Five years ago, in my early days as a self-employed copywriter, I sat in my spare room and wrote a blog about cringe words that – to this day – ranks ridiculously well on Google and drives traffic to my website in the thousands.
You might think that’s the dream, but in reality it does nothing for my business. I was writing about something I personally found interesting as a word nerd, rather than writing for my target audience.
Have you ever been guilty of that?
That’s the thing with blogging – it can feel like a waste of time unless you have all the right ingredients in place.
Want to know what those ingredients are so you can start to create successful blog posts that show up in search results and are loved by your audience?
Let’s get into the essential elements of a great blog post.
What makes a good blog? Anatomy of a successful blog post
Topic and post title
It all begins with the topic. Think about what your ideal customer needs help with or regularly asks questions about, then use your blog to provide answers.
If you’re unsure, do your research.
Look at frequently asked questions, reviews, or relevant Facebook groups where potential customers are discussing the challenges they’re experiencing.
Relevant keyword
Keyword research is vital if you want your blog to actually up on Google.
Not only does it tell Google what your blog is about, but it helps you discover what the appetite is out there for content on this topic.
For free and basic keyword research, look at Google’s ‘people also asked’ or suggested search terms that show up when you start typing on Google, Pinterest, or TikTok.
For more advanced research with search volumes, consider paid tools like Keywords Everywhere or SE Ranking (my personal faves).
Crucially, optimising your blog isn’t about parroting your chosen keyword at every opportunity. Write for humans and make sure it reads well with keywords naturally weaved in.
Storytelling
Now, it’s time to write.
Storytelling is the most powerful way to hook your reader in and start building trust and connection.
If you want an example, see how I used the opening paragraph of this blog to set the scene and build a picture that you can visualise, relate to, and connect with.
Personality and brand voice
Every brand has its own distinct personality and voice, so make sure you know yours and use it consistently across all of your marketing and communications.
Think about how you speak to customers in person, on social media, over the phone – then make sure your blog writing style is consistent so people can instantly recognise and recall your brand.
Value
Great content adds genuine value to the reader – educating, inspiring, informing, or entertaining.
Whether you’re adding value to existing customers to retain them or offering pearls of wisdom to lure prospective customers into your world, you need to give them something that’s useful.
Structured blog format
Once you have your content, think about how you’ll display it visually to appeal to readers.
Add plenty of headers (more on that later), white space between short paragraphs, and features like bullet points, quotations, and numbered lists for visual appeal and informational interest.
SEO must-haves
Optimise your blog posts to show up in search engines results pages by incorporating:
- Meta description
- Images with alt tags
- Page title
- Heading hierarchy (see below)
- Bullet points.
Correct heading and subheadings hierarchy
Headings help signpost readers to different sections of your blog and are fantastic for skim readers (which basically everyone is).
Remember this structure:
- H1 at the top – your main header – only one of these per blog/website page
- H2 for your next-most important titles – you can have multiple H2s
- H3 headers under your H2s (for example, in this blog ‘Anatomy of a good blog post’ is a H2, and ‘Correct heading and subheadings hierarchy’ is one of the H3s beneath it)
- H4 headers if you are listing any headers under your H3s.
Call to action
Always end your blog with a call to action to tell your reader what to do next – whether it’s signing up to your mailing list, making a purchase, reading another blog, or following you on social media.
Don’t expect them to be mind readers – if you don’t spell it out, they probably won’t do it!
Cohesion
Your blog content should work with everything else you’re doing – socials, email, SEO, ads. Create a thematic approach to your marketing efforts so everything is cohesive, connected, and designed to maximise conversion.
Done properly, one blog has multiple uses – that’s why founders and marketers love voice-noting me their ideas and getting a blog post back full of content they can reuse on their social media, emails, videos, pitch decks, and more.
Start creating quality blog articles to benefit your business today
When you get blogging right, it supports your content marketing and helps to attract high-quality leads to your business while adding value to your customers, new and old.
If your blogging efforts aren’t hitting the mark (or it’s been so long since you updated your news page there’s tumbleweed blowing across the screen), let’s fix it.
I specialise in creating monthly blog articles for growing businesses and marketing professionals.
Outsource blog writing to me and get it done properly so you see real results – book your free consultation with me to get started.