How to Write a Great Blog Post

There are many great tutorials and templates out there for writing useful blog posts. They can educate you on what to do and what not to do. Blogging can help your business' SEO and position your brand as an industry leader. Having compounding blog posts that deliver value and increasing traffic, long term, can generate as much traffic as six regular posts. Stated in a blog from Stratabeat, more than 90% of organic search traffic to a website can come from their blog posts. Stratabeat continued to say in 2017 blog posts were named the #1 most important tactic for B2B content marketing success in the B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends - North America report. The importance of blogging has never been higher for businesses, so here's how you can build an excellent post for your business' blog. 

Planning

Before writing your blog post, it's essential to have a few bases knocked out before going straight for home. Have you figured out your topic? You'll need to write about a topic that matters to you, as nothing kills a blog post better than a writer unenthusiastic about their subject. What's the saying? "No fun for the writer, no fun for the reader." A post can be a lot easier if you can scrape up at least a small amount of enthusiasm for what you're writing about. Even with some excitement, great blog posts don't just appear. Try creating an outline. Your outline doesn't need to be lengthy. A rough guide to making sure you don't get off track from the topic you've just spent time figuring out. Pick three of the most critical ideas you hope to convey and put them in order where they will deliver the most significant impact on your readers. Use subheads to dig deeper into your main points. However, you write your outline, do whatever works for you to help keep you focused and on track. 

Contrary to what some readers may believe, bloggers don't always know everything about the topic they're writing about. Sometimes, they don't know anything about their subject. It could be their contracted job to create posts for a company blog or their natural interest that drives them to create posts. Either way, you should try to feel more comfortable jumping from topic to topic. Blogging can heavily rely on knowing how to accurately research topics. When researching, however, try to use sources that come from government websites, heavily cited research papers, and industry experts. Just like if you were writing a report for a strict college professor, cite good sources. If you're using good sources, you're less likely to deliver facts that are just wrong! Everyone makes mistakes, but it only takes one lousy error for your credibility as a journalist and blogger to tank. If you do make a mistake, own it and fix it to avoid compounding damage. 

Headline

There are two main approaches to writing the headlines for your blogs. You can decide on your final headline before you write your post. You can use your headline to structure your outlines, or you can write your blog post with a temporary title and see what happens when you've finished your post. It can work better for you to do it one way every time, or you can choose whichever option works best for you at the time. I tend to select a Headline and write an outline first if I know there is a lot of information I want to cover. Still, there have been a few times where my headline has changed after I've finished my post. You should write your headline to answer the questions that keep your readers up at night. If you opt for asking a question in your headline, make sure it's something readers really want to know. Write specifically for that question, and your readers will feel more compelled to click your post. Vague headlines won't feel very engaging to your readers. 'How-to' posts end up being the most clicked posts and tend to perform better, as far as posts go. 

Introduction

Now that you've settled on a headline, it's now time to start actually writing your post. There is no right or wrong way of writing a blog post. You can sit and write your entire post in a single sitting, or you can gradually add more information to your post over time. I usually write as much as possible, or as much as my brain can handle in one sitting but don't always finish a post in one day. Sometimes a post can take me around two days to complete when the topic is expansive. It is better to write as much as you can in one sitting as you will tend to be more focused on your topic, so even when you're writing in short bursts, try writing as much as you can in those sittings as well. 

Your post, like research papers, should start with an interesting introduction. Try stepping into your reader's shoes and captivate them by piquing their interest. Try using as little words as possible, however. If your first draft's introduction has 200 words, trim it down to 100. Use this method to help your blogging become more efficient. But no matter what you do in your intro, don't give everything away to what you're writing about. If you write too much to satisfy the readers in just the first paragraph, you risk them clicking off your post after very little time at all. 

Post

After a great intro, you need to start the body of your post with a bang. Try adding in subheads. Most readers are scanners. There is tons of information in front of them, and not all of them have great content. If you add subheads, you add a chance for your readers to skip to the content that matters the most to them. Your subheads shouldn't give too much away, though. Compare each subhead to your main heading, so they act as pit stops in their reading. If your subheads start to get off track, your readers will end up lost and confused. Here's the part where you shouldn't hold back on information. If you're not generous with your posts, your readers won't feel they know enough about whatever you're writing about. If your post has 10,000 words, that's insanely generous. However, you can write a post with around 1,000 words that can also wow your readers with information. Wesfed expresses that the ideal medium length blog post has about 1,600 words and is great for your site's SEO. 

As you're writing, don't forget to give your readers extra stimulation with relevant images. Your readers are more likely to stay on your post longer when you have included images per about every 100 words or so. Posts that include images end up getting twice the shares on social media. Images can help your post flow more effectively, and readers will spend more time in a post that feels less intimidating. You can use images to your informational advantage, as well. Inserting diagrams, tables, or charts will help your readers understand the more complex topics and points you're trying to convey. And just as you're about to end your post's body, end in the same way you began - with a bang.

Proofreading

Proofreading is probably one of the hardest parts of writing a post. It's more than just editing grammar and spelling, too. It's about the flow of your post and how well it reads. If you're reading your post out loud and it sounds kind of off, then it will read kind of off in your reader's minds too. It may seem funny to read your own post out loud, but it's a great trick to creating a post the flows. If possible, try letting someone else read your work. This doesn't mean you're incapable of producing great work on your own. It just means you're committed to making your work better and becoming a better writer, as well. An experienced writer is the best person to proofread your work. They will be able to tell you if your work flows nicely and if the post makes sense as a complete structure. Don't be afraid to make cuts or changes as you go. There may be entire sections that need to be cut if your post is starting to run a bit lengthy, and the subject might need a whole post of its own. But the sooner you come to terms with the fact that no blog post will be perfect, the better your writing life will be. This doesn't make an excuse for writing sloppy work, but try not to obsess over every detail. Blog posts can always be better, but time is never anyone's friend. 

Conclusion

So, now it's time to finish your post. You've piqued your readers interest with a great headline, you've lured them in with the perfect introduction and satisfied their needs with a most informative post. You should first begin your conclusion with a brief summary of what you covered in your post. Brief as in, just a couple of sentences, or so. Avoid adding any new information. You'll end up making the readers feel like they have missed something in their reading and will be left feeling confused. Now let's end your conclusion with a call to action. A good CTA will benefit your reader. Make it clear to your readers what they should do next with their newly acquired information. Add things like, Download my free guide, or Check out these videos to learn more will keep your readers clicking. 

The Real Conclusion

Now you've got a pretty good look at what it takes to write a good blog post to set yourself up for success. Blogging may seem like one of the easier jobs until someone actually does it. Planning, outlines, research, and editing can be pretty daunting. Fortunately, blogging does get easier. Blogging is a skill you can learn. All you need it more practice, and you will be blogging like a pro in no time at all. Your readers are counting on it!