How To Write a Blog Post Outline Quickly and Easily

Does your company’s website have a blog on it? If not, then you’re probably missing out on bringing in new customers and increasing your sales. In fact, research shows that maintaining a blog leads to an average of 55% more visitors to your website. Furthermore, companies that have blogs produce nearly 70% more leads per month than companies without one. Where do you start, though? If you aren’t a writer or have never written a blog, the process may feel overwhelming. After all, you need to come up with content ideas, write them, and include links and images. It can be a lot, but learning how to write a blog post outline can simplify the process.

How To Write a Blog Post Outline

Writing an outline for your blog post is essential for ensuring you include all the information that you need while creating engaging content that welcomes new and returning website visitors alike.

What Is a Blog Outline?

A blog outline creates a roadmap for the content you create for your website. It includes information about the points you want to make in your writing, how you want to organize those points, what format you want the blog to be in, and what links and pictures you’d like to include.

What Is the Importance of a Blog Post Outline?

Learning how to write a blog post outline is essential for many reasons. Most importantly, it helps you organize your thoughts and stay on track. When you have an excellent idea, a blog outline helps you plot out your points and keeps you on track as you’re writing about them. It creates structure while helping you come up with the end goal before you even start writing.

An outline also tends to make it easier and faster to write the blog, since you have a reference to look at all the way through. Finally, a blog outline helps you to determine ahead of time what’s necessary for your blog post and what you can cut out due to lack of substance.

When Should You Write an Outline?

Although it’s a good idea to create a blog outline any time you’re writing one, there are some types of blogs for which outlines are especially helpful. If you are writing long-form content of 1,000 words or more, an outline can help you organize your thoughts to ensure your content doesn’t become repetitive or otherwise hard to read.

Even if the post won’t be very long, it’s a good idea to create a blog outline if you’re writing about a complex topic. It is also necessary to create an outline if you’re assigning the writing to someone else and want to make sure they touch on all of the points that you deem important.

Steps for Creating a Blog Outline

Now that you know what a blog outline is and why it’s important, follow these basic steps for how to write a blog post outline from start to finish.

1. Create a Basic Title

Eventually, you need an engaging blog title that draws the reader in, but you don’t need to spend time thinking one up right away. For now, a simple title is a good stand-in to keep your outline on topic and make it easy to follow. For example, if you’re writing about a trip to Los Angeles, you can simply call it “Trip to Los Angeles.”

2. Write Down What You Want Your Readers To Take Away

What do you want your readers to take away from reading about your trip? Write down everything you can think of that you want them to know about. This information doesn’t need to be organized yet, so don’t worry about putting it into a specific order. You might want them to know about your trip to the Walk of Fame, your day at Santa Monica Pier, and your time exploring Universal City. You might also want to tell them about what it was like to use the public transportation system, whether you saw any celebrities, and where you stayed.

3. Categorize Everything on Your List

Separate your list into basic categories. These will eventually become your headings. Make the initial categories broad. For example, when writing about the ideas listed above, you wouldn’t need a different category for each tourist activity you did. Instead, add them all into a category such as “Activities.” The other points you listed all can become their own categories.

4. Add Subcategories

Once you have the big categories, break them up into smaller subcategories that will eventually become your subheadings. Under your “Tourist Activity” subcategory, add each activity previously mentioned. Create subcategories for the other categories as well. For instance, if you saw several celebrities, list the name of each one under the “Celebrities” category.

5. Revise and Reorganize

Fine-tuning is key to how to write a blog post outline that translates into a polished finished product. Look over your outline for places where you may have forgotten information or where you might want to cut down. Depending on the length of your blog, aim for three to seven categories with two to four subcategories each.

What To Include in Your Blog Post Outline

Along with the categories and subcategories, include a section for the introduction and conclusion on your blog outline. Some people also make notations. You may want to add notes to find a statistic for the introduction, include a picture in a certain heading or subheading, or use a specific call to action at the end of the blog post.

Eventually, you should have an outline that looks something like this:

1. Introduction (include a statistic)
2. Tourist Activities
   1. Walk of Fame
   2. Santa Monica Pier
   3. Universal City (include a picture)
3. Public Transporation System
   1. Costs
   2. Cleanliness
   3. Comfort
4. Celebrities
   1. Celebrity 1
   2. Celebrity 2
   3. Celebrity 3
5. Accommodations
   1. Comfort
   2. Amenities
   3. Cleanliness
6. Conclusion (insert a call to action and include email address)

How To Write a Blog Post Outline With Our Help

Now that you know the basics of how to write a blog post outline, it’s time to start creating new content that helps you get to the top of Google’s search engine results pages. A good blog updates once or twice per week, but keeping to this schedule can be overwhelming if you try to do it alone. Let us help you instead! BKA Content provides a wide variety of blog writing and SEO services to help your company thrive. Contact us today to learn more.