How to write a blog post that gets traffic? That’s what all bloggers struggle with, especially new bloggers. In this blog post, I will share with you how I go about writing a blog post, sharing all my blogging tips and take you through my blog writing process. Are you ready to find out how to write an awesome blog post?
Writing a blog post is a process, and it takes time and a lot of attention from your side. If you want to write an awesome blog post that gets traffic every day and to become a good blog writer, you need to understand the steps of writing a blog post and how to create blog content.
How to write a blog post?
I been struggling for years, way before the internet was flooded by blog gurus and free resources to discover what kind of blog post performed best and what should be the blog writing process. I always had gread blog ideas but for years, my ideas were executed poorly.
That’s why I want to share with you all all the blogging tips I
1 Planning and researching your blog ideas
The most important blogging tip, when it comes to the blog writing process is to properly research your blog ideas.
Yes, it is important to write about something withing your blog’s niche and something you are knowledgeable about, but it’s also important to write about something that people are searching for.
If you want to write an awesome blog post that gets traffic every day, then you need to answer your question “What to blog about?” after checking some cool and free resources that will tell you what are people typing into Google. Remember that the main purpose of an awesome blog post is to educate and inform the audience, in an entertaining way (if possible).
How do you research your blog ideas?
I suggest using these three free resources to search for your topic and to see if there is an interest and a good enough monthly search volume.
Answer the public is a great free blogging resource to use and to search for the topics you have on your mind for writing a blog.
Google Trends is just a great free tool to use to give you an idea of what people are searching for right now and to predict what they might be searching for in the near future, based on their geo-location. Basically, Google wants you to know what kind of content to feed it.
Buzzsumo is another great free resource to give you an idea what to blog about, what content to create that people will read and share to monitor what your competition is doing.
After checking all the above resources, I strongly advise you to check your keywords on Moz, Ubersuggest or KeywordTool, to get a better idea of the number of searches for that exact keyword.
Other tools to use for keyword research:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keyword Generator
- Wordstream
- Soovle
- Questiondb
2 Working Title
After consulting the blog writing free resource I’ve mentioned above and decided on what to blog about, you can start writing your blog by writing a title to it.
One major blogging tip is to start your writing your blog with a working title, something that will keep you focused on your topic, something simple. But specific enough to make you not lose sight of your topic, or better said, the question you are trying to answer for the reader.
Here are some ideas of how to write a blog post title in case you need them:
- How To Guides (How to <your topic>, e.g. How to plan your Europe trip on a budget)
- Beginner guides (The Beginner’s guide to <your topic>)
- Frequently asked questions
- Interviews
- Personal stories (My first time abroad)
- Product reviews
- Productivity tips (Motivation tips during lockdown)
- Best-ofs
- Lists (21 Ways to… , 15 Blogging mistakes to avoid as a newbie blogger, Top 6 Types of..)
- Infographics
3 Write a great intro
Assuming they have already clicked on your blog post, the first thing that your audience will read is the intro. Writing an excellent blog post starts with a great introduction which will hook your audience into further reading your blog post.
You see, blog writing isn’t just about putting any words that come to mind on your blog and hitting publish.
You might have the greatest blog topic, and people have landed on your page, but then they don’t stay longer than 5 seconds. Why is that?
There could be a lot to be improve but first, try to reconsider the introduction.
Is your introduction compelling enough to make the reader want for more? Does the reader understand what is your blog about after reading the first paragraph?
It all boils down to whether or not you engaged in your readers intention and question, and that will (or won’t) drive him or her to further continue reading.
Bear in mind that most of us are constantly flooded by marketing campaigns and many entartaining and information outlets that beg for our attention.
The bottom line is that your read will not stick around too long if you don’t promise to deliver what he or she is looking to find out.
Remember that writing an awesome blog post starts with writing an awesome introduction!
4 Organising your content in an easy-to-read format
After deciding what to blog about, and understanding when you need to do before starting writing a blog post, you get to the actual blog writing.
You wrote an awesome introduction, explaining what’s the blog post about and how it will help your reader.
Now, make sure you stick to your promise and deliver the answer your reader is looking for, but in a way that it makes it easy for him or her to understand it right away.
That’s why we love list post so much (also called listicles): They’re easy to read and to skim through.
Most of the time, we first skim an article and we stop to read only the points that we are really intersted in. And it’s in your advantage to make your content easy to consume.
Consider organising your content in headlines (H1, H2, H3), lists, questions and answers.
The general recommendation is not to have sections longer than 300 words. If you do have more than that, then consider adding another subtitle.
Free tools to help you with readability and formatting
I use Yoast (a WordPress plugin) to help me with the readability score for my blog writing and on-page SEO.
Another great free tool to use when writing a blog post is the Hemingway App, which grades your readability, while also highlighting all elements that influence the way you deliver your message.
5 Grammar (proofread)
Your grammar can turn a reader into a stranger.
Nobody wants to take advice from someone who isn’t paying attention to their grammar or who is constantly misspelling words.
We, as people, want to be around others (physically and virtually), who can inspire us. We don’t want advice from someone who can’t write.
Luckily, we all have auto-correct on our laptops, phones and other devices we have. But that’s not enough for writing a typos-free blog post.
You need to make sure your sentences are easy to read. Short and simple. And that’s something that most auto-correct apps won’t help you with.
Luckly, there are tools to help you with words and the way you use them.
I use Grammaly for a few years now, and I recommend using it if you want to upgrade your writing skills.
6 On-page SEO
SEO is what everyone is raging about, like the ultimate buzzword when it comes to web pages.
As you can see, from all the points I already stated, SEO is not everything. Indeed what SEO does is to help you with reaching new audiences from search engines, such as Google.
What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is basically a series of components to help serch engines understand your topic and to convince Google your piece is good enough to be shown to people searching for that topic.
But this can also work against you, if you don’t deliver what you promise. Google will know if you try to scam people to click on your article or any other crap like that.
How can you improve your SEO and get more organic traffic to your website? That’s what we all are struggling to learn and do better. Because organic traffic that comes from Google is the best kind of traffic. And that’s the traffic that you will most likely convert into business.
Why is SEO so important? SEO is important because it helps you reach out those people who are really interested in your topic, product or services, who might buy them and who are most likely to become your readers on a regular basis, if they like that you have to offer.
So remember, SEO can help you reach them, but it’s up to you to keep them returning for more.
What are the main SEO elements you need to cover to make sure you have the best chances to be shown on search engine queries?
- Page headers title (has to contain the keyword)
- Seo Title (less than 70 characters, has to contain the keyword)
- Slug (URL name page) – has to contain the keyword
- Meta description – what’s your post is about in less than ~155–160 characters; has to contain the keyword
- Internal links – link to other posts from your website that are relevant
- Outbound links – link to a resource, not from your website; don’t link to a competitor
- Images with alt attribute – set a featured image and more images if they are relevant. set their names and alt to describe the image; include the keyword
- The number of uses of the keywords – use your keyword when it makes sense; aim for 4%
- Text length (over 300 words)
This sounds all too much if you are a beginner blogger, but I assure you it is not. You can do it, and with some practice, you will get to better understand how SEO works.
Tools to use for SEO blog
I use Yoast to add all the page SEO attributes, such as meta and to key track of the keyword density, and other things. Install it and you will soon understand.
Google Search Console is another great resource from Google, that will let you know what keywords people type into Google to reach your website. It also provides other great analytics and helps you identify any issues you might have with your website.
7 Click worthy title
After writing your post, proofreading it and formatting it, it’s time to pick a click worthy title for your awesome blog post. A title that will get you those clicks.
Remember that you started with a blunt title, meant to keep you on track and to have a purpose. But that will not make a lot of people interested in your topic.
Since everything we see online has been so carefully crafted, we tent to click on blog posts that seem interesting, that promise to reveal something and that spark our curiosity. Keep all of these in mind when crafting the final version of your title.
Free tools to use for analyzing your title
I recently discovered Kickass Headline Generator, which is an inspiration source on how your blog titles should look like to attract more people to click on them.
Sharethrough headlines is another amazing free reasource I use to test my titles and to see which versions would perform best. Of course, these are the suggestion of an app, but it’s worth checking it out and reading its suggestions.
8 Pictures and design
People are always more drawn to the nicer pictures, and to the more estetically pleasing content.
It’s the same thing as with the good looking people. Good looking websites get more attention. It’s unfair, but it’s true!
Even for written content, it’s important to include some pictures that match the text.
Consider carefully the pictured you will use for the feature imagine. That is the first picture people will see, along with the title. It’s the same with the YouTube thumbnail.
And remember to keep the same edit throughout the your articles. This will give a more cohesive image of your website, and people might start to recognise it as yours.
Try to use your one pictures as much as posible.
You can use the same pics throughout your social media channels and blog. But if you don’t have something to match your content, then use some free stock images. Never leave a post without at least one pictures, although two or more are recommended.
Also, having pictures inserted in between your paragraphs will make reading more enjoyable and easier to skim.
Free royalty photos websites: Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels.
As for the design, try to use a nice blog theme, that matches your niche and looks good both on desktop and mobile.
There are many free themes, that look pretty good. I used to have a premium theme, but after a few years, it was corresponding with what I needed for the blog so I changed it for a free one.
9 Page speed
Page speed translates in how fast does your page load for users, both desktop and mobile.
We got a bit inpatient over time and studies have shown that we are willing to wait just about 3 seconds before we start looking for another website to answer our question.
That’s why is important to have a nice and responsive theme for your blog.
Also, don’t use any plugins that you do not need, because everything extra will slow your blog’s loading speed.
You can use PageSpeed Insights, a free resource from Google, to check how is your blog performing. Also, it will give you a lot of recommendations on how you can optimise it to load faster.
Another tip is to use reduced-size photos on your blog. Contrary to popular belief, you can have good looking pictures on your blog, at a reduced size. If you already have some pictures, then consider using a plugin to resize the existing photos.
10 Conclusion
Write a conclusion for your awesome blog post. Reiterate in 2 sentence what the article was about and make sure you include the main keywords you want to rank for.
The conclusion is also where you can place a call to action (Subscribe for newsletter, read related posts) or to inform the audience about other available resources you offer.
11 Share your post on Social Media!
After all is written and published, don’t you think you are done! Because you are not!
You will soon discover that a being a blogger goes beyond the writing part. Being a blogger means you have to develop editing skills, social media skills, you will need to learn to be a marketer and to plan your content.
These thing will come with time, so there is no point in trying to figure it all out right now.
But Social Media is a big part of blogging story and it where you will first share your blog post, and if you reach the right people, or better said, move the right people (because we are talking about emotions), then some will even share it with their social media friends.
That’s why it is essential to have an account on the main social media platforms. Later on, you can decide which works better for your niche, and which you like most. And then focus on that one, but it’s always a good idea to try to keep an active presence on the most used platforms.
What social media platforms to use for your blog? Think about Facebook (Facebook page), Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, Quora, Medium, Steemit.
They are all different and you will not be able to keep it up with all of them, but just take a look at each one and decided if your audience can be found there.
There is a lot to be done, and I always write down everything I have to do, and then I also write down all the ideas I get along the way! I strongly advise you to start doing the same and to use a planner to write it all down!
As you can see, blog writing is a meticulous process that will take a lot of dedication. Writing a blog post is a long process and it is not as easy as it seems.
Now that you know how to write an awesome blog post, I hope you will use these blogging tips for your future blog posts and use the free tools to make your blog post stand out.
Great tips thank you Iulia!
Thanks! It never hurts to know a bit of everything, right? 🙂