Blog Content Strategy: How to Create Great Content for Your Blog

OK, so, you’ve gone through the first steps of creating your own profitable blog, now it’s time to decide on your blog content strategy as well as what type of content you should create.

As an aspiring blogger, you know the importance of having an engaging blog. Not only does it help to keep your customers informed and engaged with your brand, but it can also be used to attract new readers, followers, and eventually, customers.

Crafting great blog content is the key to attracting and retaining more readers and customers, so it’s important to take your time creating excellent content that people enjoy reading. But how exactly do you create a successful content strategy for your blog?

The most important thing when creating blog content is to determine what you’re passionate about and write about it! People love to read content that is authentic, genuine, and written by someone who cares deeply about the topic. But, that’s not always the case!

Sometimes you need to create content that is purely educational, or just because a chosen keyword is getting a lot of traffic. Whatever the case may be, creating great content for your blog should always be a top priority for blogger in any niche.

How to Create Great Content for Your Blog

This blog may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy, I may receive a small commission (at zero cost to you). Please see my disclaimer policy to learn more.

Start With Your Readers’ Needs in Mind 

When creating content for your blog, it’s important to start by thinking about what your readers need or want. What questions are they asking? What problems are they trying to solve? How can they benefit from reading your blog? Etc. Depending on your niche, these questions will vary and should be tailored to your readers’ needs.

Your readers are looking for answers, so make sure you provide them with the information they need. Answer questions directly, and fill any gaps in knowledge that could help them better understand a topic or situation.

Once you have identified their needs and wants, focus on delivering content that will address those topics in an engaging way. This will ensure that your readers are getting value from the content they are consuming on your blog. 

Research & Analyze 

Before writing any content, take some time to read up on the subject matter and make sure that any information included in your post is accurate and up-to-date. This will make sure that readers get value from your post and increase their trust in your brand. It’s also important to analyze what other bloggers have written on similar topics so that you can differentiate yourself from them and provide unique insights into the subject matter.  

While some niches can rely entirely on personal experience (for example: travel, beauty, lifestyle), others require more research and facts to be included in the content, especially topics within the E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trust) framework, such as health & wellness, banking & finance, etc.

By doing your homework properly, you’ll be able to provide value to your readers and stand out from the crowd where people just regurgitate the same information and mix-match it for their own posts.

Set Your Tone of Voice

Once you have identified your readers’ needs, researched and analyzed the subject matter, it’s time to set the tone of your content.

What do you want to say? Who are you talking to? What kind of tone do you want to use? These are all important questions to ask yourself when crafting content for your blog. Take some time to think about who your target audience is and what kind of message you want to convey. Once you’ve figured out those answers, it will be much easier for you to write content that speaks directly to them. 

Let’s take my site as an example! My ideal readers are aspiring bloggers who would love to either develop their own micro niche blogs or find a way to make money online. They are main women in their late 20s – mid 30s, probably have kids, and are looking for a way to make extra money without having to quit their day job. Therefore, my tone of voice is lighthearted and conversational, friendly yet informative, with an emphasis on actionable tips that can help these aspiring bloggers reach their blog monetization goals.

This is just one example and the tone of voice you choose will depend largely on your niche and target audience. You can change it up and use different tones in different posts, or stick to the same one throughout your blog. The key is to make sure that whatever tone you choose resonates with your readers and helps them better understand the message you are conveying.

After over 10 years freelance writing and blogging, I just realized that having a unique tone of voice is an essential part of any great content. It helps readers identify with you and your brand, builds trust, and ultimately establishes a connection that will keep them coming back for more!

Format & Structure 

It’s important to structure your blog posts so that readers can easily scan and digest the content quickly. Utilize headings, bullet points, images, infographics, and other formatting techniques to make the content easier for readers to consume. Additionally, try to include stories, and anecdotes in your posts to make them more engaging and memorable.

When it comes to blog post length, quality is always more important than quantity. However, here are my general guidelines you can use as a starting point:

• A standard blog post should aim for at least 800 words
• Evergreen content should have at least 1,500 words
• Cornerstone content (such as pillar pages) should have at least 2,000 words

The length of a blog post might vary depending on the topic and niche. For example, if you are writing a technical how-to guide, you might need to go over the 2,000 mark in order to cover all the details. But if you’re about to write a simple recipe, you might stay under 800 words (unless you have an amazingly long story behind that recipe to share). The key is to make sure that your posts are long enough to provide valuable information and insights, but not too long that readers will get bored.

Finally, make sure to include an introduction and conclusion to your blog posts. This will help readers understand the context of your post and give them a better idea of what they can expect from reading it.

Create Quality, Engaging Content 

When creating content for your blog, make sure that the quality of your posts is always top-notch. Invest time to research topics thoroughly and make sure you are providing your readers with up-to-date information.

Additionally, it’s important to use quality sources when writing your posts. Try to link out to relevant authoritative websites as much as possible, especially when making a point or adding more detail to your post. By quoting reliable sources, you can add more credibility to your content and further establish yourself as an authority in your industry.

Also, remember that your blog content should always be engaging and interesting. Try to include storytelling in your posts, as well as visuals such as images, videos, and infographics — whatever makes sense and works for you and your blog.

It’s also a good idea to diversify the content on your blog so that there is something for everyone. Consider creating long-form articles, interviews with industry leaders, podcasts, videos, case studies, and more. Diversifying your blog content will not only add variety to your blog but also allows you to reach different types of readers who prefer different formats of information consumption.  

Finally, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends in your industry. Keeping content fresh and updated is essential for any successful blog, as visitors will favor blogs that provide them with new and relevant information, while it will also help you stay ahead of the competition and gives readers one more reason to come back to your blog.

Optimize Your Content For Search Engines

This step is essential if you want your blog to be found by search engines. In order to make sure your blog posts are optimized for SEO, try to include relevant keywords and phrases throughout your blog post. Research the most popular keywords in your niche and use them strategically in your post titles, headings, meta tags, opening paragraphs, etc.

It’s also important to include internal links (links to other blog posts or pages from your own website) in your blog posts. Internal linking provides visitors with additional information and resources, while it also helps search engines understand what topics are covered on your site.

Finally, make sure you optimize the images you include in your blog post as well. This includes adding keyword-rich alt tags and descriptions to the images, as well as compressing them so they don’t slow down your website loading times.

I know, this SEO part is always a challenge for many bloggers, especially if you have no background in it. But don’t worry! Here is a quick list of all the resources you will need to learn and pratice SEO in order to get your blog posts noticed:

• The Stupid Simple SEO course by Mike Futia. I’ve taken this course since 2022, and it has helped me a lot to restructure my content, optimize my old blog posts and rank higher in the SERPs.
• Free Yoast SEO Plugin (for WordPress users). This tool is perfect for non-tech bloggers who would love to have a simpler approach to SEO and want to learn the basic principles of optimizing their blog posts.
• Keysearch.co (paid) – this amazing SEO tool will provide you with insights about your keywords, competitors, as well as a massive database of keywords to use for your blog posts. Follow this link to have a nice 20% discount.
• RankIQ.io (paid) is another tool I use to do keywords research and content optimization. Its database is massively huge, covering basically any keyword in any niche you are looking for.
• Royalty-free images resources include Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay.
• Styled stock images (paid) include Haute Stock, Styled Stock Society (lifetime membership option), Ivory Mix, and Inspired Stock Shop (lifetime membership option).

Create A Content Calendar & Plan Ahead 

Creating a content calendar will help you stay organized and ensure that you are consistently writing fresh content for your blog. Planning ahead will also allow you to have time to research and write quality content rather than scrambling at the last minute when inspiration strikes.

In order for readers to stay engaged with your blog, it’s important to establish a consistent posting schedule—ideally one post per week or every other week at minimum. This helps build trust with readers as they will always know when new posts will be released and can plan accordingly.

You should also consider sending out emails when new posts are released so that subscribers can be alerted of any exciting updates on the blog. Email marketing services such as MailChimp, ConvertKit, or Flodesk make it easy to send out emails and stay in touch with your readers.

Furthermore, make sure you always have a few blog posts idea ready to go—so that when something unexpected comes up (like writers block) you’ll still be able to stay on track with your content calendar.

The Bottom Line

Having a solid blog content strategy and creating great content for your blog are key for growing your audience and getting more traffic to your blog. With this guide, I hope you now have all the resources you need to create an effective content strategy and start blogging like a pro.

Good luck, and don’t forget to share your progress with me in the comments below!