5 Things Every Blog Post Needs

5 things every blog post needs

Ready to hit publish on that blog post? Not so fast! Make sure your blog post is not just click-worthy but share-worthy too with these 5 things every blog post needs.

5 Things Every Blog Post Needs

A Sexy Headline with Keywords

Not enough attention is paid to the headline and that’s a big mistake–your headline is what’s going to bait readers in and let them decide whether or not to go any further! Roughly half the time you spent writing your post should be spent working on your headline. And make sure to integrate a few keywords, too.

You can use a free tool like Headline Analyzer to see how well your headline is performing. There’s also one built in to CoSchedule, which I personally use and love.

A Pinnable Image

Once you’ve poured your heart and soul into writing a beautiful blog post, you have to make sure it’s shareable, too. And the easiest way to do that is by including one Pinterest-ready photo in each blog post.

Pinterest is a HUGE opportunity to get discovered and the No. 1 driver of traffic to both this blog and my fashion blog.

How can you create a Pinnable image? Make it nice and tall and overlay the title of your post on it so people can see right away what the post is about. You can use Canva or Photoshop to create these. Or, browse Creative Market for Pinterest/blog graphic templates.

The ideal Pinterest image size is 700 pixels wide by 1103 pixels tall. Once you upload your photo to your post, don’t forget to add alt text and a description of your photo! Here’s a screenshot of what that looks like:

alt text screenshot

Alt text is simply a description of the photo that displays when the photo doesn’t render or for the visually impaired. It’s great for SEO and you should include at least one photo like this in every blog post.

For extra points, embed multiple Pinnable images in your post. Don’t want your blog post cluttered with tons of graphic options? You can have hidden ones, too. Just check out this tutorial by Pinch of Yum on how to hide your images in a WordPress post.

Links Within

Treat each blog post like it’s your first post to someone new, because it just might be! That means being helpful and showing your readers similar content they might like that you’ve written. I do this in every single post by just including a simple, “You might like…” link to another post. (See below). What’s more, most blog posts are linked to previous ones or one of my services when relevant. This is really key to making sure your blog is sticky. In other words, a place for people to stick around.

You might also like: How to write the perfect blog post

A Tweetable

Another easy way to make it easy for people to share your content is to write 1-2 pre-written Tweets and include them in each blog post. You can use a plugin like Click to Tweet and all that person has to do is click to tweet it!

Use this section to include a great quote from your post, your headline or ask a question to entice people to click to learn more.

[Tweet “Don’t hit publish unless your blog post has these 5 things”]

A Call to Action

Ok, I’ve landed on your website, read this awesome post….now what? A call to action is your opportunity to tell people what to do next! The last thing you want is for people to read your post and vanish, when what you really want is for them to stick around and engage some more. So ask them to leave a comment with your thoughts, ask them to sign up for your newsletter or ask them to follow you on your Facebook page. It’s shocking how many blog posts fail to include a call to action at the end and this is one of the most important things every blog post should have.

If you’re nervous you’re being pushy, remember what I said above about it possibly being the first time someone lands on your website. You’re being helpful by letting them know that they can sign up for free newsletters or that you’re interested in hearing their thoughts on the topic.


Before you hit publish on that blog post make sure it has these five things: a sexy headline (with keywords), a Pinterest-friendly image; links to your other posts or services; a tweetable and a wonderful Call to Action at the end to wrap things up.

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7 Comments

  1. Call to action at the end might be the last but not the least! I am going to think of something different than ”share your comment” in my next blog post. Gretat all the tips!
    Helene/ http://www.beautifulismyattire.com

  2. This is great! I’m adding these to my process of blog posts right now. Thank you!

  3. This post is very informative. Right now I am doing four of those things on this list but I have been failing on the ‘tweetables’. I will be looking into implementing this very soon! Thanks.

    1. Ah, yeah they’re great for instant and easily sharable quotes, so glad it helped!

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