The best blog post template (after making a lot of mistakes).

Have you ever wondered if the structure you use in your blog posts, makes them easier to read and enjoy? I’ve noticed, after a lot of posts and mistakes from the past, that it’s fundamental to have a blog post template to organize your content and make it clear and well structured for the reader. In this article, I’ll show you the blog post template I’m currently using. It’s been a great help having this structure to elaborate posts in a simple and effective way that turns out to be attractive to the reader.

NOTE: This post is to help you get your content to the readers in an appropriate way. It’s not a post about the SEO strategies and how to write to rank yourself better. If you need that, I suggest you read this article: Place keywords on your blog post as Mr. Google likes it.

STRUCTURE OF THE BLOG POST TEMPLATE:

This is the structure I use to develop my posts. Later, we’ll get into details with each section, but first, I’ll let you see the big picture.

STRUCTURE:

HEADLINE: BE CREATIVE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH.
INTRODUCTION: STIMULATE THE INTEREST, BUT BE HONEST.
ARTICLE OUTLINE: A FAST GUIDE ABOUT THE CONTENT.
BODY: DEVELOP THE CONTENT.
CONCLUSION: GIVE MORE AND ASK FOR FEEDBACK.
AN EXAMPLE.

HEADLINE: BE CREATIVE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH.

At this point, you already know the importance of a good headline. You can find many entries where they tell you how to write a successful headline that generates a lot of clicks to visit your blog, for example in this article from Brian Clark.

I have to tell you I’ve been using those designs of titles a lot, and I still do. Because is true, they really work. For example, in the article I link you after this sentence, I tell you everything about a proven technique to make your title to generate a lot more of views: One trick to create a catchy article title.

But to be honest, I’m starting to get bored with these strategies. Usually, when I see an article with that type of headline, I don’t click on it. I don’t like to feel like a product, and when I see that the author is just using that strategy, I get disconnected. Besides, I think It’s not just me, it’s a growing tendency.

On the other side, there’s this idea of using your creativity to the most in order to write a headline. Be careful with taking this to the limit because people may simply don’t understand you. You must remember, Google shows a line with the headline and two more with a brief description (slug). That’s why you shouldn’t complicate things, that brief information must be useful to give the reader an appealing idea of what the content is going to be about.

If you want to examine in greater depth about the slug, keywords and their influence in post ranking, you can visit this article: How to do keyword research for your blog EASILY.

INTRODUCTION: STIMULATE INTEREST, BUT BE HONEST:

An introduction is the first paragraph at the beginning of the article. It’s key, because it may keep the readers on board or make them leave. A good introduction should achieve two main goals:

To stimulate the reader’s interest.
To be clear about what you’re going to find in the article.

Of course, we want the reader to get excited about the idea of reading all the content we share with them. It’s ok if we try to build high expectations in an attractive way in order to keep them from leaving the website after they just arrived. But, on the other hand, avoid wasting the reader’s time by playing with them and creating false expectations.

We have to be honest. In the introduction, we must say exactly what he’s going to find, the benefit he’s going to get from reading that article. Would it be ok to tell him what he’s not going to find? Yes. It is essential to, at least, don’t build expectations of what might be, but it’s really not there.

If you want to deepen in how to write an effective introduction with great quality, you can read this article: 7 blog post introduction you can be proud of

ARTICLE OUTLINE: A FAST GUIDE ABOUT THE CONTENT.

This part is probably the biggest change I’ve done since using this blog post template: Add a bullet list right after the introduction just to be clear about the main subjects of the article. Let the reader make a fast scan and decide if he wants to do it one step at the time or go directly to what calls his attention. Again, think about making things easier and more comfortable for him. He’ll appreciate that.

BODY: DEVELOP THE CONTENT.

This is the part of the article where you’re going to deliver all the core content. It is relevant for you to avoid beating around the bush. If you think there’s a lot to argue and that you’re not talking about the subject, consider writing another article. This is another thing I corrected after receiving valuable feedback from many of you, my readers. Thanks so much!

Here, the cleanness is as important as the content. These are some recommendations:

Make short and readable paragraphs.
Divide different ideas using subtitles.
Include lists when you’re going to show different options from a single idea.

CONCLUSION: GIVE MORE AND ASK FOR FEEDBACK.

In this final section of the template what we want is to summarize the learning that might help the reader. For that, we can justify the reasons we’ve defended, summarize the main idea of the article, or share a brief personal opinion regarding its utility. If you think there are some other articles that the visitor should read, it’s the time to suggest them to him.

To finish, remember to ask for the reader’s opinion. You can do it directly, asking what he thinks about the article or indirectly asking him for complementary or opposite alternatives. A blog post is not the chapter of a book. Here, in the digital world, we can receive feedback easily. Take advantage of that to improve your content. And allow people to engage with you.

AN EXAMPLE

Have you noticed the structure of this article? As you may see, I’ve used the same blog post template that I’m showing you. I hope this helps you notice how it can be helpful for developing any topic, even this one.

It seems easy, right? Actually, when you get used to the structure it really is.

But let me tell you that I wrote over 200 articles before using a certain template. Those days I just tried to be natural and to let the creativity flow. And, many times, I didn’t get good results. These were the main problems I was able to avoid with the template:

In numerous occasions, I had to reorganize the article.
Some readers told me the articles lacked a logical order.
Sometimes the article just seemed to be like a part of something bigger, without a clear beginning or an end.

LAST TIP: You may be surprised if you are not able to easily fit together what you write in this blog post template. Don’t lose your mind, it’s completely normal. Maybe you notice you’re still not that organized when you write. That’s ok. That’s why you need it so badly. 🙂

DO YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT BLOG POST TEMPLATE? WOULD YOU ADD SOMETHING ELSE TO THE ONE I USE?

Remember that to know how to include characteristics that rank your article on Google, you have this article: How to do keyword research for your blog EASILY.

Luis Gil.