How to Write a Blog Post: Step-by-Step Guide & Template

A recent study found that only 20% of people read an entire blog article. So for blogging to be effective, you need to know how to write a blog post that keeps readers engaged. Bonus points if your articles inspire readers to take action, whether that’s buy a product, join your email list, or book a service.

Not only have I created a blogging course, but I’ve also written over 2,000 blog articles for my own site and for clients. This has helped me create an efficient blog-writing process, no matter what your unique goals are. I’ve helped clients increase their Google and AI visibility, create a sustainable marketing strategy, and reach more of the right people.

Below, I’ll cover 10 simple blog writing steps, with approximate timing for each step. I’ll also share my go-to blogging tools and answers to common blog questions.

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Step 1: Understand your audience

Approximate timing: 15 minutes

Before you start writing any blog article, you need to answer these questions about your target audience:

• Who are they?

• What are they interested in reading about?

• What are their goals?

• What problem(s) can I help them solve?

• What tone of voice will resonate the most?

This information can help you come up with blog post ideas and write articles for your target audience.

If you have a content marketing strategy, such as social media or email marketing, you likely already understand your audience. However, if your brand is new or you're writing for a new client, you'll need to gather this information.

Consider creating a document with your audience research to stay organized and have this information to refer back to as needed.

Step 2: Do Keyword Research

Approximate timing: 10 minutes

Keyword research is essential for finding specific topics your target audience is interested in reading about. For example, if you're writing for a website that sells skincare products, your audience might be interested in reading about "gentle skincare ingredients" or "easy skincare routines.”

You can do keyword research as you go for individual articles or plan for the month or quarter ahead.

When researching keywords, you can find exact SEO keyword phrases that people search Google for. Not only does this show you what people want to read about, but it can help your blog articles show up on Google and AI tools for more organic traffic.

You need to target one keyword phrase for each blog article and not use the same exact phrase for multiple articles.

A keyword research tool can help you find relevant SEO keyword phrases with a high search volume. My favorite is Keysearch because it's easy and affordable. It also has many helpful features, including content assistance and competitor analysis.

Keysearch for keyword research and SEO optimization

Step 3: Create an Outline 

Approximate timing: 30 minutes

Creating a blog post outline helps you brainstorm important information, organize your thoughts, and keep your article on topic.

A simple outline format shows your headers or headings, or h1, h2s, and h3s. Headers are the main points your article covers, and they organize your content and break the article into sections.

There should only be one h1, which is your article title. Then, your main sections should have an h2 and be broken down further with h3s if needed.

If you're writing your article in a Google Doc, you can change the format from "Normal text" to the appropriate heading in the format menu at the top of your document.

As you create your outline, you can include notes under each section. For example, you can make a note to include a statistic or find a source for a specific section.

Here’s the outline for this article:

Outlines help you prepare for writing an effective article

Step 4: Find sources

Approximate timing: 30 minutes

Google and AI bots prioritize sharing authoritative content. You can create this kind of content by using reliable sources, which can include research, statistics, or subject matter experts (SMEs).

I typically include up to a few sources per article, depending on the topic. If you’re an expert on the topic you’re writing about, you may not need as many sources.

If you’re the primary source, be sure to include your background in the article introduction and in your author bio.

Here’s how you can include useful sources when writing a blog article":

• Find and cite relevant studies that are no more than three years old

• Gather SME insights from Qwoted, LinkedIn call-outs, or within the company you’re writing articles for

• If you’re using SMEs, start reaching out as soon as your outline is complete to give them time to answer your questions before writing the content

• Link to the original study or professional about pages for SMEs

Step 5: Write the Content 

Approximate timing: 2 to 4 hours

Now that your outline and sources are ready, it's time to write your content. Think of this step as your blog's rough draft.

Your writing doesn't need to be perfect, and it's okay to type out whatever comes to mind regarding the topic because you'll edit later. Try not to edit while writing, as this can waste time.

These tips can help you write rank-worthy, engaging content:

• Speak directly to your audience - Engage your audience by using words like “you.” Make them feel like you're talking specifically to them.

• Stay on topic - Keep your blog post topic the focus throughout the entire article. This helps keep readers’ attention and encourages them to take action or stay on the site.

• Create skimmable content - 73% of blog readers skim articles, so you want to make this easy for them. It’s also easy for AI tools to pull skimmable content. Do this by using headers, lists, and short sentences and paragraphs.

• Meet user intent - Answer the search term thoroughly, covering all important details about the topic. By the time your reader finishes the article, they should feel like they got all the information they needed.

Step 6: Add Visuals

Approximate timing: 1 hour

Not only is 65% of the population visual learners, but visuals also help keep readers' attention. 95.2% of marketers also report that visuals are essential in their content marketing strategies. 

You can add visuals anytime after you write your content and before you hit publish. Once your content is written, you can decide where visuals might be helpful. For example, if you're writing a listicle, a graphic with the main points might be beneficial near the top of your article, as I have at the beginning of this article before step one.

There are many ways to incorporate visuals:

• Stock photos - Only use these if they’re relevant to the topic. Unsplash and Pexels are my favorite free stock photo sites.

• Graphics - Create graphics on Canva to help make the information in your article easier to digest. 

• Screenshots - If you’re writing an article about products or services, screenshots of those can be helpful.

• Videos - You can easily embed videos into most blogging platforms. Include relevant videos, but stick to one or two short videos per article to avoid slowing the page speed down and negatively affecting the user experience.

Step 7: Optimize for SEO

Approximate timing: 20 minutes

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a set of practices you can use to help your blog article rank on Google. When you optimize for SEO, you're writing helpful content for your target audience and helping Google understand what the article is about.

SEO is necessary for showing up on Google and AI tools so more people can organically find your content. During this step, check the following:

• SEO keyword phrase - Ensure your keyword is naturally and evenly distributed throughout your article. Include your keyword in your title, introduction, up to a few headers, and other areas it makes sense. Your exact phrase should show up at least a few times, including in the title, introduction, and naturally throughout the article.

• Headers - Do your headers clearly tell what each section is about? Each section should be 300 words or less. If it’s longer, include a new header. Make sure your headers are labeled as such on your blog article.

• Internal links - Linking to other pages on your site offers additional value to your readers, and they keep people on your site longer. They also tell Google your site has helpful content that links back and forth for a better user experience.

• Image alt text - Alt text describes what the image is, which is helpful for visually impaired people using screen readers. It also tells Google what your images are about, so include your keyword when it makes sense.

• URL tag - Your URL tag appears at the end of your blog article link. You can usually make this your keyword phrase, like how-to-write-a-blog-post for this article.

• Meta title & description - Your website builder should have a feature for you to write your meta or SEO title & description. This is what shows up on Google’s search engine results page. Your meta title should be about 50 characters, and your description should be about 150 characters. Both should include your primary keyword phrase.

Other suggestions this article covers on how to write a blog post are also helpful for SEO, including reliable sources, user search intent, and visuals. Any strategy that helps you create valuable, unique, and trustworthy content is good for SEO.

Step 8: Edit and Proofread 

Approximate timing: 30 minutes

After you have all your blog content, you want to clean it up and prepare it for publishing. 

Editing lets you check for readability, grammar, and spelling errors. Proofreading is the final read-through.

I use Grammarly for editing. The free version gives you suggestions for improving grammar and readability. Most suggestions are helpful, but make changes at your discretion.

After editing, I recommend taking a break to proofread with fresh eyes. I like to read my content aloud or use a tool like NaturalReaders to read it to me, making it easier to catch where improvements are needed.

Step 9: Publish Your Article

Approximate timing: A few minutes

Once you’re happy with your article, it’s time to hit publish. This is usually the quickest and most rewarding step of how to write a blog post.

I recommend immediately looking at your published article to ensure it looks like it should. You might notice a glitch that happened during publishing or something you missed.

If you need to fix anything, you can update and republish the article.

Step 10: Get Traffic to Your Article

Approximate timing: Ongoing

When you publish your article, don’t leave it and forget it.

First, request indexing on Google Search Console to encourage quicker ranking. If you haven’t yet, it’s free to to connect your site to Google Search Console.

When you’ve published or updated an article, paste the link at the top to “inspect” it. Then, request indexing to tell Google to crawl and rank the page.

Google Search Console - request indexing for new or updated articles

If this is an already-published article you’ve updated, it might say, “URL is on Google.” In this case, you can request indexing again.

It can take time for articles to rank on Google and get traffic. In the meantime, encourage people to read your articles by sharing article snippets and links with your email newsletter or social media followers.

Blog Post Template

Use this free, customizable blog post template for a blog writing process that’s simple and efficient:

How to Write a Blog Post: FAQs

Learn more about writing a blog post with answers to common questions below.

What should my first blog post be about?

Your first blog post can be about anything related to your business and audience. 

For example, you might write an introduction explaining your business, as I did in this article for my client, who owns a day spa. You could also write about why you started your blog with fun facts about you and your brand.

How long does it take to write a blog post?

Writing a blog post typically takes three to eight hours. The exact timing depends on the topic and your expertise.

If you follow the steps to writing a blog above, you'll see that it takes 5.5 to 7.5 hours. That said, the process becomes quicker as you gain more experience. You can also use a blog outline template to shorten the process.

What does a blog post look like?

A blog post's structure typically includes a title, introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. Headers are also used throughout the article to format and break up the content, and visuals can also be included.

How to Write a Blog Post: Next Steps

I hope this article has helped you feel more confident about writing blog posts. I use these steps for every article I write, which helps my clients and me get more traffic and leads.

To learn more about writing blogs that drive traffic and desire results, check out my SEO blogging course. It’s a start-to-finish roadmap that covers exactly how to write and publish blog posts for the best results.