Writing a good blog post may feel like a challenging task in itself for many people out there. Almost anyone can sit down, write a few words, and post them online, but it takes so much more than that to write something compelling and engaging for the online crowd. Words and phrases have to work in cohesion to create something tangible for a reader's mind to be easily engaged and captivated.
That said, even though there's no such thing as a definitive perfect structure for your blog, a few recommendations and ideas can go a long way in making things better to boost the appeal of your writing and the content you want to provide for your readers. Answers to the following questions will ensure you have a successful and influential blog, no matter the niche of the topic you write.
How to Start a Blog Post
Everyone has been there at some point. The starting point of any blog entry is probably the hardest to come up with and the one that usually presents the biggest roadblock for many potential would-be writers to overcome. It's important to remember, though, that all great blog posts have to start with a headline that captures the reader's attention and makes them come into your blog. You don't want to be too clickbaity either, but having a headline that is interesting, engaging, and descriptive can help immensely in making people come to your website. Additionally, a starting headline will form the basic structure of the topic you'll be dealing with, so by having one of these from the start, you'll be making sure to stay on topic for the rest of your blog entry.
In this same venue, having an appealing lead paragraph is essential too. Most readers have a short attention span when surfing the web. After all, you are competing with millions of other websites online, so you want to make sure that the first impression they get from your site is the best one. By having a lead paragraph that's devoided of pointless information and goes straight into the topic people want to know about, you'll be making sure that your readers stay with you through until the very end of your blog post.
How Long a Blog Post Should Be
That depends on what your objective is. There are a series of relevant aspects that determine a blog's length, which include the purpose of the blog post, its social media sharing capacities, the topic itself, its search engine optimization, and the target audience.
Ideally, we would want our blog posts to be in the 300-600 word range if we are looking to have our content make its way into social media platforms, to be shared easily, and to have people comment and engage in discussions with ease.
For SEO optimization purposes and attempting to be noted more when people look for information online, 1,700-2,500 seems to be the ideal length. Of course, the content of the post itself is of the utmost importance. The final word count will always depend too on how broad we can cover our topic.
All blog posts have a central idea that gets presented in a series of key supporting points. These back up your main topic and provide the readers with something to hang on as they traverse through your text. There's no set number to these, but you'll want to keep them in line with the word count of your article. Have in mind what you want to write about and make an organized list of the topic you'll be covering up. Be mindful not to go off on a tangent here and stick with what the readers want to know.
In regards to how many images we should include in our text, that's relative as well and depends a lot on opinions. A good rule of thumb is to use as many as required. The idea is to add value to our text and don't make things seem too crowded for the readers.
Closing Thoughts
After following the previously mentioned structure, it is equally important to proofread and edit our text, as we want to make sure everything looks perfect and in line with what we're trying to express. It may prove difficult at first because having to stick to any structure can make things seem unnatural. With practice, it will become second nature, helping to improve the quality of our content and expanding the reach of our writing.
There's no need to keep struggling when coming up with a blog post. If you keep these recommendations close to heart, you'll be sure to turn into a prolific online writer in no time.
