Your Blog Structure Guide: How to Format Your Blog Posts

It’s no secret that content is king when it comes to SEO. But, the biggest thing to understand about creating blog posts and YouTube videos is that quality is always better than quantity.

There’s no sense in publishing subpar content if you have the means to create something amazing. Although this will take more time, it will produce much better results for you than mediocre content can.

The trick is to think beyond the basics. As you’re choosing which keywords to use in your written content and what links you want to send readers to, you also have to consider how you’re going to piece everything together.

The right blog structure is the secret ingredient that turns good content into great articles. It establishes a sense of flow within each post and makes it easy for users to understand the message you’re trying to convey.

Not to mention, it’s pretty simple to establish a good blog structure when you know which steps to follow! Keep reading for the ultimate 5-step guide to creating interesting, easy-to-understand blog posts.

1. Always Start with the Outline

Unless you want to spend hours editing and restructuring your blog posts, you should always begin writing them by creating an outline. An outline helps you turn a rough idea into a well-constructed story. It establishes the main points that you’re going to write about and it keeps you from going into tangents.

This means you’re able to focus on the most relative ideas and save other thoughts for another blog. Not only does it help you write each blog post in a better way, but it can actually lead to a decent-sized list of blog ideas to pull from as you continue to work on your content generation.

2. Structure Your Headers Wisely

Headers are the bones of your outline. They’re the guiding points you will use when adding the “meat” of the blog, or, the content under each header.

But, it is possible to over-stuff your blogs with headers or to not have enough of them in your posts. As such, it’s a good idea to take a step back and see how each header complements the others. Ask yourself if you’re risking being repetitive in some sections and decide whether or not a section can be taken out altogether.

You want every header to provide value to your readers. If it’s a generic point or something that you’d rather talk further about at a late time, it might be worth scrapping.

3. Break Down Complex Information

Keep in mind that you will be working with a variety of headers in your blog posts. You want to use subheaders and bullets when talking about complex information.

Subheaders help users navigate through big chunks of content. They make it easier to understand the information given and they provide a point of reference for readers if they want to scroll back through your post.

Bullet points, on the other hand, simplify blog posts. They provide a visually-compelling structure that is easy to read and memorize. They’re also great for breaking down sentences that would otherwise be long and complicated – particularly those that are trying to list objects/ideas or guide users through steps.

4. Try to Spread Out Content Evenly

Another structure tip to use when writing blogs is the even distribution of content. Imagine if you had a header with barely 100 words under it, but the content for all of your other headers ranged somewhere between 200-300 words.

Unless the point you’re trying to make absolutely needs to stand alone, it’s probably better to join it with another header. This helps establish a clean-looking, consistent blog structure.

But, word count isn’t the only thing to pay attention to. Just as you want each header to have roughly the same amount of words as the others, you also want to limit your paragraphs to a handful of sentences apiece (like 2 or 3).

Smaller paragraphs are easy on the eyes when people are reading on a screen. They add to the amount of white space in your blog which helps users understand everything you have to say whether you’re writing 500 words or 2000.

There might be a few occasions when your paragraphs need to reach 4, 5, or even more sentences. For the most part, though, short and simple is the way to go.

Work on creating a variety of length in your sentences, too.

5. Cut the Fluff

The final way to create an impressive blog is to eliminate all the fluff, which is a constant effort. No matter how good you get at structuring your blogs and writing compelling content, there’s always a chance that some fluff makes it into your first draft.

This is the main reason why you should read back over your blog post before publishing. You’re not just looking for grammatical errors or making basic structural changes when you edit. You’re also trying to identify what can be taken out of your blog and what needs to be explained a little bit more.

Put simply, the point of editing is to ensure that every single word is valuable. This keeps your blogs from sounding repetitive or just plain dull.

Additional Tips and Tricks for a Strong Blog Structure

Just when you think your blog structure is the best it can be, read it over once more to be sure. You want to be confident that you’ve checked all the boxes of a great-looking blog before it goes live.

This means looking for additional details like:

• using different transitions as you start each header
• minimizing the use of adverbs and passive language
• placing links where they’re most relevant
• spreading out links so that they don’t look jumbled

It may sound like a little much to go through all of these steps, but it’s well worth your time. Plus, the more you practice this style of formatting a blog, the easier it will be to follow every time you sit down to write something new.

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