Do you know how to structure a blog post? Perhaps you’ve never really questioned it. You just write some content, publish it, and that’s it, blog post done.

But if you really want a blog to work effectively on your business website you need to strategise. And part of that strategy is making sure your blog posts are structured like an absolute pro!

Not sure where to start? That’s OK. My simple guide will show you exactly how to structure a blog post, I’ll teach you the best practices for blog writing, and show how structuring blog posts for SEO will help more people find you online.

Key Elements Of A Well-Structured Blog Post

A well-structured blog post keeps readers interested and engaged and has the added benefit of boosting your SEO in the process.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the best way to structure a blog post, I’m going to show you the key elements that every good blog post should include.

• Title – A good title will grab your reader’s attention and will help them make the decision to click through to your blog post. It is arguably the most important part of your entire blog post.

• Introduction – Once people have clicked through and you’ve got them on your site ready to read your blog posts, you then need to keep them there for as long as possible, and that’s where your introduction comes in.

• Subheadings – Content should be broken up with subheadings to make it easier for people to read and to scan through to the information they’re after.

• Body Content – This is the main part of your blog post, the bit that contains all the useful info. How you present this info will determine how successful your blog post is and whether your readers decide to make that all important connection with you.

• Conclusion – No blog post is complete without a conclusion. This is where you can summarize your main points and bring closure to your writing.

• Call-to-Action (CTA) – These help steer your readers in the direction you would like them to go. Get these right and you’ll convert those readers into paying customers.

So, now you know what elements to include in your blog posts, let’s take a look at them in a little more detail

Attention Grabbing Titles

Your title is basically an advert for your blog post. It’s what people see first and it’s what helps them to decide whether to investigate further or not. Get it right, and you’ll attract attention and guide people to your website. Get it wrong, and they won’t even notice you, let alone get to a point where they’re thinking of clicking on your link.

The best blog post titles are clear, compelling, and stand out. Most people use Google to search for something they need help with, to answer a question they have, to solve a problem, or for research purposes. Your blog post title needs to reflect the needs of your customers and in order to know what those needs are you’ll need to fully research your ideal client. If you need help with this, let me know, and we can book a 1-2-1 session to help clarify things for you.

Don’t for one minute think you can give your blog post a half-assed title and then expect to have hundreds and thousands of people racing to read it. You won’t. Without a good title, your blog post won’t be found, people won’t click, and if I’m being 100% honest, it’s a complete and utter waste of your time.

So, what makes a great, attention-grabbing, SEO friendly title?

An effective and optimised title should be:

Clear – It needs to tell readers exactly what they’re going to get from reading the post.
Valuable – It needs to show readers that the solution to their problem/answer to their question/information they’re looking for is contained within the article and therefore worth them clicking through.
To The Point – It needs to be short and direct so that it stands out in search results.
Emotional or Intriguing – It needs to ignite an emotion and make the reader feel curious to find out more.
SEO-Friendly – It needs to be SEO optimised so that it includes relevant keywords in a natural way.

It’s a lot to think about, I know. But if you don’t spend time getting the title right, then there is zero point you writing the blog post. Because it won’t get found, it won’t get read, and it will just sit there on your site, gathering dust like so many other blog posts out there on the internet.

Read More – 5 Blog Title Formulas To Help You Rank Higher On Google

Introductory Hooks

OK, so your blog title has done everything it needs to do to get people clicking through to your blog post. They’re on your website, amazing! But how do you keep them there?

Introductory hooks are the first few sentences of your blog post that should hopefully capture the reader’s interest enough so that they keep reading. And they are super important. Because when someone lands on your site you have approximately 10 seconds to grab their attention before they make the decision to stay or go.

Now, there are many factors that play a part in that decision making process, including things like how a site looks, how fast it loads, how easy it is to find information on there, but introductory hooks are what specifically keeps readers on your blog post.

What makes a good introductory hook?

A good introductory hook should capture attention, be interesting, encourage further reading, and set the tone for the rest of the post. But more important than anything else it needs to be completely clear in its intentions. People shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of what’s being offered only to discover the blog post hasn’t delivered on what it promised it would. They might have stuck around to read that particular blog post, but they certainly won’t return to read any more!

Some strategies to consider when devising your introductory hook could be:

• Asking a question
• Sharing a statistic
• Addressing a problem
• Telling a short story
• Revealing a surprising fact

Scroll back up to the start of this blog post and you’ll see my opening line is a question – ‘Do you know how to structure a blog post?’ It makes you stop and think and question whether or not you do know how to structure a blog post. That slight hesitation creates a curiosity which then draws you in because you want to know whether you’re doing it right. That’s my introductory hook.

Tactical Subheadings

First impressions are everything when it comes to blog posts. And whilst it doesn’t totally matter how professional or how well-designed and polished the overall look of your website is, it does need to be easy and clear to read.

Put yourself in the shoes of a reader for a moment. You’ve done a search, found a blog post, that’s hopefully going to give you the information you’re looking for, you click through to the post and you’re confronted with a massive block of dense writing. It is literally information overload. There are too many words, you’ve no idea where the information you need is within the text, and your eyes and brain cannot handle the effort required to read through it. So you give up and leave.

But if that content was easier to read, broken up with eye catching subheadings, the reader would feel far less overwhelmed and therefore more likely to read the whole blog post.

Good subheadings should:

• Provide benefits to the reader – show your readers why they need to keep reading.
• Use questions – spark curiosity and help steer them towards the answers they’re searching for.
• Be specific – keep them concise and be clear and about what each section of your blog post is about.
• Follow the flow of the content – each point should lead naturally from one to the other.
• Be SEO optimised – using the right header tag (H2, H3 etc.) will make it easier for search engines to rank your post.

Subheadings aren’t just there to make a blog post look nice. They improve SEO, organize your content, make your content skimmable, and they increase engagement. User experience is a major factor in how Google decides to rank websites. Plus, the better your user experience, the longer your readers will stay on your site and the higher the chances are of them returning in future.

Engaging Content

It’s all well and good attracting readers to your blog posts, but unless you make your content engaging they aren’t going to stick around for very long.

Engaging content isn’t all about being able to write well. It helps, but it shouldn’t be the thing holding you back from creating content. There are other things you can do to make your content engaging.

Content that is engaging is:

• Easy to read
• Visually appealing
• Actionable

Get these 3 things right and you’ll keep your readers interested and engaged.

How to break up blog content for better engagement

To make your blog content easy to read you should use subheadings, keep your paragraphs short, use bullet points, and bold text. This in itself makes the post more visually appealing, but to make it even better and for ultimate reader engagement you can add images, infographics, and videos to help break up the text. Just make sure that whatever you use is relevant to the content and isn’t completely random. Anything you add shouldn’t just be for the purpose of creating a nicer looking blog post, more importantly it should be to back up a point you’re making or to enhance understanding for the reader.

No one wants to read dull, hard to read, worthless content. There are pages and pages of crap content out there littering up the internet and I don’t want you to add to it. Not when I know you can do so much better.  And there are so many benefits to be had from publishing engaging content on your blog, including:

• Reducing your Bounce Rate – This is the percentage of visitors who land on a site and then leave without exploring other areas of the site. You want the bounce rate of your site to be as low as possible, ideally keeping readers engaged enough that they want to see what else you’ve written about, what you do, what you offer, and so that they’re keen to learn more about your business.
• Improving SEO – Search engines, like Google, prioritise sites that keep users on pages longer as it shows you’re providing value and are a credible source.
• Building Trust and Authority – You’re not just building trust with search engines, you’re also strengthening the relationship with your audience. Readers appreciate engaging content as it shows them that you’re thinking about them and their needs.
• Increasing Interactions – Content that is engaging and holds interest is far more likely to be shared, so if you can achieve that you’ve pretty much got your readers doing your marketing for you!

Effective SEO Strategies

You can make simple changes to your blog post format that will almost instantly appeal to readers, but there’s another thing you have to think about when structuring your blog posts.

Because it’s lovely that you’ve written an informative, easy to read, value packed blog post, but if no one can find it, what’s the point? Structuring blog posts for SEO isn’t as hard as you might think and it’s well worth spending a few extra minutes getting it right.

Implementing a few SEO strategies into your blog posts will increase your organic traffic, boost visibility, support long-term growth, strengthen your authority, and improve the user experience even more so.

The 3 key things I want you to check when you write your next blog post is that it includes:

• Internal links – that’s a link to another page/post on your site.
• Alt text – on your images to improve accessibility.
• Meta descriptions – to provide search engines with key information about your post.

This should be done on every single blog post you write and once you get in the habit of doing it, it just becomes part of the blog writing process in exactly the same way as you would run it through a spellchecker before publishing.

Some other things to consider when it comes to SEO:

1. Optimise your images – I have a great blog post on this – https://blogwell.co.uk/beginners-guide-to-optimizing-images-for-your-blog/

2. Use the right keywords – Spend some time doing some keyword research to find out what your audience are searching for and how competitive those terms are. Try to use longtail keywords, for example in this blog post I have chosen the longtail keyword ‘how to structure a blog post’ rather than ‘blog post structure’ as there will be less competition to rank against but it is still a very valuable search term.

3. Optimize Headings – Include your keyword in your headings and make sure you order them in the content correctly e.g. H1 for your main title, H2 for your subheadings, H3 for points within a subheading etc.

4. Avoid keyword stuffing – Keywords are great, but if you completely stuff your content full of them it can look unnatural and is actually very counterproductive when it comes to SEO.

If you’re using WordPress for your website, I’d really recommending installing a plugin called Yoast. It’s an SEO plugin that helps you optimise your posts. I use the free version and it does more than enough for what I need it to.

How To Structure A Blog Post With Calls To Action

Another thing you need to take into consideration, both for the benefit of your reader but also for yourself is to make sure you include a CTA (call to action). Ultimately, you want your readers to take action and to convert them into sales, that’s the purpose of any business, right? But they can only do that if you make it easy for them.

Not including CTAs in your posts, means you’re making it a hell of a lot harder for your audience to take the next step. Sure, they could hunt around your site to find your contact details or ways to work with you, but often people don’t. It should be made abundantly clear how they should take action, or you risk losing them.

Here are some good examples of CTA’s:

• Click here
• Download
• Get in touch
• Contact me
• Work with me
• Find out more
• Join the community
• Share your thoughts
• Learn more

All of these invite readers to take action, they help steer them in the right direction, and this keeps them engaged and on your site longer.

The most effective ways to structure a blog post CTAs

It matters where you put your CTAs in your post. You can’t take a scatter gun approach with them and dot them around willy nilly. The more strategic you are with the placement of them, the more effective they’ll be.

Here’s a quick guide as to where you should be placing CTAs in your blog post:

• At the beginning – If you start a blog post with a question (a great introductory hook!) you can follow it up with a CTA inviting the reader to download a resource that will help answer that question.
• Midway through – You can reinforce reader engagement by placing a CTA such as ‘Discover more’ or ‘Get more tips’ in the middle of your post. This reaffirms the reader that you’re thinking of them and their needs.
• At the end – You’ve got them this far so you need to make sure that if they haven’t taken action already, that they do so now before they leave. A strong closing CTA needs to deliver more, so for example where you may just want to put a simple ‘Contact me’ you should instead put ‘Need help with your blog strategy? Contact me today for expert advice’.

You need to make sure your CTAs stand out from the rest of your content. You can do this by using bold text, buttons, colour, or highlighted boxes. Remember to keep them clear, concise and relevant to your reader.

Common Blog Structure Mistakes To Avoid

Right, so I’ve shown you how to structure a blog post, now I want to share some big no-no’s with you as I think this is equally as important to know.

The following are all things that I see happening a LOT in blog posts and let me tell you it is doing absolutely nothing for you or your website if you’re doing any of them.

Here’s what to avoid:

• Long paragraphs
• No subheadings
• Clickbait titles
• No hook
• No CTAs
• Unnatural flow to the writing
• No internal or external links
• Bad spelling/grammar
• Not enough words
• No conclusion

Final Thoughts

Even the best content can lose its impact if it’s poorly structured. Blog posts that use optimised titles, introductory hooks, tactical subheadings, strategic SEO, and CTAs will outperform those that don’t. So, if you want your blog posts to work effectively for your business, to help your audience find you, to help showcase your business, and to give you a stronger online presence, it’s essential you use these strategies when structuring your blog post.

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Author Bio

Bex Stafferton is a blogger who started off writing her blog The Art of Healthy Living as a hobby when she was a stay at home mum and caring for her two young children. The same blog now earns her a full time salary while working part time hours.

Bex is on a mission to help teach businesses how having a blog on their website is a valuable marketing tool. Helping to build a strong online presence, grow an engaged audience, and increase sales.

When she’s not blogging, Bex spends her time hiking up mountains, trail running, cuddling her two cockapoos, and volunteering at a local wildlife rescue centre.