It's now a well-established fact: to have a chance of reaching the top search results, you need to create content.
That said, blog article production has exploded in recent years, with more than 17 articles published every second on WordPress alone!
Knowing that 75% of users don't go beyond the second page of search engines, your articles must rank well to be read.
To help you climb the SERP, here is the ultimate guide to writing SEO-optimized blog posts.
Take the time to analyze your keyword
Ranking for a keyword requires some preliminary research, notably its level of competition, if you expect your article to reach the top of the SERPs!
Here are three tips that will help you assess the difficulty of your keywords:
- The command "allintitle:keyword": type this command into Google and observe the results. If you get fewer than 5,000 results, the competition is low; between 5,000 and 10,000 it is medium; beyond 10,000 you will have trouble ranking because the competition is high.
- The SERP: do a Google search for your keyword. If the first page only shows authoritative sites, it's like you're going to be fighting Goliath…
- Google Ads: use the keyword planner tool and analyze the average monthly search volume. Between 10K and 100K, competition will be fierce!
Determine which blog post to write based on search intent
The very essence of search engines is to respond accurately to users' queries.
So, logically, if you want your blog post to appear at the top of the list, you must create content that matches your prospects' search intent.
Here's what to do:
- Repeat your search on Google with your keyword, but this time observe which content appears first.
- If the top three results show a tutorial, a guide, a comparison test… then you’ve found what kind of content your audience wants to read on the topic!
- Are videos and images appearing in large numbers? Then your blog post will need to be very visual!
Then, build your article structure also according to search intent:
- Analyze the structure of top articles with the Web Developer extension (available on all browsers: Chrome, Firefox…) by clicking Information, then View Document Outline. Compare the Hn headings of the articles and integrate recurring questions into your structure.
- In Google, note the Related searches and People also ask; they’ll help you create a blog post outline that perfectly matches your audience’s search intent!
Write for your audience
It can't be repeated often enough: writing blog posts optimized for SEO is good, but the priority is to write for your reader!
Especially since Google favors quality content and you'll earn valuable points by writing excellent articles.
Here are some writing techniques:
Polish your title
Your title is what will make users want to click on your article, so it is essential that it be compelling.
All the more so because the more clicks you get, the more Google will conclude that your article is interesting.
To write a catchy title and spark your reader's interest:
- Be brief and concise (between 6 and 12 words).
- Be precise: your prospect must immediately know what your article is about.
- Hook your reader with a positive opening that sparks their curiosity and gives them the solution to their problem. For example: "Discover X tips to write an irresistible headline."
- Use power words and play on emotional triggers: perfect, exceptional, incredible, great deal, solution, revolutionary…
- Favor headlines as questions or statements: "How to easily reach the top of the SERP in X steps?", "The X secrets to improve your organic ranking"…
- Don’t forget your keyword!
Captivate readers right from the introduction
Your reader clicked your URL; now your introduction must make them want to keep reading!
There are several writing methods, including the P.A.S. formula (Problem, Agitation, Solution).
It's the most effective, as it clearly reveals the article's content while piquing the reader's interest:
- Problem: start from an obvious point with a short, affirmative sentence (a fact, a figure, a quote… related to the article’s topic).
- Agitation: highlight the problems caused by your topic.
- Solution: end your introduction by restating the main idea of the title to confirm to your readers that you have the solution to their problem.
To be effective, your introduction should be punchy but also brief (no more than 10 lines).
Also read: 20 tips for finding catchy article titles
Don't lose your reader along the way!
For both your audience and your SEO, your article must engage readers from start to finish by providing the best possible user experience.
To retain your reader's attention for as long as possible:
- Write short sentences.
- Use storytelling.
- Adapt the tone of the blog post to your target audience.
- Question your readers.
- Give concrete examples.
- Introduce dynamic transition sentences to make your writing more lively.
- Insert visuals (video, image, infographic...).
Also read: 8 essential statistics to improve your blog posts
Work on your lexical field
To write SEO-optimized blog posts, it is essential to provide algorithms with a substantial semantic field and help them determine which query to rank for.
Here are some sites and tools that will help you broaden your semantic field:
1.fr : the site performs a semantic analysis of your article (or from a keyword) and provides a list of secondary keywords necessary for better SEO.
YourTextGuru : the online service allows any content creator to benefit from a rich vocabulary and to identify the key phrases relevant to your positioning.
Antidote : the spell-checking software will also provide you with a list of synonyms, co-occurrences and the lexical field of your keyword while correcting your spelling mistakes. A handy two-in-one!
Final tip: don't do keyword stuffing! You would be penalized by Google, as the practice is considered spam.
Choose the right length for your blog posts
This question comes up repeatedly, and in content marketing you often hear contradictory advice.
Short content tends to be singled out: not effective enough, too short to rank or to inform the reader…
Priority has been given to long-form content, but each content length still has its place in an effective content marketing strategy.
Long content, short content: what are we talking about?
To choose the right content length, let's start with a definition:
The short content : it is under 1200 words, easy to write and consume. It only partially covers a single topic.
It is often used for news articles, short blog posts, social media posts, infographics, and emails.
The long content : it is therefore over 1200 words and covers its subject in depth. Its writing is exhaustive and requires time and research.
It is expected to convey detailed expertise on the topic addressed.
It is recommended for detailed blog posts, guides and tutorials, white papers, webinars and of course pillar pages.
Why does the word count of your article matter?
Now that you know the difference between short-form and long-form content, you will easily understand that they do not serve the same marketing objectives.
For example, if your content strategy aims to acquire backlinks, you should therefore focus on long-form content.
On the other hand, if your goal is to gain organic traffic, although long-form content is more likely to satisfy users' queries, short content can very well outperform it if it precisely matches search intent.
This is often the case for product pages on e-commerce sites, which, with fewer than 250 words, rank at the top of the SERPs.
In fact, for an effective content marketing strategy, the ideal is to find the right balance between the two writing formats.
To do this you must determine your prospects' needs at the current moment, based on several criteria:
- Your competitors: here, you will need to do more and do better than the competition, and that inevitably means offering substantial, well-researched content.
- Answer search intent: as we saw earlier, the length and format of your article will be determined by your audience's expectations.
- Your prospects' engagement: to know which format to adopt, analyze the results of your previous writing. Look at which type of content drives the most conversions, the most shares on social networks, the most interaction...
Optimize on-page SEO
Your article is written, but the work doesn't stop there.
To gain good visibility for your website, increase your conversion rate and therefore have more potential customers, the technical side of SEO still needs to be fine-tuned:
- Your keyword should appear in the Title tag, in the meta description, in the URL and in your introduction.
- The Alt tags your images must be optimized with your keyword for the featured image and your semantic field in the following ones.
- Your internal linking: add 3 to 5 internal links to related articles.
- Optimize your anchor texts and avoid "click here"!
- Improve the loading speed of your web pages.
- Write a short, compelling title tag.
- Polish your meta description.
- Respect the hierarchy of your Hn tags.
- Include external links to authoritative sites.
Attract backlinks
Finally, all that's left is to attract inbound links (and attract them naturally! Google really doesn't like buying links...).
Don't underestimate the importance of backlinks; they are one of the most important SEO ranking factors!
To get links, you can use the Semrush tool tobacklink analysis.
You just need to insert your competitors' URL and contact the sites that link to the article in question, then offer them your own content while highlighting its merits.
Otherwise, if your inbound marketing strategy is effective and your content is relevant, it should be shared on social networks and you should start earning backlinks naturally.
Our advice
You now have all the tips to write SEO-optimized blog posts! However, one last piece of advice: outsource their writing to professional web writers to gain even more in quality!
Blog post examples for SEO
Need blog post examples to optimize your SEO strategy? You’re in the right place!
To help you improve your content marketing performance, we offer 5 effective text templates for your SEO. Enjoy the read!
1. Lists: the perfect blog posts to appear in position 0
Also called listicles, list-style articles are very popular with readers.
These pieces, presented in a condensed format, use bullet points and numbers (instead of paragraphs) to make the information easier to understand.
It’s also one of the few formats that users read in full. Yet, writing a list-style article isn’t that simple.
Of course it should be numbered, but it must also above all be balanced and impactful. How do you succeed at writing a listicle? Here’s everything you need to know on the subject.
Advantages of lists
No matter the topic you want to cover, you can certainly present it as a list! Tips, tricks, quotes, statistics… Anything works to turn your idea into valuable bullet points for your readers.
And the benefits of this blog post example are numerous:
- Easy to read, even on smartphones: these articles attract and keep mobile users on your site.
- Lists improve reader engagement: they can easily find the information they're looking for, which makes them want to continue browsing your website.
- A perfect structure from an SEO perspective: moreover, lists often appear in position 0, as shown by this example:
- Lists are easy to adapt and reuse: you can turn each bullet into a tip tweet, summarize them in an infographic, include the article in a semantic cocoon to encourage internal linking, etc.
Constructing list article titles
To encourage users to read your list, the title of your article should follow these best practices:
- Grab readers' attention with terms like "best", "top", "mistakes", etc.
- Clearly state what the reader will learn by placing your target keyword at the beginning of the title. Example: Web writing: the 15 best online proofreading tools.
- Use a striking, meaningful number: if it's under 5, the list will be seen as uninteresting.
Writing the list
How do you write your listicle so both readers and search engines appreciate it?
The introduction
No need to overdo it. The introduction should be concise and precise. From the start, clearly state what the reader will find!
The body of the article
The body of the article must contain the number of items promised in the title as H2 headings. Be sure to insert keywords into the subheadings to improve organic search ranking.
If your article is longer than 500 words, it is recommended to add visuals to break up the text. Photos, videos, charts, screenshots… make sure the image illustrates your points to keep readers' attention.
The conclusion
Lastly: summarize the main idea of the list, giving one final tip related to your content.
The call-to-action
For the call-to-action, ask yourself what you expect from your visitors after reading: signing up for your newsletter, downloading a resource, calling you, reading another article, etc.
How to use lists effectively in a blog post?
Criticized by some who see it as sloppy writing, the list actually has a great quality: it makes certain information easier to understand. When a paragraph feels heavy, using a list can facilitate reading and, in turn, comprehension.
The simplest case is to take a cooking recipe. Imagine you are writing a blog post about crepes.
You could list the ingredients like this:
To prepare your crepe batter, you need the following ingredients: 2 packets of vanilla sugar, 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, 50 cl of milk, 3 eggs and 250 g of flour.
You will agree that it is rather difficult for someone trying to follow your recipe to find their way easily. In this specific case, the bulleted list allows you to improve your reader's experience.
The ingredients for the crepe batter are:
- 2 packets of vanilla sugar
- 1 tbsp of granulated sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 50 cl of milk
- 3 eggs
- 250 g of flour
Now let's move on to making the recipe. Imagine you wrote it in a single paragraph:
Put the flour in the bowl and add the salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs, mixing everything together. Pour in the milk while continuing to mix until there are no lumps left. Oil the griddle and cook the crepes. All that's left is to enjoy them with sugar or jam.
Read also: 8 tips to make your blog posts readable on mobile devices
Once again, this series of information is difficult to decipher. So you would do well to use an ordered list to describe the different steps of the recipe. Here is an example:
Preparing the crêpes:
- Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Add the salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and the eggs while mixing.
- Pour in the milk while continuing to mix until there are no more lumps.
- Cook your crêpes in a greased crêpe pan.
- Enjoy with sugar or jam.
Bullet list typography
As seen above, there are two kinds of lists:
- Bulleted list: Allows you to list a number of pieces of information.
- Ordered list (numbered): Most often, it is used to indicate the steps of a process.
These two types of lists can appear in different versions that include varying bullet levels.
Punctuation in lists
A list should be introduced by a sentence that makes sense with the words that make up the list. In short, reading should flow.
The main social networks are:
For a list that requires one or more descriptive sentences, use:
- Capital letter after the colon:
- No final period if there is only one sentence after the colon:
- A final period if there is more than one sentence after the colon:
Example of a list with a colon (:)
The three main social networks are:
- LinkedIn: Professional social network. It allows its members to publish content.
- Facebook: Social network with 1.47 billion users. Enables businesses to create sponsored content.
- Twitter: A social network focused on sharing information. Ideal for sharing links and spreading news.
Beyond enumeration or its guiding function, the bulleted list also helps create an overview of your article’s content. Used at the start of the text, it lets your reader discover what the article will cover and how it will be structured.
It’s also a fairly effective way not to discourage a reader faced with a long article.
List-type article: some rules to follow
Are you embarking on writing a list-style article? Not sure how to proceed?
Here are a few rules to follow to make your content perform well.
Don't start your article directly with a numbered list
It is recommended not to start the article with the numbered list. In addition to the introduction, you should add a short paragraph about the topic. This section should have a striking heading that makes your audience want to read the content instead of going straight to the numbered list.
Identify a problem and try to solve it
To attract as many readers as possible, your article must address an issue that resonates with them and, ideally, is directly or indirectly related to your activity or expertise. This requires some upfront understanding. To do this, you can use social media!
Make your content compelling
Your content won’t be read if it has no interest. Avoid purely informational lists! You must find a way to make your content appealing, even if the topic itself isn’t. To achieve this, you can use humor or tackle the issue in an unconventional way.
For example, rather than covering for the 1001st time the topic of how to lose weight (10 tips to lose weight, 8 tips to really slim down), you can invert the problem and produce an offbeat list-style article titled: 8 ways to multiply your love handles.
Thanks to it, the goal is still achieved because the reader can identify bad habits and use the solutions you provide to reverse the trend and lose weight.
Set a strategic goal
As with any content production, you should set an objective. Whether you want to present a product or service, generate traffic, or build audience loyalty, it is essential to identify the goal before you start writing.
Create a shareable visual
Producing a list-format article is good, but pairing it with an infographic or visual is even better!
Why? Because if the reader liked your article, they can share it in another format on social networks.
2. "How-to" articles to increase your visibility
How-to articles, which take the form of tutorials, guide your readers step by step on how to do or achieve something.
They can resemble lists, but the objective is more concrete. While lists convey theory, the “how-to” takes on a practical aspect. After reading it, visitors can accomplish a task.
Benefits of how-to articles
If we have included these tutorials in our blog post examples for SEOit is precisely because they improve your reputation with search engines and users by:
- Compliance with EAT criteria established by Google : Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness (reliability).
- A practical, high-value aspect that encourages sharing: if the reader can accomplish an action thanks to your article, they will be more likely to share it.
- Strong positive signals to Google: if visitors spend time on the content (often the case with a tutorial), this encourages Google to rank it higher in results.
How-to article title construction
To craft the title of your how-to article, analyze the questions regularly asked by your clients on your blog, on social media, by your sales teams, and by your customer advisors.
Obviously, your title must include the word "How" and:
- Be direct with active verbs
- Clearly explain the problem to solve
- Contain the benefit of following your process
In the example that appears in first position for the query "how to make a website mockup", you see an exceptional and enticing promise: create the mockup in just 30 minutes!
Writing the how-to article
How best to structure your "how to" to capture the attention of readers and search engines?
The introduction
The introduction in this example blog post should immediately hold your visitor. Generally, if they are looking for a tutorial, it means they are in a hurry to get something done. In 2 or 3 sentences, show that you understand their pain point and quickly present your solution.
The body of the article
Be educational and direct when running through the tutorial.
- Present the different steps as numbered H2 headings.
- Use active verbs, preceded by dashes or bullet points to clearly show the "step-by-step" nature.
- Make the steps easier to understand by including images, infographics, or videos.
The conclusion
The conclusion is the ideal place to mention your product that helps solve the problem.
The call-to-action
You can direct your visitors to more detailed content, such as a white paper containing the complete methodology.
Trust Redacteur.com for your SEO strategy and have up to 60 pieces of 800-word content and 3 pillar pages of 2,500 words written following a semantic audit carried out by an SEO expert. Quickly discover the SEO content strategy packs ! Redacteur.com takes care of everything: finding the keywords relevant to your business, developing the topics, writing the content (SEO-optimized and formatted in HTML!).
3. Trending-topic articles to get traffic quickly
The success of trending topics remains time-limited, but their popularity is usually sufficient to quickly attract traffic to your site. This strategy, called "newsjacking," makes it easy to showcase expertise, a product, or a service.
You can use it when launching a new product or to draw renewed attention to an older offer.
Benefits of trending topics
Newsjacking is a powerful example of an SEO blog post, because it involves riding popular search intents to increase your traffic. This has many advantages:
- Make your name and content known to a larger, qualified audience.
- Prove your expertise and leadership in the market.
- Become a go-to source for news and updates in your industry (very important in B2B!).
- Encourage the creation of internal links and the acquisition of backlinks from other websites.
Trending topics title construction
Be sure to place the news-related keyword at the start of the title. Depending on the article's nature, you can then:
- Ask a question
- Find a playful hook if the topic and your image allow it
- Cite an interesting statistic (if you are sharing a study, for example)
Writing the trending article
You are probably not the only one writing about this trending topic! To make your content stand out, here are some web writing best practices to follow.
The introduction
Get straight to the point, as OM fans would say! In the first sentence, make it clear that you're covering a hot topic currently making the rounds.
The body of the article
To ensure the main body of the article is well written:
- Offer a fresh angle: if you repeat what competitors say, your content will lose value.
- Use Google’s "Related searches" section to enrich your content with relevant queries.
- Even if the article is a bit offbeat, keep the tone appropriate for your audience and brand image.
The conclusion
In conclusion, summarize the connection between this news item and your business.
The call-to-action
Redirect the reader to an offer related to the news or invite them to download an additional resource in order to collect their contact details.
4. The comparison article: a blog post example to attract qualified traffic
A comparison article highlights the differences between similar services and products. It helps readers determine which offer best suits their needs. In some cases, it will be a comparison with your competitor.
Benefits of comparison articles
Writing a comparison article is an opportunity to:
- Increase the informative content on your website: these articles generally have a longer lifespan and are easier to rank.
- Attract mature visitors in the middle/late stages of the funnel.
- Improve your ranking by raising your E‑A‑T scores.
- Increase customer satisfaction by guiding them toward a tailored offer.
Comparison article title construction
The title of your comparison article should contain the keywords related to the items being compared. Be sure to mark the comparison with words like "VS", "Or", "Against", "Differences", "Which"…
You can also add the question that reflects the user's search intent.
Writing the comparison article
The visitor reading your comparison article has already done prior research. They are near the end of their decision-making process. You should take this into account when writing.
The introduction
You no longer need to remind or define basic concepts in your introduction. Instead, detail the data considered when creating your comparison.
The body of the article
Use a structure that promotes quick reading and highlights each product's different features: bullet lists or a table. The visitor should be able to "scan" the content and quickly understand:
- The benefits of the product/service
- The drawbacks or limitations
- The needs the product/tool addresses
- The level of expertise required to use it, in the case of a technical product (beginner, intermediate, or expert)
In the article "Samsung Galaxy S9 vs iPhone XS: Comparison and Differences," the author provides a table summarizing the technical differences between each device, which makes comparison easier:
The conclusion
In the conclusion, summarize the questions the reader should ask themselves before choosing the solution that best suits their needs.
The call-to-action
Encourage the visitor to contact you to receive personalized support or a quote.
Also read: Buying blog posts: why invest?
5. Presenting an infographic: a blog post example that combines SEO and social media
Both impactful for your SEO and easy to share on social networks, the infographic it boosts your ranking, your visibility, and your traffic!
Benefits of an infographic presentation
This type of content:
- Provide a complete, visual answer to the questions a user has about a given topic.
- Helps convey hard-to-digest information, such as a market study, a survey, or the explanation of a technical concept.
- Increases time spent on your pages.
- Encourages sharing on social media.
- Generates quality backlinks.
- Optimizes search ranking in Google Images.
However, to bring value to the reader and rank well in search engines, an infographic requires well-developed, clear, and coherent text.
Infographic article title construction
The word "Infographic" attracts readers. Put it at the start of the title, then add a phrase that describes its content.
Be clear: if it is a list of tips, write "X tips for"; if it is a study, say "what the latest study reveals about..."; if it is a tutorial, specify "X steps to..."; and so on.
Writing an infographic presentation
An infographic alone will not be enough to optimize SEO. You must accompany it with an article that details the elements of the visual.
The introduction
The introduction of the article containing the infographic presents the source of the information. Indeed, you may have created it following a study or survey, based on your expertise, or repurposed it from an expert's blog.
In the latter case, the introduction should include a presentation of the author and a link to their website.
The body of the article
The body of the article covers each point mentioned in the infographic along with your personal touch. You should add your remarks, opinions, analyses, and additional advice to bring value to the content.
The conclusion
Summarize the main information conveyed by the infographic, including your overall analysis.
The call-to-action
Generally, the desired action is sharing. Encourage readers to share your article on their social networks.
6 blog post ideas for your e-commerce
For an e-commerce site, one question remains: which topics should be covered on a blog?
To provide high-value content to your target audience and subtly promote your products, here are some blog post ideas to create…
1. "How Much Does It Cost" articles
Questions related to the cost of a product or service are very important for prospective buyers. After all, you’ve probably already looked on Google for a price estimate.
Articles like “How much does … cost?” are very beneficial for your e-commerce site. They help build trust with your prospects and explain your pricing to them transparently.
Here are some examples of “How much does it cost?” articles:
Idea and trend articles
If your audience often seeks inspiration or advice on how to create something unique to them, then blog posts that list ideas or trends are perfectly suited.
For example, if you sell furniture you could publish an article suggesting different layout or decoration ideas. If you sell fashion accessories, you can showcase seasonal trends. Other examples:
Don’t forget to include a few links to your products so readers can make purchases.
Comparative articles
Comparison articles allow you to compare two (or more) products/services with one another. Your goal is to identify the strengths and also the weaknesses of each to help the user choose according to their needs.
For this type of blog post, structure is essential. You can either compare items by features, or dedicate a section to each and discuss their advantages and disadvantages in depth.
If you want to write a comparison article, read our dedicated article on this topic.
Here are some examples of comparison articles:
- Shopify vs WooCommerce: the comparison
- Photoshop or Illustrator: which should you choose for your graphic design?
- ABlog post or white paper: which should you choose?
Benefit-based articles
Because of a lack of knowledge about a product, internet users are less likely to buy it.
If that is your case, you may have difficulty selling your electric corkscrew. You need to prove that your product is indispensable. To do so, focus on a blog post that presents the benefits of your great corkscrew.
For your article title, take inspiration from the following:
- The 7 benefits of SEO for your business
- 6 reasons to create a blog for your brand.
- 7 statistics that prove the benefits of personalized content
Your article must be convincing and highlight only your product's advantages.
Articles that outline a problem
If internet users search on Google (or any other search engine), it's because they have problems and want to find a solution.
In writing or via voice search, they will ask their question: for example, how to invest in real estate ?
If your article title is phrased as a question, you'll be more visible in search results (especially for voice search), and you promise the user that you have the answer.
For your e-commerce site, draw up a list of questions potential buyers might ask: you'll thus find many article topics. For example:
- E-commerce: why are your customers leaving your site without buying?
- Why don't your visitors read your content all the way through?
For writing your content, entrust this task to a professional copywriter on Redacteur.com.
How-to/tutorial articles
Tutorials or articles that answer the question "How…?" are ideal because they can include different media: images, as well as videos.
Again, you need to answer your audience's questions very precisely and, above all, step by step.
Here are blog posts that serve as tutorials:
For your blog to be beneficial to your e-commerce site, be consistent in publishing your articles and make sure you address a need or problem of your audience. You must show them that you can be THE solution.
4 ways to use numbers in a blog post
A blog post isn't made up of words alone; you can include numbers, and it is even recommended.
Just in the title, if you include a number your content has 4 times more likely to be shared ! So what about the article itself? What are the advantages and how do you insert your numbers?
Here are 4 ways to include numbers in your blog post.
1. Provide statistics
Including statistics in your blog post is a very good way to support your points.
Your readers don't necessarily trust what you say. By adding precise figures, you provide evidence and show that your statements are based on facts.
Your statistics must be precise and come from reliable, official sources. Also, always be sure to insert a link to the source in question.
2. Share your own results
As a blogger, nothing prevents you from sharing your results, such as your number of fans on your Facebook page, the number of visits to your blog, etc.
This practice is quite popular and generally appreciated by readers. By sharing such data, you show them that success is possible.
Should you share the exact numbers? Yes and no.
You can round the numbers by writing, for example, "My newsletter has more than 10,000 subscribers." That reads a bit better than writing "My newsletter has 10,438 subscribers."
But giving precise figures clearly shows that your results are accurate and that you are not cheating.
So it's up to you to find the right balance between rounding and the exact number, and the appropriate context for each use.
3. List steps to follow
It makes sense: if your article teaches your readers something and there are steps to follow, you'll use numbers. This is common practice in tutorials, for example.
Listing the different steps makes it possible to structure your text and to make reading easier. Your reader may go back and forth between your article and the task they're trying to complete. Numbers will help them orient themselves and remember which step they're on.
You should group the actions to be carried out into 5 to 10 steps. If you have too many, you risk overwhelming your reader.
4. Share ideas in list form
You are probably thinking that present ideas or advice in list form is the same as if you indicated steps to follow. Well, not really.
In the case of a tutorial, for example, your reader is required to read the different points in the order given.
With a list of ideas, it's possible to start with any item, and your reader is not required to read everything.
Presenting an article in list form is ideal for showing readers that you deliver on your promises. Here, we promise you 4 ways to use numbers in a blog post. These 4 points have been highlighted with a numbered list.
Also read: How to use lists effectively in a blog post?
Using numbers in your blog post, whether in the title or the text, helps structure it, makes it easier to read and encourages sharing.
Blog post or white paper: which to choose for your SEO?
Create content is essential when you have a blog or websites.
However, before starting to write, it is important to determine what type of content to create. You can write a blog post, as we have seen, or embark on writing in a white paper, in other words an ebook.
Which format to choose? Here are some answers.
1. When to choose a blog post?
Blog posts are the most commonly used content formats.
Most of the time, their length is between 300 and 1,500 words. Writing a blog post is a regular exercise that ensures visitors always have a recent article to read.
Blog articles can take different formats, they can be:
- editorial content,
- news,
- analyses,
- reports,
- briefs,
- interviews,
- Q&A,
- lists,
- etc.
A blog post is associated with magazine articles. Users can choose the content they want to read and quickly skip the rest.
When they read blog posts, they are not really looking for a specific piece of information. They are simply keeping themselves informed.
It is very important that blog posts be attractive. They must capture users' attention and make them want to read the content. The presence of illustrations, infographics, videos or podcasts increases a blog post's visibility.
Blog posts promote good SEO for your site. It is very important to take good care of them and, above all, to offer readers content they want to read.
When is a white paper necessary?
Sometimes a blog post is not enough. Because you want to write longer, more complete content, even a guide, you may want to turn to another format.
It can be useful to write a white paper, also called ebook.
- Choosing to write a white paper means offering your readers much more substantial content. This type of format contains between 2,000 and 15,000 words.
- For a reference point, know that a novel typically contains between 50,000 and 100,000 words.
Many other questions arise with the white paper.
For example, you will have to decide whether to send it by email. In that case, you will need to ask users to provide their email address in order to receive your work.
This method is very useful because it allows you to identify people who are interested in your activity. Some time later, you can send them a newsletter or communicate about the availability of new white papers.
Know that it is sometimes possible to sell a white paper. In that case, the content must be very interesting and provide real help or information to readers.
Why choose?
It is possible not to choose between a blog post and a white paper.
You can perfectly well have both, even on the same subject. For example, you can start by writing a blog post on the topic in question then analyze its popularity. If it is positive, go ahead and start writing a white paper.
This method can also help build reader loyalty because you can announce the release of the white paper and invite them to leave their email address so they can receive it as soon as it is available.
The reverse is also possible.
You can start by writing a white paper, then create several blog posts from it. Each section can become a blog post or more if the topic is rich. You will simply need to rewrite the content to adapt it properly to each format.
A few writing tips
Even if you write both blog posts and a white paper on the same topic, you must follow a few guidelines.
These two types of content do not follow the same rules and you must adapt your writing.
If you write a blog post, you should:
- pay attention to layout,
- find attractive titles and subtitles,
- include keywords that will improve SEO,
- keep it lively,
- illustrate.
If you write a white paper, you should:
- go deeper into the information provided,
- cite sources when necessary,
- write a lot more content.
Do you know the rates for a white paper or e-book?
Finally, whether you write blog posts or white papers, be sure to communicate the availability of this content. You can rely on social media which allow you to reach your target audience and even interact with them.
Choosing the right type of content to create is essential to add value to your business and generate qualified leads. Before you start writing, identify the topics to cover and, for each of them, consider the information to include.
With the help of an expert on Rédacteur.com, the choice between a blog post and a white paper will be relatively straightforward. naturally.
Our tip for creating blog posts
All of these blog post examples have their place in your SEO strategy, because they serve various useful purposes for your SEO.
If you need help improving your SEO, order your articles on Redacteur.com. Our professional writers are here to help you with your SEO content strategy!
