How to Write a Great Blog Article (Guide + Examples)

Would you like to write an exceptional blog post, but find yourself in doubt about how to organize it? It is possible to write an attractive and valuable post, but without the right structure, only a few will be able to read it. Your blog visitors might even get lost and abandon the reading before finishing it. In this article, we will guide you on how to write an outstanding blog post, even if you are a newbie.

Why is blog post structure so crucial? According to our blog stats research, there are over 600 million blogs. With so much competition, you’ll have to do your best to make your blogs stand out, including using the right structure.

A well-structured blog guides the reader from one point to another in a logical way that is easy to follow and understand. Many people simply skim blogs, so the right structure also helps people find the parts they are interested in reading.

A clear structure not only helps visitors understand your content. Search engine bots will also find it easier to crawl your blogs and then display them to the right people. This will improve your search engine rankings and attract more visitors to your WordPress blog.

How to Write an Outstanding Blog Article (Guide + Examples) You may be a world-renowned writer, but without a clear structure your blog articles can still be difficult to read.

With that in mind, let’s look at how you can write a well-structured blog article, even if you’re a complete beginner. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the topic you want to read about.

Content of this article:

Create a descriptive and attractive title

The title of your article is usually the first thing people see. No matter how good your blog content is, you will have trouble getting readers with a boring title.

An attractive title will grab a person’s attention regardless of whether they see it on social media, an RSS feed, in their search results, or somewhere else.

That said, the title should describe what the article is about, while making people want to read it.

With countless blogs on the Internet, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. While there is no magic formula for creating the perfect title, BuzzSumo analyzed over 100 million articles and concluded that the ideal title length is between 11 words and 65 characters.

If you include numbers in your titles, then research suggests that people like to share titles that have single digit numbers.

BuzzSumo also found that more people engage with titles that include the current year.

Even simply adding a year to the end of a title can be enough to increase traffic to your blog.

People are also more likely to share titles that suggest novelty, so you may want to try including phrases like ‘for the first time’.

Another trick is to hint at must-have information by saying things like ‘need to know’, ‘need to know’ or ‘best’.

If you’re writing a ‘how-to’ article, think about the problem your blog solves. What might someone type into a search engine when faced with this problem? This is often a great starting point for a compelling ‘how-to’ title.

Write a clear and concise introduction

Every great blog article needs a clear introduction that tells visitors what the article is about. This helps people decide if they are interested in the topic.

Just like the title, it’s not enough to simply say what the blog is about. You also need to make the visitor want to keep reading.

People don’t want to waste time on blogs that don’t interest them. That said, your introduction should be short and to the point. Ideally, you should aim for 1-3 paragraphs.

When it comes to creating a tight and focused introduction, a good trick is to try to include your blog’s keyword as early as possible. By sticking to this goal, you’re less likely to stray from the topic.

Depending on the type of blog you are writing, you can get good results by sharing interesting or surprising statistics in the introduction. This example from MonsterInsights is guaranteed to capture the attention of any online store owner who wants to get more sales.

Another option is to talk about a problem and promise a solution.

This RafflePress post discusses a problem that a user may have: promoting your business on Instagram can be expensive and not everyone has a big budget.

Then he promises a solution: get noticed on Instagram for free.

Many introductions also use FOMO, or fear of missing out. By adding time pressure, you can make people want to read the entry now, rather than risk missing out on a giveaway, event, trip, or whatever else the entry talks about.

This travel blog takes a fairly standard ‘Best Places to Visit’ list and turns it into a race against time.

We have also seen blogs that engage the reader by sharing a humorous personal story. If this anecdote resonates with the target audience, then it can be a powerful hook.

For example, this introduction makes it very clear that the author knows exactly what the reader is going through.

No matter what approach you take, if you’re going to engage your audience, then you need to know everything about them. The best way to learn about your audience is to use Google Analytics.

Divide the content with headings

A 2022 study by the Institute for Policy and Care Studies Center found that most people feel their attention span is shorter than it used to be.

No matter how good your writing is, all your hard work will be wasted if readers can’t concentrate on more than a few paragraphs.

That’s why we recommend using headers to break your entry into small chunks.

Headings help readers skim the entry and find the content they are interested in reading. It also makes it easier for them to revisit the sections they want to read again.

Before you start writing, it is a good idea to outline all the headings you will use and the content you will add to each section. This will keep you focused as you draft the entry.

Ideally, your headings should summarize every important point you want to make. In fact, readers should be able to understand the flow of your blog simply by scanning the headings.

Let’s see an example. Here, we have some tips on how to properly store coffee beans. Although each paragraph provides additional useful information, you can get all the tips just by reading the headings.

After creating your headings, organize them so that your content flows logically. For example, if you’re writing a fitness blog, you shouldn’t tell readers how many times to repeat an exercise before showing them how to do it.

When it comes time to add these headers to your WordPress website, there are six built-in header tags you can use.

Like bullets and numbered lists, you can use these headings to create a nested structure of headings and subheadings.

However, we recommend keeping the hierarchy of headings as simple as possible, to avoid confusing your readers. This means using H2 headings for main sections, and then H3 for subsections, and so on.

Add a table of contents

A table of contents lists the main points of the post and provides links to specific sections. This gives visitors an overview of what the blog covers while allowing them to jump directly to the content they are interested in.

This can keep visitors on your website longer, even if they are only interested in part of a blog post.

A table of contents can even improve your WordPress SEO, as Google often uses the table to automatically add ‘skip to section’ links in search results.

The easiest way to add a table of contents to your WordPress blog is by using the free TOC plus plugin.

Keep paragraphs and sentences short

Imagine opening a blog post only to find a wall of text. Chances are you’d abandon the page immediately. That said, it’s important to break your blog into paragraphs and short sentences. These are easier to skim and seem much less daunting, especially on mobile devices.

A good trick is to avoid long, complicated words, intricate metaphors and flowery language. All that to say: keep it simple. You’ll lose people if you try to be too clever.

Ideally, you should aim to make only one point per sentence, using as few words as possible.

Often, you can break grammatical rules if it gets your point across in fewer words. This can mean starting sentences with things like ‘Or’, ‘And’ or ‘But’, or using more informal language and fragments instead of full sentences.

You should also organize your sentences and paragraphs to give the reader the most important information first, and then go into finer details from there. This makes it easier for the reader to skip the sections that don’t interest them.

In this TrustPulse blog, the writer starts by explaining what e-commerce email marketing is. Then, they give Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign as examples of popular email providers.

The next paragraph talks about why email marketing is important, before exploring specific features. As you can see, the section starts with the most important point and then gets more and more detailed.

Add images, videos and other media

Visitors don’t want to feel like they’re reading a novel when they visit your blog. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to add visual content such as photos, infographics, screenshots, charts and diagrams.

Immediately, this breaks up your text, but it also helps visitors see what each section is about at a glance. Each piece of visual content is also another opportunity to grab the reader’s attention as they scroll through your post.

It even seems that blogs with visual content are more popular. According to our blog stats research, posts with more than seven images get 116% more organic traffic compared to posts with no images. Similarly, blogs with videos get 83% more traffic than those without video.

If you’re writing ‘how-to’ blogs, then images help visitors understand what they need to do. For example, this blog by PushEngage uses screenshots to show readers what to do next to create a landing page in WordPress.

If you are promoting an affiliate product, then visuals such as images and videos are a great way to show that product in action. This can often generate more affiliate revenue for you.

Let’s look at an example. This post about soil-less indoor garden kits shows many photos of the different kits available for purchase on Amazon, complete with Amazon affiliate links.

Just keep in mind that many high-resolution media can increase your site’s load time, so it’s important to optimize your images and other media. Readers will also have to scroll past any media they are not interested in, which can be particularly frustrating for smartphone and tablet users.

That said, all visuals should add value for the reader.

Ends blog entries with a conclusion

A good conclusion summarizes all the points you have made throughout the blog, without introducing any new information.

Depending on the topic, sometimes you may want to suggest an actionable solution or share your top choice of all the products, WordPress plugins, travel destinations, and anything else you’ve compared or reviewed throughout the blog.

However, as a general rule, conclusions are usually quite short, so don’t worry if your conclusion is one or two sentences long.

Ends with a compelling call to action (CTA).

When the reader gets to the end of the post, you need to tell them what to do next. This should be an action that will keep them engaged with your blog or make them convert, known as a call to action.

In the following Easy Digital Downloads post, you can see several calls to action on the page.

A good call to action is clear, asks the user to perform a precise action and has a sense of urgency. For example, you could ask them to download a PDF or subscribe to your email newsletter.

Even if you use the same call to action, it’s a good idea to customize it for the individual post. In the following image, interior design blog Decorilla is using their standard call to action, which encourages readers to schedule a free consultation using a booking form.

However, they have adjusted the message to fit the theme of the blog, which is how to decorate a children’s room.

If you’re not sure what call to action to use, then ask yourself why you’re writing this blog. If you want to get more feedback, then you could ask readers to share their opinion or answer a question by posting it in the comments section.

You could even offer a reward for commenting, such as entering the reader into a sweepstakes or contest. For example, the example below gives readers a list of books and asks them to comment on which one they want to win.

Another option is to suggest some entries that the visitor might want to read next.

For best results, include links that relate in some way to the actual blog, which is exactly what AffiliateWP does on their affiliate marketing blog.

We hope this tutorial has helped you learn how to write a great blog post.

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