9 Components of the Perfect Blog Post

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again (and again, and again!): Content is king and blogging is one of the best, most affordable, and most effective means of generating excellent content for your target audience. That being said, you can’t just write a hodgepodge of nonsense, publish it to your blog, and expect to get results. In order to find true success in the blogosphere, you’ve got to understand the anatomy of a perfect blog post. Start by considering the following eight components in everything you publish:

Catchy Headline

Every good blog post begins by getting the attention of your readers. This is where the headline comes into play. Online consumers have extremely short attention spans, and they want to know what they’re going to be reading about before they invest their time in actually scrolling down and absorbing your content. Statistics have shown that as many as 60 percent of readers don’t make it past the headline, so it’s important that you come up with something eye-catching, thought-provoking, exciting, funny, or interesting in order to lure them in and get them to stick around.

Meta Description

Your meta descriptions never go live on your blog, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not essential to them This description pops up in search results and gives potential readers a quick summary of what your post is about. This could very well make a difference in whether or not they follow the link or navigate elsewhere.

Featured Image

People are attracted to images, making them essential to any blog post. The image needs to reflect what the content is trying to convey, and should be inspirational or thought-provoking. Depending on the site and subject of the blog post, you might also want to use images that are funny in nature or maybe even artistic.

Introduction

Start strong. You’ve got to appeal to your readers’ interests right away. If they’ve made it past the headline and are digging your image, you want to ensure that your introduction is well-written and compelling so that readers are driven to go on. Give them a taste of what is to come in the rest of the article, while peaking interest in the potential.

Sub-headers

A long block of text in a blog can be very overwhelming and many readers will simply shut down and stop looking at your content if it feels too long, dense, or bulky. One of the best ways to provide your readers with a lot of information without boring them to death is to break your content up in to multiple subsections. Each subsection should have its own subheading that reveals what the following paragraph(s) will be about.

Body

The body of your text, even when broken up into subheadings, should still read as one, continuous and harmonious post that makes good sense and appeals to your readers. It’s important that you keep the length of this section reasonable. 600-800 words are generally considered to be ideal for marketing purposes, and a post should take no longer than several minutes for your audience to read.

Facts

Although your opinion matters, it’s also important to provide your readers with facts, information from experts and researchers, and even some statistics to back up your claims. Don’t make it all about your knowledge. There’s plenty of provable facts out there for your readers to rely on, too.

Conclusion

Always be sure to wrap things up nicely and neatly – one short sentence will do – so that your readers know that your content is coming to an end and can begin to mentally prepare for what’s coming next, which is the…

CTA (Call-to-Action)

If you did your job in creating exciting and inspirational content for your blog, your readers will be interested in getting to know your brand better. Make it easy for consumers to connect with you by including a Call-to-Action at the end of your blog. Whether it’s inviting your readers to visit your offices, to “like” your social media accounts, or to subscribe to your email list, always end with a CTA.

A perfect blog will get better results, every time! Were you able to spot the eight components of a perfect blog in today’s post? As experts in blogging, Madison Taylor Marketing is ready to help you achieve all eight as well. Reach out to our team by phone or email today.