The Complete Guide on How to Write a Blog Post in 2023

Nicholas Amundson

April 21, 2021
22 min read

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You’re well aware of how important blogging is to the success of your marketing efforts—as a result, learning how to write a blog post and manage it in a way that helps your business is important.

Without a blog, you’ll experience many difficulties. Including poor search engine optimization (SEO). A lack of promotional content for social media. Less credibility with your leads and customers. And fewer pages on which to publish lead-generating calls-to-action (CTAs).

So, why do all the marketing professionals I interact with have a long list of reasons? Why can’t they blog consistently?

It may be because unless you enjoy writing. Professional blogging may seem uninteresting, time-consuming, and challenging.

The time for making excuses is over, and this guide will help you understand why.

We’ll cover how to start a blog post and manage your business to make your blogging efforts easier.

Let’s get started by answering all the important questions here.

What is a Blog Post?

A blog post is an article, piece of news, or guide published on a website’s blog section.

A blog post often covers a specific topic. Or subject is informational, and involves other media types. Such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts, and varies from 600 to 2,000+ words.

Blog articles enable you and your business. So, you can publish insights, views, thoughts, and stories about any topic on your website.

They can help you to increase your brand recognition, credibility, conversions, and revenue. But, most importantly, they can assist you in increasing the amount of traffic to your website.

People and organizations from various cultural backgrounds.

Now use blogs to share research, studies, instructions, product knowledge, insights, and more. There are many popular blog types, but here are six of the most common:

So, how can you ensure that your blog post gets the attention of your targeted audience? Buyer personas and customer base?

What Makes a Good Blog Post?

Before you start writing a blog, make sure you have answers to queries like, “Why would someone read this full blog post?” and “What inspires our audience to return for more?”

To start with, a good blog article is both informative and helpful. Blogs should answer questions and assist readers in finding solutions. And you should do so in an interesting way.

It is not enough to answer someone’s questions.

You should also provide actionable steps while staying engaged.

For example, your intro should grab the reader’s attention. And encourage them to read the rest of your piece. Then, use examples to keep your readers engaged in what you’re saying.

Remember that a good blog article is interesting and entertaining. And it delivers audience members with educational content.

So, how can you write one of these interesting pieces of information?

How to Write a Blog Post

Here are the steps you should take while writing a blog post.

1. Understand Your Audience

Before you begin writing your blog article, make sure you clearly understand your target audience.

What exactly do they want to know? What will leave an impression on them?

It is at this point that the buyer’s personas creation process comes in handy.

When it comes to picking a topic for your blog article, there are a few things to keep in mind. Consider your buyer personas and their interests.

Let’s say your readers are young people wanted to start a business. You usually don’t need to provide them with advice on how to get started with social media.

Because most of them already know how to do so.

But you might want to provide them with information on how to improve their social media strategy.

For example, from a casual, personalized approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach.

Such a kind of tweak is what helps to create content on topics that your audience needs.

Don’t you have buyer personas for your business organization? Here are some useful resources for beginning you:

2. Create a Domain for Your Blog

From there, you’ll need a platform to host this and every blog post you write. It requires selecting a content management system (CMS). And a domain hosting service for your website.

Select a Content Management System

A content management system (CMS) helps create a website domain. For example, where you will publish your blog, CMS platforms can manage domains and create your website.

And subdomains, allow you to establish a webpage that connects to an existing website.

After you’ve decided on a CMS and a domain or subdomain for your blog, you’ll need to select a hosting web service.

Obtain a Domain or Subdomain from a Website Host

Your blog’s domain will appear like this: www.yourblog.com. It is entirely up to you to decide on a name for the interval between the two periods.

You can register a domain name unless it is not currently in use anywhere on the internet.

Would you like to create a subdomain for your blog?

For example, if you already have a food business at www.yourcompany.com, you may set up a blog at blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, you can host your blog’s subdomain in its own section on yourcompany.com.

Some CMS platforms include free subdomains. So, your blog lives on the CMS rather than your company’s website. For example, it could look something like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com.

But if you want to build a subdomain for your company’s site. You should first register the subdomain with a website host.

Websites cost even less to host a unique domain. A website you can buy for as little as $3 per month if purchased for three years.

3. Customize the Theme of Your Blog

Once you’ve registered your domain name. You can customize the design of your blog to meet the theme of the content you wish to put in place and your brand.

For example, if you’re blogging about environmental sustainability. Then, green may be the color to choose while designing your blog.

If you already run a website and write the first post for that website.

Make sure the article’s appearance and subject matter are consistent with the website. There are two ways to achieve this mention your:

Logo: This can be your company’s name and logo – it will tell site visitors who published the content. (How STRONGLY you brand your blog is completely up to you.)
“About” Page: You may already have an “About” page that describes yourself or your company. You can add this higher-level statement to your blog’s “About” section. Consider it your blog’s mission statement, which works to support your company’s goals.

4. Choose a Topic for Your First Blog Post

Before you start writing, choose a topic for your blog post. You can start with any general topic that you have a bit of detailed knowledge and research on.

For example, if you are a company selling a CRM for small and medium-sized businesses.

Your post could explain the advantages & importance of using a single platform.

It helps manage your marketing, sales, and service teams in one place.

Pro Tip: You may want to avoid writing a "how-to" article for your first blog post, and that's fine.

Why?

Yet, you need to establish your credibility. Before you can educate others about performing something, you should show that you are a leader in your industry and an authoritative source.

Here are four different types of blog postings to get you started:

Listicle: 5 Ways to Repair a Leaking Faucet
Curated Collection: 10 faucet and sink brands to check out today
SlideShare Presentation: 5 types of faucets to replace your old ones (with pictures)
News Piece: According to a new study, X% of people do not change their faucets on a regular basis.

If you’re having problems coming up with ideas for topics. A nice topic brainstorming session can help you.

Like, the “leaky faucet” examples above. You would write more topics from the older topics to come up with unique and appealing new topics. “

You can perform by following:

5. Create a Working Title

You can develop many different working titles. That is, different ways of approaching that topic — to help you focus on your writing.

For example, you can limit your search to “Best Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets.” Or “Common Reasons for Leaky Faucets.”

A title is relevant and will direct your article so that you may begin writing.

As an example, consider the following blog: “How to Choose an Excellent Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”

Isn’t that correct? In this example, the topic was most likely “blogs.” The working title may have been something like “The Process of Choosing a Blog Post Topic.”

The final title was “How to Choose a Great Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”

Can you see the progression from topic to working title to final title? Even if the working title does not become the final title (more on that later).

It gives enough information to focus your blog article on something particular rather than a broad, distracting topic.

6. Make Your Introduction Topic Interesting by Writing It First

We’ve written more about writing fascinating intros in the post. “How to Write an Introduction,” But let us go through it once more.

First, engage the readers if you lose the reader during the first few paragraphs. Or even sentences of the intro, they’ll quit reading (even before giving your content a fair shot).

You can do this in many different ways, like writing a story or making a joke, being emotional, or grabbing the reader’s attention with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then, explain the aim of your post and how it will address a problem that the reader may be having.

Finally, it will inspire the reader to keep reading by demonstrating how the content will benefit them in their work or personal lives.

7. Create an Outline of Your Content

Blog postings can include an excessive amount of information—both for the reader and the writer. The trick is to structure the information.

So those readers aren’t overwhelmed by the length of the content.

Such organizing can take many forms. Like sections, listings, and tips, whatever works best for you. But it has to be well-organized!

Take a look at “How to Start a Blog with GreenGeeks in 2022.” The article has a lot of information.

Thus, it’s divided into sections with detailed headers. We divided the main sections into subsections that continue into further insights.

As well as making the content more understandable.

To finish this step, all you need to do is outline your content. This way, before you begin writing, you’ll know the points you want to include and the best way to do it.

Also, you may download and use free blog post templates—the pre-organized for six of the most popular blogs to make things even easier.

8. Write Your Blog Post

The next — but not the last — step is to write the content. After that, of course, we can’t forget about it.

Now that you’ve created your outline or template, it’s time to fill in the blanks.

Take your outline as a guide and elaborate on every point that requires it.

Write about what you already know. And if needed, perform more research to find more facts. Add examples and information to support your argument while referencing additional sources.

When you do this, make an effort to find reliable and compelling facts that you should include in your post.

You’re not alone if you’re experiencing difficulties combining sentences. Unfortunately, finding your “flow” might be difficult for many people.

However, there are many tools available to assist you in improving your writing.

Here are a few starting recommendations:

Power Thesaurus: Struggling with a word? The Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced service. It gives users a wide range of unique word choices from a group of writers.
ZenPen: If you’re having trouble being focused, try this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen is a simplified “writing zone.” That allows you to get words down without having to worry about formatting right away.
Cliché Finder: A little tacky comes out like your writing? Identify situations in which you can use this helpful cliché tool more.

9. Proofread and Edit Your Post

You haven’t done it yet, but you’re close! The proofreading process is an important part of blogging – don’t skip it.

Copy, edit, and proofread your post with the help of a grammar-conscious co-worker.

It would help if you also considered utilizing The Ultimate Editing Checklist. Or Grammarly, for example, is a free grammar checker.

When it’s time to double-check your formatting, keep the following things in mind:

Featured Image

Choose a VISUALLY appealing image relevant to your content as social networks focus on image-based content.

Therefore, pictures are more important than anything for the quality of your blog content.

You can also read this article, “How to Select the Perfect Image for Your Next Blog Post.”

To get tips on choosing an image for your post. Pay more attention to the section of the copyright act.

Visual Appearance

Nobody loves to read an unpleasant blog post. It’s not the visuals that make a post look more appealing; it’s also the structure and organization.

Use headings and sub-headings. To break big blocks of content in a well-formatted and good blog post. And styled those headlines.

Here’s an illustration of what this may look like:

Screenshots should always have a consistent, definable frame.

So, they don’t appear to float in space — You should maintain this style from post to post.

Maintaining this uniformity gives your content a more polished look. And makes it easier to read.

Tags and Topics

Tags are keywords that are specific and visible to the public that describes a post.

They also help readers to search for other content in the same category on your blog.

Avoid cramming each post with a slew of tags. Instead, develop an effective blog tagging strategy.

Consider tags to be “topics” or “categories,” Select 10-20 tags that cover all the main points you wish to cover on your blog. Then stick with them.

10. Include a Call to Action (CTA)

Insert a CTA at the conclusion of every blog post. It is explaining what you want the reader to do next. Like, as subscribing to your blog, downloading an eBook, signup for a webinar or event, reading a similar article, and so on.

After reading your blog post, your visitors will click on the CTA, and then you will generate a useful lead.

But the CTA is also a great resource for the person who reads your content. So, use your CTAs to offer further content related to the topic of the post they have completed reading.

Take a look at some CTA examples if you’re not sure what is a call to action (CTA) and how to get started.

11. Optimize Your On-page SEO

After you’ve finished writing, go back and optimize your post’s on-page elements.

Don’t get hung up on the number of keywords you should include. When there are opportunities to incorporate keywords.

You’re going to target that won’t distract people from the reader’s experience. So, take advantage of them.

If you can make your URL should be shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it.

But, don’t bundle keywords or aim for arbitrary keyword density — Google is smart than that!

Here’s a quick blog SEO review of things you should check and optimize:

Meta Description

On Google’s search results pages. The meta descriptions are the descriptions that appear below the post’s page title.

It gives searchers a brief overview of the post before they click on it. It should be between 150 and 160 characters long, and it should begin with a verb, such as “read,” “learn,” or “discover.”

While meta descriptions no longer play a role in Google’s keyword ranking algorithm.

They provide searchers with a preview of what they’ll see when reading the article. And also, it can help increase your clickthrough rate in a search.

Page Titles and Headers

The title of your post is usually used as the title of your page on most blogging platforms.

That is the most important on-page SEO element.

But if you’ve followed our strategy so far. You will have a complete idea of the title that includes the keywords. Or phrases that your intended audience is interested in.

Don’t overcomplicate your title by cramming keywords into places where they don’t fit.

If there are obvious opportunities to incorporate keywords. That you want to target in your blog’s title and headers. Go for it.

Also, keep your headlines short. It should be less than 65 characters. So, they never get truncated in search results.

Anchor Text

The anchor text is the word or phrase that links to another page on their website or another website.

Choose the keywords you wish to link to other pages on your site as search engines consider them.

When it comes to ranking your page for specific keywords.

It’s also important to think about which pages you link to—link to pages that you want to rank for a specific keyword. Then, you might be able to get it to appear on Google’s first page of search results. Rather than the second, and that’s no easy task!

Optimization for Mobile Devices

Over 60% of organic visitors use a mobile device. As a result, a responsive website is essential.

Ensure that your website’s users (including those who visit your blog) have the best user results.

Optimizing for mobile will gain your site more SEO scores.

12. Choose a Catchy Title

Now, it’s time to freshen up your post title. There is a simple rule for crafting catchy headlines. That will grab your reader’s attention.

Here are some ways to try out:

KEY POINTS

Step 1: Start with your working title.
Step 2: Keep in mind that when you start editing your title, it is necessary to keep it correct and clear.
Step 3: Then, whether through powerful language, alliteration, or some other literary written text. Finally, you work towards making your title attractive.
Step 4: If possible, optimize for SEO by incorporating a few keywords (but only natural!).
Step 5: Finally, check if you can make it even shorter. No one enjoys a long, daunting title. Remember that Google prefers titles containing 65 characters or fewer. Before truncating them on its search engine results pages.

Let’s review what we’ve learned thus far. If you’ve learned the steps above, you know how to take your blog posts to the next level.

You need to understand who you’re writing for. Get a blog set up, and have a basic understanding of writing a blog post, after all.

In comparison, the practicalities of writing a blog are easy to know. Nevertheless, getting started on your first post can be challenging.

Let’s have a look at how to write your first blog article.

Your First Blog Post: Choosing a Topic, Writing the Post, and Getting Hits

You’ve learned the technical and practical details; now it’s time to write your first blog. And, no, that’s not the way to introduce yourself and your new blog (e.g., “Welcome to my blog!”).

But that’s the subject I’ll be talking about. So here are the links to my social media accounts. “Would you please follow me?”

We mentioned it in the earlier section, so your first blog article should not be a how-to guide.

Keep in mind that you still have to build authority in the domain.

So instead, you can start with “low-hanging fruit. And you were writing about a specific subject that benefits a small part of your target audience.

That seems illogical, isn’t it? More people searching for a term or a topic may lead to more readers for you.

Yet, that is not the case. For example, suppose you choose a broad and popular topic over large competitors. Or well-known brands have already been covered.

Then, your post will rarely appear on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).

So, give your new blog a shot by picking a topic on which few bloggers have ever written.

TLDR: Your initial post should focus on a specific, low-volume topic. As you publish more on your site and gain topical authority. You can start approaching more popular, highly-searched keywords.

Let’s go through it step by step.

1. Choose a Low-volume Topic

The first step is to use Google to select a topic with a low search volume.

Let’s say target keywords and terms with 10 to 150 monthly searches. These topics have less competition. And it could help your new blog post rank higher.

You can choose a topic through a regular brainstorming session. Or by keyword research. We recommend either one because you can see how few users are searching for that topic.

You don’t put off the phrase “keyword research.” It is not only for marketers but also for new bloggers. And it’s quite simple.

To get started with keyword research, first pick the main topic of your blog.

Suppose you’re a plumber. Your broad, high-level topic may be “plumbing” (67K monthly searches).

Then, add this keyword to a keyword research tool like:

When you enter this term through any of the above tools, it will return a list of related keywords.

Scan the list and select the one with the lowest search volume.

We’ll use the term “under sink plumbing” (1.4K monthly searches) in this example.

Run the keyword into the keyword research tool to analyze the relevant terms. Look for one with a low search volume. Then, do it all over again.

We’ll use “plumbing problems under the kitchen sink” for all these instances. So that is the topic of our first post.

TLDR: Pick a low-volume, low-competition keyword to ensure your first post rankings.

2. Double-check the User’s Search Intent on Google

You’ve chosen your topic; now, double-check that a blog post will match the user’s search intent.

What does that imply?

Suppose someone searches for “plumbing problems under the kitchen sink.

They may be hoping for a video, a diagram, an article, or a product that can help them solve the problem.

If they’re searching for the very first three, you’re done; the rest you can cover in a blog article. A product, but, is different, and your blog would not rank.

What is the best way to double-check search intent?

Look up the term on Google and see what comes up. You’re good to go if other articles and blog posts rank above such a term.

If you only see product sites or listicles from popular websites. Consider changing the topic of your first post.

Start by looking at the term “under sink plumbing bathroom.”

It appeared to be a good match because of the low number of monthly searches.

We discovered product carousels and product sites from Home Depot and Lowes. And guides authored by major newspapers after searching for the term.

But, of course, you should also avoid topics already covered by big newspapers, at least for the time being.

TLDR: Pick a low-volume, low-competition keyword to ensure your first post rankings.

TLDR: Before crafting your first blog article about a low-volume topic. Google the keyword to double-check the user's intent. Also, don't forget to look at who has already published on the topic. If you come across a well-known brand, write about something else.

3. Check for Questions and Terms that are Relevant to that Topic

You have a unique topic that has only been covered by a few writers so far. It’s time to fill the gaps by discussing relevant or similar topics.

Use these tools:

You can also make use of the keyword research tools suggested in step one.

4. Create an Outline and Write the Blog

It is now time to outline and compose your first blog post!

Use your niche topic and questions related as a guidepost. You can now start writing a blog that is relevant to your topic and has less competition.

To help you write a wonderful first post, go to the how-to guide we offered in the previous section.

Don’t forget to include:

You must write at least 1,000 words: As the study says, long articles rank higher in the search results.
In the title, include your target keyword: Remember the niche topic we decided on in step one? Try to include it NATURALLY in your title.
Include at least two H2s topics: Which are linked to the search terms. Do you remember those relevant topics we discovered in step three? Use them as H2s to strengthen your piece’s topic authority.

5. Use Outreach to Promote Your First Post

You don’t have a social media following as a new blogger.

What is the solution?

Create a few backlinks to the post to get it started.

Backlinks are important ranking factors. But you don’t want to practice black-hat strategies like spamming comment areas on other blogs.

Instead, reach out to people and tell them of the existence of this new resource so they can link to your post.

Are you ready to start blogging?

Blogging can help you gain brand awareness. Establish yourself as a thought leader and authority in your domain. And to get qualified leads and increase conversions.

So, follow the guidelines and suggestions discussed above to start publishing and improving your blog today.