Writing a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Templates for] Blog

 Writing a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Templates for] Blog

PostsWhat is a blog post?

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on any topic on your website. They can help you increase traffic, brand awareness, credibility, conversions and revenue.

Today, people and organizations of all walks of life run blogs to share analysis, instructions, criticism, product information, industry findings and more. There are many popular blog formats, but here are six of the most common:

what's a good blog post?

Before writing a blog, make sure you know the answers to questions like, "Why would anyone keep reading this whole blog post?" and "Why does our audience come back for more?"

To begin with, a good blog post is interesting and educational. Blogs should answer questions and help readers solve a challenge they are experiencing - and you should do it in an interesting way.

It's not enough to just answer someone's questions - you also need to provide actionable steps while you're involved. For example, your introduction should appeal to the reader and make them want to keep reading your message. Then use examples to keep your readers interested in what you have to say.

Remember that a good blog post is interesting to read and provides educational content to members of the audience.

(To learn how to apply blogging and other forms of content marketing to your business? Check out HubSpot Academy's free content marketing training page.)

So, how do you actually write one of these compelling and informative pieces?

Writing a blog post

Here are the steps to follow while writing a blog post.

1. Understand your audience.

Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear picture of your target audience.

Ask questions such as: What do they want to know? And what resonates with them?

This is where creating your buyer personas comes in handy. Think about what you know about your buyer personas and their interests as you come up with a topic for your blog post.

For example, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them with information on how to get started on social media - most of them have already mastered that.

However, you can provide them with information on how to adapt their social media approach (for example - from an informal, personal approach to a more businesslike, network-oriented approach). That kind of customization helps you publish content on the topics your audience really wants (and needs).

2. Create your blog domain.

Next, you need a place to host this and every other blog post you write. This requires choosing a content management system (CMS) and a website domain hosting service .

Choose a CMS.

A CMS helps you create a website domain where you actually publish your blog. CMS platforms can manage domains (where you create your website) and subdomains (where you create a webpage that connects to an existing website).

HubSpot customers host web content through CMS Hub. Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on WP Engine. Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blogging, you should choose a web hosting service after choosing a CMS.

Register a domain or subdomain with a website host.

Your blog's domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two dots is up to you, as long as this domain name does not yet exist on the Internet.

Do you want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already have a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you can create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog's subdomain will be in its own section of yourcompany.com.

Some CMSs offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS instead of your company's website. For example, it could look like this: your blog.content management systeem.com. However, if you want to create a subdomain that belongs to a company website, register the subdomain with a website host.

Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain - in fact, website costs can be as cheap as $ 3 per month.

3. Customize the theme of your blog.

Once you've set up your domain name, you can customize the look of your blog to match the theme of the content you plan to create and your brand.

For example, if you're writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a color to keep in mind when designing.

If you already run a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, make sure the article matches the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this are your:

• Logo: This can be your company's name and / or logo - it reminds blog readers who is publishing the content. (However, how strongly you want to brand your blog is up to you.)

• "About" page: You may already have an "About" blurb describing yourself or your business. The "About" section of your blog is an extension of this statement to a higher level. Think of it as your blog's mission statement, which serves to support your company's goals.

Identify the topic of your first blog post.

Choose a topic for your blog post before writing anything. The topic can be quite general at first. For example, if you are a company selling a CRM for small to large businesses, your post may be about the importance of using one software to keep marketing, sales, and service aligned.

Pro tip: you may not want to jump into a "how-to" article for your first blog post.

For example, if you are a plumber writing your first post, you might write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story that you saved a faucet before it flooded a customer's home. Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:

• Listicle: 5 Ways To Fix A Leaking Faucet CuratedSink

• Collection: 10 Faucets AndBrands To Consider Today

• SlideShare Presentation: 5 Types Of Faucets To replace your old one (with pictures)

• News report: new study shows that X% of people do not replace the faucet often enough.

If you're having trouble coming up with topic ideas, check out this blog post from my colleague. In the post, she goes through a useful process of making a lot of an idea. As with the 'leaky faucet' examples above, she suggests 'repeating old topics to come up with unique and engaging new topics'.

This can be done by:

• Changing the scope of the topic

• Adjusting your timeframe

• Choosingnew audience Choosing

• aa positive / negative approach

• Introducing a new format

5. Come up with a working title.

You could come up with a few different working titles, in other words, iterations of approaching that topic to help you write.

For example, you may decide to limit your topic to "Tools for Repairing Leaking Faucets" or "Common Causes of Leaking Faucets". A working title is specific and will accompany your message so that you can start writing.

Let's take a real post as an example, "How to Pick a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post." Appropriate, right? The topic in this case was probably 'blogging'. Then the working title might be something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final title was "How to Pick a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."

Do you see this evolution from subject, to working title, to final title? While the working title may not be the final title (more on that later), it still provides enough information so that you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a general, overwhelming topic.

6. Write an intro (and make it engaging).

We've written more specifically about how to write engaging introductions in the post "How to Write an Introduction", but let's check it out, shall we?

First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs - or even sentences - of the introduction, they'll stop reading (even before they shuffle your post fairly). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or hold the reader down with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then describe the purpose of your message and how it addresses a problem that the reader may be experiencing. This gives the reader a reason to read on and provides a connection to how it will help them improve their work / life.

Here's an example of a post that we think will immediately grab a reader's attention:

7. Organize your content in an outline.

Sometimes blog posts can contain an overwhelming amount of information - for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the information so that readers aren't intimidated by the length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms - sections, lists, tips - whatever is most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Recommended Source: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

Let's check out the post, “How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look at HubSpot's Snapchat Strategy.” There's a lot of content in the piece, so it's broken down into a few sections that have descriptive headers. The main sections are divided into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.

To complete this step, you just need to outline your message. In this way, before you start writing, you will know which points you want to cover and in which order you can best do this. And to make it even easier, you can templates, download and use our free blog posts which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!

8. Write your blog post!

The next step - but not the last - is to write the content. We must of course not forget that.

Now that you have your outline / template, you are ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guideline and expand all points as needed. Write down what you already know and conduct additional research as needed to gather more information, examples and data to support your points, giving appropriate attribution when including external sources.

(Need help finding accurate and compelling data to use in your post? Check out this collection of resources for inspiration.)

If you're having trouble stringing sentences, you're not alone. Finding your "flow" can be a challenge for many people. Fortunately, there are a ton of tools you can rely on to improve your writing skills. Here are a few to get you started:

• Strength Thesaurus: Need a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.

• ZenPen: If you're struggling to stay focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist "writing zone" designed to help you delete words without the immediate hassle of formatting.

• Cliché Finder: Do you feel like your writing looks a bit bland? Identify instances where you can be more specific with this handy cliché tool.

for a full list of tools to improve your writing skills check out this post. And if you're looking for more direction, the following resources are packed with valuable writing:

advice9. Proofread and edit your post.

You're not quite done yet, but you're close! The editing process is an important part of blogging - don't forget it.

Ask a grammar-aware colleague to copy and review your message. You can also consider the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist or using a free enlisting grammar checker like Grammarly.

If you're looking to brush up on your own editing skills, turn to these helpful posts for some tips and tricks to get you started:

When you're ready to format your blog, keep the blog elements in mind ...

Recommended Image

Choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your message. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content.

In fact,being shown to get content with relevant images has94% more views than content without relevant images. For help selecting an image for your post, read "How to select the perfect image for your next blog post" and pay close attention to the copyright section.

Visual appearance

Nobody likes an unattractive blog post. And it's not just photos that make a message visually appealing, it's also the formatting and organization of the message.

In a well-formatted and visually appealing blog post, you'll find that headers and subheads are used to split large blocks of text - and those headers are consistently formatted.

Here's an example of what that looks like: looking like

screenshots should always have a similar, defined border, so that they don't float in space - that style should remain consistent from post to post.

Maintaining this consistency will make your content look more professional and enjoyable.

Topics and tags

Tags are specific, public keywords that describe a post. They also allow readers to browse your blog for more content in the same category. Don't add a laundry list of tags to every post. Instead, consider a blog tagging strategy.

Think of tags as "topics" or "categories" and choose 10-20 tags that represent all the main topics you want to cover on your blog. Then stay with that.

10. Insert a CTA.

At the end of each blog post, include a CTA indicating what you want the reader to do next: subscribe to your blog, download an ebook, register for a webinar or event, read a related article, etc.

Read your visitors your blog post, they click on the CTA and eventually you generate a lead. But the CTA is also a valuable resource for the person reading your content - use your CTAs to provide more content similar to the subject of the post they just read.

For example, the blog post “PostingWhat to Instagram: 18 Photo and Video Ideas to Get Inspired” will give readers actionable ideas for creating valuable Instagram content. At the end of the post is a CTA referrer to download an in-depth guide to using Instagram for business:

See how that's a win-win for everyone? Readers who want to know more have the opportunity to do so, and the company gets an edge they can nurture ... that can even become a customer!

11. Optimize for on-page SEO.

After you finish writing, go back and search the optimized engine of your message.

Don't obsess over the number of keywords you want to include. If there are opportunities to include keywords that you are targeting and it won't affect the reader's experience, then do it. If you can make your URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don't stop keywords or shoot random keyword density - Google is smarter than that!

Here's a little blog SEO reminder of what to look at and optimize:

MetaMeta

DescriptionDescriptions are the descriptions below the post's page title on Google search results pages. They provide searchers with a brief summary of the post before clicking on it. They are ideally between 150 and 160 characters long and start with a verb such as "Learn", "Read" or "Discover".

While meta descriptions no longer play a role in Google's keyword ranking algorithm, they give searchers a snapshot of what they will get when they read the post and help improve your search click-through rate.

Page And Headers

Most blogging software Titles Uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. But if you've followed our formula thus far, you should already have a working title that naturally contains keywords and / or phrases that your target audience is interested in.

Don't make your title too complicated by trying to fit in the keywords of course. That said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords that you target to the title and headers of your post, feel free to take along. Also try to keep your headlines short - ideally less than 65 characters - so that they don't get truncated in search engine results.

AnchorAnchor

text text is the word or words that link to another page - on your website or on another website. Select carefully which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site, as search engines take that into account when ranking your page for certain keywords.

It's also important to consider which pages you are linking to. Consider linking pages that you want to rank for a specific keyword. You could end up having it ranked on the first page of Google results instead of the second page - and those aren't little potatoes.

Mobile Optimization

Since mobile devices are online for almost two to three minutes, having a website with a responsive design is critical. In addition to ensuring that your website visitors (including your blog visitors) have the best possible experience, optimizing for mobile will earn your website some SEO points.

To make sure your site is getting the maximum SEO benefit, check out this free guide: How to Create a Mobile Friendly Website: SEO Tips for a Post "Mobilegeddon" World.

12. Choose a catchy title.

Last but not least, it's time to spruce up that working title of yours. Fortunately, we have a simple formula for writing catchy titles that will grab your reader's attention. Here's what to consider:

• Start with your working title.

• When editing your title, keep in mind that it is important to keep the title accurate and clear.

• Then work on making your title sexy - whether it's foul language, alliteration, or some other literary tactic.

• If you can, optimize for SEO by putting in some keywords (only if it's natural!).

• Finally, see if you can shorten it at all. Nobody likes a long, overwhelming title - just remember, Google prefers 65 characters or less before truncating it on search engine results pages.

Once you've mastered the steps above, learn some ways to take your blog posts to the next level. Do you want real examples of blog posts? Check out what your first blog post might look like below, based on the topic you choose and the audience you're targeting.

1

.: 10 New Ways To Get Better Results From Your

List-Based Blog Posts Example List-Based Blog Posts List-based posts are sometimes referred to as "listicles", a combination of the words "list" and "article". These are articles that provide information in the form of a list. A list uses subheads to break the blog post into separate pieces, making it easier for readers to browse and digest your content. Listicles are among the according to ClearVoice most shared types of content on social media across 14 industries.

As you can see from the example from our blog above, listicles can provide different tips and methods to solve a problem.

2. Thought Leadership Post

Example: What I Wish I Had Known Before Writing My First Book

Thought Leadership Posts allow you to use your expertise on a particular topic and share first-hand knowledge with your readers.

These pieces - which can be written in first person, such as Joanna Penn's post, shown above - will help build trust with your audience so that people will take your blog seriously while you keep writing for it.

3.Collection Post

Example: 8 Examples ofEvolution in Action

CuratedCurated collections are a special type of list blog post. Rather than sharing tips or methods for doing something, this blog post type shares a list of real-life examples that all have something in common to prove a bigger point.

In the sample post above, Listverse shares eight real-life examples of evolution in action between eight different animals - starting with the peppered moth.

4.slideshare presentation

Example of one: The HubSpot culture code

Slideshare is a presentation tool from the social network LinkedIn, which allows publishers to pack information into easily shareable slides. Think of it like a PowerPoint, but for the web. With this in mind, Slideshare blog posts will help you promote your Slideshare so that it can generate a steady stream of visitors.

Unlike blogs, Slideshare decks don't often rank well in search engines, so they need a platform to get their message out to the people who are looking for it. By embedding and summarizing your Slideshare in a blog post, you can share a lot of information while also giving you the chance to score on Google.

Do you need some Slideshare ideas? In the example above, we turned our company's "Culture Code" into a Slideshare presentation that anyone can look through and learn from, and then promoted it in a blog post.

5.Newsjacking PostGoes

Example of: IvyMobile with New Designer App

"Newsjacking" is a nickname for "hijacking" your blog to share important news related to your industry. Therefore, the newsjack post is a type of article whose sole purpose is to grab the consumer's attention and, while offering them timeless professional advice, also prove that your blog is a trusted resource for learning about the great things that are in your industry.

The above newsjack sample was published by Houzz, a home decor retailer and interior design resource, about a new mobile app launched specifically for interior designers. Houzz has not launched the app, but the news of the launch is no less important to the Houzz audience.

6. Infographic Post

Example of: The Main Benefits of Studying Online [Infographic]

The infographic post has a similar purpose to the Slideshare post - the fourth example, explained above - in that it conveys information that might require a regular blog copy is not the best format.

For example, if you want to share a lot of statistical information (without boring or confusing your readers), you can build this data into a well-designed, even fun-looking infographic , so that your readers stay engaged with your content. It also helps readers remember the information long after they leave your website.

7.

Blog Post Example: How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide

For this example, look no further than the blog post you are reading right now! Guides like these will help solve a problem for your readers. They are like a cookbook for your industry, taking your audience step-by-step through a project to improve their literacy on the subject.

The more of these types of posts you create, the better your readers will be at working with you and investing in the services you offer.

8. Guest Post

Sample: Your Guide to Bookmarks for Social Media Image In 2020 [Infographic]

SizesGuest posts are a type of blog post that you can use to record other voices on your blog. For example, if you want to get the opinion of an outside expert on a topic, a guest post is perfect for that.

Moreover, these posts give your blog variety in topic and point of view. If your customer has a problem that you can't solve, a guest post is a great way to fix that problem.

When you start accepting guest posts, establish editorial guidelines to ensure they meet the same standards as your posts.

Ready to blog?

Blogging can help you build brand awareness, become an opinion leader and expert in your industry, attract qualified leads, and drive conversions. Follow the steps and tips we covered above to start publishing and improving your blog today.