Content Writing How to Write a Blog Post Outline – Structure Your Writing for Better Engagement

Do you often find yourself stuck while choosing the right blog post outline? Blog post outlining process comes with a lot of practice and patience. Apart from focusing on the main theme, it requires you to extensively test different outline versions to see which works better. However, the blog outline process should not have to become a tedious task. In this guide, we discuss the best ways on how to write a blog post outline effortlessly.

Why Do You Need to Write a Blog Post Outline?

Writing a blog post outline is as essential as choosing the topic and correct information to post. In the era of information overload, you need to grab your audience’s attention in milliseconds. According to a report, blog posts help in generating 80% more ROI. ^[1]

 Thus, it means that your article outlines should be clean and appealing at the first glance. The best blog outline not only helps you maintain content flow while writing but also retains audience interest while reading. Here are some other reasons to create content outline for website or blog content:

Outlines Help You Fill Blanks and Bridge Gaps

As a writer, your biggest nightmares are writer’s block and blank page syndrome. You do not want to look like someone with zero creativity and a blank page while your head is filled with suitable content ideas. Blog post outline is as helpful during long form writing as it is for short form content writing. When you have an outline of specific headings and pointers you want to cover in front of you, the words will continue to flow in the perfect order.  ^[2]

Outlines Help You Collaborate with Editors Better

Bringing your content editors on the same page is very challenging but just as important. Blog outlines help your editors see exactly what angle you are planning to take and how you plan to write about a specific topic. Thus, they can actively make suggestions on the initial blog outline. Therefore, the writing process becomes smoother and very specific right from the beginning. In other words, outlines help you save time and tons of post-submission editing work!

How to Write a Blog Post Outline in Minutes?

The content outline process is made simpler if you follow some useful tips as given below:

Use an AI Assisted Blog Outline Creator 

Save hours of finding the right outline for your blog with WriteMe.Ai content outline generator. The AI Assisted blog post outline generator helps you write the best outline for your blog based on keywords and essential information. Moreover, you can create multiple outlines for different topics 20x faster than manual research and outlining.

Figure Out How to Organize Every Element

Before you start writing your headings, you need to consider what type of internal link, top ranking keywords, visuals and information you want to include in your blog. List down everything that should be included in your blog post and start preparing outline from there.

Build All The Important Sections

Once you have a display of all the elements you need in your blog, the next step is to build out your sections. In this step, you need to consider which headings will be most suitable for your topic. The content brief that you and your editor will mutually agree upon will serve as the foundation of your outline process. Keep the SEO requirements, call to actions and formatting instructions in front of you and build on your sections as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Heading #1
3. Heading #2
4. Heading #3
   • Subheading #1
   • Subheading #2 
   • Subheading #3
5. Call to Action
6. Frequently Asked Questions
7. Conclusion

Most SEO guidelines recommend that you use H1 for title only. Therefore, you can use H2, H3 and H4 heading tags for main headings, subheadings and further points respectively.

Suggested Read: How to Write a Good Title – Easy Tips for Attracting Readers on Blog Posts and Articles

Conduct Extensive Research on Each Section

Research is the backbone of every content piece. Analyzing your top competitors will help you figure out your reader’s search intent. Thus, you can take a specific angle for writing content to meet your audience’s expectations. The top-ranking Search Results will give you a fair idea as to what type of information you need to cover in every section. This step also helps you to:

1. Refine and modify your blog outline sections if you sense any misalignment or unnecessary information.
2. Remove fluff and find a unique angle to induce audience’s interest and engagement. 
3. Maintain a conversational style while offering helpful and valuable information simultaneously.

While you are doing research, you will notice something like this on your result page: 

This section gives you further direction on which type of FAQs or queries you can cover in your content. Apart from adding more value to your content, these queries also help you improve your SEO rankings.

To save time, you can take help from AI Q/A generator to prepare FAQs for your blog:

Include Bullet Points and One Liner Summaries 

One of the most useful tactics to enhance the readability and engagement of your blog post is to add bullet points and one liner summaries. Both of these elements enhance the flow of your content while also maintaining links between your blog sections. When a reader comes across your blog, they can immediately read headings followed by bullet points and one liner summaries. Thus, it offers an opportunity to spur the audience’s further interest into other detailed information from your blog.

Add an Optional CTA and Make Necessary Tweaks 

If your blog is linked to your brand or business, adding a CTA to promote your offering is a great way to get more leads. In fact, successful blogs not only help in building brand awareness but also gather potential customers. Including unconventional and unique CTAs that focus on user benefit will bid well for your blog outline. 

For example, if your brand is about digital marketing, you can write a blog about “Role of Good Content in Digital Marketing”. In the same blog post, you can emphasize the importance of good content. Once you establish the need for good content in your reader’s mind, you can top it off with an attention-grabbing CTA like “Get unique content for your website”. 

Thus, it will help you get more website visitors from organic searches as well as more potential customers.

Bonus Tip: Write Your Conclusion and Introduction Last

Writing blog introduction and blog conclusion are the most daunting tasks for a content writer. However, the simple trick to overcome this challenge is to write blog introduction and blog conclusion in the last stage of writing. 

Suggested Read: Writing Blog Introduction Like a Pro – Sell Your Read Instantly

Once you have completed the body of your blog post, you acquire a fair idea of what you are covering in your information. Thus, this puts you in a better position to write an accurate blog post introduction and conclusion.

Use AI to ace your blog post introduction 

and blog post conclusion writing:

How to Write a Blog Post Outline – Frequently Asked Questions

What is an outline for a blog post?

A blog post outline is a general idea and layout of everything you will be writing about in your blog post. In other words, it is a structure, a skeleton, a road map or even the foundation of your blog writing process.

Conclusion

If you want to ace your blog post’s flow, learning how to write a blog post outline is the way to go forward. Following a blog post outline saves you from misalignment and tons of post-writing editing. 

References:
[1] State of Content Marketing – HubSpot
[2] Blank Page Syndrome – HerCampus