There are lots of reasons a blog post can turn out poorly.

Misspellings. Poor grammar. Unengaging concepts. Poor

research.

The most prevalent problem? Poor structure. Blog posts that

jump around from topic to topic will not only frustrate the writer,
but it can irritate and confuse readers, increasing your bounce
rate.

The best way to mitigate potential blogging snafus is to create

a clear blog post outline. Outlines are like road maps, taking
your readers on a clearly defined journey. And, they make the
writer's job incredibly easier.

Fleshing out your blog outline doesn't have to be

time-consuming. In fact, you can knock one out in less than
twenty minutes. Plus, creating an outline has been proven to
help you write faster, reduce stress, and keep you organized and
on track with your thoughts.

Still Not Convinced? Here's Why You

Need to Create a Blog Post Outline:

• To streamline your concepts to avoid choppiness

• To aid in mastering SEO and hitting your top keywords
• To keep the writer on-task and organized
• To determine links and notes beforehand that can be used
as a quick reference

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 2

How to Master your Blog Post Outline:
Even experienced writers can go astray with talking points. So,
whether you are an experienced or novice writer, use this guide
to master your blog post outlines. Then, once you become
comfortable with the process, you can apply your own flexible
approach, making the process unique to you.
In order to get the most out of this guide, you'll want to
brainstorm and jot down your thoughts. To get you started, we
made this working Google spreadsheet for you to use in your
brainstorming:
1 . Nail Down Your Blog Idea
Determine the big picture and nail down your blog idea. This is
the most important step of the entire process and it will set you
up for success. Have a clear understanding of what you are
going to be writing before you start brainstorming and
outlining.
Some questions to consider:
• Define Goals: What do you want your audience to get out of
your post? Use your working spreadsheet to brainstorm.
Mod Marketing Tip: Have no clue where to start? Buzzsumo
can help you identify content gaps by analyzing content that is
working best for your competitors.

A 8 C D 2. Write a Strong Headline

The Modern CMO's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time: A Working Spreadsheet
Use this template and our guide to write better biogs -faster!
Now that you've determined your big idea, it's time to
1. Your Topic
brainstorm some working headlines. Crafting a headline will
solidify your topic and your purpose.
Define your goals. What do you v.<ant your
audience to get out of your post? • Brainstorm some working headlines to A!B test on your working
spreadsheet.
2. Write a Strong Headline

Brainstorm some working headlines to A/B

test.
Mod Marketing Tip: Having writers block? Not feeling creative?
Check out Sumo Me's Kickass Headline Generator to write
"engaging titles like a boss!" This tool will spark some ideas for
Download the working spreadsheet here any type of blog post you are writing. Formulas range from how
to's and numbered lists to explanatory and fun and playful
topics.
Please copy it so you have your own version -- Then start
brainstorming'

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 3

3. Refine your Audience and Purpose
Essentially, this is the part where you get to brain dump and
really get into the meat of your blog post.
Some questions to consider:
• Who is your audience?
• What are some key takeaways?
• What are some sources that are relevant to my topic?
• What is my call to action? How can I structure the CTA so
that it feels like a solution for the reader?
Mod Marketing Tip: Struggling on coming up with a strong
CTA? Here are some power words to help get you started:
· Strong Verbs: Download, Start, Build, Grow, Discover, Learn,
Join, Try
· Make your Audience Feel Special: Limited supply, Exclusive,
Advanced, Secrets, Members only, Subscribers only, Limited
spots.
· Use Urgency: Ends tomorrow, Expires soon, Today only,
Deadline, One-time offer.
· Make it Relatable: Me, Your, Risk-free, Safe, Free, New,
Guaranteed, Returns results, Results oriented.
•
4. Gather a Plan for Sourcing Information
Gathering information, figuring out what you already know and
what you need to learn, will help you in your research phase.
Some questions to consider:
• What type of things do you need to mention? This will help
organize your thoughts later on.
• Determine what information you need to gather. What
questions do you need to provide answers to?
• Figure out what you already know. Brainstorm headings,
phrases, or singular sentences that can help jog your
memory later on.
5. Create Summarizing Headings
From the information above, you can organize your main ideas
into related groups. Remove lists that don't have enough
content and create headings for big ideas.
6. Reorganize Headings & Determine a Flow
Take your headings from above and order them into a flow. Your
blog post should start with your big idea and end with a CTA.
Use our Google spreadsheet guide to map out your flow:
Big Idea:
Summarizing Headings:
Conclusion:
Call to Action:
The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 4
7. Set Your SEO Plan Keyword Planner. This will show you how many times they are
Not only should your blog be thoughtful and engaging, but it searched. (Hint: It's okay if a really good keyword comes back
should integrate proper SEO techniques. Having a SEO-friendly with zero monthly searches. Use your best judgment. If you feel
blog post is important for capitalizing on top keywords in order like it's a highly relevant keyword, use it)!
to appear at the top of search engines. If you haven't optimized
your content in the past, learn how to perform your own SEO
audit.

Moving forward, use this checklist to set your SEO plan before
you get started:

• Focus on 1-2 long tail keywords, integrating them naturally

into your blog.
• Include various related keywords to expand your SEO reach.
• Aim for a longer blog post of 1,000 - 2,000 keywords

Limiting the number of times you use particular keywords is

best, as search engines like Google could penalize you for
overusing keywords. This is referred to as keyword stuffing. It
will also help you stay on track with the purpose of your post.
Be sure to check out our blog post the Top 8 SEO Mistakes to
Avoid in 2016 to figure out other mistakes to avoid when
optimizing your content..

Mod Marketing Tip: To aid in your long tail keyword research,

use free keyword tools like UberSuqqest and Google Keyword
Planner. You can use Ubersuggest to quickly find long-tail
keyword ideas that you can use throughout your content.
Simply start with the main seed keyword and type it into
UberSuggest to get relevant long tail keywords. Then, take the
most relevant long-tail keywords and paste them in Google

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 5

If you want even more long tail, highly relevant keywords, check
out HitTail. This tool syncs with your Google Search Console
account and tells you exactly what keywords you should add to
your content arsenal. It's a very powerful tool and perfect for
finding the most promising, underutilized long tail search terms
to get more traffic to your site.

• Determine Title Tags

When writing a long blog post, you will have to break it down
into sub categories, or title tags. This will help readers skim
your content, plus they are an important part of SEO. The
various tags are:

<hl > ... </hl > Heading 1

<h2> ... </h2> Heading 2
<h3> ... </h3> Heading 3
... . And so on up to Heading 6.

Use these tags in descending order (use Hl before H2). Use the
Google spreadsheet to add your target keywords into your
summarizing headings from step 5 and 6.

1. <h 1> ---------- </h 1>

2. <h2> </h2>

• Determine Your Meta Description

101
Like the title tag, you'll want to incorporate your keywords into
your meta-description. Remember, your meta-description will 01
entice clicks, driving people to your website, so make sure that
the description is engaging. It's best to keep your
10
meta-description between 1 50 and 1 60 characters.

Brainstorm a working meta-description on your working

spreadsheet.

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 6

• Optimize your Images Brainstorm images and alt tags you would like to include in your
blog post on your working spreadsheet.
Blog posts shouldn't only contain text. Images will add visual
interest for your readers and add extra oomph for your SEO For the ultimate guide in image optimization, check out our blog
ef forts. Brainstorm what type of images to use and define the post: The Best Image Optimization Tips You Will Ever Need
picture's alt and title text. (Hint: if you roll over an image with
your cursor a small box will appear that describes your image -
this is the alt text. The alt text helps search engines interpret
the meaning of the image). See example below:

Image Details

Caption

Alternative Text Holistic SEO VS Old SEO

DISPLAY SETIINGS

Align Left � Right None

UnkTo None

ADVANCED OPTIONS .o

Image Title Attribute J Holistic SEO vs Old SEO lnfographic

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 7

Mod Marketing Tip: We recommend using the Yoast plugin for Wordpress. This plugin will add extra search engine data to each blog site,
giving Google and Bing more information to index, which helps with your website's rankings. The plugin will give you recommendations in
a checklist format, taking into consideration the most important SEO factors:

Analyzes the text you write by calculating a Flesch reading ease score, indicating the readability of your article.
Aids in creating a strong, optimized meta-description.
Checks your usage of keywords in headings, title, URL, body text, and meta-description.
Reminds you to include links and images.
Takes into consideration the length of your article and your keyword density.
Checks whether or not other pages on your website use the same focus keyword, to prevent you from competing with yourself!

See examples below for how to use Yoast for SEO:

Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO
G Help center ...
0 Help center �

n
w f i,

lfn1 e
<
Content • Keyword: hofistk seo +

Facebook Title
�
Are You Taking A Holistic SEO Approach For 2016?
If you don't want to use the post title for sharing the post on Facebook but instead want «! Snippet ® Snippet preview
i) another title there, write it here. editor e
Facebook Description
i) Are You Taking A Holistic SEO Approach For 2016?
SEO is changing and forward-thinking businesses are focusing on the development of www.modgirtmarketing.com/holistic-seo-for-2016/
user-driven content. Learn how to make the switch to holistic SEO. • SEO is changing and forwarc:Mhinking businesses are focusing on the development of user-driven
content. Learn how to make the switch to holistic SEO.

If you don't want to use the meta description for sharing the post on Facebook but want ," Edit snippet
another description there, write it here.

Facebook Image http:llwww.modgirlmarketing.com/wp-c Upload Image

If you want to override the image used on Facebook for this post, upload / choose an Focus hoHstic seo
image or add the URL here. The recommended image size for Facebook is 1200 x 630px. keyword @

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time 8

Mod Marketing Tip: Don't underestimate the importance of a
linking strategy. Adding internal links from other relevant pages
on your website is a great way to incorporate SEO in your blog
posts. Adding an image from another website? Make sure you
link to that website where you found your image, as we
illustrate in the example below.
You may notice that in the past, without creating a clear
outline, writing blog post introductions could be quite difficult.
However, now that you have a clearly defined purpose, your
introduction should be quite easy and the rest of your blog post
should flow naturally. Good luck!

Want to see how Mod Girl optimizes our blog posts? Our #1
ranking for "holistic SEO in 2016" blog post is the first resource
you should reference to learn the fundamental processes that
are needed to optimize your blog.

Now that you've mastered the basics, we want you to create

kickass blog content through some Mod Girl exclusive

_Q
a
bonuses:

1. Our guided blog spreadsheet to make brainstorming a

breeze.

-0
2. Our all-inclusive on-page SEO checklist that will help you

_e
create winning content that converts.

Ready to take your blogging to the next level?

Request a custom Blog Blueprint and Strategy

Call with Mod Girl Marketing today!

Image Source: RimmKaufman.com

8. Start writing your draft! Boost Your Blog Presence Today

Now that you have clearly defined your audience, goal,
structure, call to action and have a great basis for SEO, you can
begin writing your draft.

The Modern Marketer's Guide to Better Biogs in Less Time g