Here’s a YouTube Video I created to give you a visual way to consume this information. Less than 3 minutes long.
Blogging has taken the online world by storm. Websites used to only be available for large companies with deep pockets or web developers who created them.
The news used to only be told by veteran journalists who were either employed by a major TV Station, Newspaper or Magazine. But with free to use open source platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and others, the news is being reported by everyday bloggers and website ownership is a reality for anyone who has $10 for a domain name and around $5 per month for web hosting. Buy your Domain & Hosting Here
Now we find that blogging is a reality for many and that some of the most widely visited blogs started in someone’s living room. But there’s always been a question on “How to Write the Perfect Blog Post“?
I mean what makes a blog post perfect right? Every blog is different and the content they share is often not the same as what other blogs would feature.
But are blogs really that different? If you replace all the content with lorem ipsum which is fake text used by designers to see how their layouts would look like with content, you will find that the successful blogs tend to follow some form of blogging template. They either follow it by design or over the years have inadvertently shifted to a format that people tend to enjoy.
Let’s Talk about What Makes a Blog Post near Perfect
Content Matters
This is a fact. The best blogs spend serious time in researching the topic they will be discussing. I know, I made it sound like it was all about layout. But let me ask you a question. If I presented an article that provided the most value in terms of information and once you read it would change your life forever in a positive way but that content was one huge 2,000 word block of text with no images, lists or separation of paragraphs, would you read it? Probably not. I mean, you wouldn’t know how life changing the content is if you haven’t read it.
So yes, presentation matters. But the content matters as well. Back to this first item about content. As a writer, it’s important that you research your topic to ensure you’re providing the right information to your website visitors.
When you’re drafting your next blog post, make sure you create a rough draft first. Then fine tune it during your editing process. The things you should look for are spelling and grammar errors. But beyond that, you should also look to make sure your message is coming across as clearly as possible. Your content shouldn’t be one big riddle, unless it’s supposed to be.
I also recommend trying to get your blog post to be around 1,000 to 2,000 words long. This might seem like a lot but Neil Patel, one of the most successful blogger/SEO expert recommends around 3,000. So I’m cutting you some slack.
The benefit of long form content is that if done correctly, it can provide a lot of value. It will also give you a better chance of providing the type of in depth value your readers want and also help you with the search engines.
Layout Matters
As I mentioned earlier, you can have the absolute best information that can change a person’s life, but if it’s poorly formatted, people are not likely to read it. Your content matters but the presentation matters as well. There are a few ways you can make your blog post pleasing to the eyes.
- Use images that fit the content.
- Your first paragraph is your lead paragraph and sets the tone for your article. Make it enticing.
- Your lead paragraph should also be formatted differently to draw a person’s attention to it. Larger font and font weight.
- Try and keep your sentences to no more than 5 sentences. This will help ensure you don’t have large blocks of text which might seem intimidating or boring.
- Use your heading tags. H1 – H6. These need to be used properly. For a blog page, your H1 is the title of your article, then the H2 is for your second most important sub-heading and then the H3 is the sub subheading used in between your H2 tags. I tend not to use anything beyond H3. Every so often, if needed I will use the H4 tag.
- Use either or both, ordered and unordered lists. This is a great way to provide a different way to share snippets of information that are grouped in an easy to read format.
- Block-quotes provide you a way to share a quote from another source in a format that stands out.
- Videos can also be extremely useful since some people like watching and learning.
- Make sure you have your Social Media Icons for both sharing and connecting with you.
- Play around with full width and content sidebar layouts. See what your readers like more. Study your analytics for this information. Specifically your bounce rate.
The Takeaway
Blogging is one of the absolute best ways to share your ideas on a platform that you control. I love Social Media and it’s one of the main ways to connect with people but you don’t have much control over how your content is viewed on the social media websites. That’s why I always recommend that if you really want to share your thoughts and ideas online, then a website/blog is the best way to do so. I also recommend you own your Website/Blog, don’t rent it. Buy your Domain Name, get your monthly hosting and use WordPress.
Watch the video above to see a quick 3 minute presentation on how to write the perfect blog post.