Boost your blog writing skills

Looking to start a blog? Already have one but neglecting it due to lack of confidence in your blog writing skills? Look no further! This article is packed with top tips to help breathe new life into a flagging blog or get a new one off to a flying start. You’ll learn how to grab readers’ attention, keep them engaged and, most importantly, get them coming back for more.

1. Why start blog writing or revive an existing blog?

Let’s start with why you should be blog writing in the first place. I don’t want to spend ages banging on about this, so here are a few 2025 statistics from UK Web Host Review to prove the point:

• Blogging is responsible for 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links than standard web pages
• 70% of consumers would prefer to learn more about a company from a blog than an advert
• 82% of marketers who blog consistently see positive ROI from inbound efforts
• 41% of marketers that curate content say blogging has increased the quality of their leads.

Another great reason to blog is the length of time your articles will last compared to other types of content, as shown below:

2. Get to know your audience

This is essential, if smacking a bit of ‘stating the obvious’! But have you really spent much, or any, time and effort getting to know who reads, or wants to read, your online content and the topics that most interest them? If you’re not sure about this or don’t have a scooby, it’s time to do some research.

A good place to start is your existing client base. What sectors do they work in, how old are they, what’s their education level, what are their interests beyond work (taking a look at their socials will give you some insights), what are their motivations and challenges, and so on? You could also run a few simple social media polls asking people what they like to read about online, or do something a bit more sophisticated using SurveyMonkey or similar.

Having a look at your competitors’ blog topics can also be illuminating. Another tactic is to use research tools like Answerthepublic.com or Quora to find out which subjects are engaging prospective customers and what kinds of questions they’re asking about your business type (see this blog for more info).

Keyword research is also important for SEO in blog writing, as you’d expect. You may have already done this for your main website, but it’s a good idea to redo it every now and again, as people’s tastes and preferences do change over time. Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to help. AI chatbots like Google Gemini can be useful, too. Try a prompt such as ‘What keywords and phrases are people typing into Google about copywriting?’

Once you’ve gathered some details, you might like to create one or more personas for your target audience group(s), perhaps something a bit like the below but incorporating keywords and phrases as well. This can help keep you focused when researching and writing blogs.

What kinds of blog topics do you think would interest Alex?

3. Speak the right language

Another key consideration is tone of voice and the kind of language you’ll use in your blog writing. This will need to resonate with your target audience(s), so you may need to do a little more research. Take a look at your existing online content to see which posts and articles get the most views, likes, shares and comments. What kind of language and wording are you using?

Also, take another look at some of your clients’ social media pages. How do they write and express themselves? As well as the language and tone used, take note of the balance between written and visual content to give you an idea of how they might prefer your blogs to look as well as read. If there’s a lot of video content, consider creating vlogs as well as blogs.

4. Structure and start writing your blogs

Some blogs are simply a stream of consciousness, which can work very well. However, you might want to take a more structured approach. If so, the following suggestions might help:

1. Write a killer headline (H1) – must be attention-grabbing, but still clear
2. Explain the gist of the blog in the first paragraph – what can the reader expect?
3. Break down the body copy into chunks, with one to two ideas max per paragraph
4. Use sub-headings (H2 and H3) to signpost the reader and for SEO purposes
5. Link through to relevant pages on your main website, e.g., product / service pages, About, Contact Us
6. Aim for 200 to 2,000 words (see the pie chart below – any word counts above 2,000 are pretty much non-existent!), and match the length to how much there is to say
7. End with a conclusion or call to action as appropriate to the topic (don’t be too salesy though – that’s not the point of a blog), and provide links to similar blogs if relevant
8. Check for sensible use of keywords and phrases.

5. Images and blog writing categories

Next, choose a strong, relevant image for the featured image that’ll appear on your Blogs web page and include at least one image within the body of the blog, too – more if possible. Add Alt Text and a Description, plus a caption if needed, to each image, to help with accessibility as well as SEO.

You may also like to set up different blog categories if you write about more than one subject, so readers can easily select the topics they’re most interested in. If you’d like to write the odd personal blog (like my articles about food writing and my indestructible cat, Mittens), add a category marked ‘Personal’.

6. Upload and optimise

Once your written content and imagery are in place, it’s time to upload the blog to your website. Using a tool such as Yoast, which plugs into WordPress, will then walk you through the process of optimising your blog to maximise its presence on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Steps you may need to take will include checking and improving keyword / phrase density and locations; writing page titles, page descriptions and meta tags; drafting an excerpt to appear on your Blogs listings page; and adding internal and external links. Follow all the suggested steps until you’ve optimised everything as much as you can.

Tools such as Yoast can also help in other areas such as readability, as shown in the example below (Yoast SEO Premium is paid-for, but a more basic free version is available):

7. (Almost) final steps

Your (almost) last three blog writing tasks are nice and simple, but should never be overlooked:

1. Add source information, plus links if available, for any statistics, quotes or third-party information
2. Proof-read the blog very carefully – step away from it for at least half an hour first, or you won’t be able to spot your own errors!
3. Decide when will be the best time to publish the blog. If you’re not sure, take a look at Google Analytics (install it on your website if you haven’t already), to see when most activity and visits take place on your site. If in doubt, Monday morning is always a good bet.

There’s some useful information in this April 2025 article from Clear Voice about the best times, days of the week and frequencies for blogging, as well as other helpful tips and statistics.

8. Promote, analyse and repurpose

Nope, your work still isn’t done! There’s no point posting a blog and just waiting for people to read it. Unless you already have a dedicated follower base for your articles, you’ll need to promote your blog and link to it across all your other online channels. That means social media posts, email marketing if you do this, and any other places you hang out on line such as industry forums.

If you do online networking, you can also post links in the Chat during meetings, too, as well as talking about your latest blog, and blog writing in general, to other attendees.

Naturally, you’ll want to know how people feel about and react to your blog. So, keep an eye on your Google Analytics as well as shares, likes and comments both on the blog itself (if enabled) or via your socials. Over time, this will give you further insights into what most interests and engages your target audience. And you never know, you may even get a sale or two!

With regard to repurposing, your blog articles are precious pieces of collateral that you’ve put time and effort into creating. So, repurpose them! Turn them into LinkedIn articles, videos or podcasts, use shortened versions as social posts, or group related blogs together and publish as white papers, thought leadership articles or e-books. Just be careful to rewrite / rephrase the original blog wording, as not doing so can be harmful for SEO.

Need a little more help or coaching with your blog writing?

I’m here to help! Whether you’d like to book a Power Hour or workshop to hone and enhance your blog writing and / or research skills, or outsource some or all of the process to me through my Copywriting services, just get in touch.

Or, explore my website to find out more about what I have to offer you and your business. In the meantime, happy blogging!