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If you've ever read a blog post, you've consumed content from a thought leader who is an expert in their industry. Chances are if the blog post was written effectively, you came away with helpful knowledge and a positive opinion about the writer or brand that produced the content.
If you've heard about blogging but are a beginner and don't know where to start, the time for excuses is over. Not only can you create an SEO-friendly blog, but we'll cover how to write and manage your business's blog as well as provide helpful templates to simplify your blogging efforts.
Blogging may mean different things depending on your niche — so let's start with this definition.
Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.
But in order to start making posts for a blog — you have to learn how to start one, first. Let's dive in.
Jot down your notes in a notepad or a document. This is the time to brainstorm audience attributes from scratch, no matter how out of left field they may feel. You should also think about your audience's age, background, goals, and challenges at this stage.
Use market research tools to start uncovering more specific information about your audience — or to confirm a hunch or a piece of information you already knew. For instance, if you wanted to create a blog about work-from-home hacks, you can make the reasonable assumption that your audience will be mostly Gen Zers and Millennials. But it's important to confirm this information through research.
For instance, if your readers are Millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started on social media — most of them already have that down.
You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (for example — from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.
Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:
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It's worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to grow in credibility. The purpose of doing this isn't to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what readers appreciate in a quality blog.
When you find a competitor's blog, take the following steps:
Here are some ways to choose topics to cover.
Here's how you can find your unique selling proposition in crowded blogging niches:
What unique experience makes you a trusted expert or thought leader on the topic? You can use your answers to that question to find your angle. Use this information to populate your "About me" page on your blog and share more about yourself.
It's okay if your blog name feels "too straightforward." Straightforward names accurately communicate what you're about and effectively attract the right audience.
If you still need more assistance, try using a blog name generator. One last tip: Make sure the name you come up with isn't already taken, as it could lessen your visibility and confuse readers looking for your content.
Your blog's domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn't yet exist on the internet.
Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog's subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.
Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS, rather than your business's website. For example, it might look like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com. However, to create a subdomain that belongs to your company website, register the subdomain with a website host.
Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.
Pro Tip: You can connect your custom domain to free hosting with HubSpot's free CMS or in premium editions of CMS Hub. This includes access to built-in security features and a content delivery network.
Here are five other popular web hosting services to choose from:
HubSpot customers host web content via CMS Hub. Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine. Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blog, you'll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a CMS.
Pro Tip: You can get started for free with HubSpot's free blog maker. Our free CMS offers everything you need to get started – including hosting, a visual editor, and hundreds of free and paid themes to choose from.
For example, if you're writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a color to keep in mind while designing your blog.
Image Source
If you already manage a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, ensure the article is consistent with the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this are including your:
Start with "low-hanging fruit," writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target audience.
That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for you.
But that's not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that's been covered by major competitors or more established brands, it's unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.
Let's walk through this process.
Pro tip: You may not want to jump into a "how-to" article for your first blog post.
Why?
Your credibility has not been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something, you'll first want to show that you're a leader in your field and an authoritative source.
For instance, if you're a plumber writing your first post, you won't yet write a post titled “How to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you'd write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer's house.
Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:
This can be done by:
To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. We suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.
Now, don't be intimidated by the term "keyword research." It's not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too. And it's really easy to do.
To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.
Say you're a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67K monthly searches).
Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:
Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search volume. Do that again.
For this example, we'll settle on "plumbing problems under the kitchen sink" (10 monthly searches). That's the topic for our first post.
TLDR; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.
For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:
What does that mean?
If someone is looking for "plumbing problems under a kitchen sink," they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they're looking for the first three, you're good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won't rank.
How do you double-check search intent?
Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you're good to go. If you only find product pages or lists from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.
Consider the term "under sink plumbing bathroom" (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a perfect fit because it had low monthly searches.
Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You'll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at least for now.)
TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don't forget to take a look at who's written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.
Use the following tools:
For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or "Common Causes of Leaky Faucets." A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.
Let's take a real post as an example: "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."
Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably "blogging." Then the working title may have been something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final title ended up being "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."
See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.
Download These Templates for Free
Let's take a look at the post, "How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot's Snapchat Strategy." There's a lot of content in the piece, so it's broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.
To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start writing, you'll know which points you want to cover and the best order to do so. And to make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates, which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!
First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the introduction, they'll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grab the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.
Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their work or lives.
Here's an example of an intro we think does a good job of attracting a reader's attention right away:
“Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”
Now that you have your outline or template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.
If you're having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your "flow" can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:
→ Download Now: 6 Free Blog Post Templates
Anyone can connect with their audience through blogging and enjoy the myriad benefits that blogging provides: organic traffic from search engines, promotional content for social media, and recognition from a new audience you haven't tapped into yet.If you've heard about blogging but are a beginner and don't know where to start, the time for excuses is over. Not only can you create an SEO-friendly blog, but we'll cover how to write and manage your business's blog as well as provide helpful templates to simplify your blogging efforts.
- What is a blog post?
- How to Start a Blog
- Writing Your First Blog Post
- What makes a good blog post?
- Blog Post Examples
- How to Write a Blog Post
Blogging may mean different things depending on your niche — so let's start with this definition.
What is a blog post?
A blog post is any article, news piece, or guide that's published in the blog section of a website. A blog post typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains other media types such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts.Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.
But in order to start making posts for a blog — you have to learn how to start one, first. Let's dive in.
How to Start a Blog
- Understand your audience.
- Check out your competition.
- Determine what topics you'll cover.
- Identify your unique angle.
- Name your blog.
- Create your blog domain.
- Choose a CMS and set up your blog.
- Customize the look of your blog.
- Write your first blog post.
1. Understand your audience.
Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience. To do so, take the following steps.Ask yourself exploratory questions.
To discover your audience, ask questions like: Who are they? Do they like me, or do I know someone like them? What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?Jot down your notes in a notepad or a document. This is the time to brainstorm audience attributes from scratch, no matter how out of left field they may feel. You should also think about your audience's age, background, goals, and challenges at this stage.
Carry out market research.
Doing market research sounds like a big task, but in truth, it can be as simple as accessing a social media platform and browsing user and blog profiles that match your potential audience.Use market research tools to start uncovering more specific information about your audience — or to confirm a hunch or a piece of information you already knew. For instance, if you wanted to create a blog about work-from-home hacks, you can make the reasonable assumption that your audience will be mostly Gen Zers and Millennials. But it's important to confirm this information through research.
Create formal buyer personas.
Once you've brainstormed and carried out market research, it's time to create formal buyer personas. It's important because what you know about your buyer personas and their interests will inform the brainstorming process for blog posts.For instance, if your readers are Millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started on social media — most of them already have that down.
You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (for example — from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.
Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:
- Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]
- Guide: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
- [Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator
6 Free Blog Post Templates
Fill out the form to get started blogging.
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2. Check out your competition.
What better way to draw inspiration than to look at your well-established competition?It's worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to grow in credibility. The purpose of doing this isn't to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what readers appreciate in a quality blog.
When you find a competitor's blog, take the following steps:
Determine whether they're actually a direct competitor.
A blog's audience, niche, and specific slant determine whether they're actually your competitor. But the most important of these is their audience. If they serve a completely different public than you, then they're likely not a competitor. That is why it is important to define your buyer personas before taking other steps in the blog creation process.Look at the blog's branding, color palette, and theme.
Once you determine that they're your competitor, it's time to take note of their techniques so that you can capture a similar readership. Colors and themes play a huge role in whether you seem like part of a niche — for instance, a blog about eco-friendly products should likely use earthy tones instead of bright, unnatural colors such as neon yellow or pink.Analyze the tone and writing style of the competition.
Take note of your competition's copywriting. Is it something you feel like you can successfully emulate? Does it ring true to the type of blog you'd like to create? What do readers most respond to? For most, creating a tech blog might be an excellent idea, but if journalistic, review-based writing doesn't work for you, then that might not be a good fit. Be aware of what you can feasibly execute or hire freelance writers.3. Determine what topics you'll cover.
Before you write anything, pick a topic you'd like to write about. The topic can be pretty general to start as you find your desired niche in blogging.Here are some ways to choose topics to cover.
Find out which topics your competitors often cover.
One easy way to choose topics for your blog is to simply learn what other blogs are writing about. After you determine your competitors, go through their archive and category pages, and try to find out which topics they most often publish content about. From there, you can create a tentative list to explore further. You might find, for instance, that a competitor only covers surface-level information about a subject. In your blog, you can dive more deeply and offer more value to readers.Choose topics you understand well.
No matter what type of blog you start, you want to ensure you know the topic well enough to write authoritatively about it. Rather than choosing a topic you'll need to research as you write, think about those that come most naturally to you. What has your professional experience been like so far? What are your hobbies? What did you study in college? These can all give rise to potential topics you can cover in depth.Ensure the topics are relevant to your readership.
You may find that you hold deep expertise in various topics, but how relevant are they to the audience you understood back in step one? If you're not serving their needs, then you'd be shouting into a void — or, worse, attracting the wrong readership. For that reason, after identifying the topics you can feasibly write about, ask yourself whether those are subjects your audience would like to explore.Do preliminary keyword research.
Keyword research is the process of searching for topics using a keyword research tool, then determining whether there is demand by looking at each topic's (or keyword's) search volume. If you found the perfect topics that are the perfect cross between your expertise and your reader's needs, you've struck gold — but the gold will have no value unless people are searching for those terms. Only then can you capture the audience that is waiting out there.4. Identify your unique angle.
What perspective do you bring that makes you stand out from the crowd? This is key to determining the trajectory of your blog's future, and there are many avenues to choose in the process.Here's how you can find your unique selling proposition in crowded blogging niches:
Write a professional and personal bio.
Knowing your own history and experience is essential to determine your unique slant. To get started, write a professional bio that explains, at length, who you are and which experiences most inform your blogging efforts. While I could write a lengthy exposition about my childhood, that history isn't essential unless I'm launching a blog about raising children.What unique experience makes you a trusted expert or thought leader on the topic? You can use your answers to that question to find your angle. Use this information to populate your "About me" page on your blog and share more about yourself.
Determine the special problem you will solve for readers.
Your readers won't trust you or return to you unless you actively help them solve a problem. As you try to find your angle, think about ways you can help your audience surmount challenges typically associated with the topics you've chosen for your blog. For instance, if you're creating a blog about sustainability, then you might help readers learn how they can compost organic materials in their home.Choose an editorial approach.
Will you share your opinions on trending debates? Teach your readers how to do something? Compare or share original research? The editorial approach you choose will in part be informed by the topics you cover on your blog and the problems you're helping your readers solve. If your blog is about marketing trends and your goal is to keep marketers up-to-date on the latest changes, then your editorial approach should be journalistic in nature. This is only one example of how to choose a technique.5. Name your blog.
This is your opportunity to get creative and make a name that gives readers an idea of what to expect from your blog. Some tips on how to choose your blog name include:Keep your blog name easy to say and spell.
No need to get complicated at all with your name, although it might be tempting, since there are so many blogs out there. While choosing a unique name is essential, it's also important to choose one that is easy to remember for readers. It should also be simple to remember as an URL (which will come into play in the next step).Link your blog name to your brand message.
The more related your blog's name is to the topics you cover, the better. For instance, DIY MFA is all about writers doing their own Master of Fine Arts in writing at home. The brand's message is all about delving deep into one's writing practice without needing a formal degree. Try to do something similar for your own blog name: Alluding to your blog's message, value proposition, and covered topics in one sweep.Consider what your target audience is looking for.
Your blog name should tie directly into what your readers want to achieve, learn, or solve. DIY MFA is about writers who don't have the money for graduate school, but who still want to develop their writing skills. The HubSpot Marketing blog is — you guessed it — about marketing trends and tips.It's okay if your blog name feels "too straightforward." Straightforward names accurately communicate what you're about and effectively attract the right audience.
If you still need more assistance, try using a blog name generator. One last tip: Make sure the name you come up with isn't already taken, as it could lessen your visibility and confuse readers looking for your content.
6. Create your blog domain.
A domain is a part of the web address nomenclature someone would use to find your website or a page of your website online.Your blog's domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn't yet exist on the internet.
Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog's subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.
Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS, rather than your business's website. For example, it might look like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com. However, to create a subdomain that belongs to your company website, register the subdomain with a website host.
Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.
Pro Tip: You can connect your custom domain to free hosting with HubSpot's free CMS or in premium editions of CMS Hub. This includes access to built-in security features and a content delivery network.
Here are five other popular web hosting services to choose from:
- GoDaddy
- HostGator
- DreamHost
- Bluehost
- iPage
7. Choose a CMS and set up your blog.
A CMS (content management system) is a software application that allows users to build and maintain a website without having to code it from scratch. CMS platforms can manage domains (where you create your website) and subdomains (where you create a webpage that connects to an existing website).HubSpot customers host web content via CMS Hub. Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine. Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blog, you'll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a CMS.
Pro Tip: You can get started for free with HubSpot's free blog maker. Our free CMS offers everything you need to get started – including hosting, a visual editor, and hundreds of free and paid themes to choose from.
8. Customize the look of your blog.
Once you have your domain name set up, customize the appearance of your blog to reflect the theme of the content you plan on creating and your brand.For example, if you're writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a color to keep in mind while designing your blog.
Image Source
If you already manage a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, ensure the article is consistent with the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this are including your:
- Logo: This can be your business's name and logo — it will remind blog readers of who's publishing the content. (How heavily you want to brand your blog, however, is up to you.)
- "About" Page: You might already have an "About" blurb describing yourself or your business. Your blog's "About" section is an extension of this higher-level statement. Think of it as your blog's mission statement, which serves to support your company's goals.
9. Write your first blog post.
Once you have your blog set up, the only thing missing is the content. While the design and layout are fun and functionally necessary, it's the content that will draw your readers in and keep them coming back. So how do you actually go about writing one of these engaging and informative pieces?Writing Your First Blog Post
You've got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it's time to write your very first blog post. And nope, this isn't the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (ie “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I'll be covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow?”).Start with "low-hanging fruit," writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target audience.
That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for you.
But that's not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that's been covered by major competitors or more established brands, it's unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.
Let's walk through this process.
1. Choose a topic you're passionate and knowledgeable about.
Before you write anything, choose a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start. For example, if you're a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses, your post might be about the importance of using a single software to keep your marketing, sales, and service teams aligned.Pro tip: You may not want to jump into a "how-to" article for your first blog post.
Why?
Your credibility has not been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something, you'll first want to show that you're a leader in your field and an authoritative source.
For instance, if you're a plumber writing your first post, you won't yet write a post titled “How to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you'd write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer's house.
Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:
- List ("Listicle"): 5 ways to fix a leaky faucet
- Curated Collection: 10 faucet and sink brands to consider today
- SlideShare Presentation: 5 types of faucets to replace your old one (with pictures)
- News Piece: New study shows X% of people don't replace their faucet frequently enough
This can be done by:
- Changing the topic scope
- Adjusting your time frame
- Choosing a new audience
- Taking a positive/negative approach
- Introducing a new format
First Blog Post Ideas
The Difference Between [Niche Topic] and [Niche Topic], Explained by a [Niche Expert]
- The Difference Between SEM and SEO, Explained by a Marketing Expert
- The Difference Between Sedans and Coupes, Explained by a Car Mechanic
- The Difference Between Baking and Broiling, Explained by a Professional Baker
The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tools] for [Niche Activity]
- The 10 Best and Worst Writing Software for Fiction Writing
- The 10 Best and Worst CRMs for Nurturing Prospects
- The 10 Best and Worst Family Cars for Cross-Country Roadtrips
8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
- 8 Non-Fiction Writing Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
- 8 Salmon Broiling Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
- 8 Car Maintenance Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]
- 9 Proven Tips for Checking Plumbing Problems under Your Kitchen Sink
- 9 Proven Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Bestseller
- 9 Proven Tips for Doing DIY Car Maintenance
Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)
- Why We Switched from Pipedrive to HubSpot (Comparison)
- Why I Switched from Microsoft Word to Scrivener (Comparison)
- Why We Switched from iMacs to Surface Studio (Comparison)
[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?
- Zendesk vs Freshcaller: Which Call Software is Best for You?
- Air Fryer vs Convection Oven: Which One is Best for You?
- Mazda Miata vs Toyota Supra: Which Sports Car is Best for You?
The Ultimate Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks
- The Ultimate Roundup of Novel Writing Tips and Tricks
- The Ultimate Roundup of Macaroon Baking Tips and Tricks
- The Ultimate Roundup of Solo Traveling Tips and Tricks
2. Target a low-volume keyword to optimize around.
Finding a keyword with low searches in Google (we recommend sticking to about 10 to 150 monthly searches). These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. We suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.
Now, don't be intimidated by the term "keyword research." It's not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too. And it's really easy to do.
To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.
Say you're a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67K monthly searches).
Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:
- Ahrefs
- Moz
- Ubersuggest
- Wordtracker
Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search volume. Do that again.
For this example, we'll settle on "plumbing problems under the kitchen sink" (10 monthly searches). That's the topic for our first post.
TLDR; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.
For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:
- How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide
- How to Perform Keyword Research and Rank
- Top Tools For Finding Long-Tail Keywords
3. Google the term to understand your audience's search intent.
You've got your topic — now, you need to check that the user's search intent would be fulfilled by a blog post.What does that mean?
If someone is looking for "plumbing problems under a kitchen sink," they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they're looking for the first three, you're good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won't rank.
How do you double-check search intent?
Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you're good to go. If you only find product pages or lists from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.
Consider the term "under sink plumbing bathroom" (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a perfect fit because it had low monthly searches.
Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You'll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at least for now.)
TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don't forget to take a look at who's written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.
4. Find questions and terms related to that topic.
You've got a highly unique topic that's been covered by just a few people so far. It's time to flesh it out by covering related or adjacent topics.Use the following tools:
- Answer the Public: When you place your keyword into this tool, it will give you a list of questions related to that term.
- Google: Google is your best friend. Search for the term and look under “People also ask” and “People also search for.” Be sure to touch on those topics in the post.
5. Come up with a working title.
You might come up with a few different working titles — in other words, iterations of approaching that topic to help you focus your writing.For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or "Common Causes of Leaky Faucets." A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.
Let's take a real post as an example: "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."
Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably "blogging." Then the working title may have been something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final title ended up being "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."
See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.
6. Create an outline.
Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the information in a way so readers aren't intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever's most appropriate. But it must be organized!Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates
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Let's take a look at the post, "How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot's Snapchat Strategy." There's a lot of content in the piece, so it's broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.
To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start writing, you'll know which points you want to cover and the best order to do so. And to make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates, which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!
7. Write an intro (and make it captivating).
We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post "How to Write an Introduction," but let's review, shall we?First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the introduction, they'll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grab the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.
Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their work or lives.
Here's an example of an intro we think does a good job of attracting a reader's attention right away:
“Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”
8. Build out each section of your outline.
The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can't forget about that, of course.Now that you have your outline or template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.
If you're having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your "flow" can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:
- Power Thesaurus: Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.
- ZenPen: If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist "writing zone" designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.
- Cliché Finder: Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.
- Copywriting 101: 6 Traits of Excellent Copy Readers Will Remember
- How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts
- How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message
- The Kurt Vonnegut Guide to Great Copywriting: 8 Rules That Apply to Anyone
- Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting