How to Write The Perfect Blog Post In 2024

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Have you ever read a post that you couldn’t help but applaud the writer for putting up such a great piece of content? Then, you’re wondering how you, too, can write the perfect blog post like that.

Writing a great post that impacts your readers’ lives isn’t easy, but it is never rocket science either.

You can do it. Anyone can.

Most writers started as rookies.

But with constant practice, dedication, commitment, research, etc. Anyone with a great burning desire to master the art of creative writing can become a legend in words.

If you’re lost and don’t know where to start, don’t panic. We’re here together to help you figure out how to write the perfect blog post. Content that resonates with your target audience.

That’s what you’re going to discover on this page today.

I will walk you through each step in detail, from brainstorming topic ideas to keyword research and putting words together.

But first.

What Makes a Perfect Blog Post?

More than writing or using the right words; many other factors contribute to the success of any valuable content on the web.

It takes more than just writing, formatting or adding compelling images to your post to make it appealing to the user’s taste and satisfaction.

There is more to writing the perfect blog post in 2024 than you need to know.

Now, let’s outline each step, so we don’t skip ahead of the whole writing process.

• Know your Target audience.
• Brainstorming topic ideas.
• Keywords research.
• User intent.
• Research process.
• Content headline.
• Writing – first draft.
• Adding images/video
• Edit.
• Publish.

1. Know your Target Audience

You can’t write the perfect blog post without identifying exactly who that reader is.

If you can’t identify your target market, your content will be speaking to a random audience.

Defining your ideal reader will help you create great content and create the right content that speaks directly to that reader.

Creating and marketing your content takes lots of resources and time. You probably don’t want to waste that time speaking to an audience not interested in your offer.

Right?

You need to research your ideal audience before writing a single word of your content.

But how do you go about this?

There are several methods or ways to research and discover your ideal audience. You could start by asking yourself these questions:

• What burden problem does my product/services solve?
• Who are my current readers?
• Who are my competitors?
• Audience geographic location?

By the time you’ve provided answers to these questions, you will have a good understanding of who your ideal audience is.

You could learn more about your audience by browsing through your Google Analytics. Visit your Google Analytics dashboard and click on Demographics>Overview.

It will reveal the gender and age of your blog visitors.

This information is helpful to learn more about your blog visitors and determine how best to create more targeted and relevant content.

Also, all the people who have left comments on your direct competitor’s website are your ideal audience.

Especially if they’ve shown interest in a similar industry topic, you’re working on by commenting on such a post on your competitor’s website.

2. Brainstorming Topic Ideas

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, it’s time to brainstorm or research topic ideas that will interest this audience.

As a writer, there are a few ways to prepare yourself for coming up with your topic ideas.

• The specific topic is given to you
•  Keywords research/targeting.
•  Inspiration/Motivation.
•  Discussions.
•  Content Research Tools.

From personal experience, I could outline these five tips for coming up with content ideas. There could be more.

#a. The specific topic is given to you

As a freelance writer, you’re given the topic ideas to write your content. The client dictates what topic he wants. Your job is to produce content on that particular topic.

#b. Keyword Research/Targeting

Topic ideas might come from doing keyword research. For marketers (mostly blog owners/advertisers), keyword research is the starting point of their writing process.

#c. Inspiration/Motivation

And sometimes, you just get inspired to write something for your audience. This might come from personal experience. Or from reading other blogs in your niche.

I got inspired to write this article after reading similar posts on two separate blogs.

This article over here was a product of a personal experience I had with web hosting services.

After the initial experience I suffered at the hands of the web hosting services provider, I got inspired to write about it.

At first, I didn’t research any keywords to target in the article. I was just busy writing, putting words down as they flow.

But it was easy to identify the post is all about a review of the web hosting company I was with then.

So it wasn’t difficult to research and pick target keywords for it.

This kind of article is easier to write because words will naturally flow, and you will be writing with great enthusiasm.

Almost all the research is done in your heart and from the materials at your disposal.

#d. Discussions

Discussions are a great way to brainstorm topic ideas in your niche.

Whether it happens in real life or online places.

Taking notes of discussions that may be useful for your reader to learn from is an excellent way to develop topic ideas.

The Q & Q&A sites are good places to find relevant discussions that may be of good purpose or help your content strategies.

Quora is no doubt an excellent place to find relevant discussions in your niche. Currently, about 70,000 to around 80,000 questions are being asked on Quora each day.

If you use the platform regularly, I’m sure you will find something related to your industry you can write about.

#e. Content Research Tools

Apart from keywords research tools…

Other helpful content research tools will help dig through the millions of blog posts—content tools for analyzing the most successful content in any niche.

Tools like Buzzsumo are one handy tool for such a purpose.

Buzzsumo is an excellent tool for discovering viral content in your industry. Content that has already gained popular votes, shares, likes, comments, etc.

You can use it to research-proven, viral topics to replicate.

However, BuzzSumo has become more valuable and valuable with the Pro account. The free version gives you minimal access to the tool.

But still, a viable option to try if you don’t have the budget to upgrade to the premium account.

3. Keyword Research

According to SEOpressor, there are nine types of keyword ideas or categories.

Depending on the information you’re writing, you need to carry out extensive keyword research before writing your blog post.

Keywords are the backbone of a successful SEO campaign. Without keywords, SEO is a guessing game. Publishing an article without keyword research is never a good content marketing practice.

This is because a good content marketing practice starts with identifying the right audience for your content.

This is why you’ll need to perform keyword research and know what keyword to target within your content.

Knowing the right keyword and audience to target will guide you in writing the perfect blog post to meet the user’s intent and expectations.

These Are The 9 Types of keyword Ideas in SEO:

• Short tail keyword.
• Long-tail keyword.
• Short-term fresh keyword.
• Long-term evergreen keyword.
• Product defining keyword.
• Customer defining keyword.
• Geo-targeting keyword.
• LIS keyword.
• Intent targeting keyword.

Each one represents a user’s journey in the buying process.

And you should optimize different keywords to target different audiences at each stage of the marketing funnel.

4. User Intent

What does a user expect to find on the page?

Ask yourself this question. It is not just about keyword targeting. Or by using the right words on the page.

You need to provide all the required or necessary information that best satisfies the user’s expectations.

Depending on the search query, a user is expected to find one of these four intents on the page:

• Informational – The user is looking for information.
• Transactional- User performing search activities that may lead to buying.
• Navigational – The user is trying to reach a certain web page.
• Local Intent – The user looking for a nearby location.

If you can understand or determine the intent behind a user’s search query, you can only deliver the right content that best meets the user’s information needs.

5. Research Process

Every piece of content you publish either on your blog or elsewhere should bring you closer to more authority, trust, influence, and dominance in your industry.

Remember these things always, and you won’t want to publish mediocre content.

In the past, bloggers could publish a blog post of just about 300 to 500 words, and readers will find it helpful.

But that’s a long time gone, especially after the Panda update of February 2011, in which Google crackdown on low-quality content sites. Content farms. Sites with high ad-to-content ratios, etc.

Now, people want more information.

They want details.

Step-by-step guide.

Content that does not leave anything out.

In their preferred format.

More appealing to the eyes, etc.

Your job is to give all these in your published content, stamp your authority on the subject, and showcase your expertise.

How do you achieve all this and create content that shows you’re a trustworthy source of information, an expert, and an authority figure in the industry?

Content Research is the answer

Not what you’d expected, right?

Well, if you’re committed to blowing away your readers with unique articles that answer their questions, entertain and inform them of what they need to know.

The kind of content that’s hard for other writers in your niche to replicate.

I mean stuff that readers couldn’t help but share with their followers. Content that is well researched for and backed up with data and authentic facts.

Then you’d better prepare for a well-researched process before writing a single word of your blog post.

If you’re going to do content research in the right way, mostly, you will need the help of some industry content analysis tools to help in the process.

Tools like:

• BuzzSumo – Find, and replicate already proven content.
• Mozbar – Analyse the authority of a web page.
• Google Search console – everything you need to know about your website audience.
• Google keyword planner – keyword research tool (works best for advertisers)
• Ubersuggest – SEO and keyword research tool.
• Coschedule headline Analyzer – write better headlines.
• Grammarly – Mistake and error-free writing.

Now that you’re armed with valuable tools to help you scale quickly let’s start the content research process properly.

Note: Depending on the content type you’re working on, some of the things you read below won’t matter to you. It’s okay to ignore what’s irrelevant and pick what matters.

#a. Google your chosen keyword to see what other authors have written on the subject. This will give you an idea of how to prepare your content to outrank them.

#b. Install and use Mozbar on Google Chrome to analyze the SEO value of each web page right on the Google search result page.

This gives you an insight into how difficult or easy it may be to rank for your targeted keyword.

#c. Visit question-and-answer sites like Quora to read through the concerns of people on the subject.

This is a perfect strategy to do. It gives insight into other ideas, views, and information to add to your content to make it more in-depth.

#d. Read what other blogs have written on the subject to expand your knowledge, understanding, and use of words to craft better compelling articles that cut deep into the heart of your readers.

Also, take note of the content format. This is very important. Some information is best in other forms than text.

#e. Run a quick poll or mini-survey on Twitter.

A survey or poll is a great way to quickly gather marketing information directly from users to help your marketing decisions and content creation.

#f. Analyze your already published content. Look out for the top-performing posts and work more on them.

Sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the content wheels.

Upgrading the existing content is all you need to bring new readers and increase your traffic level.

There are different ways to analyze the performance of your published content. One is through your Google Analytics home. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard and click on > Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages.

It will reveal a list of the top-performing posts in the selected date range.

#g. If you’re writing on academic literature, try using the Google Scholar search engine.

Google Scholar is a search engine specifically designed to look up academic literature, research papers, and data.

A handy tool to lean on the shoulders of great scholars.

#h. Use Ubersuggest to find top SEO pages on your competitor’s website ranking high for relevant keywords on the search engines.

Then see how you can replicate or better outrank them in the SEO game by producing better content that your readers will love.

6. Content Headlines

There is no way you can write the perfect blog post without a great headline to draw users’ attention to it.

A good blog post is never complete without a compelling headline.

On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar -David Ogilvy

Your content headline is the single most crucial element that determines if your article will get read or not.

With over 5 million blog posts published daily in 2019, you need a powerful, compelling content headline that draws readers’ attention.

The BIG question is, how do you write a compelling content headline that gets people clicking to read the rest of the content body?

8 Tips for Writing Better Headlines

#a. Write more headlines – At least ten headline variations for each blog post. Then use the user data you gather to pick the winner.

Title Experiment is one useful plugin I once used.

But it’s been last updated many months ago and is not supported in WordPress 5.0+.

#b. Use the Coschedule headline analyzer to write a better headline. This is a handy tool designed to help you write better headlines.

I’ve recently modified some blog post headlines on Cybernaira using the CoSchedule headlines Analyzer and found amazing results.

#c. Use the power and emotional words in your headline copy to arouse the emotions of your readers.

To learn more about power and emotional words for effective headline copy, read this article on the Sumo blog.

#d. Limit your headline to at most 60 characters.

This will make it possible to have 95% of your headline title displayed in the search results. Good for improving click-through rate (CTR).

#e. Headline with numeric numbers tends to perform better.

Example:

• 10 ways to satisfy a woman in bed.
• 101 marketing experts shared their secret content marketing strategies.
• 50 ways to write irresistible headlines.

#f. Use figures, data, and facts numbers in your headline where possible.

Example:

• How I increase my blog traffic by 206% in one month
• How I made $21, 406.67 in 28 Days Selling Other People’s Products.
• What I learned From Analyzing 1 million blog post Headlines.

#g. Use keywords in Your Content headline.

Never ignore this aspect. It is essential if you want to maximize your chances of ranking in the organic results.

#h. Give a reason to click on your headline. Ask questions. Arouse curiosity. Tap on emotions. Etc.

7. Writing Your First Draft

Don’t be scared.

Great writers in history…

Even the most successful ones write an awful first draft and only work on it after they’ve finished writing.

The good news is that your first draft is for you alone to see and read. No one else but you, unless you give preview access to someone.

No one is going to see or read your first draft.

At this stage, you should be more concerned with getting the words out of your head and into the blank word editor.

Don’t worry about perfection at this stage.

If you do, you may never be able to write the perfect blog post your audience is waiting for.

Just write.

Start putting down those words as they flow in your head, and never worry about any typos, grammatical errors or use of words, etc.

There is plenty of time to go back and fix all these issues.

When you sit down to write your first draft, forget yesterday’s accomplishments, failures, or fears. It is best to focus on the task at hand.

Concentrate on what you want to accomplish for the moment and give your best to it. But don’t be determined to write down everything in one go.

When you’re tired, take a break and resume when you feel refreshed and energetic enough to write.

I took a break every 40 minutes while writing this post.

It took more than 12 hours to write this post you’re reading. Lots of research was done before some of the facts, figures, and data were mentioned here.

While there is no wrong or right way to write your first draft, there is absolutely one piece of advice or tips I will give you today.

And seriously, I want you always to remember this thing, here is it:

Just sit down and start writing.

Nothing works better or perfectly than this to get your first draft underway.

It is so simple to ignore but very effective if you believe take action and start doing it.

8. Adding Images/Videos

Do blog posts need pictures?

The short answer is “Yes.”

But here is the longer answer with more explanation on why blog posts need pictures.

Blogging is no longer all about written text.

A blog post combines text with other content formats – video, slides, charts, audio, images, screenshots, infographics, etc.

Multimedia content supports tools that will take your content from “good” to “oh! That’s great“.

To add a video to a blog post, create the video using an online video maker tool, upload it to a hosting platform like YouTube, and use the embed code to add it to your post.

Adjust the size and placement to ensure it looks good and fits with the rest of your content. Choose high-quality, relevant videos and images that add value and complement your writing.

And if you want to start getting 94% more views than you’re currently doing, consider adding a more visually appealing content format to your blog post.

Here are 8 Best Practices for Using Images in Your Blog Post

#a. Only use authorized images for your blog post. If you’re using free images, remember to attribute the creator of the picture.

#b. Use screenshots where possible. It makes your blog post look more professional and stronger and explains many details.

#c. Use images that best explain your message to your reader. Images that interpret what you’re trying to say to your audience.

#d. Avoid using blurry or low-quality images in your blog post.

#e. Optimize your images for better search visibility. Images drive relevant traffic too from search engines.

#f. Don’t be shy; include a picture of yourself where appropriate in your blog post and your blog generally. It helps build trust between your readers and you.

#g. Optimize your blog images, so they don’t add more load on your server.

Use WordPress plugins like Imagify to compress image file size without affecting the visual quality of the image.

#h. Create your images by making use of free image design websites like Canva and Pablo from Buffer.

9. Edit

After your first draft is complete, it’s time to go back and read every sentence as a reader would. Now is the time to check for every possible error like typos, use of words, plagiarism, grammatical errors, etc.

Also, this is the time to consider things like images, bullet points, paragraph length, sub-headings, SEO settings, featured images, links, keyword usage, etc.

At this stage, making use of writing tools like Grammarly and Prepostseo would be an excellent idea to make our content unique. It helps to make fewer errors and handy tool design to make the life of a writer easier.

After editing, leave it for a while to come back and take a second, third, and even fourth review of your content.

We can perform plagiarism checks multiple times to ensure the credibility and uniqueness of our content.

This is important as it could take more than two attempts to spot things that need editing or modifications.

A word of advice:

Editing your post for grammatical errors or typos could be an ongoing activity.

Even your favorite authority blogs are not immune to typos, wrong use of words, incorrect spelling, and things like these.

Take a look at the screenshot below. I spot that on the Coshedule blog at the time of writing this post.

I believe the author is trying to say, “If you’re going to do content research right,” but instead, he ended up writing “If you’re doing to do.”

So never stop taking another look at your already published content even after weeks, months, and years of publishing.

You may be surprised to see what has gone through without noticing.

10. Publish

The world is waiting to read your perfect blog post.

Now what?

Publish.

Just hit the publishing button, and you can finetune as you rediscover how you can make it better in the future.

This is because there is no perfect blog post.

Every other blog post published should be better than your previous work.

This is how you grow and evolve as a great content creator, writer, and addicted content machine.

Conclusion…

Well, I believe I have given you something handy to work on your next blog post.

If you want to write a perfect blog post, then follow the above guidelines or steps, and you should come up with something close to publishing a blog post that remains forever in the hearts of your followers.