How to Write the PERFECT Blog Post? (9 Mind-Blowing Informational Blog Post Tips)

byParthaB

4.2K followers

Updated 3 years ago

Today I’d like to show you how to write the perfect blog post.

Yaayy!!

And it just so happens that I will structure THIS entire blog post using the “perfect” formula.

So, this is ideal for you to come back to and use as a point of reference.

I will say this is how I write INFORMATIONAL blog posts, and I’m sure I’ll cover reviews at a later date.

Plus, some may disagree with my methods, but I rank, get traffic, make money, so disagree all you like.

Without further ado let’s get to the 9 main factors to writing that perfect blog post.

How to Write the Perfect Blog Post?

In order to write the perfect blog post, firstly conduct keyword research via Google Autosuggest to find a low competition question phrase. Make bullet point notes of the main answers to the question, and this will form your subheadings. Next is the answer snippet. Ensure you answer the question, bold and highlight the text. Keep your introduction short and sweet, break up your paragraphs, make use of images, charts, tables, and videos.

1. Find a Question People in Your Niche Are Asking

I’ve covered this in so many previous blog posts, and with good reason - it works.

For me, informational blog posts are a must.

And even if you’re creating an affiliate website, I would personally say that you need to have twice as many informational posts as affiliate reviews.

We often talk about “gaining trust” with Google and the other search engines.

The easiest way to achieve this, especially for a brand new website, is to be as helpful as you possibly can.

I would go as far to say that your first 40-50 articles should have no selling intent.

If you find questions that people in your niche are asking.

And these have low page one competition, then write the article.

These types of articles are far easier to rank.

So, over time you are not only creating trust with Google, but also authority (because your articles are ranking well and producing traffic).

I would much rather have 40-50 articles ranking and receiving around 2,000-4,000 visitors a month within 5-6 months.

I then have real, actual visitors that I can do something with.

If your website has purely selling intent and is all about the reviews, then you’re probably going to take 2-3 times as long to get the same amount of traffic (I’m talking about organic traffic).

So, be helpful, and answer people’s questions.

2. The Perfect Title

As you probably know, I’m not a fan of the “Machines”.

I’m talking about SEO plugins.

As far as I’m concerned they stifle creativity.

Yes, by all means use them, but only as a guide.

Do NOT become a slave to them.

The worst thing about SEO plugins is being taught to keep your title to 60 characters.

Anything above this, your SEO plugin deems you a failure.

Very pre-2018 advice and recommendations if you ask me.

John Mueller, Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, has categorically stated that Google takes the ENTIRE title into consideration for SEO purposes (and he said this over 2 years ago).

So, your title could be 1,000 characters long and can still rank.

The 60 characters are simply about what APPEAR in the search results, so what people see.

However, as long as you have your main article subject matter within those first 60 characters then this is enough to entice visitors.

Personally, I believe that Google cutting part of the title off can actually create intrigue.

In fact, let’s take the title of this blog post as an example.

The first 60 characters that would be featured in Google are:

How to Write the Perfect Blog Post? (9 Mind-Blowing Informat…

See, Intrigue.

9 Mind-Blowing WHAT???

I need to know.

Dammit, I’m clicking on this article because I need to know the 9 things that are going to blow my mind.

Intrigue people, intrigue.

So YES, get your keyword/subject matter/search query in at the beginning, but DO NOT become a slave to 60 characters.

If Jonny M (I wonder if he’ll mind calling him that) says Google uses the ENTIRE title for SEO purposes, then that’s good enough for me.

Who are you gonna listen to?

An SEO plugin created by someone you’ve probably never heard of or Google’s very own Search Analysis Head Honcho?

Additionally, I like to use parentheses and numbers in the title, where relevant.

This is all to do with human psychology.

We are typically attracted to things like brackets, quotation marks, numbers, etc. and especially odd numbers.

Don’t ask me why, but we are.

So, take advantage of this where possible.

3. Structure - 20 Minutes & GO

I’ve discussed how to structure an article before.

Plus, I did exactly the same thing with this article.

Once you know the topic of your article (or the question you’re going to answer) then I want you to set a timer for 20 minutes.

You’re going to plug your question/phrase into Google and I want you to come up with at least 4-5 points that address/answer the question.

You don’t have to know the ins-and-outs, or even have to know the answer in full, you simply need to know the main points that will answer the question.

So, for this blog post, I knew that the “perfect blog posts” required:

• Keyword research
• A good title
• Structure
• A quick intro
• An answer snippet
• The main content to expand on the answer snippet
• Breaking up paragraphs for mobile
• Images/videos, internal and external links.

This is the answer to the question, “How to Write the Perfect Blog Post?”

These 9 “answers” then form my subheadings.

I had no idea what I’m going to write.

Perhaps I’m not even sure how this would help you to write the perfect blog post, but I knew they had something to do with it.

Remember, you’ve only got 20 minutes, so don’t dawdle, get your article structured quickly.

STOP PROCRASTINATING, STOP OVERTHINKING IT, JUST DO IT (Sorry for the shouting, just trying to get my point across, I’ll give you a hug later once you’ve got it right).

4. Introduction - Get to the Point

Why do people feel the need to tell you their life story in an introduction?

I DON’T CARE!!

I have gone to Google with a problem.

I have typed my problem into Google in hope of finding a solution.

I see your article, it looks like it’s going to answer my question.

I click, find my way onto your website, only to read about how your pet parrot has been missing for 4 days, and your Aunt Gertrude is having terrible trouble with her bunions.

I DON’T CARE.

An introduction is short, sweet, to the point, and tells me what to expect in the article.

GET TO THE POINT, don’t bore me to death.

Thanking You.

5. Answer Snippet - The Most Important Factor

I do sometimes question people’s logic.

Yes, I admit it, I am very judgemental.

I try not to be, but I can’t help it, I’m an a*se, or just plain a** to those of you on the other side of the Atlantic.

I have heard people say, “Well, you shouldn't try to get the Featured Snippet because it provides the answer to the search query, So, people will read the answer and never click through to your website”.

Eerm okay, so if someone finds the answer they need in the featured snippet and therefore doesn’t click through to that website, what makes you think they’re going to click through to your website if you rank below the featured snippet in position 1,2,3,4,5,6,etc?

If someone’s not going to click on a search result, then they’re not going to click, full stop.

If someone reads the answer to their query via a featured snippet, and wants to know more, then they will click through.

You cannot control another human being’s reactions on the other side of a computer screen (well, actually you can, but let’s save the psychology of online marketing for another day).

If they’re a scan reader and non-clicker, then that’s who they are!!

I would much rather be at the absolute top of the search results than not.

You get me?

I even have to question the great Brian Dean’s logic on this.

Brain of Backlinko is probably one of the greatest SEO minds of the last decade, and yet I don’t totally “get” his article written around the featured snippet.

In truth, the likelihood of someone clicking through to your article depends on where you rank on the first page.

The approximate percentage results are:

• 31% for number one ranking
• 25% for number two ranking
• 19% for number three ranking

All the way down to 3% for number ten ranking.

Interestingly, a number 10 ranked article gets slightly more clicks than number nine.

Somehow Brian comes up with only 8% of people click on the featured snippet.

However, Search Engine Journal puts this at 36%.

As far as I’m concerned, most searchers don’t know the difference between a Featured Snippet and number one ranking in Google.

To them the top result is the top result, and so if they’re going to click anything it is likely to be the result at the top of the page.

Furthermore, getting the featured snippet doesn’t always mean that you have to rank on page one.

In effect, because a portion of your article ANSWERS THE SEARCHER’S QUESTION you obtain the Featured Snippet.

So, Google believes that this small portion of text answers the question perfectly, but there are more relevant articles that go into more detail.

Then again, you can also be ranked on page one, say at position 7,8,9, etc. and still have the featured snippet as well.

How cool is that?

Basically, you rank twice on page one of Google.

There are various ways to obtain the Featured Snippet, but the “paragraph method” I use typically works best with 40-70 words.

You can also gain the Featured Snippet for Numbered and Unordered lists.

Brian goes into more detail about that in his Featured Snippets article.

Personally, my answer snippet comes straight after the introduction.

It is under an H2 tag (the only one I have in the article) (unfotunately, WA is not allowing me to add an H2 tag above my featured snippet, but WordPress will. The H2 tag should also be your keyword/question phrase), the text is bolded in its entirety, and I will highlight it with a coloured block (no coloured block on this blog post, but every article on the website in my profile provides an example of this).

My aim is to tell Google, “This is the Most Important Part of the Article” or “This is the Answer to the Searcher’s Query.”

I will go as far as to say that if your answer snippet is absolutely on-point, you MAY rank regardless of the rest of your content (obviously I’m not telling you to scrimp on quality here, but just to perfect your answer snippet).

6. Expand on the Answer Snippet

So, the answer snippet provides a condensed answer to the searcher’s query.

The remainder of your article simply expands on these points in more detail.

Realistically, once you have structured your article with your subheadings, your introduction, and your answer snippet, you have probably hit around 200 words.

So, your aim is to simply write 100-300 words within each subsection.

I almost view each subsection of an article as a separate article.

In effect, depending on how many subheadings I have, I am simply writing 4-5 (or 9 in today’s case) mini-articles.

For a simple 1,300 words article with 5 subheadings, I am literally looking to write an introduction, an answer snippet, a conclusion, and then 5 mini-articles of around 200 words each.

See how easy that makes it?

Admittedly, this blog post is over 3,000 words, but I am trying to squeeze in as much information as I can (Sorry).

7. Break Up the Paragraphs

Okay, my former English teacher would have a fit at the following.

In fact, so will WA member Jeannine (Sorry Jeannine, love you, don’t hurt me).

However, writing on the internet is definitely not the same as “Real Writing”.

And this is even more true over the past 3-4 years.

Approximately, 70-80% of internet users will now conduct daily searches using their phone.

And unfortunately, “normal paragraphs” will look like large blocks of unreadable text via a smartphone.

In fact, if you have more than 3-4 sentences together it will be much harder on the eyes when viewing it from a mobile device.

Perhaps, a little hypocritical of myself when I speak of the answer snippet, but the rest of my text is definitely broken up.

Human beings are fickle creatures.

And we will hit the back button, ignore what could otherwise be sage advice, and just the answer we’re looking for if we are greeted with large blocks of text.

Trust me, anything over 70 words on a mobile device looks like a huge block of text.

So, please break up your paragraphs (Sorry Jeannine).

8. Make it Visually Appealing

Sticking with the subject of what searcher’s like to see, you’ll want to make your blog post visually appealing.

However, you don’t want to overdo it.

In fact, I tend to have minimal visual content, but this is because my main business model is earning from ads.

And when you use the premium ad networks many of the ads will be images and video content.

So, what you add visually will very much depend on how you intend to earn income.

This is also another reason to break up your paragraphs by the way.

The ad networks Ezoic, Mediavine, and Adthrive tend to place ads in-between written content.

With that being said, you don’t want a reader to be greeted with just a wall of text.

So, images and videos are important.

What I will say is that if your content allows for it then make use of charts and tables.

This is especially true if you use stock images usually.

Searchers are probably used to seeing the same stock images time-and-time again, so a bit of variety never hurt anyone.

If your article discusses percentages you could potentially use a pie chart.

If you use block editor you can create a table.

And I’m sure we can all agree that Pinterest is a life-saver.

Fantastic informational images, infographics, etc.

So, learn to be creative with your visual imagery.

Don’t do what I’ve done with this blog post and just add stock images that don’t have much relevance.

I have done this to prove a point (and also because 80% of WA members who click on this blog post won’t read it, “IT’S TOO LONG”. Stop moaning!! Your inability to read “long” content is directly correlated to your online success, i.e. ”can’t be bothered attitude”).

Oh yeah, and I couldn’t be bothered to find decent images, LOL.

What?

Don’t judge me, I’ve just given you a little baby miracle in the form of a blog post. Hahaha.

9. What About Links?

LINKS!!

Everyone’s favourite subject.

“Where’s My Link?”

Okay, I flatly disagree with most of the advice I read about links.

There I said it.

To me, it almost seems like people are trying to “trick” Google by having a certain amount of links per number of words.

Very robotic in my opinion.

Nothing about your content should be robotic (unless you’re selling robots that is).

I read that you should only have an affiliate link every 500 words.

Or that you should only have one internal link and one external link.

And anything more will “harm” your Google rankings.

NOPE!!

Google has only ever really once indicated a numerical value when it comes to “overdoing” links.

And they said this over a decade ago.

The number mentioned was over 100 links as being excessive.

PLEASE DO NOT GO AND ADD 99 LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT (You just know someone will and then state “Well Partha said you could add this many links” NO, you’re being a robot again).

The initial way Google actually finds new content is via links.

But most importantly, any links you provide in your content should ENHANCE THE READER’S EXPERIENCE.

So, by sticking to a certain number of links per article, you’re not doing it to enhance the reader’s experience, but simply to “trick” the search engines.

DON’T DO IT.

I have placed internal links within this blog post that will enhance your experience (hopefully).

The external link to Brian’s stats do the same.

An external link on an informational blog post should be relevant, but not cover the exact same information.

You don’t want to be saying to your reader’s, “Here’s better information on this topic by someone else”.

So, I have linked to Brian’s page one/featured snippet stats, which has nothing to do with writing the perfect blog post.

It’s relevant, but it doesn’t compete with my content.

As for affiliate links and product reviews, the same principle applies.

Are you enhancing the reader’s experience?

Some of the advice I’ve seen doesn’t make sense.

Let’s say you write a 2,500-word blog post of the 10 Best Smartphones.

So, if you’re only going to have one affiliate link per 500 words, this means that you can only add 5 affiliate links to your blog post.

What about the other 5 products on the page?

Are you going to simply ignore these because you’re trying to “trick” Google?

Does NOT having the 5 additional affiliate links enhance the reader’s experience?

When it comes to links, use common sense, and add links to help your reader and not to get one over on Google.

Final Thoughts

And finally, your conclusion.

Once again, short and sweet.

Literally just tell the reader what you have already told them.

So, for this blog post I would tell you that in order to write the perfect blog post you need:

• Keyword research
• A good title
• Structure
• A quick intro
• An answer snippet
• The main content to expand on the answer snippet
• Breaking up paragraphs for mobile
• Images/videos, internal and external links

Obviously, I have copied and pasted from above, but you should make your conclusion slightly different, while still explaining what your reader has learned.

You will want to sign off your conclusion by giving your reader ONE thing to do.

You decide on your “call to action”.

Should they read another blog post of yours?

Would you like to steer them towards a relevant product review?

Is this an opportunity to get them to sign up to your email newsletter?

The choice is YOURS.

Thank You For Reading

Partha