Writing a blog doesn’t have to be a daunting task. When I first started it would take me days. Now it typically takes under an hour to write a blog article. Having a system in place helps speed up the process substantially. I’ll outline how to write blog posts faster and more effectively by repeating a simple blog writing process.
Know Your Target Keyword
The first step to writing a blog article is performing keyword research. Now keyword research is a huge topic alone and if you need details on how to do that refer to our complete keyword research guide.
This step is critical because it confirms that the time you are spending to write a blog post is well spent because your audience is looking for that content.
There are times when you might write an article that is so unique and specific to your journey or your audience that a keyword wouldn’t be applicable. In those cases, you don’t need a shortcut to write a blog faster. Those stories almost write themselves because they are personalized stories you are sharing. It’s fine to share posts like that from time to time but if your goal is to grow your audience then make sure the majority of your content is keyword focused.
Create an Outline
Once you know the topic of your blog, start building an outline. Create a list with all of the items you’d like to mention in your article.
Once you jot down all of your talking points you can start organizing them. I like to do this with a bulleted list. Start rearranging and adding some structure to your ideas so the conversation will have a flow that’s easy to understand.
Look at the Top 10 Search Results
After you’ve written down all of your existing ideas and thoughts you want to mention, it’s time to take a look at what’s ranking currently.
Go to Google and search for the keyword you are targeting. Look at the top ten results that currently rank for that term. There are two things you want to look for while doing this.
First, make sure that the subject matches what you had in mind. If the results are completely different from the article you plan to write, in a way that’s so drastically different that the person looking at these results would never have any interest in your article, then you need to find a new keyword.
Search for a few other similar keywords until you start to find the right content for the article you have in mind. This doesn’t happen too often but every once in a while the language we use to describe something is vastly different than the general population and because of that the search results for that term are not as useful as we had hoped.
Once you are certain you are focused on the correct keyword, take a look at the results. Actually click through and take a look at the top ten search results. Scan through the subheadings on each article to get a good understanding about which topics are covered.
As you’re looking at the subheadings on the top ranking articles it will likely trigger more ideas for your own article. Go ahead and add those ideas to your outline. Remember not to copy the ideas though. The subheadings will act as idea starters and often remind you of topics you had wanted to include, but forgot about while creating your original outline. I make sure to never read the details on the top ranked blogs because I don’t want to accidentally word my article the same way as another.
I simply scroll through quickly glancing at headings to make sure I haven’t forgotten any talking points. I also take a look at visuals so I can get an understanding of what I need to do to stand out and improve on the top ranked pages.
Finalize the Structure in Your Outline
After reviewing the top ranked sites and adding any last minute ideas to your outline, make sure the outline is well organized. The outline should be in a bulleted list. The main bullets will be your subheadings. The secondary bullets will end up being your paragraphs and talking points.
Write the Intro
Once you have a clear outline write your introduction paragraph to give the reader an idea of what they will learn in the article. Make sure to include your keyword in the intro paragraph and give the reader a clear idea of what to expect.
Write the Article Body Using the Outline
After the introduction you’ll start writing the body of the article. To do this you’ll follow the outline you have created. Use the outline to remind yourself of the concept and then write about it.
Don’t worry about the grammar, that can be fixed later. Just take it one piece at a time and write whatever comes to mind. When you finish writing about that one topic, scroll back to the outline to remember what comes next. Continue writing about the next point and so on until you are at the end of the outline.
Write a Summary
After you’ve covered everything included in the outline, write a summary or conclusion paragraph. The goal of that paragraph is to summarize what was discussed in the article.
Once the summary is complete the blog article rough draft is done.
Edit the Blog Post
Once you have a rough draft finished, read through it in its entirety. Make sure it flows properly. Read through it at least once with no other goal than making sure it is coherent and all sounds good together.
After that, go back through the article to fix any grammar and spelling issues and do a more formal editing process.
Summary
Creating repeatable routines and writing often is the best way to speed up blog content creation. If you follow this process to create keyword focused content in an organized manner it will not only save you time but the article itself will be more effective and rank higher in search engines because it is created to answer questions people are looking for.
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