Write an Optimized Blog Article in 8 Steps

With the flow of information readily available online, it’s important to optimize your blog posts so they are seen and can draw in traffic. In order for your blog posts to be effective, they must meet certain criteria.

 

Here’s how to efficiently write a blog post in 8 steps!

Find the topic of the article

The first step is finding a subject for your article. Use local news, popular parties and other events to write about what’s going on around you.

I suggest choosing a theme in advance and preparing subjects for that theme to be rolled out over time. Take a moment to create an editorial calendar whether it be monthly, quarterly or another period of time and write the titles of your future blog posts. Don’t forget to add the keywords for SEO.

Identify your objectives

Identifying your objectives is the next step in your process. What do you want to convey with your article? Do you wish to inform, convert readers into customers or do you wish to position yourself as an expert? Your approach to writing will differ depending on your intention.

For example, if you desire to sell a product or service you could use your blog post to demonstrate how what you offer meets the needs of your readers. Adding links to where your potential customers can buy what you’re selling is also very important.

If your angle is more educative in nature, you could create a general text or structure your article in a more DIY fashion where you can try and answer your readers’ questions without too much involvement.

Think about your target audience

Your audience will influence how you decide to style your blog post as well as the information presented. Think about your audience before you begin writing and during the writing process.

For example, the level of language will be different if your target audience is teenagers. You could incorporate hashtags into your text to better relate to them.

When you’re speaking to a non-professional public, you will need to popularize the technical terms. Also, you will want to customize the examples you use to reflect the age and the socio-cultural context of your readers to help them identify with what you are trying to convey.

Do the research

If you are writing about a subject in which you are not an expert, doing the right amount of research on your topic will be very important. If you want to avoid making mistakes, you shouldn’t rely on single sources of information. Verify each and every point that you are making in order to retain your credibility.

Think optimization

It’s not possible to speak about blogging without thinking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In fact, you should optimize each of your blog posts so that they will be visible and accessible.

In order to optimize your posts, you will need to do some research on keywords that work well for your subject. Next, regroup the lexical field to avoid repeating the same term too often. Do not fall into the trap of redundancy.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords:

• Strategically place them throughout your text;
• Work on the internal linkage;
• Add inbound and outbound links to your text;
• Optimize your photograpy.

You can find other SEO techniques in this article : Référencement naturel : comment augmenter la visibilité en ligne de votre entreprise.

Write the article

Now is the time to sit back and write your article!

There are many ways you could possibly work. This is how I like to get going:

• Create a skeleton of your text (decide what your headers will be and add your speaking points in each section);
• Write a first draft;
• Improve your SEO;
• Revise your phrases and syntax;
• Correct spelling and grammatical errors as well as the final touchups.

The Web has its own set of particular guidelines for writing. Readers will most likely be on their phones, tablets or seated at their computers and they will likely skim the articles quickly instead of reading through everything.

To grab and hold your readers attention, the following writing techniques have proven very efficient:

• Divide your text in multiple subsections (your readers will easily be able to find what they are looking for);
• Create brief paragraphs;
• Shorter phrases work better;
• Add bulleted lists for readers who are in a hurry.

Writing well for the Web is an art!

Pay particular attention to the layout

Take care of how you prepare the layout of your text and make sure it’s legible for mobile users and well as readers using a computer. This exercise will help improve your SEO and your readers will love you for it!

Breaking up your text with different headers, sections and paragraphs will also make it easier to read. Add a call to action button that will grab people’s attention.

Share your content

Once your article is online, your work is just begun. You must now share it! This will help maximize visibility and improve SEO.

Share your blog post on your social media networks as well as your business’ networks. Don’t hesitate to share your work more than once, making sure you change the day and time at which you chose to share so you reach more of your audience.

Newsletters are also an effective way to present your blog post and don’t forget that word of mouth within certain discussion groups can be an excellent way to unveil your article. Just make sure the context of the discussion matches the content of your article.

You now have everything you need to write an optimized online article!

---

Headline photo credit: Brandi Redd

2nd photo credit: Ali Shan Lakhani

3rd photo credit: Hutomo Abrianto

4th photo credit: NordWood Themes