. It helps your business convert the readers into leads. The eventual goal is to drive them to buy your product or use your service. Examples of CTAs are “click here to buy my book”, “subscribe”, “try for free”, “sign up”, “get started now”, “learn more”, “join us”, and similar.
CTAs are used for the following purposes:
- Provide a link to another post.
- Contact you.
- Fill out a questionnaire on requirements.
- View a video explaining your services.
- Subscribe to your mailing list or newsletter subscription.
- Offer a free trial period.
If you want your customers to take action, help them. Make your CTA simple and easy to use. Make your CTA improve your readers’ user experience. Remember, they had a question when they came to your blog post; you answered it. Help them find additional value in your product or service.
For example, offering a free trial is a proven way to improve conversions. Offer a free trial and keep track of your possible client at the end of the trial period. Don’t forget them. They valued your product enough to try it. Reward them. Use empathy and consideration when you deal with your clients.
Let your readers get a benefit from answering your call. Google loves sites that offer value to the readers.
People are looking for answers – Google handles 3.8 million searches per minute on average across the globe. That means 5.6 billion searches every day, 2 trillion searches per year. Can you imagine that? People are desperately looking for answers. And you are one of those who can answer them. Make the most of your chances.
Google’s mission is to provide the best possible answers to people’s searches. Providing value offers an excellent opportunity to improve your ranking with Google.
8 . Optimise For On-Page SEO
One of the most critical actions to boost your organic search traffic and SEO rating is to optimise your blog for search engines.
Do it after you finish your writing. It’s the best time to do it. But you can still go back and improve your old posts later. On-post optimisation is all you can do to enhance your post for search engines.
This begins with keyword research and continues with compelling photos and videos and updating previous blog entries to increase performance.
- Make sure your keywords are used in strategic places, like title and headings, for instance.
- Use shorter, keyword-friendly URL – Google allows a maximum URL length to be 2MB or 2048 characters); otherwise, they will not read it. A lengthy URL won’t work for the majority of Internet users.
Meta-Description
Meta descriptions give searchers a taste of what they will get from reading the post. You’ll see meta-descriptions under the post’s page title on Google’s SERP. Meta-descriptions are 155 characters long and should entice the reader to learn, read or discover the solution they are after.
You should use the right keywords or synonyms to write your meta descriptions. They need to be relevant to your target audience. Write your description using your customer’s needs in mind and explain how they will meet their needs.
Page Title And Headers
Your title should include the keywords or key phrases your target audience is searching for. Make the title simple, fit for your theme, and under 65 characters to stop them from getting truncated in the search engine results.
Anchor Text
Anchor texts are the words that link your text to another page on your website or on another website (internal or external links). Anchor texts should be carefully chosen because they provide context for users and search engines. The user will be linked to another page if they click it, and the search engines will use the anchor text to index and rank websites.
Link building is one of the critical factors for boosting your search engines rankings. Once you’ve written enough posts, you’ll have a contextual relationship between them and be able to link them. Consistent, frequent internal linking ensures that your on-page SEO is strong and that your older content continues to receive fresh links.
Including a link to your post will also help your clients reach existing content within your blog site and help them stay on your site longer. Use caution when linking to external sites. Make sure they are reliable and do not compete with your products or services.
Proper Keyword Research
Content experts and SEO specialists utilise keyword research as a tool. Based on search engine statistics, keywords assist you in determining what topics your users are interested in. Several online tools help you with keyword research, such as Semrush, including competition analysis, position tracking, and other valuable features.
Mobile Optimisation
Most searches are done using a mobile phone nowadays. Your website must be responsive to ensure your visitors have the best user experience being able to access it from screens of any size. While SEO trends will continue to change, making your content mobile-friendly is a terrific method to reach a much larger audience.
Some steps to create mobile-friendly blog posts are:
- Use short paragraphs because they look much more prominent on the mobile screen.
- Keep photos to a minimum because they will slow down the loading of your message.
- Using white space in your post allows the reader to navigate through it without getting overwhelmed by the amount of text.
- Keep links to a minimum to prevent viewers from leaving your content without reading it.
- Avoid pop-ups because they will make it difficult to read your post.
4 Elements Of An Effective Blog Post You Should Not Forget
By following these steps and using the SEO methods I’ve provided, you’ll be on your way to writing blog posts that will rank. Whatever step you are, keep the following essential characteristics in mind during the writing process:
1. A Clear, Defined Topic
Choose a topic that appeals to your target audience backed by significant research and valuable information.
2. A Great Headline
Solid and catchy headlines to attract the readers’ attention and invite them to read the post. Headings and sub-headings have great value to SEO optimisation and are considered to give you points in Google rankings. Your headlines should offer additional value to your readers as they scan the text.
3. A Hook To Attract Readers
Most readers search the Internet because they have a problem to solve. When they come to your post, you need to have a hook, a benefit, a promise or information to answer their question and give them a bonus, if possible. Your blog post must be persuasive, convincing, powerful.
4. A Solution To A Problem
From the title and the headings to the introduction and the body text, you are committed to reaching a solution. The link between you and your reader is the solution’s promise. That’s what will keep the reader there and what will make them come back.
Be persuasive and show empathy as you outline your blog. Establish a relationship with your readers by demonstrating that you understand their feelings and pain areas. Readers just read and return to blogs when they sense a personal connection to the blogger and rely on their point of view.
Free Infographic: How To Write A Blog Post
This infographic provides a simple outline of the processes to assist you in remembering them quickly and clearly. Download a free infographic “8 Easy Steps To Writing A Powerful Blog Post”.
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Wrap Up
Your content should be as long as necessary to provide value to your reader. As previously said, longer (over 2,000 words) is better for Google ranking but avoid adding filler only to get more words or keywords. Google is smarter than that.
Hopefully, this post has shown you how important it is to follow a consistent process to write a valuable, persuasive SEO content blog post using the 8 steps to write an effective blog post easily.
The process is not difficult, but it is full of details that you will need to practice continuously, especially as you accumulate skills to use and enjoy the right online tools.
Writing good blog posts is a skill you can learn, and you will. Come on! Bring your valuable ideas to the table in your first blog post, clearly addressing the problems your audience is attempting to solve.
Compare your blog writing learning to how you learned to ride a bike; you won’t forget how to do it after you know it. You just get better with practice. Your readers are looking to you for answers. Ensure you’re ready for a successful blogging journey. There are no longer any reasons to be concerned about writing. Get started.
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