What is a blog post?
A blog is a short fоr “web log.” Blogs began in the early 1990ѕ аѕ аn online journal for individuals to publish thoughts and stories on their website. Bloggers then share their blog posts with other internet users. Blog posts used to be much more personal to the writer of a group of writers than they are today.
Here, we give you some tips on how to write your first ever blog post to set you on your way!
First, ensure that you are willing to learn and have great information to share.
To write a successful blog post, you need to have above-average writing skills or be willing to learn to improve them. In addition, you need to have in-depth knowledge in your niche so you can get noticed easily. You don’t need to be an expert, but you need something to write about! It’s important that you know the most effective ways to communicate your thoughts and ideas using written words. If needed, hone your skills and increase your knowledge by doing research and by practicing regularly. You’ll also increase your knowledge of your niche as you go!
Next ѕtер is tо figure out thе bеѕt topics to discuss.
Stick with those topics that are related to your blog. If you’re writing a blog post about clothing, for example, write about what’s hot in the fashion industry, offer tips on how your readers can pick the best set of clothes for specific events, or offer how-to-guides on how the can save money from buying clothes online.
These types of topics will allow you to attract qualified prospects. Not only that, but they’ll also give you a chance to showcase your expertise in your niche so your readers will easily trust you.
Think of catchy, killer titles.
Writing attention-grabbing titles is one of the things that you need to learn and master if you want to excel in the world of blogging. You’ll get better with practice!
Remember, this is the first thing that your visitors will see. If they’re not moved with your headlines, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll read your blog posts. So, be creative. Tell these people what’s in store for them. Pique their curiosity, push their emotional buttons and do anything to ensure that they’ll take action.
What headlines attract you? What headlines make you stop scrolling and start clicking? Look at what your competitors are doing and model them!
Offer amazing information.
You want to impress your readers who are visiting your blog for the first time. This is because you want to convince them to come back. The only thing better than new customers is returning customers! This will happen if you give them the exact information that they’re looking for. So, instead of loading your posts with outdated information of fluffs, offer something useful and interesting data. This could be expert advice, an answer to a burning question, a guide on how to solve a specific issue or trade secrets.
Use tools like AnswerThePublic to find out what people are searching for. You don’t need to make it up!
Kеер it ѕhоrt. Or long.
The length of your blog post depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re wanting to boost your SEO to rank higher on Google, you should be aiming for between 1500 – 2000 words. However, if you’re writing a blog post for existing users or those already familiar with your blog, remember humans are known to have a very short attention span. So, don’t try to make your articles lengthy and tedious without offering insight. To avoid losing your readers’ attention, give them the key information they need using as few words as possible. 300 – 500 words is enough for this.
Uѕе kеуwоrdѕ.
Don’t forget to use relevant keywords throughout your blog posts. This is to make it easier to find your blog online. To figure out the best keywords to target, consult a trusted keyword suggestion tool before you even start writing your articles.
We have some suggestions on these tools in our article on using a blog to earn money with affiliate marketing.
You should target one primary and two secondary keywords. Use these once or twice for every 100 words to avoid exceeding the acceptable keyword density.
Oрtіmіzе for оn-раgе SEO.
Aftеr уоu fіnіѕh writing, go bасk and орtіmіzе your post fоr search. If you’re using WordPress, install the plugin Yoast. It offers great tips for each of your posts to ensure they are fully optimized for SEO.
Don’t obsess too much over how many keywords to include. 2-3 is ideal. If there are opportunities to incorporate them into your article, go ahead and do it. Be sure not to negatively impact the readers experience, though. The shouldn’t feel ‘shoe-horned’ into the article and it should still read correctly.
If you can make your URL shorter, using something like bitly, and make it more keyword-friendly, go for it. Don’t, though, cram keywords or shoot for some arbitrary keyword density – Google’s smarter than that!
Hеrе’ѕ a little reminder оf what уоu саn do to boost your SEO:
- Mеtа Dеѕсrірtіоn
Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the blog post’s page title on Google’s search results pages. They provide searchers with a summary of the post before clicking into it.They are ideally between 150 and 160 characters and start with a verb, such as “learn”, “read” or “discover”. While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google’s keyword ranking algorithm, they do give searchers a snapshot of what they will get by reading the post and can help improve your click-through rate from search.
- Pаgе Tіtlе аnd Hеаdеrѕ
Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. However, if you’ve followed our tips so far, you should already have working title that will naturally include keywords and phrases your target audience is interested in. Don’t over-complicate your title by trying to fit keywords where they don’t naturally belong. That said, there are clear opportunities to add keywords you’re targeting to your post title and headers. Feel free to take them. Also, try to keep your headlines short (ideally under 65 characters) so they don’t get truncated in search engine results.
- Anсhоr Text
Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page, either on your website or on another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain words.
It’s also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking to pages that you want to rank well for that keyword. You could end up getting it to rank on Google’s first page of results instead of the second page and that’s a massive achievement!
- Mobile Oрtіmіzаtіоn
With mobile devices now accounting for nearly two of every three minutes spent online, having a website that is responsive or designed for mobile has become more and more critical. In addition to making sure your website’s visitors (including your blog’s visitors) have the best experience possible, optimising for mobile will score your website some SEO points.
Now over to you
We hope you found our tips useful for writing your first blog post! The first step is just to try it and see what you come up with. With practice and learning, you’ll soon master it.
Have you got any comments to add? Leave them below!