If you are new to blogging or you’ve been doing it for awhile with little follow, here are some pointers that will help you jumpstart or reignite your efforts. Before you read on, make sure you understand your core target audience first. You want your blog posts to be relevant to your audience so you can connect with them and leave them yearning for more of your content. Then, after you read the anatomy of an awesome blog post, you’ll be all set to apply what you’ve learned right away.

bloganatomy
Headline: Relevant, Catchy and Optimized
With your core target market in mind, entice them to read on with a great headline. If it’s catchy you will grab their attention. Use H1 or H2 font size for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And use keywords or keyword phrases to ensure that your blog will be found by search engines.

Add an Image: Photos, Illustrations and Infographics
Even if your photo is stock art, change it up so it doesn’t look like it is. Add an ornamental overlay or text. Does your image captivate, entertain or cause an emotional reaction? It should. And make sure you optimize for the web. Include alternate text, make sure it loads quickly and is linked to your website.

Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. (Source)

Body Copy: 8 Tips for Stellar copy:

  1. Lead – Promise and then deliver. Quickly get to the point of what you’ll be sharing.
  2. Structure – Well crafted beginning, middle and end.
  3. Simple Sentences – Readers want information quickly so keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  4. Skimmable – Use bullets, numbers, lists, bold words, italics where possible so sifting through your content is easy for your reader.
  5. Keywords – To increase SEO, use keywords and phrases in headlines and body copy.
  6. Subheads – Use bold or H2 font size for improved SEO, visibility and to help readers navigate a post.
  7. Anchor Links – To improve SEO, use keywords as the anchor link text that you can link to.
  8. In/Outbound links – Set up inbound links which link to other content you’ve created. Also use outbound links to link to resources you’ve referenced.

TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER~

Call to Action:
Otherwise know as CTAs, these guide readers to do something. Pull out a quote so a reader can quickly tweet about it or share it socially. Or request a reader contact you at the end of your blog to further the conversation or ask for more information. Or give them the option to sign up for your eNewsletter, give away the month, or free resource or eBook. The possibilities are almost endless.

Signature Line:
Include a brief self-bio, accolade, website URL and contact information about yourself. It helps the reader connect with you and your content.

Add Share and Follow Buttons:
This allows the reader to distribute your content and find out more about you.

THE TECHY SIDE~
Just under the surface, behind the scenes, there are some things you can do to further your blogs success.

  • Categories: The overall focus of a blog has 1 or 2 categories. They should be at the beginning so readers can quickly digest.
  • SEO Titles: 70 characters featuring title of post. Incorporate keywords here too. And avoid 2-3 letter words and long brand names when possible.
  • Meta Description: Words or phrases relating to a post. This can contribute to SEO.
  • Permalinks: The URL that locates a specific blog post. To improve, edit with relevant keywords in your blog post.
  • Tags: A 156 character snippet briefly explaining your post and why someone should read it. This is also picked up by search engines, so make it good.
  • Excerpt: A 25-30 word description of your post that may appear on your site and may be pick up as well by search engines and social media platforms.

This is a good overview of the anatomy of an awesome blog post, but if you aren’t ready to dive in just yet because you need something explained further, touch base with your webmaster or reach out to iKANDE and someone on our staff with help you through it.

If you feel empowered now and get right down to writing, share your next blog with us. We’d love to read it! Happy blogging!