Blogging is at the core of today’s online businesses, and you too should be producing high quality content which educates your audience and also helps them resolve the issues they might face. It’s necessary for your company to have a blog and publish articles on a regular basis.
However, apart from knowing what to write about, you should also learn what the correct content structure for maximizing your blog performance is. Without the right approach and plan, it’s likely you’ll be stuck with a great concept, without knowing how to express it.
Today you’re going to find out how you can use a helpful formula to create the perfect article that will allow you to convey your content in the most compelling way. Let’s dive in!
Data-driven content ideas
First of all you need to come up with content ideas for the next three months. Once you have your list of strategically chosen topics, create a schedule or a calendar calendar. This will organize your workflow and let you focus on writing timely content.
The process of generating ideas for blog posts should be based on:
- your keywords list
- competitor analysis
- market trends
- and your buyers’ expectations
All these factors are equally important upon implementing your strategy. Make sure you don’t skip anything mentioned above. It’s best to aim for evergreen content ideas because they will never go out of style and will continually drive organic traffic. Once you know what to write about, you can wrap it around the right structure to create the perfect blog post.
The one and only – headline
What gets read more than anything else on your site is the headline. Hence, you ought to become a master in headline writing because this is the most powerful component of your article which is indeed a make or break factor.
According to Copyblogger, the 80/20 rule works best when writing headlines:
“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read the headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of your title, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.”
Search results, social media, publishing platforms – they’re all overcrowded with high quality, compelling content; and the competition is tough. You should learn how to make your blog posts stand out and craft killer headlines that will convince people to click-through. The better your title, the more attention it will grab.
Take a chance and learn a few techniques of headline writing:
The main takeaways are:
- Your headline should appeal to emotions and desires. This means that it needs to raise the right questions – typically the ones your buyers frequently ask you – and in order to provoke the expected reaction, it should be formulated using words that your prospects commonly use.
It’s scientifically proven that headlines affecting strong emotions drive the most attention. However, “positive headlines tend to perform better than negative sentiment.” However, we don’t recommend click baiting.
- Include a keyword within your title. According to Ahrefs’ research, keyword placement on your page correlates with your rankings, and the use of an exact-match keyword within your headline is one of the most important locations to optimize in order to improve your search rankings.
Moreover, they stated that placing your target keyword at the beginning of your title also makes a positive difference.
- Your headline should accurately and neatly summarize your whole article. Let people understand what they should expect to read before they click on your link. This way, you’ll avoid disappointment whilst lowering your bounce rate.
- Keep your headline to maximum 55 characters. According to Coschedule: “Headlines of about 55 characters long tend to earn the highest number of click-throughs.”
Besides, Google search results are limited by length; so, longer headlines can get cut off and won’t be fully displayed. This is why it’s best to stick to this rule.
- Anytime you want to check if your title is good enough, use Coschedule Headline Analyzer. Coschedule Headline Analyzer is a free and user friendly tool that will score your headlines and give you various suggestions to help you craft a real diamond out of them.
In addition: use numbers, make lists and how-to guides, use trigger words, make promises, and most importantly, keep on executing superior work.
The introduction must be captivating
The introduction is very important for your writing because it defines the flow and progress of your piece. It’s mission is to attract your readers to continue reading.
a) The perfect introduction, according to Neil Patel, is one that shares the main idea of the article. You should start with describing the current situation on the market, justifying the importance of the particular problem and explaining how it affects people – your users. Then you should emphasize on the value that your readers will get as a result of reading your article. This will glue your audience to your article.
b) Another successful tactic for the introduction is to start with telling a story. The Groove HQ team tested what the the best way to start an article is, and they found that storytelling is key. According to their study, posts with storytelling drove 300% more readers than posts without storytelling.
Pro-tip: It’s best if you give a personal story or anecdote of an influencer for example. This will make your story authentic. No matter what tactic you decide on, remember to keep your introduction concise – about 6 sentences – and simple. Plus, use easy language, and keep your sentences short for better readability.
Divide your blog post into concise paragraphs
Paragraphs make your content structure clear, organized and easy to scan. They improve the readability of your post and its overall aesthetic. Furthermore, a transparent outline is necessary for organizing your content because the majority of visitors just scan your article instead of reading it. They look for something that may be appealing and try to estimate how much there’s to read. Help them with that and go for short paragraphs.
Each of these paragraphs should begin with a subheading – H2 or H3 to define the title for each following paragraph.
What’s best? Subheadings like H1, H2 or H3 will help you optimize your page for a target keyword. They’re number of on-page SEO locations where you may want to place your keyword. Make sure you add them to your next post!
There’re other methods for organizing your content and making it more reader-friendly. When possible, use bullet points, quotes, bold a fragment, and italicize some keywords. Plus, don’t forget about visual representations such as charts, infographics, illustrations, and screens.
Pro tip: It’s a good idea to number your content. It’s both helpful to your readers and easier for you to write.
Content writing itself
The most essential part of all the elements that cohesively create a perfect blog post is, of course, the writing itself. Devote some time to diligently research and find the best resources for your post. You can use tools like BuzzSumo.
BuzzSumo provides you with articles that gained the most shares over a chosen period of time. You can also use Buzzsumo to see influencers in your field and then check if they have any content covering your topics. This could be a very helpful tool when looking for topics or curating content.
Next, don’t forget to check the search results for a given subject and see what’s on the first page. In the top 10 results – in incognito mode – you’ll find competing articles. So read them all and treat them as your guidelines.
Visuals that add value
Apart from a well written copy, incorporate fine quality and relevant visuals that add value to your writing. Blog Pros analyzed about 100 high ranking articles and came to the conclusion that the best performing posts had an average of 3.2 images. Moreover, blog posts with images have been proven to attract more backlinks, and backlinks have an essential impact on your search results.
Pro-tip: Don’t forget to credit the borrowed images. For legal purposes, they need to be linked to the source.
The perfect length
SerpIQ studied the average content length of the top 10 results and it’s visible that content exceeding 2,000 words tends to perform best. The higher word count correlates with better search traffic.
Optimize for on-page SEO
As mentioned at the beginning, content writing should be based on SEO.
You can learn more about this in our post about SEO-friendly content.
Add a call-to-action
Yeah, content marketing should focus on educating and helping readers with their real-life issues, but also inspire them to take action. This is why a subtle call-to-action and a lead magnet will make your perfect blog post complete.
Enclose a subtle opt-in offer or bonus material like a downloadable ebook in exchange for an email address. The requested action shouldn’t be demanding: don’t ask for too much.
Place your CTA in the header, sidebar, or footer of the post. Test their locations and change them if necessary to maximize results.
Small additions that make a big difference
Mobile Optimization
Check how your blog posts display on mobile devices. Are you ready for the era of the mobile device? Nowadays, people effortlessly switch between devices, so it’s a must to make their mobile experience flawless. This mobile-friendly test by Google will analyze a given URL and report if the page has a mobile-friendly design. Use it and verify your website.
Social Sharing
Always incorporate a social sharing feature on your blog. Since social sharing has the potential to improve the reach of your post, it makes sense to include social buttons on your page. Also, it’s a good idea to have one or two ready “Click to tweet” boxes on your page that cover a quote with a mention for the lazy ones.
Back to you
Perhaps you have your own pattern? Or some additional ideas that I forgot to add? If so, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below.