I know what you’re thinking. You have this website, you’ve set it all up and now you’re told you need to write some blogs. You need to get some content on there? Content? Blogs? What does it all mean! So you frantically search in good old faithful Google HOW DO I WRITE A BLOG. All in capitals because you really don’t know where to start. 

You’ve asked your friends and no one seemed to be able to explain it to you. They say things like:

Make sure you have the right keywords.

Don’t forget the backlinks, the inbound links, don’t forget to write something useful, don’t forget to use your voice, don’t forget to make it 700+ words long, don’t forget, don’t forget DONT FORGET.

Ok, I got a bit carried away there. I’ll calm it down, the reality is that you have probably heard all of that in one way, shape, or form. And your mind is just mush because you don’t really know where to start. So you searched in Google because no one was helping break it down for you. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert since I don’t believe anyone really is. We can all learn something new, and with the way google changes its algorithm quicker than you can change your pants, yeah we all can learn something. But, what I do think I have is the ability to write (call me big-headed). 

Reverse engineer it.

The first thing I’m going to tell you to do is forget it all. That’s right, just for now forget about Google, forget about the keywords, the tags, the descriptions, all of it. Let’s start with a subject. A topic that relates to your business, product, or service. Tell me about it. Start talking about that subject, mentally talk about that topic and write it down. Use whatever you like, laptop, pen, and paper, if you prefer to talk out loud you can record it then transcribe it later. This first step is getting those thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Don’t think about the word count, or keywords just yet. Get as much as you can onto that page. After that you have two options, start breaking it down and connecting the sections which link more closely together first. Or, you can leave it for a day. Sometimes, getting the first chunk out onto the page is the hardest part and you need that break away from it to see clearly. Either one is fine, Rome wasn’t built in a day. 

Now what? It’s still not a blog.

I know, calm down dear. Either you’ve just regurgitated your brain onto paper or you’ve slept a bit and you’re back. Read what you have and break it up, see if there are parts where you have either repeated yourself or comments which are connected. This is where we finesse what you have, and make it into something which will resemble a blog. Got it? Good. 

How’s it looking? Not too bad eh? Ok, so this is the fun bit. Read what you have written out loud to yourself. This is where you can see if it makes even an ounce of sense. If it does, great job! If not, no worries read it and see if you can reword it so it better conveys what you are looking to achieve. Keep going until you have gone through each sentence, you may find some typos you want to amend. 

Now we have the bones of a blog. 

It’s looking good right? You wrote that, be proud. What we need to do next is see if we can go in deeper. Look at the first paragraph, can you give me a little more detail? Can you tell me something only you would know? Can you give me a little bit of you in that first paragraph, I’m sure you can. Remember, you know your own business. You can give the reader something more, something which no one else can give them because it’s not coming from you. Now repeat that for each section. Easy right? 

Keywords, headings, links oh my!

Now you’ve filled out your blog, we can start to think about some of the technical things. Yeah, they are important, and I never said we wouldn’t get to them. I simply told you don’t worry about them yet. So what did you write about? Are you a mortgage advisor talking about how to get on the ladder? (let’s go with that).

Your blog is for first-time buyers, you’re talking to them about how to get onto the property ladder. What do you think your customer will search for? (Not sure? Head over to Answer the public, it can help find the answers the public want). I’m sure you will find something along the lines of “how to buy a house?” “First-time mortgage” “How do I get a mortgage” “How do I save up to buy a house” the list goes on. Choose something which matches the subject of your blog. This my friend, is your keyword. A neat little trick, the long-tail keywords (those are the ones which are around 4+ words) have a higher rate of converting leads (getting people to buy from you or contact you) because they are more specific.  

You have your keyword, now you are going to use that to build your blog title. Simple really isn’t it? Now another neat trick is if your keyword is a question, answer it in the first paragraph. Try and make it a closed question, then allow your blog to elaborate on it. So using the example above here goes.

First-time mortgage, can I get a mortgage as a first-time buyer? Yes, it’s absolutely possible. (this is where you talk about first-time buyer mortgages)

Break it down, make it pretty.

Wow, this is a lot, isn’t it? I would say tune in for part two but this isn’t TikTok. 

After your keyword has been chosen the rest is simple. See if there are any natural breaks in your blog where you change the subject, write a small heading to make it more digestible. Add in some relevant pictures to help enhance the experience for your reader. Add a title and alt-description on the image and scatter in some links to other websites which you think would be useful to your reader. 

Tie it up with a bow.

This is just a small call to action, people need to be told what to do next. So think about what you want people to do after they have read the blog. Contact us if you want help? Share this with your friends, send it to your grandma. Whatever result you are hoping for, use that to tie up the ends. 

Writing a blog doesn’t have to be complicated, it just sounds like it because people like to use big words to overcomplicate things. Really, a blog is sharing information with your clients and potential clients. Google has some input because we all bow down to the overlord who ranks our website. But really, the most difficult thing about writing a blog is time. It takes time to write, to learn how to write. Time is the biggest investment you will have to make. Sometimes, it’s not worth it, so you can outsource it to people who do have the time and the skills to write kick-ass blogs, like Rebellion (see what I did there?).

Write a blog, or outsource, it’s up to you.