Are you a new blogger curious about the writing process from start to finish?
Writing a blog post can be a daunting process, especially if it’s been awhile since you’ve written anything.
In this post, we guide you through the process of writing a blog post that’s optimized for the web, your readers and SEO.
How to write a blog post from start to finish
Here’s our step-by-step process for writing a blog post:
- Choose a topic.
- Do keyword research.
- Outline.
- Research.
- Write the post.
- Edit the post.
1. Choose a topic for your blog post
We’re including this as part of the writing process because it’s very important that you know exactly what you’re writing about before you begin.
There are a few different methods you can use to come up with blog post ideas. The best methods are keyword research and audience research.
With keyword research, you can find long-tail keywords that are easy to rank for.
Start with a broad seed keyword related to your niche, such as “wordpress plugins”, “wordpress themes” or “wordpress page builders”. Then, enter that keyword into a keyword research tool.
Use the tool’s filter settings to find keywords that are two words or longer, have at least a few hundred searches per month, and have low to medium SEO difficulty scores, as in 0-60 for most tools.
For audience research, try to find out what your audience’s biggest pain points are.
You can ask members of your audience directly about the struggles they’re having in your niche.
You can also pay attention to what they say in your comment section, inboxes, your competitors’ comment sections, forums, the comment sections of YouTube videos and social media posts related to your niche, and product reviews, especially negative ones.
These areas of the internet are always filled with complaints, which, when you look past all of the negativity, are really just problems your audience is having.
Your job is to find solutions to those problems, then turn those solutions into blog post ideas.
2. Conduct keyword research on the topic
Ranking for a keyword takes a lot of hard work. A lot of it has to do with your domain rank in general.
Raising this requires a lot of authoritative backlinks as well as other site-wide metrics that are important for SEO, including page speed.
Performing keyword research on a topic you want to write about can help you identify related keywords you should mention in your post. It can even help you identify additional topics you may not have thought to include yourself.
You can perform this research with the same tool you used to identify the keyword you want to target with your post.
Just enter that keyword into the tool as a seed keyword, and make a list of quality keywords to include in your post.
“Quality keywords” are simply keywords that are grammatically correct, easy to include in sentences that are meant to be read by humans and make sense for the topic you’re writing about.
You can also use a tool like Surfer SEO to identify additional keywords you should include in your post.
It’ll even let you know how long your post should be as well as how many images it should include.
This is a paid feature, but they also have a handy free browser extension that can provide some keyword ideas.
3. Choose a structure for your post, then outline it
The structure you choose for a blog post will depend on what kind of post it is and the overall structure you want to use for it.
If you’re writing a list post, you’d use an intro, followed by an H2 heading. You’d then break up that H2 heading into H3 headings, each of which would represent a different list item.
Decide on the type of article you’re writing, then outline it.
This should be a pretty simple outline. Break up the post into at least two H2 sections: one for the main body of the post and one for the conclusion.
Then, determine if additional H2 sections are needed.
Break up H2 sections into smaller sections using H3 sections. You may need H4 sections every now and then as well. H5 and H6 headings do exist, but they’re less common in SEO.
H1 is used for your post title and should never be used within the body of a blog post.
4. Conduct research on the topic
Fill out your outline with notes and research.
You can make your outline as simple or as thorough as you please, especially if you know a lot about a topic and can write off the top of your head.
To research a post, enter the keyword you want to target into Google, then click on the first five results that are from an actual blog (not Quora or Reddit).
These results represent competitors in your niche. What you’re doing in this step is seeing if they covered anything you should cover in your own post.
You should also conduct more rigorous research when need be. This includes testing a product yourself for reviews, conducting interviews for testimonies and posts involving industry experts, and analyzing data for case studies.
Add notes for all of this research where they belong in your outline.
The more work you do on your outline, the easier the writing stage will be.
5. Write the post
It’s time to write your blog post.
Every post should have an introduction, a body and an outro.
Where you choose to write your post is also important.
You’re more than welcome to write your blog post directly within the editor of your content management system (CMS), but this isn’t necessary in this day and age, especially if you use WordPress.
WordPress now auto-formats posts you paste from Google Docs and Microsoft Word and does not try to copy the font or text size you used in those apps.
It will, however, paste headings, links, formatting (bold and italic text), and images.
Introduction
Your introduction is your hook, at least for readers who still read blog posts from top to bottom.
It’s the first thing these readers see after your headline and featured image.
When readers come across your post from Google, their browser, especially Chrome, will jump to the section they saw as a preview in the search result.
Use your target keyword one time in your introduction. Do so by writing a summary of your post and answering the question it’s addressing.
Keep your introduction brief, but ask a question or state a phrase that will pique your audience’s interest.
Here’s an example from our own blog:
Your introduction should also establish a tone for your post.
For most blogs, a casual, friendly and conversational writing tone is suitable enough. This means you don’t need to be the best writer in the world to write a blog post or have a Master’s in the English language. You can simply write as you’d speak.
If your blog attracts a more serious or professional crowd, you might consider writing in a more professional tone.
This is why conducting audience research is so important. You should know what kind of tone your audience expects in your niche.
Body
The body section of a blog post, much like the body section of a paper you’d write for school, a publication or your career, is the meat of a post while your introduction and outro are the bread slices.
The body section is where all primary content of a blog post should live.
You should have an outline that’s broken up into H2, H3 and sometimes H4 headings by now. Again, H4 and H6 headings are less common but can be used while an H1 heading should not be used within the body section of a blog post.
Note that in the world of web development and HTML, “body” also refers to the entire content section of a blog post page, not just the body section of the post itself.
Use small paragraphs in your post. A lot of readers will read your post on smartphones these days.
This means long paragraphs will appear as walls of text they may choose to scroll past.
You can use bold text every few paragraphs to highlight key points you think your audience might be interested in. This will help them identify important information as they scroll.
Don’t make each section too long. This is the point of breaking up sections into smaller heading sizes. It makes a blog post easier to consume.
You can also use bullet points and numbered lists to make certain pieces of information easier to consume.
Add images to your post or placeholders for images if you’re on a roll and don’t want to stop the writing process just yet.
Overall, the body section of a blog post should use the same tone you used in your introduction. It should also cover the topic your post is about from start to finish.
Outro
Again, not all readers will read your post from top to bottom anymore. Some will come for the content they saw as a preview on Google and leave.
You don’t always need a proper outro, either, especially if you have a related posts section on blog post pages.
When you do write an outro, you’ll likely use “Conclusion” or “Final Thoughts” as a heading. These types of outros should give a brief summary of the post and any findings you have, especially if it’s a review or case study.
You should also briefly cover additional information you weren’t able to cover in the post itself, especially if that information would have needlessly extended the length of the post.
You can also use other types of outros, such as a call to action.
If your blog post promotes something, such as a product or event, you can use your outro to include a final call to action for that product or event.
Finally, you can use an informative section as an outro. That’s what we’re doing in this post with our “What Comes Next” section.
Edit the post
Once you’re done writing your blog post, you should read through it and edit it while you go.
Don’t just look for grammatical errors during this stage. You should also be looking for phrases that don’t make sense, sentences that should be rewritten or reworded for clarity, and sections that go on for too long or not long enough.
Add relevant internal links throughout your post during this process as well. These will give your readers additional content to consume.
Internal links also give Google extra pages to crawl on your site and help their algorithm identify what your post is about.
Use your word processor’s spell check tool to check for spelling and grammatical errors. You can also use Grammarly, if you wish.
If you have the funds, hire a dedicated editor to handle this stage. They can also upload posts and get them ready for publication.
If you used Surfer SEO or another content optimization tool, you can copy and paste your post into its editor to optimize it for the keyword you want to target.
Note from Adam: Tools like Grammarly are a huge timesaver but it’s important to sense-check their recommendations. Overuse of these kinds of tools can remove the personality from your content. So, use caution!
What comes next
Your post is written and edited. Now what?
Your next step should be to create images for the post. You can source them from reputable stock photography sites like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay or Envato Elements, take them yourself, take screenshots, or create graphics.
This is something you can outsource as well if you feel like you need to.
You should also consider if there’s something you can promote within your post if you haven’t already. This includes affiliate links, sponsors, or even your own products and events.
Finally, upload your post to your CMS and optimize it.
For WordPress, this involves adding a post title (be sure to write a captivating, stellar headline), choosing a permalink, choosing categories, filling out meta description details for SEO, and scheduling the post for publication.
Create a lead magnet for the post before you publish it, or reuse one you’ve already created. This way, you can set up email opt-in forms before you publish.
Once your post is published, promote it through your email list and on social media.
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