How to structure a blog post for better SEO & engagement
This article is from one of our recent Content Corners: Content Corner is our weekly Q&A (on Instagram) to help you create great website content that attracts, engages & boosts your SEO.
Got a website, but no traffic or enquiries? Content is the key. We answer your questions on blogging, blog topics, structuring blog articles, improving existing blogs & tracking your progress…
Abbie's already been inspired into action:
"After seeing Wildings Sudio’s brilliant posts on the importance of blogging, I finally carved out some time this week to sit down and create not one, but two new blogs!"
How do I structure a blog post on my website?
In terms of structuring a general blog on your website, the first critical element is to have a really clear and compelling overall Title (also called Page Title or SEO Title). This can be the overall question you want to address in the blog or a query you think someone may put in a search engine.
If you are using Squarespace, the Title for your blog also acts as the Heading 1, so there’s no need to add a separate Heading 1. (A Heading 1 typically acts as the main subtitle for the blog and there will only ever be one per blog.)
Once you have your Title, the aim of the rest of the blog post is to break that question down into explanatory sections, unpacking the topic in a helpful way.
Practically, that means your blog will have a series of paragraphs of around four to five sentences each. You'll have an introductory paragraph and each particular section uses your standard paragraph text.
The key thing now is to give each of these sections (containing the paragraph text) a sub heading. It’s important that each of these main sections starts with a Heading 2.
If you want to develop further sub-points within a section, you can add more mini little headings. Use a Heading 3 after a Heading 2, and if you want to nestle another level of sub-points, then use a Heading 4, and so on and so forth.
Once you’ve finished your sub points, don’t forget to revert to the next level up in the heading hierarchy, or move to the next section in your blog starting with a new Heading 2.
Overall, make sure you have a nice, clear, logical structure to the points that you make and develop – this helps your readers, as well as Google crawl and subsequently index your content.
Also, don’t forget to finish off with a helpful conclusion and a suitable link or Call to Action.
Read more: How to write brilliant blogs for better website SEO
How long should a blog post be on my website?
With blog length, the main thing to do is help your reader out. If you're going to write a really long blog post, you've got to break it up.
You need to have really, really clear headings and subheadings to give your readers handrails. These help peoeple scan through your content and decide whether it’s worth continuing.
If you a visitor is faced with a page that is absolutely crammed with text and no line breaks or section, they will internally panic, think it’s overwhelming and then click off. It’s just not worth their while persevering when they can get an answer quickly and easily elsewhere.
There’s no optimal length for blog content – Google doesn’t necessarily favour one length over another. However, to provide readers with value and to weave in enough keywords, there is a threshold length beyond which your blog will perform better.
As a rule of thumb, a blog between 1000 and 2000 words in is a healthy length. Even so, make sure that whatever you write is good quality and make sure that it is written by you and not a robot, AI or ChatGPT because Google is now penalising such content as spam.
Ultimately, make your blogs them whatever kind of length you like, but make them really readable.
Read more: What's the minimum word count for an SEO-performing blog?
What’s the difference between a short and long form blog?
Another aspect of blog post length is short and long form. We like to split it down into three different categories: short form, standard form and long form.
Short form is usually around 300 to 600 words. This is great for studio tips, news and that kind of thing.
Standard form is usually between 1,000 and 1,500 words. That's really great for how to guides where you, for example, list seven different ways to tackle an issue or approach.
Long form content is around 1,500 to 3,000 words. These are really good if you want to share an ‘ultimate resource’ or ‘ultimate guide’ to something. This is where you can really demonstrate your expertise and knowledge as an industry expert and unpack a subject in depth.
Overall, when it comes to a blog post content, think first ‘what is the purpose of what I'm trying to do’; that will then guide the length of your blog.
