﻿Today I'm going to give you four blog post templates to write better SEO content and
increase your chances of ranking higher in Google.
And the blog post types we'll cover include list posts, step-by-step guides, definition posts,
and beginner's guides.
Let's get started with list posts or listicles.
These are blog posts that contain non-chronological lists such as tips,
product recommendations, tools, techniques, myths, mistakes, or whatever.
Let's go through the different parts of a listicle starting with the title.
Plain and simple, you can use any of these templates.
Let's turn them into working titles.
"11 Ways to Sneak Snacks into a Plane."
"7 SEO Tips that Actually Work."
"17 Productivity Tools That'll Save You 3 Hours Per Day."
"17 Reasons Why You're not Ranking in Google."
"4 Blogging Techniques to Grow Your Audience."
Or "8 Protein Powders for Bulking."
That might be a lot to digest, but the party must go on.
Take a screenshot and let's move on to the intro.
Introductions in listicles often get overlooked because people come
for the list and not the intro.
So your goal should be to build trust and excitement in as few words as possible.
For example, if you're doing a product roundup on the "8 Protein Powders for Bulking,"
then you might say:
"Throughout my bodybuilding career, I've tried and tested 8 different protein powders.
Some of these tasted like trash and contained low-quality protein,
while others were the real deal.
If you don't want to waste your money, then keep reading because in this post
you'll learn which protein powder is best for bulking (based on data) on any budget."
The intro is short and should build trust and excitement because I'll be sharing
real-world data.
The last thing I recommend is to include a table of contents with jump links.
This makes it much easier for visitors to navigate throughout your post, especially
since listicles need to be skimmable.
If you're using WordPress, there are plenty of free plugins to choose from, just search for it,
read some reviews if you fancy, and try one.
Alright, on to the main content.
In the most basic form, your main content will have a series of H2s or heading tags,
and content that complements the headings.
Now, depending on the type of listicle you're creating, your H2s will vary.
For example, if you're doing a product roundup, you might use the product names as your H2s.
Alternatively, you can use H2s like "Best Overall [product name],"
"Best Cheap [product name]," etc.
Whereas if you're doing a tips listicle, you'll want to create more descriptive H2s to catch
people's attention.
For example, if your post was on 17 weight loss tips, rather than having point 5 as
"Eat Spicy Foods," you might put "#5. Eat Spicy Foods to Burn More Calories."
Now, as for the content that goes under these headings, you may want to consider
creating your own mini-template.
For example, a product round-up might have one sentence about the product,
a section on what we liked best, what we didn't like, and our overall rating.
Consistency creates a predictable reading experience for your visitors
and it also helps you as a writer to avoid tangents which break flow.
So with a mini template in hand, it'll just be a matter of filling in the blanks
for each subheading and before you know it, you'll be onto your conclusion.
For list posts, I wouldn't overthink it.
The majority of people aren't even going to get here but it's still important to create
closure for people who do.
My recommendation is to briefly summarize a key takeaway and then recommend additional
content that's related to your post.
And internal links are good to use because they pass link authority and overall, create
a better user experience for your readers.
So here's a sample of what this template looks like.
Feel free to pause or rewind to make sure we're on the same page and then
let's move on to the next blog post template which is for step-by-step guides.
Step-by-step guides are your typical "how-to" posts where you run through
a series of chronological steps to teach how to accomplish something.
Now, for the title, you can use one of these formats to get started.
So if we turn these into real titles, they might be:
"How to Build a Deck (7 Steps),"
"How to Start a Business (Even if You Don't Have Money),"
"How to Find Email Addresses for Link Building (Fully Automated)."
Now, for the intro, write a short one using the PSP method, which stands for problem,
solution, and proof.
For example, let's say you have a step-by-step guide on how to do YouTube keyword research.
Your intro might read:
"Looking to grow your YouTube channel and attract more views?
The "trick" is to target topics with search demand.
This is the approach that helped us grow our YouTube channel from ~10,000 to over
200,000 monthly views in one year.
Now, the reason why the PSP method is effective is because people who are reading a step-by-step
guide usually come with a problem.
They're looking for a solution.
And if you have proof of that solution, you'll get their attention.
Alright, so with the intro in the books, we need to write the main content which will
be your step-by-step instructions.
And because step-by-step guides have a logical sequence of instructions, you
can use your H2s as the main steps.
For example, our post on YouTube keyword research might have H2s like:
Step 1: Map out a hierarchy of topics
Step 2: Generate keyword ideas
Step 3: Check search intent …and so on and so forth.
As for the conclusion, just keep it short and sweet because step-by-step guides
tend to be quite long.
Again, I recommend adding internal links to other relevant posts so you don't leave
readers who want more at a dead end.
So from our hypothetical YouTube keyword research post, we might link to our guides
on YouTube SEO and getting more subscribers on YouTube – both are relevant to YouTube
keyword research.
Here's a sample of what this template looks like.
Feel free to pause or rewind to make sure we're on the same page and then let's move
on to the next blog post template which is for the expanded definition post.
Expanded definition posts are somewhat similar to how-to guides.
But rather than being written as a logical sequence of steps, it's meant to give
a high-level overview of a topic.
Now, because these posts are expanded definitions, you'll want to make your title something like:
"What is or what are [concept or acronym]" and then a additional details about your piece.
For example, "What is an Oligarch: Everything you need to know."
"What are SERPs: Search Engine Results Pages Explained"
"What are NFTs? A Detailed Introduction to "Expensive JPEGs."
Now, the great thing about expanded definition posts is that there's a clear format you can follow
for the intro, main content, and conclusion.
In short, you want people to come for a definition and stay for the details.
So for the introduction, you'll want to keep it short and sweet by defining
your concept or acronym.
For example, our page on "What are SERPs" immediately gives the definition,
it shows a supporting image, and then tells you what you'll learn in the rest of
the post with jump links to each section.
Now, for the main content, I highly recommend spending some time on your outline because
you only want to include the most important points that a person searching for "what is
[something]" would want to know.
For example, if we created a post targeting, "what are NFTs," you can start by searching
for ideas in Google's People also ask box.
So from this list, these could act as potentially good subtopics.
You can also look in the related terms report in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer.
So based on these keywords, I'd probably want to talk about the meaning of fungible,
which is the F in NFT, I'd want to talk about how you can buy an NFT, and how to invest in NFTs.
Finally, look at the subheadings for top- ranking pages for your target query.
So this page talks about what they are, how they're different from cryptocurrency,
how they work, what they're used for, and so on and so forth.
So assuming we were creating a post titled "What are NFTs? A Detailed Introduction to
"Expensive JPEGs," we might have a main content outline that looks like this, where our intro solves
the "what" and the rest of the article will give a decent introduction to the NFT space.
Now, for the conclusion, you just need to summarize the key learnings.
And again, I highly recommend adding internal links to other articles that a beginner would
want to learn more about.
Because if they've made it to the bottom of your expanded definition post, they'll likely
want to learn more since the content will typically be high level.
So here's a sample of what this template looks like.
Feel free to pause or rewind to make sure we're on the same page and then
let's move on to the next blog post template which is for a beginner's guide post.
A beginner's guide is an educational resource that offers a comprehensive 101 to a topic.
Now, this is kind of like a hybrid between the step-by-step guide and the expanded
definition post.
It's detailed, it teaches people things in a logical sequence, and it's written
for beginners.
Now, for the title, we want to create something that'll appeal to absolute beginners.
You can use any of these templates to help you get a working title going.
Let's fill them in.
"SEO For Beginners: How to Rank #1 in Google."
"The Beginner's Guide to Personal Finance."
"The Noob-Friendly Guide to Potty Training."
As for the introduction, I can't stress enough how important it is to be mindful of your audience.
You want them to know that whatever it is you're teaching isn't super complicated.
You want to use simple language because true beginners probably
won't know any industry or technical jargon.
While this might sound limiting, beginners are usually motivated and ready to learn so
you want to make them feel like they can understand it, learn from it, do it,
and begin their journey in whatever it is that you're teaching.
For example, if our post was on the beginner's guide to personal finance,
I might write an intro like this:
"You want to be financially secure.
But with bills, children, retirement, and unexpected expenses it might feel impossible at times.
I get it.
Personal finance can seem daunting when you're reading about 401ks, IRAs,
403bs and [insert whatever number or letter combination here].
But you don't need to know every little detail about these things to make and
save more money.
In this beginner's guide to personal finance I'll walk you through a repeatable 7-step
process so you can feel secure about your future with no worries (hakuna matata)!"
And then I'd add a table of contents with jump links to the different sections
in the content.
Alright, let's move on to the main content.
Just like in the expanded definition post, you'll want to research the topic using
a combination of the People also ask questions, similarities among the top-ranking pages,
and Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer.
These will be your main subtopics.
For example, if we were to do a beginner's guide to SEO, our outline might look like this.
These will most likely be your H2s.
Now, unlike the expanded definition post, we'd likely go into much more detail on
these subtopics so the hierarchy may need to be rearranged.
For example, we might have "How to do SEO" as an H2 and then the different categories
of SEO techniques as H3s.
In fact, we might even expand the link building category, to have H4s with common link building
tactics like guest posting, resource page link building, and broken link building.
And of course, we'd give a high level overview of how to execute those link building tactics.
Alright, let's move on to the conclusion.
Here, you'll want to end off with some final encouragement and like in every other
template, internal links to further reading.
This will help readers find additional resources and it'll help you to stay in
their learning journey.
So here's a sample of what this template looks like.
Feel free to pause or rewind to make sure we're on the same page.
Now, if you're fairly new to SEO content writing or some of the outline stuff was a bit tough to
follow, I highly recommend watching our full tutorial on content writing for SEO
where you'll learn how to write content that's optimized for search.
We also have a full SEO course for beginners that'll teach you how to get organic traffic to
to your site.
I'll link some videos in the description and I'll see you in the next tutorial.