Writing blog posts is essential in any marketing strategy.
Your content will give you visibility on the web and attract prospects to your website. To keep your reader engaged until the end and to rank your blog post well on search engines, your text must follow a well-defined structure.
Follow these 8 steps to structure a blog post effectively.
Find the right article idea
Of course, before you want to structure a blog post, you will need to find a topic that will interest your readers.
To do this, several options are available to you:
- Take inspiration from competitors' posts and do better than them.
- List the questions your target audience asks by browsing social networks such as Facebook groups dedicated to your topic.
- Use the site Answer The Public which lists the questions asked by internet users on a specific topic or Google Trends which, in turn, helps identify trending topics.
- Use Google search and its "People also ask" section and related searches.
Identify the right keywords
Next, you will need to determine the best keyword associated with your idea. You can use the Google Ads Planner which will give you the search volume for all your keywords.
Either you choose a high-volume keyword, but your article will then have to be better than the others in terms of both SEO and content quality if you hope to stand out from your competitors.
Or you choose a low-volume keyword which will allow you to rank more easily on search engines, because it is less competitive.
If you're in a niche market, by adopting this second strategy you can expect to attract more relevant, highly qualified traffic.
Structure a blog post with an effective outline
Now that you have found your topic, it's time to build your writing plan. It's admittedly a bit by-the-book, but a well-structured article will make it easier to read and will prioritize your information.
The title tag and the article's title
The title tag of your article, not to be confused with its headline, is what users see in search results. Choosing the title tag is a delicate step because it will serve several functions:
- Entice the visitor.
- Meet Google's SEO requirements.
Thus your title tag must meet many criteria:
- It must be accurate Your readers must find the information promised in the title when reading your blog post. False promises may bring clicks, but will damage your reputation and give you very bad publicity.
- It must be catchy To attract users' attention, use numbers or imperative verbs. The goal is to create desire to generate clicks.
- It must be concise To appear in full on the results page, do not exceed 60 characters.
- It must be optimized and include your main keyword.
Regarding your article headline (H1 tag), try to choose different wording to improve your SEO score.
The introduction
Your introduction (or lede) will need to summarize your issue set the starting point while sparking your audience's interest.
A few sentences are enough:
- Start with a general statement about the issue being addressed.
- Then highlight the specific problem your reader is trying to solve.
- Finally, present your solution as the only one capable of meeting their need.
It should perfectly match your readers' expectations and keep its promises. For that reason, it's preferable to write your introduction last so you can more effectively synthesize all the information contained in your article.
The body
To structure a blog post effectively, write short, well-structured paragraphs.
Concretely, your subheadings (H2) must address the original issue and therefore relate to your title. Avoid unreadable blocks of text, and if you need to include a lot of information in a paragraph, break it up with H3 sections to make your content more airy.
The reader should be able to scan the article and find the information they're looking for without having to read the whole piece. Also consider adding bullet lists as early as possible; they catch the eye and improve readability.
To finish on the content of your paragraphs themselves, the rule in web writing is one paragraph = one idea. Remember to return to a new line regularly and use transition words between your sentences. The goal is for information to flow naturally from one point to the next.
The conclusion
Your conclusion will summarize the main idea of your blog post in a few sentences. You can close your article with:
- An open question to encourage your audience to comment.
- A prompt to share on social media.
- A CTA (call-to-action) directing to your online store, a landing page, a newsletter signup… In short, the call to action most relevant to your business!
- Related articles to encourage your readers to stay on your website.
Optimize the content
That said, web article means SEO optimizationone does not go without the other if you want to attract readers!
Start by optimizing your titles and subheadings. Tags play an important role in your organic SEO and help search engines analyze and rank your written content. Include your main keyword in at least one H2 and in your introduction, without over-optimizing your article.
Then naturally repeat your keyword throughout your content and use the lexical field related to it. Several websites can help you find the semantic field linked to your query:
- 1.fr: the site analyzes your content and gives you an SEO score. In its paid version, the tool also provides the list of keywords and phrases to include.
- Alyze.com: here too, the site will analyze the semantics of your article to enrich your web content.
- Antidote: the proofreading tool includes very useful Co-occurrences, Synonyms, Antonyms and Lexical Field tabs for your SEO.
Illustrate your blog post
The impact of visual elements is considerable in an article. An image, an illustration, an infographic or a video will make your content more attractive while also giving it more breathing room.
Choose high-quality visualsroyalty-free, and place at least one image at the top of your article, either after the H1 or after your introduction.
Don't forget to fill the Alt attribute of the relevant tags with alternative text and your keyword for the main image to optimize it!
Create relevant internal linking
Structuring a blog post also means integrating it into your overall SEO strategy. This therefore involves an optimized internal linking structurePlaced strategically, internal links will give your readers the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on related topics.
Three or four links per article are enough to improve the user experience and lower your bounce rate.
Indeed, the more time a prospect spends on your site, the more you boost your SEO score!
Source your blog post
It is important to source your information, because external links allow you to improve your credibility and therefore your reputation in the eyes of users, but also of search engines.
Of course, include only links to reliable, authoritative sites!
Just like your internal links, place your outgoing links sparingly (1 or 2 are enough) and naturally.
Write your meta description tag
Although it doesn't appear directly in your article, writing your meta description plays an important role in your structure.
This short summary of your blog content, if it is attractive, will encourage clicks. The recommended length is on average 160 characters if you want your content to be displayed in full on the search engine results page.
Our tip
If you follow our tips for structure a blog post effectively, you will quickly notice that your texts are much more enjoyable to read.
Now, all that's left is to refine the content or, better yet, to delegate the writing of your articles to our professional web writers !
