How to Write a Good Blog Post That People Actually Read

In a 1997 web usability study by Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of test users always scanned a new page and only 16% read it word by word. That finding shapes how to write a good blog post: your reader is hunting for the part that answers their question, and every sentence has to earn their next glance.

This guide covers seven steps, from choosing a single idea to the last checks before you publish, and ends with how to use an AI writer without losing quality. If you want a shorter version first, our walkthrough on how to write a blog post is the quick read.

What makes a blog post good?

A good blog post is about one thing, tells the reader early what they'll get from it, and gives them enough detail to act. Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content puts the test as a question: "Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?"

Style, keywords and length all come after that. Each step below is a way of passing that test, and if you're unsure how long to go, our piece on blog post length helps you choose.

Pick one idea and say what it's for

To write a good blog post, start by narrowing the subject. The UK government's digital engagement team puts it in one line in its guide to writing a good blog post: "one blog post is about one thing." If you have several topics, write several posts.

Here's a quick test. Summarise the post in one sentence, and if you can't, it's covering too much.

Then name the reader. A post for a first-time site owner and a post for a seasoned marketer on the same subject share almost no sentences. Stuck for a subject? Our list of blog post ideas is a good place to start.

Outline before you write a good blog post

Write the blog post outline before the prose. Draft each heading as the question a reader would ask, put them in the order they'd ask them, and you have the blog post structure.

A clear blog post structure also makes it easier to write a blog post quickly, because each section has one job and you always know what comes next.

Make the headings descriptive rather than clever. Nielsen's advice is to use clear subheadings, because a scanner who lands on a witty one can't tell what's underneath it.

Under each heading, answer the question in the first two sentences and save the detail for after. That's the inverted pyramid, with the conclusion first, and it means a reader who stops after the opening still leaves with something.

One practical SEO point belongs here. Put the search phrase you're targeting in the title, the opening paragraph and one heading, then stop. Everywhere else, say it the way a person would.

Open with something the reader can use

Tell the reader in the opening line what the post is for. The government team recommends making the purpose clear early, and the easiest way is to open on a fact, a cost or a situation rather than restating the headline.

Compare two openings for a post on fixing a slow site. "Page speed is important for every website" tells nobody anything. "Here's how to test your homepage speed in a minute, and what to fix first" gives the reader something to do.

Skip the history of blogging, the definition of a blog and the "in today's world" run-up. Your reader already knows why they're here.

Keep paragraphs short and cut the hype

Short paragraphs help you write a good blog post that reads easily on a phone or a desktop. Aim for one idea per paragraph, and two or three sentences at most. Nielsen's recommendation is that readers skip any extra ideas a paragraph doesn't signal in its first few words, so a paragraph that carries three of them hides two.

Use bullets where the material really is a set of parallel things, and a table where you're comparing options. Don't add either to look organised.

Cut words, too. In Nielsen's test of five versions of one website, the version that was concise, scannable and written in objective language improved usability by 124%. It was an old test on a small set of pages, but the direction holds up when you edit your own drafts.

Promotional language is the first thing to go. The same study found that marketing-style claims hurt credibility, because readers have to filter out the hype to find the facts.

Tone is a separate question from hype. The government team's advice is clear, lively language that assumes the reader knows nothing about the subject, and a voice of your own is what stops the post sounding like everyone else's. Our brand voice examples show what that looks like in practice.

Show your evidence and link to it

Photo by Jessica Lewis 🦋 thepaintedsquare on Pexels

Anyone can assert something. A post people trust shows the thing, gives the figure and links the page it came from, which is why the "show, don't tell" advice from the government team applies to claims as much as to scenes.

Google's questions for creators are a useful checklist. Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis? Are you mainly summarising what others have said without adding much value? Is it obvious to visitors who wrote it?

Fix the factual errors that can be checked easily, too, since Google lists them as a warning sign. Link the figure to the page you took it from, in the sentence that uses it.

Link inwards as well. A post on one topic should point to your other posts on adjacent ones, so a reader who finishes can carry on and search engines can see how your pages relate.

Edit it away from the draft

Leave the draft for a day if you can. The government team suggests stepping away for a day or so before reviewing, and the distance is what lets you see the sentences you wrote rather than the ones you meant.

Then read it aloud. Awkward phrasing is obvious to the ear long before the eye catches it.

The best check is a person who doesn't know the subject. If they can follow it without asking you anything, it works. If you can share early drafts with colleagues, take their feedback on jokes and analogies seriously, because those are the lines that most often fail for everyone but the author.

Check it before you publish

Before you hit publish, run through this list once the edit is done.

1. Can you summarise the post in one sentence?
2. Does each heading say what is underneath it?
3. Does the opening line say what the reader gets?
4. Does every paragraph carry one idea?
5. Is every figure linked to the page it came from?
6. Is the target phrase in the title, the opening and one heading?
7. Do all your links open the right pages?

If you'd like a second pair of eyes on the search side, FreeBlogWriter has an SEO audit you can use on a finished draft.

How to write a good blog post with an AI writer

Google doesn't ban AI-generated content. What it describes as little to no effort is using generative AI "to produce large amounts of text without manual oversight or curation", so the difference between a good AI-assisted post and a poor one is whether a person read it, checked it and fixed it.

That's how we built FreeBlogWriter. Give it a topic and the AI blog post generator reads your website, researches what people search for and writes a finished post in your voice in 3 to 4 minutes. We tuned it on real WordPress sites until every post scored 81 or more out of 100 in Rank Math, and every account gets 4 complete posts, free for life, with no card.

Whatever tool wrote the first draft, the steps above still apply. Read the result aloud before it goes live.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a good blog post be?

Long enough to answer the question properly and no longer. The UK government's digital team advises keeping a post short and to the point, with enough detail to make it worthwhile.

How do I make a blog post easy to skim?

Use descriptive subheadings, keep each paragraph to one idea, and add bullets where the content really is a list. Nielsen found that readers scan most new pages, so these are the things they use to find their way.

Can I use AI to draft my posts?

Yes, as long as a person reviews and edits it. Google says it doesn't ban AI-generated content, but it treats mass-produced text without oversight as low effort.

What should a blog post be about?

One thing. If you can't summarise it in a sentence, split it into two posts.

Sources

• How to write a good blog post — GDS Digital Engagement blog
• How Users Read on the Web — Nielsen Norman Group
• Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content — Google Search Central

Cover photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels