You’ve got a killer topic and some engaging ideas for your blog. But without the right structure, your readers might get lost or lose interest before the real juicy parts. In the bustling world of blog content creation, understanding how to create an ideal blog structure can transform your writing from a scattered collection of thoughts into a coherent, compelling narrative. Whether you’re sharing personal stories, expert advice, or investigative pieces, this article will guide you in crafting a blog structure that captivates and informs.
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Structuring a Blog Post (4 Basic Parts of a Blog Post)
1. Attention-Grabbing Headline
A striking headline could be the most important word for your blog post. It's often deciding whether a viewer clicks on your link over the others that appear in a Google search. While the phrase “Never judge a book by its cover” may be good advice, most people will judge a blog post by its headline.
When crafting a headline, here are a few questions to consider:
Will it spark the reader's interest?
Will it make the reader want to learn more?
Does it stand out?
Does it answer a specific question for your readers?
Headline Length & Engagement
Regarding length, research has shown that longer can sometimes be better. For optimal Facebook engagement, HubSpot found that 12- and 14-word headlines are the sweet spot. (Full disclosure: We are a HubSpot agency partner.) That said, it’s not an exact science; it’s experimentation until you find what clicks with your audience.
For example, our liquor licensing service client's 10- to 14-word headlines performed best with their target audience. Longer headlines resulted in almost double the page views as similar blog posts with only six-word headlines.
While the ideal headline length varies depending on your buyer persona, according to HubSpot, keeping the title under 70 characters is best to ensure it doesn't get cut off when it appears in search engine results.
2. Clear Meta Description
Creating a meta description may seem daunting if you don’t have a marketing team or are just beginning to incorporate blogging into your strategy. A meta description summarizes your blog post’s content and appears underneath your headline on a search result’s page. A clear meta description provides the searcher with succinct details about your post.
To make sure your meta description does its job correctly, follow these guidelines when writing it:
Use keywords that pertain to your business and blog post topic.
Provide a brief description of what information the reader will gain.
Don't use fluff words or overly descriptive adjectives.
Omit promotional messaging.
For meta descriptions, simplicity is often best.
3. Engaging Subheadings
Strategic and engaging subheadings are a key component of a blog post. They break up paragraphs of text to make the content easier to follow, efficiently communicate important information, and catch the reader’s eye. Subheadings are the perfect opportunity to keep the reader engaged in the post while also helping them navigate to important sections.
In particular, multiple subheadings can help your audience grasp the concepts if you're writing a complicated or technical post.
4. Helpful And Relevant Body Copy
There are usually three reasons why an individual visits your blog: to answer a question, help them decide, or gain more information about an important topic. This means it’s essential that your blog post contains helpful content that fulfills these needs. Otherwise, the reader will likely not read far past your engaging headline.
For the content we write for an economic development organization, we always include valuable information about the specific industries that reside and operate in the area. For example, rather than just writing about industry trends relevant to those area businesses, we include specific statistics and takeaways like:
Percentage of skilled workers searching for jobs in those industries
Information about local tax laws that impact those businesses.
These specific facts provide the reader with relevant information they can use to adjust or improve their operations and shareable, engaging content. This approach led to a 90% increase in new visitor blog traffic for the economic development organization over six months.
Remember: On average, people spend 37 seconds reading content marketing articles, which some blog posts are considered to be. If, within that period, a reader doesn't find any helpful information, they'll likely move on even quicker.
5. A Strong Call To Action
If a reader has made it to the end of your blog post, don't waste the opportunity to entice them to take a preferred action. This could be a simple request such as “Stay tuned to our blog” or something more specific, like directing them to subscribe to your email newsletter. If fitting, your call to action can also allow the reader to download a valuable offer or schedule a demo of your product or service.
Tailoring it to the specific blog post is critical to remember with your call to action. What you ask the reader to do should make sense based on what they just learned.
1. Choose a Focus Keyword and Add It Where Necessary
Choosing a proper focus keyword is the first step towards optimizing your blog for better search engine ranking. That’s your main keyword and the one you want to rank for in various search engines. Your focus keyword should be highly related to your post’s content, as you don’t want to clickbait readers. This keyword is what users will most likely type into search engines when they’re trying to find content such as yours.
Choosing Keywords with SEO Tools
Various SEO tools can help you choose the perfect keyword. Some of these tools are free, while some require a paid subscription. Most of them work on the same principle, where you need to feed the tool information about your topic, and it will give you keyword suggestions back.
2. Add Meta Descriptions, Titles, and Tags
Although these elements aren’t essential for your readers, they are crucial for search engines. Meta titles, descriptions, and tags help search engines understand your content. What are these?
Meta Title: This one stands at the top of the browser window as the headline you click on. It should ideally be 50–60 characters long, and you should try to include the focus keyword in it.
Meta Description: It’s precisely like a summary of your post, appearing under the title in search results. It should be informative and give a brief description of what your post is about. That’s how search engines learn about your content.
Tags: These keywords and phrases help internet users find what they’re searching for when looking for a specific topic. As you can see, these are all short summaries of your post.
3. Create a Logical Flow
It’s a tricky aspect of writing and why so many blogs fail. Without it, your blogs will lack an organized structure, negatively affecting SEO. Your readers will also have difficulties following the text.
It’s wise to first outline your text before writing. See what you’ll write about and create a structure that makes sense and flows naturally. That includes headings and subheadings, which you can find more about below.
Structuring Content for Clarity and Readability
When writing under a particular heading, only put information under it that’s relevant to the title. Try to divide your text into shorter paragraphs, each with its theme, and use conjunctions and transitional words to create a smooth flow and a cohesive article.
4. Add Links
There are two types of links you can use:
Internal Links: These lead to other pages of your website. They help keep readers on the site longer and engage them with additional content. They help search engines understand your content and the website’s structure, letting them categorize it better.
External Links: They’re links that point to other websites. If you’re networking with other bloggers in your niche, you can put external links to each other’s websites, driving traffic to one another. These links should be from credible websites. Quality links should be put on relevant anchor text, which helps users and search engines know what the link is about.
5. Create a Compelling Title
Using a proper title is one of the most critical steps to gaining new readers. It’s the first thing that your blog guests see and what usually makes them click a particular link when searching for content on Google. You should avoid creating clickbait titles. Although these will most likely work if you want a high click rate, your readers will undoubtedly close the tab once they realize it’s clickbait.
You want your title to be relevant to the content of your blog post. It should include the focus keyword, and it can even have a play on words. A great title should also be catchy, and its goal is to lure the readers in.
6. Add Headers and Subheaders
These two elements help both readers and search engines. Your readers will easily find their way around the text, while search engines will quickly see your content’s structure, and that’s why it improves your SEO ranking. Headers and subheaders are hierarchical, with the H1 being your title and the most important one, while the H2s are smaller, the H3s are even smaller, etc.
Try to use the correct header hierarchy and write texts and info that are descriptive and relevant to the header under which they’re found.
7. Include Bullets and Numberings
Breaking up your content is essential for readers to rest their eyes and easily find their way around your post, and the best way to do that is to include bulleted and numbered lists. You shouldn’t spam or rely too heavily on either of these, but you want to use them whenever possible, and you want to switch it up with paragraph text.
These lists also help search engines understand your content better, and it’s why they’re essential for SEO.
8. Add Images
Another great way of enhancing the visual appeal and improving the aesthetic of your blog posts is by adding images. They break up large blocks of text and make your content engaging for readers.
Image Selection Best Practices
When adding images, ensure you use high-quality ones from copyright-free websites. Only add pictures that are relevant to your topic. For example, if you’re writing about restaurants, add an image of a restaurant. If you start with a landscape image, use only landscape images throughout the text to increase the visual appeal.
You should add an alt text under images to allow search engines to comprehend what’s on the picture.
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Why is Blog Structure for Your Posts So Important?
Have you ever faced the terrifying "white screen of death"? A well-structured blog post can be your savior here. You create a roadmap for your writing journey by outlining clear talking points. This approach turns the blank page into a welcoming space, allowing your thoughts to flow smoothly and quickly.
Instead of grappling with where to start, you can jump right in, letting your ideas unfold naturally. Think of structure as the scaffolding that supports your creativity. It eliminates the chaos and keeps you on track.
Make It Reader-Friendly: Guide Your Audience
Let’s talk about your readers. When your blog post is well-organized, it’s like giving them a guided tour. A clear structure allows for seamless transitions, making your content easy to read and understand. This improves readability and engagement, ensuring your audience sticks around long enough to absorb your key message.
Think of it as the difference between a well-marked trail and a confusing maze. Your readers will appreciate the clarity and be more likely to engage with your content.
Boost Your SEO: Structure Matters to Search Engines
Search engines rely heavily on structure to understand what your content is about. Using headings, subheadings, and logical flow provides context that search engines need to rank your blog. This is SEO 101: if you want organic traffic, make your content easy for search engines to understand. A well-structured post isn’t just helpful; it’s essential to climb the rankings and be found by your audience.
6 Best Tips on Structuring Your Blog Post for SEO
1. Use Transition Words
Transition words are your guideposts. They help readers skim through your text, showing them how sentences and paragraphs relate. Say your product has three key benefits: use signal words like “first of all,” “secondly,” and “finally” to lead them through it.
Words like “however” or “similarly” work wonders too. When readers see “to sum up” or “in short,” they know you’re wrapping things up. These words make your content flow, guiding readers effortlessly from point to point.
2. Keyword Harmony: Use Related Keywords
Stuffing your article with your focus keyword is a no-go. Google's smart. It knows what your text is about without drowning it in keywords. It looks for synonyms and related phrases to grasp your topic. So, sprinkle in those synonyms and associated terms.
Yoast SEO plugin can help. Thanks to SEMrush, it generates related keyphrases based on your main keyword. This way, your content reads naturally while staying SEO-friendly.
3. Find the Balance: Optimize the Length of Your Article
Your blog post should be at least 300 words, but don’t go overboard. Google loves long articles, but readers might not. They can get overwhelmed by a wall of text. Aim for short to medium-length articles. If you’re skilled, try longer pieces. Just keep using your focus keyphrase throughout to ensure your post is SEO-ready.
4. Build Bridges: Link to Existing Content
Internal linking is your friend. If you’ve written about this topic before, link to those posts. It helps readers and Google navigate your content. Your link structure affects your rankings. Plus, linking to related content is great for readers—they might want to dive deeper into those topics. Our internal linking tool suggests relevant pages and posts for you.
5. Fresh Eyes: Let Other People Read Your Post
Before you hit publish, get someone else to read your post. They can check for typos and grammatical errors. More importantly, they can ensure your main point is clear. An expert on the topic can tell you if you’ve covered everything. They might even have suggestions to make your post better.
6. Keep It Alive: Add Content Regularly
Adding new blog posts regularly signals to Google that your site is active. If your site is dormant, Google will crawl it less often, hurting your rankings. But don’t post just to post. Ensure every content is high-quality, informative, and fits your audience’s search intent.
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