By Daisy Mae
Learn all you need to know about how to write a successful blog post. Improve your blog posts now by following these simple tips.
What is web content writing?
Blog post writing is actually simple, if you follow some basic guidelines. In this blog, read on and see what is involved in writing a good blog post. This article is about blogging for beginners.
Whatever the reason for writing your blog, the basic approach, structure and technique for this process will be the same. There are three key concepts listed below:
1
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
What is SEO?
Google is the biggest and most frequently used search engine, although there are others e.g. Bing, Yahoo. These search engines do just that – they search. They use “spiders” which crawl through the data and sift it by topic. (A bit like a drone in a warehouse, searching for gift items ordered online at Amazon.)
To recognise web content, these spiders need to recognise key words and phrases. These particular key words and phrases derive from what people type into the Google search bar, when they are looking for something. Key words for this piece you are reading right now, for example, include ‘writing your first blog post,’ ‘web content writing’ ... which you can see right at the top of this blog page, in the title and the first heading.
You can find SEO key words for your content writing at https://www.storybase.com
Where you use your keywords is also important - the higher up the page, the more value the search crawler will attribute to the keyword. The best place to include keywords is in your H2s (subheadings with a particular HTML tag). The H2s at the top of the page are more important so try and include keywords in your first 3 at least.
Keywords represent a ‘user intent’ - the information a user is looking for when they perform a search engine search. While including keywords is important, in order to rank for them you also have to provide the information the user was looking for when they performed the search. This is the key to keyword rankings.
When writing web content, you must include a handful of key words. Perhaps 4-6 per blog piece. Too many does not work and the blog will not read well. This is essential as your blog will have no effect if no one knows it is there! Using correct key words means to can be found promptly on a Google search.
2
How to structure your blog post
Choose a web hosting service
Choose a web site host e.g. Wix, Word press and set up your website. The scope of this is beyond this article, but each hosting site will have instructions, and online web support to help you get started.
Web Content Writing
Web writing is very different to writing for general publication.
Web articles need to be appropriately written for reading on the internet.
60% of web searching is now conducted on a mobile phone. Your blog must be easily accessible and readable on a mobile phone screen, as well as on a desk top.
In contrast to writing for books and magazines, where writing is quite cramped on the page to save paper, on the computer, spacing out your writing and leaving white space is better.
- Do not crowd your piece, space widely and leave margins. This increases the attractiveness of your blog article.
- Write in short paragraphs, not more than 3 or 4 sentences. Spiders do not like long lines of text.
- Where possible, use bulleted lists and other formatting to help direct users to the specific information they’re looking for - help them scratch their ‘information itch’
- You can also rank for images in Google search for make sure you tag your images with the right keywords using the alt tag attribute.
- In particular, link internally to your other blogs posts about similar topics. If you have clusters of pages ranking for similar keywords they can help support each other and rank better.
- Use images, one or possibly two, per page. You can get royalty free images for example from https://free-images.com.
- Use links and hyperlinks so it is easy for the reader to follow these to other blogs/sites.
3
Technical issues
Title tag – This is the Title of the web page, and appears first, on the search engine results page e.g. Essential Tips for Writing Your First Blog Post.
Meta description – This is one or two short sentences describing what the article is about. This appears on the Google results page, after you have clicked to request a search, directly underneath the Title tag) e.g. - Learn all you need to know about how to write a successful blog post. Improve your blog posts now by following these simple tips.
Tag – This is a written description of any images in the blog piece which should be uploaded onto the hosting site. See image above - e.g. magnifying glass held over the Google search bar.
URL- This is the web address of your post. It needs to be created when your blog piece is uploaded to your website and should be consistent with the blog content e.g. www.createasite.howtowriteablog/daisy
Links – Any reference in your article to other web sites/articles should be linked by a hyperlink. This means the reader can simply click to follow the links to the next article. If referencing my novel Dating Daisy for example, this should be written - For information on internet dating and all your sexual health enquiries (https://www.datingdaisy.net/).
h1 tags are the keywords in the title tag and should be as close as possible to the content of your article. An h2 tag is the first subheading, and should contain key words which are similar to h1. An h3 tag is a subheading for h2 ... and this continues throughout the post.
Further tips
Know your audience
Create a persona for who is reading your blog and write specifically for these
people. Offer a solution, solve problems. Be confident, you are the expert.
Write properly
Penguins and polar bears prowl the search engines – with the spiders – and they dislike poor spelling, poor grammar and poor English. Check punctuation.
Headings
Use headings and sub-headings. Ask questions, then give the answers.
Remember when people read – they skim read in a matter of milliseconds. Your key points need
to stand out.
Be inclusive
Invite readers to share your post, to comment on your post. Be engaging for example, don’t use “Contact details, “ say “Get in touch?”... this is warmer and more engaging.
Benefits - not just features
Don’t just feature your product/service, stress the benefits of what this can achieve.
Vocabulary
Keep it simple. Don’t use long words on purpose.
Also, use ‘power’ words such as ‘New, Fresh, Improved, Proven, Easy ...’ these are buzz words in marketing/advertising.
Edit
Edit, edit and edit again – less is more. The best length for a blog post is around 800 words. You can also go back and add content to a post if you think it will help it rank better
Social media
Link to social media. This is crucial. Facebook/Instagram and Twitter.
Rounding up
Get in touch -
Daisy Mae
Writer, doctor, Agony Aunt
Now an audio book!
Dating Daisy, available at Amazon -
See Daisy Mae, my Sexual Health Blog at The Huffington Post UK
Facebook - Daisy Mae/ Instagram Daisy Mae/ Twitter @daisy_sharer
Essential Tips for Writing Your First Blog Post
If you stick to these top blogging tips for web writing, you really can’t go wrong!
Happy blogging!