How to write a blog post: the 11-step method

A blog post that gets no visits is rarely badly written. Most of the time, it answers a question nobody asks, or it answers it in a format Google does not put forward. The method below fixes both problems before you write a single sentence.

This method is how I wrote the page you are reading: its prep sheet is further down, as an example. It covers the whole process, from the idea to the update. Optimizing the text itself for Google has its own guide on SEO writing.

What is a blog post?

A blog post is a dated, signed piece of writing published in the blog section of a website, covering a single topic for a specific reader. It differs from a service page, which presents an offer, and from a news item, which loses its interest within a few weeks.

On a business website, it has three jobs: answer the questions your future customers ask, get found on Google when they type them, and lead them to the next step (a service page, a tool, a contact form). A post that does the first two jobs without the third brings traffic that earns nothing.

The most common formats are the step-by-step tutorial (like this one), the list of tips or examples, the "what is" guide, the comparison and the experience report. Choosing the format is not a matter of taste: it depends on what Google already shows for the question, as step 2 explains.

How to write a blog post: the 11 steps

Here is the complete method to write a blog post, in order. Writing a blog post starts long before the first sentence: the first three steps decide whether the post will be found.

1. Choose the topic and the keyword
2. Check the search intent
3. Build the outline and gather your material
4. Write the title
5. Write the introduction
6. Write the body of the post
7. Add visuals
8. Place internal and external links
9. Edit and cut
10. Publish and promote
11. Update

Step 1: choose the topic and the keyword

A good blog post topic is a question your customers really ask, phrased in their own words. Three reliable sources, all free:

• Your conversations with customers. The questions asked on the phone, by email, in meetings. Write them down word for word, clumsy phrasing included.
• Google suggestions. Autocomplete, the "People also ask" box and the related searches at the bottom of the page.
• Search Console. The queries your site already appears for without getting clicks: Google considers you relevant, but a page that truly answers is missing.

Then check in a keyword tool (Ahrefs, Semrush or the Google Ads Keyword Planner) that the question gets searched, and in what form. Between two similar phrasings, take the most searched one as your primary keyword: the others become subheadings. On a new site, prefer a specific, less contested query over a broad one: "how to write a blog post" rather than "blog".

If you already have a list of topics and do not know which one to tackle first, the problem is no longer the post but the editorial plan: that is what a content strategy is for.

Step 2: check the search intent

Type your keyword into Google in a private window and look at the top ten results. Their format tells you what Google considers the right answer:

• guides with numbered steps: write a tutorial;
• lists ("12 tips", "30 examples"): write a list;
• definitions: open with a short definition;
• comparisons or pricing pages: the intent is commercial, and a general blog post has no place there.

A real example: in October 2026, on Google France, the first page for "comment écrire un article de blog" (the French for "how to write a blog post") was almost entirely step-by-step guides (6, 11 or 12 steps or tips), plus one video tutorial. Hence the format of this page. Also note the questions in the "People also ask" box: here, "What is the ideal length of a blog post?" and "What is a blog post?". They become sections or FAQ questions.

Writing an excellent post in the wrong format is the most frustrating case: the text is good, and it never ranks.

Step 3: build the outline and gather your material

The outline is the step that saves the most time. Write your subheadings (H2s, then H3s) in order, phrased as questions or actions, before writing anything else. If the outline alone already answers the topic, it is good. If you have to read the paragraphs to understand where the post is going, start it over.

This is also the time to gather your material: figures, examples, screenshots, what you have seen for yourself. Under each subheading, note the concrete element that will illustrate it. A section with no planned example will turn into a section of generalities.

If someone else is going to write the post, this outline becomes the heart of the assignment: I detail what goes into it in my SEO content brief template.

Step 4: write the title

A post has two titles: the title tag, shown in Google's results, and the H1, shown at the top of the page. They can be identical or slightly different. Either way:

• the primary keyword at the start;
• a concrete promise: a number of steps or examples, a template, the year if the information ages;
• about sixty characters for the title tag. Google sets no limit, but it truncates the title to the width of the screen, and the end of a title that is too long disappears.

Google sometimes rewrites the displayed title using the H1 or other text on the page, when the tag does not seem representative. A title that honestly describes the content is less likely to be replaced.

Step 5: write the introduction

The introduction has one job: confirm to the reader that they are in the right place, by giving them the answer. Three to five sentences, the keyword in the first or second one, and the answer summarized before any development.

• Avoid: "In this article, we will look together at why blogging is essential to your strategy and how to write your content well."
• Prefer: "To write a blog post, start from a specific question, check the format Google expects, set the outline, then answer in the introduction. Here are the 11 steps, with a template to copy."

The first version announces, the second answers. The hurried reader leaves with the essentials, the interested reader keeps going: you win both. It is also the easiest passage for an answer engine such as ChatGPT or Perplexity to pick up.

Step 6: write the body of the post

Follow the outline, section by section. A few simple rules make the text easy to read on screen:

• One idea per paragraph, three to five sentences, the statement first, the explanation second.
• Something concrete in every section: an example, a sourced figure, a screenshot, a template.
• Lists and tables as soon as there are steps, options or a comparison.
• One tone of voice (formal or casual), chosen once and kept throughout.
• Short sentences and the exact word rather than a roundabout phrase.

The keyword and its variants come naturally if you really cover the topic. No need to count occurrences: Google understands synonyms, and forced repetition shows.

Write in one go, without correcting. Correction comes at step 9; mixing the two is the best way to spend three hours on the same paragraph.

Step 7: add visuals

An image is only useful if it shows something: a screenshot of the tool, a diagram of the method, a table, a photo of the finished work. Stock photos placed for decoration bring nothing to the reader.

• Compress the files and prefer WebP or AVIF, lighter than JPEG at equal quality.
• Set the width and height of every image, so the page does not jump while loading.
• Write alt text (the alt attribute) that describes in one sentence what the image shows.
• A short video showing the process often replaces five screenshots.

Step 8: place internal and external links

Every post should link to three to five other pages on your site: posts that go deeper into one point, and the service page closest to the topic. The link text describes the target page ("local SEO audit", not "click here").

Do the reverse too: add a link to the new post from two or three existing posts that touch on the topic. A page that no other page links to gets discovered more slowly and carries less weight.

External links to your sources (a study, official documentation) build trust. Cite the primary source, not the article that repeated it.

Step 9: edit and cut

Let the text rest for a few hours, then read it aloud. Three passes, each with a single goal:

1. Substance: does each section keep the promise of its subheading? Delete the ones that add nothing.
2. Form: sentences that run too long, repetitions, empty transitions ("as we have seen", "indeed").
3. SEO elements: title tag, meta description, short URL, keyword in the introduction and in a subheading, alt text, links.

A good target: remove 10 to 20% of the first draft. The text almost always gets clearer.

Step 10: publish and promote

Before publishing, check how the post looks on a phone: tables that overflow, images that are too heavy, buttons that are too small. Show the author and the date: Google recommends that readers can clearly see who wrote a piece of content.

To get the post into Google faster, check that it is in your sitemap, then request indexing with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. Then share it where your readers are: newsletter, LinkedIn, a reply to a customer who asked you the question.

Step 11: update the post

A blog post is never finished. After two or three months, open Search Console, Performance report, filtered on the page:

• queries you had not planned for show the post: add a section or an FAQ question;
• the average position is between 5 and 20: the post is close to page one, and a rewrite is worth more than a new post;
• lots of impressions, few clicks: rework the title and the meta description.

Search Console keeps 16 months of data: write the figures down before you change anything, so you can compare afterwards. Change the displayed update date too. That is what I did here: published in January, the French version of this post plateaued around 12th place with a short text that did not follow the format of the top pages. I rewrote it in October 2026 based on that data.

How to structure a blog post for SEO: the template to copy

The blog post template below works for most informational posts. Copy it into your editor and fill in the brackets.

TITLE TAG (about sixty characters)
[Primary keyword]: [concrete promise] ([year] if the information ages)

URL
/blog/[short-keyword]

META DESCRIPTION (120 to 155 characters)
[Keyword] + [what the reader gets] + [what they will find: example, template, tool]

H1
[Primary keyword]: [promise]

INTRODUCTION (3 to 5 sentences)
The answer in two sentences, with the keyword.
What the post contains, in one sentence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS (3 to 5 bullets that make sense on their own)

H2: What is [topic]?                   (if the query calls for a definition)
H2: How to [do it]: the steps          (the heart of the post)
     H3: Step 1, an action
     H3: Step 2, an action
H2: [Topic] example                    (a real case, a screenshot, a template)
H2: Mistakes to avoid
H2: FAQ                                (4 to 6 questions people really ask)

NEXT STEP
A link to the post that goes deeper, or to your service page.

Three rules go with this template:

• A single H1, then H2s for the main parts and H3s for their subdivisions, without skipping a level.
• The primary keyword in the title tag, the H1, the introduction and at least one H2. Its variants go in the other subheadings.
• Subheadings phrased like searches: "How long should a blog post be?" rather than "The question of length".

The FAQ at the end of the post captures neighboring questions, the ones from the "People also ask" box. To save time, the generator below fills in this template from your keyword and the type of post.

How long should a blog post be?

There is no ideal length. Google says so explicitly in its guidance on helpful content: it has no preferred word count, and writing to hit a number is one of the bad habits it lists.

The right length is the one that answers the question completely, without padding. To find your bearings, here are benchmarks by format:

To fine-tune, look at the top three results for your keyword: their length gives you a ballpark of what the topic requires. It is a clue, not a target to beat. A 1,200-word post that answers better is worth more than a 4,000-word post that circles around the question.

This post runs past 3,000 words because it has 11 steps, a template and a complete example, not because it had to hit a number.

Blog post example: the prep sheet for this page

The best example I can show you is the one you are reading. This page was first written in French; here is its original prep sheet:

Monthly search volumes for France, taken from Ahrefs in October 2026. For this English version, the same work points to "how to write a blog post", searched about 720 times a month in the US (DataForSEO, October 2026). This sheet fits on one page and it decides everything else: the title, the order of the sections, and what does not belong here.

Writing a blog post with ChatGPT or Claude

AI saves time on some steps and wastes it on others.

• Useful: listing readers' questions, critiquing an outline, suggesting ten titles, rephrasing a confusing paragraph, proofreading.
• Risky: having it write the whole post with no material. AI then produces the average of what already exists, and readily invents figures and sources.

Google does not penalize a text because it was written with AI: since February 2023, its official position has been to judge the quality and usefulness of content, not how it is produced. Its spam policies do, however, target the mass production of pages with no value, generative AI included.

My rule: the material comes from you (examples, figures, opinions), and AI helps shape it. The method for giving it that context is in my article on ChatGPT prompts, and uses specific to search are collected in Claude for SEO.

Mistakes that stop a blog post from ranking

1. A topic nobody searches for, or one covered in a different format from the one Google shows.
2. Three topics in the same post. Two different intents means two posts.
3. An introduction that tells the backstory instead of answering.
4. Decorative subheadings ("A major challenge") instead of questions the reader asks.
5. No real example: nothing sets the post apart from the ten others on the same query.
6. No link to what comes next: the reader leaves without knowing what to do.
7. Publishing and never coming back to it, even though Search Console data tells you what to fix.

If your blog already has dozens of posts that bring no visits, the answer is not necessarily to write more. Spotting the ones close to page one and reworking them is often the first project in my SEO consulting work.

Written by

Anthony Courtin

SEO, GEO & AI automation consultant

I help SMBs and independent professionals with their visibility (Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity) and with real-world use of AI at work. I also train teams in-house and help them rethink their processes. Everything I write here, I use on client projects.

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