How to write a blog post

Your best practice guide for blog post writing with real human brains in an age of AI overload.

Ever read something that felt… inhuman? A bit generic, text book or flat? Chances are it was probably written by AI, bereft of the human finesse that captivates and compels. While AI can be a powerful ally in generating ideas and even composing drafts, achieving best practice blog writing demands more than a robotic approach. Your copywriter knows this, and so do we. If your goal is to create a blog post that genuinely serves and engages readers, then scroll on. You’ve come to the write blog post.

Before You start a blog post

1. Do your keyword research to identify which terms your target audience is actually searching for on Google. Or rather, the intent behind the terms. What problems are they trying to solve? What answers are they seeking? This research will help you to group topics, keywords and ideas into a skeleton blog structure, organised by headings to help guide the reader. We can recommend using tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner and Moz to help you on your way.

2. Workshop your tone of voice with the key decision makers in your organisation or brand. A medical blog is going to sound and feel very different to a blog about athleisure wear. Consider how you want to talk… Are you more contemporary or classic? Formal or casual? Funny or serious? For everyone or for experts? Document your tone of voice, and develop messages using the words, style and sentence structure that accurately captures the vibe. While you might adapt your tone for different platforms, your voice ought not waver. Consider your voice to be your brand’s personality, and the tone simply the mood.

Word Counts for Blog Posts

It is best practice for a blog post to surpass the 500-word mark. Chances are, you’ll discover that you effortlessly have enough content to fill those 500 words when delving into your chosen topic. If you find yourself struggling to reach this word count, consider reframing your idea for a more comprehensive exploration. Short and snappy blog posts are great, provided you give the reader enough info to digest. For reference you have already consumed 307 words, and we are only just getting started! 500 words will fly by.

Don’t get too caught up in monitoring the word count, write with conviction! You’ll be surprised how fast a word count ticks up. Not all blogs need to be super long to give readers the information they need. Always go back to user intent. Who are you writing for and what do they need?

This Marketing Insider Group blog post says an ideal blog post is 1000 words, with even longer blogs more likely to rank on Google. We believe you should write a blog that meets the needs of the searcher, does not waffle, and is optimised for SEO while remaining authentic. The more you experiment and practice with your blog post writing, the more you can follow the data of what works best for your organisation or brand.

Optimising Your Blog For SEO

Keyword research isn’t as hard for blogs are you might think!

Meta Data

Alt Tags

H1s, 2s and 3s.

Sections and Headings For Blog Posts

A well-structured blog post typically begins with an H1 heading, and sub-sections are signified by H2 headings.

These heading tags are crucial not only for organising content but also for optimising search engine visibility. Search engines, such as Google, primarily rely on H1 and H2 tags to index and display content on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It’s crucial to consider keyword placement and topic explanations within these headings, as they significantly impact how search engines interpret and rank your content.

Effective headings transform blog posts into easily scannable treasures. Let’s be honest—when you’re on the hunt for specific info, the quicker you find it, the better. No need for readers to embark on a content marathon; they should glean value effortlessly. Just a friendly reminder: scanning isn’t a literary faux pas; it’s a savvy reading strategy!

How to research for a blog post

Don’t just jot down thoughts on a whim—take the time to unearth sources, cite references, and lean on insights from thought leaders. The key here is credibility, and that means steering clear of sweeping statements or presenting facts without proper citations or support. Unless, of course, you’re crafting a conspiracy theory blog—then, by all means, you do you. (By the way, you’ve already crossed the 500-word mark! Word count sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?)

There is nothing worse than a blog post which misdirects a reader or doesn’t answer their burning question. If your blog is not about a topic, don’t keyword stuff for the sake of inauthentic traffic or clicks. Keep it classy, keep it true, keep it authentic.

If you are writing about the ‘Best Old Fashioned Cocktails in Christchurch’, don’t keyword stuff with old fashioned clothing or era terms if you are not writing about old fashioned. For reference, the best Old Fashioned in Christchurch can be found at the Last Word on New Regent St.

Back to research. Search for the keywords that you are prioritising in the blog and find out what ranks for them currently?

• What do you want to borrow from those content pieces?
• What can you do better for readers?
• Consider the style of the content that pops up on the first page. Are they all blogs or instead news articles? Do they use listicles, videos, carousels?

What format works for blog posts?

Listicles stand out as among the most popular blog formats, appreciated by readers who easily grasp the straightforward structure they offer. Ranking from best to worst, top 5 faves, 3 hidden gems, it gives a sense of pattern recognition that people like. We know we are about halfway when we have read the 3rd of the top 5 XYZ. “Great formatting prioritises the human reader by providing them with organised, scannable, media-rich, intent-driven content.” – Ghost.

Question and answer style blogs work very nicely too. Using the subheadings or H2s as questions means a reader can skim to find the specific question they have and its corresponding answer. This is also a great format for SERP ranking if your questions are on par with what a user might search for directly on Google. An example of this might be a blog called ‘All You Need To Know About Visiting the Eiffel Tower” where one sub-section’s heading is “can children go up the Eiffel Tower?” and the following paragraph explains all the ins and outs of what to do with children at the Eiffel Tower. A person is very likely to search that question directly, and thus your blog is more likely to rank because of the exact match between the search and the H2.

Make sure you allow for images, videos or GIFS in your formatting. Visual appeal is important when blog writing. Be sure to label your images with alt text. What is alt text you ask?

“Also called alt tags and alt descriptions, alt text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.” – Hubspot.

Making sure your alt text is accurate, descriptive and context-specific is imperative for inclusive and credible blog post writing. Do not be tempted to keyword stuff your alt text. Not only is this incredibly unfair to visually impaired users, it also risks your page being penalised by Google.

Be Intentional With visual changes and insertion

Where you add photos, videos, links to third party sites, internal sites or other media has to be well thought out. Visual appeal is so important, and use of white space is shown to increase readership.

So use a divider.

Break up the paragraph.

• Use
• Bullet
• Points
• To
• Break
• Up
• Information

Consider at all stages of writing and formatting how you like to read. A huge wall of text is hard for most people to digest. They end up so focused on the work of reading they aren’t absorbing your valuable ideas.

So change the text alignment for a focal point

Or

“Put a quote in italics.”

Visual cues help us work our way down a page, and give us anchor points to move in-between. We work towards the image below, and take in the information prior to the words in bold – because we know they will be important context.

It’s why you are still reading this blog.

The point is keep things varied just enough to keep a reader engaged. Maybe chuck in an emoji where it feels relevant.

Doing Blog Post SEO.. Without an SEO expert

Simply put, SEO isn’t the easiest thing in the world. That’s why we have in-house experts who optimise these things for us. But not everyone has access to their big brain energy. If this is your first encounter with the world of SEO – check out our informative guide on our What Actually Is SEO blog post! (This does not exist yet but probably should).

Here are some tools to help you dominate the SERP

Semrush is a search marketer’s fave, their blog SEO advice is top notch. Pay close attention to their explanations of Meta descriptions and topic clusters!

For keyword research, we like Moz, Semrush and Google Keyword Planner for free tools to help guide you in your blog writing. We like to use keyword research to inform our topics, and create topic clusters – which are multi part blogs that go in depth on different areas of a specific topic.

If you are already using a service like Hubspot, Hootsuite, Loomly or something similar, they will all have native SEO tools to help you optimise your work. Same goes for the WordPress, WIX and Squarespaces of the world. When uploading, they will have prompts that guide you where to best make SEO-motivated edits to your titles, descriptions, URL etc.

Still feeling a bit scared of SEO? Book in a training session with one of the Empire9 SEO team – we can guide you on your way to the top of the first page in no time!

Blog Upload Check List

1. Re-read your work. Get a friend to take a look over. Fresh eyes never hurt.
2. Go hard on the spell checking. Try Grammarly or other software if editing isn’t your fave.
3. Double check your H1, H2, metadata, slug/URL and alt tags. Optimise them in line with your key words where you can.
4. Remember to credit the creators of any images or video you repurpose.
5. Use a preview feature if it is available to assess the visual appeal of the blog. Consider the white space and text alignment if it feels too busy.
6. Upload and share with the world! Use your hard-work fuelled blog as a starting block for social media content, take snippets of information and repurpose it for other platforms.
7. Rinse and repeat!