How To Write a Blog Article In 13 Steps?

What is a good blog post? And above all, how to write a blog article that meets the rules of web writing recommended in 2023? Between editorial constraints, SEO writing practices and marketing tips, writing an article requires a lot of attention from a web editor. 

We give you our tips for writing interesting articles for readers and appreciated by search engines.

What is a blog post?

We call blog post articles the editorial content written by a blogger or a web editor on a blog website. Blog posts contain text and can be enhanced with visual content, such as images or infographics, and audiovisual content, such as videos or podcasts. If it is optimized for natural referencing, then we will speak of an SEO blog article.

Why do blog posts?

This is the first question to ask: why do you want to write blog posts? If you’re going to start a blog just because you see a lot of companies doing the same, that’s no good.

Before embarking on something so substantial, it is advisable to define objectives and to clarify the reasons for the work that you are going to have to provide.

Interests in terms of SEO and traffic

The first interest that we can think of when we talk about a blog is obviously natural referencing (or SEO ). Concretely, writing blog articles should have an impact on the positioning of your pages in search results.

For this to be effective, it is also necessary to consider the necessary optimizations, which are not necessarily within everyone’s reach. But, in principle, with a blog, you will boost your SEO and therefore get more visitors to your website.

We will come back to this in the advice section, but an article and a blog more generally need a certain number of optimizations to perform in the SERPs (search results). Whether it’s structure, word choice, how to handle the article, article size, or whatever, there are a lot of things to consider.

Why a blog can boost SEO?

Quite simply, the more you will write articles that respond to different queries of your themes, the more you will position yourself on these queries, which your target visitors are looking for in Google. 1 article corresponds to 1 keyword. 1 keyword is a query sought by users in the SERPs (we will detail the choice of keyword later in the article).

Read More :What should you avoid when developing a search optimize website?

Become a trusted source and demonstrate your expertise online

In addition to increasing the presence in the search results, a blog allows you to become an expert on your topic. Again, for this to work, there are subtitles to master. 

For SEO, it was rather necessary to optimize the technical side, here we will have to offer the best possible content, the one that brings the most added value.

If you understand the search intent of the keyword on which you build your article, everything should be fine. The research intention is in a way what will define your angle. 

This is how the user wants you to give them the information. If you are not in phase with this, your readers will not stay and Google will understand that you do not bring the adequate answer and will penalize you.

Quality content , which perfectly responds to the requests of Internet users: this is the best. If you respect this point, chances are that you will become a trusted source of information in your field of activity.

 In other words, you will become an expert on your subject. If your ultimate goal is to sell products or services, it is important to demonstrate your expertise in your field of activity .

Read More : How To Write Best Content For Your Blog

Convert your audience into leads

Your blog can become a real business tool. Indeed, from an Inbound Marketing perspective, the blog acts as a lead magnet. It is in a way the gateway for potential customers to your website and therefore to your business.

Converting your audience is a bit like the culmination of everything we said above. You have to succeed in mixing SEO and expertise to put the odds on your side.

When an Internet user searches for a query on which you are positioned, your site will appear if your SEO is good. Then, if the content is relevant, of quality and brings real added value , then the chances of it converting into a potential customer increase.

Concretely, what does it mean to convert an internet user into a lead?

This is an Internet user who will engage with you. This therefore means that you have his contact information , in other words it is a commercial contact. 

There are different ways to convert your reader into a lead within a blog. Of course, we can think of the famous free resource that requires filling out a form . A simple contact form can be a bit limited to get as much data as possible.

 On the other hand, you can propose a free challenge, a webinar, a white paper, an unpublished infographic, subscription to a newsletter, etc…

Converting your audience is the final goal , but it is also the most difficult phase to manage and predict. Nevertheless, when it works well, the commercial potential is high and above all we benefit from all the advantages of an Inbound Marketing strategy . 

The expense remains relatively limited, it will only cost you time if you already have a business site. If you have worked well on your SEO, the traffic will be extremely well targeted , and therefore your leads will be very qualified. Therefore, the conversion rate will be higher.

Writing for the Internet: the differences with a press article

You have surely already noticed it with all this commercial aspect, but a blog article is quite radically opposed to the press article.

In principle, we stay more or less on the same main lines: to transmit information . Behind, the objectives are of course largely opposed. The journalist has no commercial motivation strictly speaking. 

On the other hand, the traditional media are subject to other sources of influence. We know, for example, that 81% of the newspapers sold in the general national daily press belong to billionaires (source: Liberation).

Both sides seek to serve certain interests, more or less directly. This in no way detracts from the quality of the information and the work of the journalist or blogger. 

And this processing of information is precisely a point of divergence between the journalist and the blogger . 

The first must absolutely check his information, it is the very basis of his job. 

The second, he does not need to give as much perspective to the information as the journalist.

How to write a blog Article?

A quality blog post article is a text that respects the fundamental principles of web writing. As part of an editorial task, it will also be an article that will respond to the editorial summary.

Either way, a good blog post will clearly answer the user’s request.
Did you know: According to Alioze, in his article on 2020 web figures and trends, more than 2 million blogs are published on the internet every day! Imagine the number of items that makes!

I suggest you review 13 tips to follow how to write a blog article. 

1 – Prerequisites: support, audience and strategy

Before even starting to think about the article itself, you have to make sure that all the conditions are met for it to go well.

As we said in the preamble of the article, you have to make sure you have very clear objectives about this blog. It can be traffic objectives, contacts, SEO positioning, etc. In short, this part has already been largely mentioned above.

Apart from the potential of your blog for your business, you also have to consider who is going to read all these articles. They are the ones to please. You will have to work on your audience .

 The more you are in tune with the composition of your audience, the more your articles will be adapted to it. You will thus put all the chances on your side to be seen as an expert and even create conversion .

To facilitate the visualization of your targets, you can use marketing personas . It’s a simple way to personify your different types of targets. It’s about creating fictional people who have all the characteristics of your typical customer/reader.

 If you’re going to work with outside writers, this is an effective way to get audience information to them.

Then, last point before starting, make sure you have a medium on which to publish your articles . If your company already has a site to sell its products or services, this question is quickly settled. 

Otherwise, you will have to notify. To create a blog and manage it yourself, the ideal is to opt for a CMS. It is a software that allows to manage, create and update a website in a very simple way. WordPress is the best known and most suitable CMS for creating a blog .

2 – Choose the target keyword of the article

A keyword is the basis of SEO: a page must be defined around a keyword . Instinctively, you might think that the more keywords you put, the more queries you will reach, but this is not the case. Each page must target a keyword and it is therefore necessary to define them well.

To do this, you will have to go through the keyword analysis box . This is the first step to take. Ideally, you will need to do a keyword analysis for each of the themes you plan to address. This will allow you to identify the most relevant queries for your business.

The mistake is wanting to target keywords that are searched the most thinking it will attract more traffic. 

You absolutely must not fall into the trap! 99% of queries that are highly searched (over 500 monthly searches) are highly competitive. This means that for your new blog, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get on the first page in Google.

In addition, these “big” requests do not generally bring qualified leads . The solution is to target “small” queries, known as long-tail queries . These are keywords often composed of several, very precise and targeted. 

Again, search intent matters . If the intent is transactional, even if there are only 20 monthly searches, that’s maybe 20 leads. In summary, the more specific your keyword, the more likely you are to convert .

3 – Study the competition

Once you have chosen the keyword, you therefore have the subject of the article. The goal of your article will be to place itself in front of the articles positioned on the same keyword in the search results. The more you move away from position 0 of the SERPs, the more you decrease the share of people who will consult your article.

It is therefore necessary to take the time to study the competitors at different points:

• From what angle did they work on the article?
• What title did they use?
• What topics did they cover?
• What is the structure of their article?
• How big is their item? (in number of words)
• Etc…

Ideally, you should at least look at the first 3 results of the query you are targeting. Thanks to this study, you will understand this famous research intention that we have been talking about since the beginning. If the articles are well positioned, it means that they respond to it.

It’s also a way to get inspired, by comparing sources, points of view, angles and the different themes covered. You will give yourself objectives and ideas, this is the most important preparatory stage.

When it comes to item size, there really isn’t a generic “minimum” to hit . If you’re talking about a vast subject, let go and go find the 5000 words. If your subject is limited, there is no point in forcing it. Google likes you to be an expert on your subject. 

Try to cover all the points that make up your subject, to show that you have mastered it. Same thing if we place ourselves on the side of the readers. 

The goal is to provide a response and added value . A 10,000-word article just by embroidering won’t win you anything, especially if you’re looking to convert.

Finally, there is no harm in taking inspiration from competitors . Google does not like duplicate content and content written by artificial intelligence. From the moment you write the article by yourself, you don’t have to worry about possible penalties from Google, even if you were inspired.

4 – Define the angle / the format of the article

Now that you know what your competitors are offering, you can move on to creating your article . The first step is to define in what form / from what angle you are going to tackle your subject . With what you have been able to find on the best articles of the request, you normally have an idea of ​​what Internet users want to know, or at least how.

There are plenty of different ways to process a blog post, here are a few:

• A classic news article . This is a classic informative article, in which you convey information in a basic way.
• A background article . It’s sort of the improved version of the informative article. By definition, a feature article is much longer, and reviews a theme, concept or method from A to Z. To be recognized as an expert, you will surely have to write a few.
• A news article . As its name suggests, this is an article that relays news. Some companies use this format to talk about what’s going on in their structure, but you can also talk about your field of activity.
• The case study . Using a customer case to write an article allows you to vary the formats and stand out from the competition. It’s content that requires little research, but which highlights the different services of your company. This is mainly found for brands that sell in B2B .
• TheGuide . You are reading an example of this type of content. The guide format lends itself well to requests in the form of questions in particular. It’s also a good way to highlight the solution you’re selling.
• The top . You might think that making a top to highlight your business is difficult. But no, if your product has real added value, you will be able to highlight it easily. The goal is not to spit on your competitors or lie about them.
• The comparison . Same thing as for the top, except that you will focus much more on the features offered by such and such. It will be necessary to compare each component of the products / services.
• Etc…

Apart from that, you can also make tool lists, brand storytelling, position papers, surveys, infographics, checklists, FAQs, etc.

5 – Work on the title

Once you have defined in what form you intend to work the article, you can put a title. This title is not necessarily definitive, so do not waste too much time on it.

In this title, we must find the keyword . There is often debate around the accuracy of the keyword in the title. Even if the keyword you’re targeting isn’t spelled out in your title, Google should be able to figure it out if your article is well written. If you are not confident about it or want to be sure, you can put the keyword precisely in the title.

The title must be less than 60 characters . Above this limit, the rest does not appear in the search results. However, if you have space before 60 characters, don’t hesitate to add small elements that make you want to click. 

For example, we can quote “5 free tools”, “complete guide”, “+ 2 examples”, etc… This is something that can make a difference in search results at the time of the click.

6 – Create the structure of the article

 

Last preparatory step before writing the article: creating its structure . Thanks to everything you have seen in your competitors and the format of the article, you already have good information on the plan that your article will follow.

We must consider the SEO interest of this step. The different levels of titles in your article (H2, H3, H4, etc.) should answer users’ questions and show Google that you are an expert in your subject. For this you can draw inspiration from different elements:

• AAPs or “Other Questions Asked” in search results.
• Related searches at the bottom of the SERPs.
• Queries that come up as suggestions when you type in your keyword.
• Suggested questions on AlsoAsked or AnswerThePublic .

It’s good to please Google’s algorithm, but the priority must be to think about making sense for the reader . On a long article, do not hesitate to divide and under divide as much as possible to facilitate the reading of your article. You can use storytelling methods, starting from a starting situation,

Again, there is no number of H2, H3, Hn to put or not to put, it all depends on what you have to say. We must not limit ourselves and we must not hesitate to go to the necessary level of detail .

For the H1, you can use the title of your article (Title tag), and even lengthen it slightly if necessary.

7 – Write the hook / introduction

That’s it, you can start writing your article. All the steps that we have just detailed can seem very long and tedious to you. On your first articles, it’s true that all of this will be time-consuming. But, with training and practice, it will all happen automatically in a matter of minutes.

Even if the introduction is part of the text itself, it deserved a dedicated step, as it requires attention. Once again, we have 2 interests to reconcile with the introduction: Google for SEO and the reader for conversion .

When it comes to SEO, Google has been known to give more importance to text elements above the fold line . This is the fictitious line formed by the bottom of the screen when you arrive on a page (without scroller). 

We must therefore try to wedge the keyword and its variants in the hook to show Google what we are talking about.

For our reader, the problem is almost the same. We must introduce him to the content of the article and above all make him want to read the rest. It is then necessary to raise its problem, and explain how this article will bring solutions to it. 

Do not hesitate to “say too much”. The human is a little lazy and if he does not directly see an answer to his problem, there is little chance that he will go further.

8 – Write the body of the article

Then all you have to do is write the rest of the article. Same thing as for the preparatory stages, the more you practice, the faster you write. There is another factor that can affect your effectiveness: knowledge of the subject . 

If the subject of the article corresponds to knowledge that you have, you should be comfortable and write it quickly and with a lot of soul.

On the other hand, if you approach a subject on which you have little or no skills, things get complicated. You will probably have to spend more time understanding the different sources you will be using.

 Anyway, tell yourself that the hardest part is writing the introduction. Once the hook is written, you can easily follow it up .

Throughout the writing, make sure to respect the tone defined in your strategy, in relation to your target audience. We do not address a fifty-year-old CSP+ in the same way as a student.

Don’t forget to fill in the meta description . This is the small text you see below the title in search results. It must be less than 160 characters . 

This tag has no SEO weight. In other words, it only serves to increase the click-through rate on your article in the SERPs. Try to make the reader want to click by showing that you provide the answer to the targeted query.

9 – Ensure the quality of the article (spelling, quality, etc.)

You have finished writing your article but the work is far from over. You have to start by making sure that it is well written , that there are no spelling or grammatical errors. 

Proofreading is key , but there are other tools that can make this job easier. For example, there are extensions for your browser, such as Language Tool, that can correct you live while you write. You can also fix SEO Issues with free tools.

You can also have it proofread by a colleague or someone else, to get an external point of view on your content. You have to make sure that your reader finds himself in what you say.

However, keep in mind that an article is not definitive . You may not have tackled all the subjects of the theme the first time around, but that’s okay. In fact, it is even an opportunity.

 By leaving room for improvements, you give yourself the opportunity to update the article a few months later . Google likes fresh and recent content , so don’t hesitate to leave room for any updates.

10 – Work on the layout of the article

Once the content of the article is worked and well written, it must be formatted to give it some credibility.

First of all, you have to define the image on the front page of the article . This is the image that will appear when you share your article on social networks in particular. 

To do this, be sure to use an image that you own the rights to or that is free of copyright. It must represent the theme of the article, and you can add the subject of the article and / or the logo of your brand for example.

Care should also be taken to implement as many visuals as possible in the text to bring it to life. If you present tools, do not hesitate to insert screenshots of them. If you do a step by step tutorial, same thing. 

As soon as a passage lends itself to an illustration, do not hesitate to add it. You can also find more generic illustrations on sites like Storyset or Undraw . It should not be abused either, the text must remain readable.

An important point to take into account when adding visuals is their weight. In the idea, try not to exceed 90 / 100 kb . 

If the images are too heavy, you could penalize your article in terms of loading time, and this is a criterion that is becoming more and more important in the eyes of Google.

Layout level, do not hesitate to ventilate the content either . Text that is too dense can be difficult for your readers to read. Return to the line as many times as necessary.

Last point, you have to make sure that the article, like your entire site, is responsive . That is to say, it must be accessible on a computer as well as on a mobile or tablet.

11 – Think about conversion

As we mentioned earlier in the article, one of the objectives of a blog for your business can be to convert your readers into leads . This is something to consider when laying out.

After reading the article, you want the reader to take action with you. As we said, it can be a registration form for a newsletter, a challenge, a webinar, a resource download, etc…

So remember to add a call-to-action at the end of the article to a landing page that presents your solution or directly the form in question.

12 – Publish the article

If everything is perfect, there is only one thing left for you to do: publish.

There is a point not to be overlooked regarding the publication of blog articles, it is regularity . It’s been said that Google likes fresh and recent content, but it also likes sites that post on a regular basis . 

It’s not easy to successfully maintain a publishing rhythm when you’re not working full-time on content writing. Depending on the goals you have set for yourself, you will have to define a more or less pronounced rhythm.

To start, you can try to do 1 article per month, but the results will take longer to arrive. 1 post per week is often the right balance for businesses. The person in charge thus has time to work on the articles, while being able to be on other tasks the rest of the week.

What time should you post on a blog?

According to Kissmetrics, it is at the beginning of the week that we observe the most people reading articles. The morning would also be more conducive to engagement at the commentary level .

 But, there too, there is no real reference, it all depends on the hours of availability of your audience. If you are targeting individuals, there is a chance that they will be more present at noon or after 5 p.m.

In any case, the time of publication does not matter that much. Indeed, with a content strategy and a blog, we seek long-term results . Before an article reaches its optimal position, it may take several weeks or months to pass. 

The time and day will be especially important for your sharing on social networks, which are more focused on snapshots or hot content.

Which URL to choose for your blog post?

Opinions differ somewhat on this issue. The most relevant slug to choose would simply be the keyword targeted by the article. Just separate the keywords with “-” (or “dash of 6”), removing unnecessary words like “a”, “the”, etc…

13 – Long-term work (optimizations, updates, etc.)

Even if the article is published, the work is far from finished. In SEO, there is always something to do!

First of all, as we said, you will be able to update the content of the article . Here again, there is no specific standard concerning the temporality of these improvements. 

If you see that article traffic and positions are dropping, it’s time for an update. If it’s stagnating and you see potential for growth, that’s also a good opportunity.

These updates obviously concern the content, but SEO can also be part of it. If your article does not achieve the expected results, you can try updating the title, the different levels of Hn titles, etc.

Another point to maintain on a blog is the internal link . These are the links between your different articles. When you mention in an article a subject that you talk about elsewhere, you have to make the connection.

 Especially if these links come from old articles. The older your articles are, the more powerful they are in the eyes of Google, so use them to convey this power (when relevant).

5 tips for optimal writing for the web

Now that we have seen the writing guide for your blog posts, here are some practical tips to go further and perfect your method.

keep patience

In SEO as in blogging , patience is often the key! When you start in web writing, you take care to write the perfect article, for 1 whole day, and in the end only 3 people have consulted it after a week… It’s frustrating, but Above all, don’t let yourself get discouraged!

Results can take a while to arrive, especially if your site doesn’t have a lot of history. Above all, do not be discouraged, the work will inevitably pay off, one way or another.

Even if you understand this, your supervisor may not be aware of all this. This is why you must try to make your whole team aware of this. Maybe your first leads will come 2 months, 6 months or even 1 year after the publication of the first article. Everything will depend on the means and the time devoted.

Don’t be too perfectionist

Another trap you can fall into when starting out: wanting to make the perfect article at all costs. You shouldn’t start with that goal in mind. First, it avoids disappointments like the one we just mentioned.

Then, even if the quality of the article is very important, it is better to produce a maximum and rework them later . As we said, you have to be regular in your article production and Google likes updated content, so don’t worry too much about creating the perfect article the first time.

Vary content formats in the article

The formatting will make it possible to give credible support to all the information that you intend to transmit in your article. This is a point not to be underestimated.

In addition to the images to integrate into your article, you can vary the content in other ways . You can use bulleted lists, numbered lists, tables or quotes for example.

Write a process

To improve your productivity and that of the people who work with you, it may be interesting to write a process in “checklist” mode . This allows you to clearly state the methodology of your writing, and to be able to work without having to think too much. You may say to yourself that it is useless because you have the method in mind, but try it and you will see that it works!

If you plan to delegate the writing to a colleague or a new person, they will find everything there is to know in this reference document.

Do not overuse tags (labels)

This is a mistake that we observe quite often on blogs. A WordPress tag is simply a kind of label that sticks to an article to show that it talks about a particular theme, which can be transversal to several categories.

Their use must be limited to 2 or 3 maximum per article.

Now you know how to write a blog article. This is not a “perfect” method, but it can be a good starting point. Everyone appropriates their own operation, in relation to their preferences.
If you have a step or a piece of advice to add to our guide, don’t hesitate to share it with us in the comments below!