When sitting down to write a blog post, start with an outline which includes 5 elements that will focus on your target audience and bring readers. You may not know the content of each element upfront, but by putting a frame around your work and then basically filling in the blanks helps. This is a great starting point as it will give you a structure to work with. And besides, a blank screen can be daunting when you’re under pressure to write! From here, you just simply flesh out each of those elements as you go.
Keyword Phrase
The biggest part of learning how to write a blog, is learning to write exactly what your readers want. You find that out through keyword research, and you deliver it through keyword optimization.
So choose a topic and then pick a keyword phrase that best suits your topic. Or choose a keyword phrase, and create content around it.
You won’t always find a great keyword phrase to match the topic you want to blog about. That’s okay. Your readers will appreciate a few off-the-wall posts that are written more for “visitor optimization” than search engine optimization.
I chose a longtail keyword phrase for this blog post: “How to Write a Blog Post That Brings Readers”.
A Catchy Title
The title of your blog post is incredibly important. Arguably one of the most important elements of the entire post. The post title also becomes the page title (meaning it is used in the Title Tag and shows up in the Title Bar of the browser window). It also becomes the Anchor Text for the hyperlink in the search results – meaning this is what people will see and read when they are deciding which result to click on. And whammy #3 – your post title becomes the Anchor Text for all of the inbound links pointing to this post that are created automatically through your blog.
An Eye Catching Image
Images engage your reader, break up long boring text, illustrate points – and they can also be used to draw the eye in specific directions.
Since my topic is “How to Write a Blog Post That Brings Readers“ I simply used a simple stock image, which can be very effective.
Don’t Forget the Content
I actually write the content last, after I have outlined the other 5 elements, and simply type in a placeholder to start. But once I have my blog post outlined I sit down to flesh out the content. I often do this in outline format as well, and then go back to flesh out each point into a paragraph or so.
Your Call-to-Action
This element ranks right up there with the Post Title as one of the most important things you can include in your blog post. The call-to-action lets your reader know exactly what they should do next, and why.
Ask yourself: why am I writing this post? Why are they reading this post? What ONE action do I most want them to take after they read my post? (Never assume it’s obvious.)
Don’t leave your reader hanging. You owe it to them to lead them to the next best click.
The 6th Element – Links!
Once I have my blog post written, but before I publish it, there’s one more thing that I add to top it off.- Links!
I like to link back to posts in my archive wherever relevant, both for internal links (SEO) and for the readers reference. This helps to keep your archived blog posts fresh, and connects similar discussions.
I also link out to other blog posts on the same topic, written by other bloggers. This creates a pingback or a trackback on their blog, usually in the comments area of the post I link to, and is also good for both of the same reasons.
For the best results, link to blog posts that rank well for your keyword phrase – or better yet, a similar more competitive keyword phrase. That way you can benefit from having a link on this high-traffic blog post that is related to the topic of your own blog post.
You can check that post to see if other trackbacks appear before you decide to link to it. Some bloggers don’t allow them, or don’t have a theme that shows them.
Of course, is the blog post is really great – you might want to share it with your readers anyway…