How To Start Writing a Blog Post on WordPress in 20 Minutes (Step by Step)
Are you a beginner who wants to start writing blog posts? Do you want to create blog posts in WordPress now and not sure how to get started?
If you are not a geeky person, then start writing a blog can be a terrifying thought for you.
Blog content is not so difficult to write, but it is also not so easy to write as it seems to be. You can say that the blog content is something that can either make you or break you. WordPress is the most widely used platform by bloggers. But how would you begin with WordPress as a complete beginner?
It is easy to get lost in the countless features and options when you start using WordPress for the very first time. WordPress has somewhat of a steep learning curve, and yet once you get used to it, you will be composing and publishing blog posts in the blink of an eye.
The primary goal of this post is to take out the complexity and get your first WordPress blog post published in 20 minutes or less.
Today, I will provide a simple step by step guidelines on how to start writing blog posts in WordPress.
What You Need First?
1) Domain name: It will be your blog’s permanent address.
2) Blog hosting: You can say that it is the main engine that will help to power your website.
3) WordPress installation: After setting up your hosting, you need to install WordPress.
Assuming that you are already beyond this point and now you want to know how to get to the business – start writing blog posts.
This is a quick step-by-step guide just on that topic.
When you choose your domain name extension, you can be sure of one thing: “.com” is still the best. According to research from DomainNameStat, 43% of all domains have the “.com” extension.
* Courtesy of domainnamestat.com
Step by step guide
Now, let’s move to our main topic and discuss each step about how to create a blog post article in 20 mins or less.
Step 1: Decide A Topic
The first and the most important thing to decide is a topic for your blog post. First of all, consider why you began the blog in the first place. Who is your target audience?
What is the purpose of this blog? And the most important question is how to start writing a blog post on WordPress.
So, come up with the answers to the questions mentioned above and then start there. You likely have thought already so that you began your blog. Concentrate on narrowing your point down to something well known at the moment yet at the same time sufficiently evergreen to last.
Fortunately, all you truly need is a consciousness of your brand and your industry. As long as you have an idea of utilizing keywords and optimize your content, you can use other tools to come up with more specific ideas – like blog topic generators.
Step 2: Optimal Keyword Research
For daily blog posts, it’s a smart thought to utilize keyword research tools to support you with finding themes that individuals are effectively searching for.
If you are writing on those topics on which users are effectively looking for, it can help you to get organic traffic from search platforms like Google and Pinterest. After selecting optimal keywords, write them into the top of the word document or another file.
This research will give you a friendly suggestion to use those keywords all through your blog post where needed. It likewise helps your content rank for those keywords in search algorithms.
Research optimal keywords and spot a couple of them strategically inside your content, optimize your URL, and title to make it simpler for Google Bots to creep your site and rank you.
Step 3: Outline
Once you choose a topic, you can start writing the entire content. Firstly, write the outlines or create a draft locally, where you don’t need to rearrange around browser tabs or windows.
Take benefit from different tools as straightforward as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, or you can go moderate and write down notes in Notepad.
Always be active and write from your heart. Keep your target audience in mind and then write according to audience needs.
There are some key points you should take into account while writing:
i) Pillar posts always work great
ii) Long content makes a difference
iii) Write meaningful posts
Pillar Posts Always Work Great. It means long posts of around 2000 to 2500 words, which contain essential, supportive data from your niche.
Long Content Makes A Difference
Always write long-form content because it makes a big difference. Research shows that long-form content gets higher average shares and higher ordinary links than shorter content.
Try to write useful posts that provide value. People who consistently search for data get attracted by useful and optimal content. So always try to write short and meaningful lines that convey the whole message in fewer words.
a) Add headings and subheadings
b) Use short paragraphs
c) Write the useful word
Outlining is an ability you develop over some time. A basic technique is to come up with several subtitles you would use for the post. If you find that you lean toward a detailed outline that is superbly fine.
Step 4: Find Sources And Add Relevant Links
Adding links to different relevant posts and pages is the best method to keep your audience locked in and engaged. You need them to discover various articles that could be insignificant to them, right?
So add internal links to your other blog posts just as external links to other related data and resources can likewise help your blog content rank better in search.
You can either include links while writing in Word or include them in WordPress when you are editing and finalizing your post.
Adding links in Word:
It is easy to add links when you are using Word and finding the relevant resources from Google searches.
How To Include A Link Of Another Post Or Website To Your WordPress Blog Post?
Feature the specific text that you need to add the hyperlink to, and afterward click the hyperlink symbol on the toolbar.
When you click on the symbol in the toolbar, it will open up a separate field where you can add the URL that you want to link. After this, hit Enter to save. It will then show your link underlined and the text in blue or purple color.
The internal links you add in your blog post will help readers to stay on your blog and find other valuable content. And the external links provide credibility and accommodating resources to your posts.
Adding link in WordPress:
Step 5: Select The Text Editor
In this step, you need to log into your WordPress installation and click to make a new post. You will come up to a post-composition window with a great deal of stuff stick around it.
Try not to stress over anything around it. You need to focus on the center composition box. You will see a selector between the “visual” and “text” in the upper corner, and you will need to pick one of them.
- Visual Editor: It is like the standard Word processor. It offers designing and formatting options and everything built-in. You can highlight an area and clip bold to make it bold.
- Text Editor: The text editor is increasingly similar to notepad editor or coding straightforwardly. In case if you need to bold a segment, you should type in the suitable HTML.
We prefer to use the visual editor; however, it can sometimes make exact formatting a little irritating. Use whichever one you like; in case if you are a coder by a pro, then the text editor is better for you.
Step 6: Create THE POST
Ok, now you have created a draft, compose your post in the text editor. You will observe a word count limit in the corner, keeping you up to speed on what number of words you have written.
In case if you have defined a particular target word count, you can take this number and divide by the number of subheadings and subtitles you need (from your outline), so you can estimate word count per each block.
In general, the average blog post should contain about 2000 words. Today, many blogs have longer posts because they ranked well by the search engine. In case if you are under 1,000, you’re likely getting unreasonably short, and in the eyes of Google, they are viewed as thin content.
Long-form content gains higher ranking and shares more compared to the short-form content.
Step 7: Add Images Into Your Blog Post
Including pictures or recordings is a great way to make your blog post all the more fascinating and exciting. It is fairly easy to add images to your blog on WordPress.
It is not rocket science. Use a button “add media,” up in the corner.
If you were thinking about how to embed pictures into your blog posts, this is how you do it.
With WordPress, you need to upload pictures to the media library. And after uploading images in the library, you can utilize them in any of your posts in which you need to add, and they will consistently originate from the same source. So in this way, you are not spending extra space on your web host.
To add an image, there are a few simple steps to follow:
1) Click on the add button
2) It will open up a block, which will show you three additional options.
3) Upload, Media Library, or insert from URL
- Upload: This option offers you to upload a new file. So if you want to upload a new file, click on it. It will open up a new window where you can drag-and-drop an image or pick one from your system.
- Media Library: This will provide you with access to media from your WordPress. You can save files there and access them whenever you need them.
- Insert from URL: This option offers you to upload image getting from URL.
Step 8: Check The Format And Proofread
When you have done writing a post, it’s a great time to do editing and correct the format. This method is the place where you should include designing and formatting, the bolds, and the italics that you see all through a post, and the heading code, etc.
It is likewise where you have to ensure that pictures adjusted appropriately, their subtitles are set up, and there are no mistakes in the post.
After you have designed your document, proofread for grammar and spelling. Again proofread it to check whether your writing is making sense or not. You can use online tools to check for grammatical mistakes. When you have done writing a post, it’s a great time to do editing and correct the format. This method is the place where you should include designing and formatting, the bolds, and the italics that you see all through a post, and the heading code, etc.
It is likewise where you have to ensure that pictures adjusted appropriately, their subtitles are set up, and there are no mistakes in the post.
After you have designed your document, proofread for grammar and spelling. Again proofread it to check whether your writing is making sense or not. You can use online tools to check for grammatical mistakes.
Check This Out Before Publishing Your Post
• Catch Spelling Mistakes
Take as much time as needed and read your post like it composed by another person. Utilize any online free grammar and spelling check tool for this to save your time.
• Preview Your Post
Now hit on the Preview button in the “Publish” menu widget, which you will see on the upper right side of the blog post editor.
• Try-Out Links You Have Added
Make sure your links are working fine. Before publishing, test all your external and internal links. Check, if every one of your links is directing the pages they should link to connect.
• Remove Editing Remarks
Remove any editing notes you may have included while composing and editing it.
Step 9: Generate An Eye-Catching Title
Headlines are extremely significant and play an important role in grabbing user’s attention towards your blog. It is first and the primary thing any reader will see, and it should make them need to read your blog post.
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There are several more, yet these are generally the ones that work the great. They catch the eye and welcome readers to your blog. Be that as it may, remain on the subject the title guarantees.
It is an art to create an eye-catching blog post title, and it is something you create with learning and experience, much like writing along the way.
Step 10: Add Category To Your Blog Post
It is something that categorizes your content into sections or “sub-niches.” While a ton of the blog posts that you compose will fall under one main subject, for example, health is the main topic, but it will likewise wind up falling under sub-classifications, i.e., wellness, weight weight-loss, dieting, and so on.
Now take a look at some other forms that are surrounding the post-composition box.
- The Permalink: It stands for the permanent link. It fits in few formats. It ought to be human-readable by utilizing hyphens in it. If not, don’t hesitate to make it so.
- The Category: This will normally be an essential checkbox. This form can call as “uncategorized.” However, you can include new categories and classifications, which will make sortable pages for all posts in that classification.
- Tags: By using tags, search engines will find you and help your target audience to read your posts on your webpage utilizing specific tags.
- The Description: It might be accessible to customize depending upon your modules or plugins. In case if it is available, compose a short one or a couple of sentence summary that will describe your whole post and entices people to read. This method is the thing that appears in Google’s search results.
In the end, you likewise ensure that you fill out the Metadata related to the pictures you added to your post. It doesn’t mean the subtitle; it means the filename and description when you uploaded it.
Step 11: Choose A Featured Image
Well, now that’s the important part!
The featured image is the image that represents your whole blog post. On numerous WordPress blog designs, they are what you see as the thumbnail for the blog post. A featured picture is consequently added to the top of your post.
In case if you don’t set any featured image to your post, the post would not have a thumbnail. It means your blog design will look empty or half loaded.
In the WordPress featured image takes a spotlight of the blog. It’s the representation of both individual blog posts as well as the overall site design. Therefore, it should not be taken lightly.
You can create one yourself with tools like Canva or Stencil and just imake somthing that is consistent with overall style of your website and your brand.
Step 12: Finally Publish Your Post
After you completed all of the above, you are ready for the final step. You have added images, set your content, made proper format, set category, uploaded featured image. You are all set and ready to publish your blog post. It is time to hit the Publish button.
Well, it is up to you. Whether you want to publish your post now or schedule it for later. Just pick a schedule that you can easily follow.
In case if you need to schedule the post, all you need to do is to change the publication date in the publish box to a future date. The most important thing is to keep consistency in your routine.
Avoid publishing many posts in one week and none in the following next two weeks. Stick with the schedule and be consistent.
After following the entire step, your blog post is now officially LIVE on your site. You can and should promote on social media.
Conclusion
We have provided the most basic information on how to start writing a blog post on WordPress in 20 minutes. If you are a beginner and want to write a blog in WordPress, then this post will help you give you a good headstart.
You can read about the Blogely app and check how this software can take you even further.
Start blogging with the primary focus on writing helpful and valuable content for your readers. That is what’s going to keep them returning to your blog over and over again. You will gain more in-depth knowledge with time while you will be learning the ropes as you go through it.
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