The 10 essential elements of a successful blog post
How do you write a blog post that will actually work? A blog post that your readers
will love and want to share? A blog post that will perform well in search engines?
Discover the 10 essential elements of a successful blog post
1. AN ENGAGING AND KEYWORD RICH TITLE
You need to make your title engaging for your audience – it’s got to grab their
attention and make them read on. AND it’s got to feature your chosen keyword
phrase
2. A CLEAR AND ATTENTION GRABBING FIRST PARAGRAPH
Your first paragraph needs to have 3 elements:
your keyword phrase, which essentially just means repeating your title
again, ideally in a fairly natural way
a brief summary of your blog post – you want people to see at a glance if
this post is something they want to carry on reading
some kind of hook – basically answer the question that your reader has:
‘what’s in it for me?’
3. CONTENT YOUR READERS ACTUALLY WANT TO READ
This is the key to a successful blog post. Always keep your readers in mind when
you write. What do THEY want out of the post? Do they want your whole life story
or a load of random waffle or a detailed description (they actually might,
depending on who your readers are! I don’t know your readers, but you do – get
to know what they want.) Or do they want you to get straight to the point and write
what they need to know? Or perhaps both – a short intro to personalise the
subject and then get down to business.
4. SUB-HEADINGS
It is very important to use sub-headings in a blog post – both for your readers and
search engines.
Sub-headings are great for your readers as it makes your blog more readable:
they help break up the text into bitesize chunks, they help readers see at a glance
what your blog post is about, and they help your readers locate the things they
are actually interested in.
5. GREAT IMAGES
Another key element of a successful blog post is images! Make sure your content
contains a selection of photos and/or graphics. This is especially important if you
have a food blog, a craft blog, a DIY blog or any other kind of blog where images
can convey so much more than words.
6. AT LEAST ONE PINNABLE IMAGE
Ensure at least one of your images is suitable for Pinterest (vertical, ideally 600 x
900, ideally with text). That way, when you and your audience pin that image, it
will have a good chance of performing well on Pinterest and so boost your page
views.
7. A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION
Don’t just write a blog post and leave it at that. What do you want your audience
to do next? Give them at least one suggestion about what they could do next… It
could be related posts or categories to read. It could be to sign up for your
newsletter. It could be to follow you on social media. It could be download a
worksheet.
8. INTERNAL LINKS (AND EXTERNAL ONES TOO!)
Never, ever write a blog post that has no internal links. You are wasting a
massive opportunity! Think about it. If your readers click on a link on your blog
post and then go on to read just one more blog post, you are DOUBLING your
page views!
9. HIGHLY VISIBLE SHARING BUTTONS
Make sure you make it super easy to share your blog post. You want readers not
only to enjoy and engage with your posts, but also share them with their friends,
so you increase your audience and your page views (not to mention your social
media followers).
10. A LIVELY COMMENTS SECTION
OK, so in these days of social media, getting people to comment on your blog
post is a little harder, but if you write engaging content and share it well, people
will comment. One little trick which helps is to actually ask a question.
