10 Secrets of a Stellar Blog Post

10 Secrets to a Stellar Blog Post

Teach Something

The best kind of blog post to write is a tutorial of some kind where you are imparting knowledge to your reader. They want to leave having been inspired and learned something. It doesn’t have to be written in a step-by-step way (but that does tend to work well for DIY project posts), but you do want to frame your post in a way that teaches your reader something.

Make it Comprehensive

 It’s all about quality over quantity in blogging. If you want a post to still be relevant and bringing in traffic a few years down the road, put the effort in now to make it really comprehensive and amazing. Don’t break up a project into multiple posts – it won’t be shared as much and you’re making it difficult for readers for find the other pieces of the puzzle.

Include Amazing Images

This is really important in blogging. We are all inspired by beautiful photography and so it’s really important that you compliment your post with stellar images. If you are using your own photography – make sure the photos are well-lit, bright, large, and composed nicely. If you aren’t using your own photography, be sure to use gorgeous stock images.

Pinterest Friendly

So you have your gorgeous photos, but you also need to remember to make them Pinterest appropriate (Pinterest is, after all, a HUGE traffic generator). The key? Have one image at the very top of your post that has a text overlay explaining what your post is about. This will be the image that gets pinned and needs to attract folks to click to your site. You also need to make sure you have a good, keyword-rich description in your alt tag so that when readers pin the image from your site, it automatically generates a great description in Pinterest (not like “DSC_0584”, which ain’t going to show up in any searches!).

Use a Great Title

You need to make sure you have a descriptive title that tells your potential reader what your post is about. If they find you in a google search, you want to encourage them to click over. A post called “Friday Faves” doesn’t tell you anything about the post itself and isn’t going to do much for you.

See also: The Importance of a Great Title

Be Smart with SEO

Search engine optimization is super important when it comes to doing well in google and other search engines. If you want your post to last, you need to put some thought into this. Make sure you use a good searchable keyword phrase and have it embedded a few times within the blog post. You can use a plugin like Yoast SEO to help you figure out how to ensure your SEO is on point. 

See also: SEO Basics for Bloggers

Make Social Sharing Easy

You want to make it really easy for readers to share your amazing content. Be sure to have a “pin it” button that hovers over your images, and other social media sharing buttons either at the bottom or side of your post/blog. The more obvious it is for your readers, the more likely they are to do it.

Include Internal Linking

Where it’s appropriate and relevant, you want to include some links to other blog posts you have on your site. This will encourage readers to stick around and check out more content, and it also is good for your SEO.

Add Content Upgrades

Turning readers into subscribers is really important in blogging. You want to make sure you are constantly thinking about building up your email list – it’s going to be one of your best tools to share your content and make sales if you sell a product or service. An amazing way to get subscribers is to embed some kind of freebie at the end of your blog post (like a worksheet, guide, printable, etc) that the reader will click on and receive as a download once they have signed up for your newsletter.

Make Conversation

Having great engagement on a blog post is awesome and will look great to potential brands you want to work with on sponsored campaigns (they aren’t just interested in numbers, they want to see an active audience!). Encourage conversation by posting a few questions at the bottom of your post and make the commenting system easy for readers.

Want the 10 secrets to a stellar blog post in an easy-to-download PDF? How about a free worksheet too, which takes you through the key questions you need to ask yourself as you write your blog posts? Get the guide and worksheet sent straight to your inbox. 

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By Gemma Bonham-Carter

Gemma Bonham-Carter, blogger behind THE SWEETEST DIGS, is all about creating a home and life you love. She writes about DIY projects, how to decorate with style on a budget, and tips for creative online biz owners. When Gemma isn’t working on her blog or Etsy shop, you can find her running after her kids with an Americano in hand, hanging with her hubby, and enjoying Sunday morning roadtrips to the flea market.

24 comments

  6. Thank you for the helpful post! Question for you- I am completely new to blogging, do you recommend I purchase a free template to start with, and then spend money on a professional one down the road? Is it simple to switch them? Or should I just go all out and purchase one from the start? I have the money and everything, but I do work a full time job and want to be certain I’m putting my money into something I will stick with. Which I plan to do, obviously, but I’m just wondering if this is a common move or if it makes sense to just go for it fully. Thank you so much!

    Reply

    1. Hey Sarah! You can always change your template, so if you were only comfortable with going the free route, you could definitely do that and then upgrade later on without losing any content. Hope that helps!

      Reply

  17. Writing great post is really important for thw success of a blog. I think another helpful tip to boost SEO is the length of the post. Articles with more than 1000 words are more noticeable for searches but it should also be less than 3000 words because most people can’t stand reading more than that. Thanks for sharing these.

    Reply

  20. Gemma, thanks for sharing these tips! I enjoyed your point about some freebies at the end of a blog post, I believe it helps to build deeper connections with your readers as everyone want to receive something in back. So it’s some kind of gratitude to them, for reading your writing.

    Besides, speaking of SEO, I’d like to note, that bloggers should care about the quality of their content. Search engines love content, which is original, shareable and user-friendly. So adding an enormous bunch of key words to your blog post will be a mistake. Moreover, if you are using some parts from your other blog posts, it’s better to give a link back to them. Using some parts of other blog posts, even the smallest ones, could also be a pitfall, because the plagiarism detection software will catch it.

    Reply

  22. Thank you Gemma, this helps out a lot. I find making engaging blog posts pretty tricky, since I mainly share inspiration and curate resources. I realize linking to other posts do help along with asking questions to spark a conversation. I’m sure I will get better the more I practice. Thank you for the tips!

    -Tia
    retouchingblog.com

    Reply

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