13 Must-Have Elements Of An Exceptional Blog Post via @sejournal, @KayleLarkin

1 year ago 67

ARTICLE AD BOX

One successful 5 bloggers reports their blog delivers beardown selling results – 22%.

That’s it – and this percent has been steadily declining implicit the past 3 years.

That can’t beryllium true, tin it?

Why are the immense bulk of blogs not delivering beardown selling results?

My mentation is that determination is simply a batch of overly generalized proposal successful the contented selling industry:

“Write for users, not Google.”

“Google rewards high-quality content.”

“It’s astir hunt intent.”

Okay, but what is high-quality content?

The barroom is high. This nonfiction volition assistance you get your contented the respect it richly deserves by breaking down 13 indispensable elements of an exceptional blog post.

1. Compelling Topic

Your assemblage has to attraction astir the topic.

If you’re not wholly definite what topics your assemblage cares about, determination are a fewer places to start.

Find which pages enactment your concern objectives successful Google Analytics.

Ask your income teams what questions imaginable customers are asking astir frequently.

Or, look straight astatine your on-site hunt to spot what products oregon services radical are looking for.

Interact with members of your assemblage wrong societal media channels that are related to your industry.

These are each large places to root contented topics that are of large involvement to your audience.

2. Search-Friendly URL

Google recommends keeping a simple, abbreviated URL structure whenever possible.

Do not usage agelong ID numbers successful your URLs oregon time-specific elements specified arsenic day and year. Overly analyzable URLs tin origin problems for crawlers and are not adjuvant to humans.

For instance, this:

https://www.example.com/blog/2022/06/thirteen-elements-of-a-good-blog-post-that-delivers-results/

Can go this:

https://www.example.com/blog/elements-of-a-good-blog/

Be descriptive with your URL truthful that idiosyncratic who sees the nexus volition cognize precisely what to expect erstwhile they click connected it.

3. Include An Author

Showcasing the writer gives a blog nonfiction much credibility, context, and authenticity.

Link the author’s sanction to a illustration leafage (with a photo) wherever readers tin research different articles by the writer and consciousness similar they’re speechmaking thing from a existent person.

Doing truthful volition promote your readers to prosecute with your marque connected societal media sites specified arsenic LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

4. Table Of Contents

Using a array of contents astatine the apical of posts organizes your contented making it casual for users and bots to navigate.

Anchor links successful a array of contents assistance your readers rapidly get to the accusation they are astir funny in.

Search engines emotion a array of contents! It’s not guaranteed, but they are often pulled into Google hunt and displayed arsenic sitelinks.

5. Powerful Headline

A almighty header attracts your assemblage to your blog and gets your station leafage views.

Without a header that attracts eyes, a bully blog station is mislaid among the immense oversea that is the internet.

Spend clip crafting the cleanable catchy rubric to reel successful readers and marque them privation to work your article.

SEJ provides 12 tips to crook an mean header into 1 that is exceptional and entices clicks.

6. Interesting Introduction

While a bully header attracts clicks to your site, it is the instauration that turns a tract visitant into a reader.

For an instauration to resonate, readers request to recognize what you’re talking astir and attraction astir what you person to say.

You don’t request to springiness them the reply to their question yet, conscionable capable accusation to springiness them a crushed to care.

SEJ provides seven ways to constitute blog introductions your readers and Google volition love.

7. Compelling Subheadings

Headlines and subheadings item the main elements of the taxable making the nonfiction casual to scan and starring the scholar done the content.

Using keywords successful subheadings helps hunt engines place the contented and rapidly tells the scholar the main points wrong the article.

This does not mean you should unit keywords into subheadings. Keywords request to marque consciousness and dependable natural.

Subheadings should beryllium formatted with the rubric tag hierarchy. This means that you usage progressively smaller heading formats.

For astir articles, you lone request to usage H2s, but if you request to abstracted an H2 with a batch of content, you tin usage an H3.

Make definite you’re utilizing header tags decently arsenic recommended successful this SEJ nonfiction connected SEO champion practices.

8. Length

I often perceive studies claiming anyplace betwixt 1,500 to 3,000 words is the perfect contented magnitude for articles.

Truth is, it doesn’t matter.

Length volition alteration by contented style, topic, and audience.

A bully blog is arsenic agelong arsenic it needs to beryllium and arsenic agelong arsenic your assemblage volition read.

Use leafage extent (scroll) tracking successful Google Analytics (or Hotjar) to spot however acold users are speechmaking your blog articles.

Try hiding a subsection reply wrong an accordion for users to interact with, you tin tag this lawsuit to spot if you’re keeping users engaged that acold into the nonfiction oregon not.

9. Appealing Visuals

We respond to and process ocular information acold amended than text.

And not conscionable a small spot – 60,000 times faster.

How the quality encephalon processes analyzable accusation is what makes visualization truthful important.

Using charts oregon graphs to explicate analyzable information is overmuch easier than trudging done a ample magnitude of text.

Just beryllium definite to optimize your images for search. SEJ shares 12 important representation SEO tips you request to know.

10. Conclusion

By the extremity of your article, your scholar whitethorn person forgotten a fewer of the points you made earlier successful the piece.

A bully blog station volition summarize the cardinal takeaways from the nonfiction and usher your scholar connected what to bash next.

The constituent is not to reiterate your points, but to assistance your assemblage gully actionable conclusions from your blog post.

Decide what enactment you privation your blog scholar to take. Maybe you privation them to motion up for email, travel connected social, oregon cheque retired a merchandise oregon work you offer.

The constituent present is to animate your scholar to instrumentality your desired action.

11. Useful Links

Without links, the net would beryllium an organized messiness of pages. It would beryllium truly hard to navigate (find what we were looking for.)

A bully blog station makes navigation intuitive for users and casual for hunt engines to crawl.

Internal links assistance link related topics for hunt engines and supply further probe that whitethorn involvement the reader.

John Mueller explained successful an SEO After Hours video:

“…internal linking is ace captious for SEO.

I deliberation it’s 1 of the biggest things that you tin bash connected a website to benignant of usher Google and usher visitors to the pages that you deliberation are important.”

External links are champion utilized to mention sources and enactment arsenic an endorsement for high-quality content.

12. Schema

Schema markup is an indispensable constituent of a bully blog station due to the fact that it helps hunt engines place your leafage arsenic a blog station alternatively of merchandise pages, strategy pages, oregon different content.

There are a fewer schema markup types that use to blog posts, articles, and news.

There is besides FAQ, How-To, Breadcrumbs, Speakable, and more.

13. Suggest Related Blog Posts

At this point, you person a well-structured blog station that includes the method aspects of ranking a leafage and an engaging transcript that entertains and informs the scholar done to the end.

Now, you privation to amended the likelihood that your readers volition enactment connected your tract and ideally person astatine the end.

At the extremity of your blog post, show a fewer (three max) blog articles that are related to the aforesaid taxable cluster.

Final Thoughts

The 13 elements successful this nonfiction assistance users attraction astir your blog nonfiction and assistance hunt engines amended recognize however the taxable relates to your website arsenic a whole.

Aside from these method elements, determination is simply a beardown statement for style, delivery, and prose.

To proceed learning, browse Search Engine Journal’s contributors and on-staff writers. Select 5 writers you bask speechmaking and travel their contented to survey what makes them great.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Lyubov Levitskaya/Shutterstock