Blog posts are the backbone of many online websites and the primary source of content when people are searching for information on the web. There can be many different factors that make up a blog post, but if you follow our checklist, there’s a much higher chance you’ll compose a successful blog post.

1. The most important component of any blog post is the content itself. Which is why our first tip being that blog posts should never be about your organization, but about the reader instead. You always need to have your reader in mind when writing.

2. The most memorable blog posts include bullets of relevant information. These bulleted lists stand out from the rest of the blog post because you’re taking the most relevant information and formatting it in an organized, simple manner. People will remember this more so than a blog post with just strictly paragraphs.

3. Typically, you want your blog post to be at least 600 words long. Google gives you more authority when you have more content to share. The more content you have, the more likely people will click through to your page. Google can only summarize so much and if you allow them to summarize your entire article, then people will never click through to your website.

4. Blog posts and SEO go hand-in-hand. The title and the first sentence of your blog should always include the long-tail Google search string you are looking to rank for. In other words, you want your title and first sentence to be rich with keywords that your consumers will be searching for.

5. To build off the previous tip, it can be a good idea to always bold your key words and phrases in your post. Keyword research plays a big role when crafting your post. You need to know what words and phrases are relevant to Google and your target audience.

6. Every single blog post that you publish should always include a call-to-action. It needs to be clear what your customers should do after reading your post. Don’t sell a product at the end of your post, but offer an informational guide or the call-to-action can be to view another post. You can get creative with this.

7. Every good blog post should include a picture. The picture needs to complement the topic of your post. For optimal results, place the picture after your first paragraph. Your picture needs to be alt tagged with relevant keywords that could be searched for.

8. Do your very best to stay away from first-person when writing your blogs. Avoid words like, “We, our, my” and try to use words such as “you, your we.” Remember, you want your writing to be informational and educational. You want to persuade your reader of whatever it is you’re blogging about.

9. Blogs are a great place to answer the “tough” questions about your business. Answering these types of questions will help you build brand loyalty and authenticity. These topics could include, “How much does it cost?” “What can we expect from the product?” “Why this didn’t work properly?”

10. Blog posts are the perfect resource to nurture leads for your business. Relevant blogs can be the best tool for a salesman. The more you inform and educate your prospective customer, the more likely they’ll go down the sales funnel because you made that initial connection with them.

11. The more you blog, the more web traffic you’ll get to your site. Companies who blog at least 3 times a week can expect a bigger increase in traffic than those who don’t publish 3 times a week. A content library of at least 50 blogs will certainly put on Google’s radar.

Blogs should be unique to your business. They can be written any way you want, but we highly recommend sticking to these guidelines to ensure your posts are effective and relevant. Following these tips will move your pages to the top of Google.  

Download our Blogging Worksheet and start writing better blogs today.