6 Essential Blog Post Templates that Drive Traffic

You’ve blocked away some time in your day to write a stunning blog post. An hour passes and all you have to show is a blank screen.

Let’s face it: blogging can be challenging. Getting past that blank page can be a real tussle, especially if you’re starting a draft blog from scratch.

For one thing, blogging is a skill that takes time and practice. Whether you’re a digital marketer working with an established brand or an entrepreneur trying to create an online presence, a well-crafted blog post can increase your visibility.

Having a few blog post templates at hand is an easy and fast way to get you past that blank screen, write a stunning blog post, and drive a lot of traffic to your website.

Yet, which blog post templates do you pick?

Truth is, there are many blog post templates you can choose from. However, picking the right ones that drive traffic to your blog or website is hard.

We’ve put together 6 essential blog post templates you need to write the perfect blog post fast and still drive traffic to your site.

With these templates, you’ll never have to start the blogging process from scratch again.

Before we show you these templates and how valuable they are to your blogging process, let’s answer one critical question:

Do I Really Need to Blog?

More than ever before, you need to blog, you need to run a blog for your business, and you need a blog to promote your brand, your idea, or yourself.

Today’s market economy is highly pluralized and warrants you to do more than expected. Brands are constantly struggling to stay above the competitive market structure. Blogging is one of those actions that every business person or organization can leverage to increase their market share.

A HubSpot study shows that businesses that practice blogging get up to 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages than businesses that don’t.

See for yourself:

You might be wondering why you should care about website visitors.

Truth is, the more website visitors you have, the more people you’re likely to convert to leads and sales.

Okay! I get it.

But what about links?

Inbound links signal authority to search engines, thus increasing your chances of getting found in search engine search results.

In the same way, the more indexed pages you have on your site, the better your chances of getting found in search engines.

It’s not just HubSpot.

According to DemandMetric, businesses that blog produce 67% more leads than those that don’t.

Now, you know the magic blogging can do for you. It’s time to start writing your first blog post. Where do you start?

A blog post template, of course.

How to Choose the Right Blog Post Template

Not every template will work for the blog post you’re writing. Here are some guidelines you should take into consideration when picking your blog post template.

Consider the topic of your blog post

The particular topic you’re blogging about should guide you on what kind of blog template you should use. If it’s a food recipe blog post, then you know that much listing and stating will be involved, so your blog post template will have to accommodate headers, pointers, and all that allows for listing and short essays.

Consider the purpose of your blog post

Knowing clearly what you want to achieve from your blog post should guide you in choosing the right template.

Your main goal may be to build an email list, grow your social media following, or build credibility through your content. It could also just be for the fun of it.

Whatever the case, make sure the template you pick supports your main goal. Is your goal to sell the image of your brand? Then, your blog template should consider using footers that drop information about what your brand offers from time to time.

Your template should be easy to customize

Having something unique and personalized does so much to drive traffic to your blog. It makes all the difference; when your visitors log out of your site but still have a fresh memory of what it looked like means your blog has peculiar features that made an impression on your readers.

List the most essential elements you want in a blog template

You can save up much time searching if you know exactly what you need from a blog post template. Listing out the elements you need the most for your blog will help you identify what defines the exact needs and functionalities you are looking for in a theme.

Whatever you’re prioritizing, make sure your blog template makes sufficient room for it. If your goal is to build a social media following, you might be considering a prominent sidebar to place your social media icons.

Your theme should be media-friendly

These days, if anything software should be effective, then media-friendliness should be checked. Considering the large number of people who use their phones to browse the web, it’s essential that your theme is responsive not just on desktop screens but on mobile phone screens as well.

If your theme is responsive, then it should be able to adapt to any screen size. Also, adjusting the layout so it appears and operates well on just any screen will increase your blog traffic.

Don’t go for looks

While beautiful templates are good to use, make sure you prioritize functionality over design. A good-looking template that could slow you down or make you vulnerable to hackers is a bad deal. Put more ratings on how easy, friendly, and secure a template is over how beautiful it looks.

Consider things like how fast your blog loads. Templates that use images with heavy designs would definitely slow down your blog. You don’t want your customers running away because your blog takes forever to load.

Your blog post should be actionable

You don’t need to add a call to action to make your blog actionable. Make sure your content clearly shows your readers how to apply the information you’ve provided in your post. You could use images, screenshots, and other supporting material to paint a vivid picture of the idea you’re driving home.

Make your blog post compelling

Your blog post is exactly what should keep your readers trapped. Inasmuch as your template can already create a powerful impression on your readers, the quality of your blog post also needs to follow suit. Use language that is simple, clear, and fully expressive.

Give your post a conversational voice

A conversational voice is more relatable and can keep your readers more engaged in your writing.

Avoid lengthy tips

You don’t have to do so much explaining when it comes to tips. Your tips should go straight to the point. When your readers know it is a tips blog template, what they’ll expect from you is speed and simplicity.

One other thing is to avoid giving so many tips. 12 is enough, anything above that should be captioned ways and not tips, for example, 15 ways to grow your Facebook page.

Now, you know how to choose the right blog post template.

To help you save hours of aimless writing, we’ve created 6 blog post templates to guide your content creation process.

While most of them are geared towards building your voice as a thought leader, these templates were built with SEO optimization in mind.

Blog Post Templates that Drive Traffic to Your Blog

1. Beginner’s Guide Blog Post Template

This is the type of template you use when you want to present an overview of a topic. This type of blog template doesn’t focus too much on a particular aspect of a topic, rather, it covers just enough of every aspect so that the reader has a holistic view of what the topic or concept is.

This template is best when you want to introduce your readers to a new topic or concept. In this case, you’ll be paying very much attention to the definition of concepts as well as using specific examples. Some examples of blog posts that follow this template structure include:

HTML and CSS for Marketers: A Simple Guide to Coding for SEO
How to Create Irresistible Calls-to-Action in 2021: A Beginner’s Guide
On-Page SEO: The Ultimate Guide (2021)
The Complete Guide to Getting Started with Facebook Ads

A typical beginner’s guide blog post template will make much use of what, why, where, where, and how. The answers to these questions will give your readers different perspectives, giving them a full view of the topic. The structure of the beginner’s guide blog template could look something like this:

What is digital marketing?
Why is digital marketing important?
How can digital marketing be practiced?
Tips on how to successfully carry out digital marketing?
What tools do you need to carry out digital marketing?
What are some examples of digital marketing?

Beginner’s guide blog post tips

When using the beginner’s guide blog post template, what you want to do is focus on the questions people ask about that topic.

Coming up with the most obvious questions like “what is marketing” or “what is artificial intelligence” is often not a challenge. What is most challenging is getting those questions that explore more explicit perspectives of the topic.

Look out for those questions whose answers throw a very clear light on the topic. Quora is a good place to find the most commonly asked questions (FAQs) about a topic. You can build your content around such questions and be a solution provider to your readers.

This way, you’re helping your readers to answer the questions they search for in search engines.

Beginner’s guides are also great for high-volume keywords, and most high-volume keywords have a subset of beginner-friendly, question-related keywords you can use in your H2s and H3s.

2. Tips Blog Post Template

You should already be familiar with this type of blog post template. If you’ve been reading several blogs, then you must have come across such a template.

Now, don’t get confused. A blog post with tips doesn’t necessarily make for a tips blog post template. A tips blog post template specifically incorporates tips as one of its keywords.

For example, a tips blog post template will say “5 Effective Tips on How to Manage Time at Work,” “10 Simple Online Tutoring Tips That Will Land You Committed Clients,” “8 Proven Digital Marketing Tips That Will Drive Traffic to Your Site.”

The tips blog post template is best used when you want to help your readers enhance their skills in a particular field. Tips blog post templates only play a relevant role when your readers are already versed with the subject. As such, whatever you add will only reinforce what they already know.

This is what the structure of a typical tips blog post template will look like:

A general introduction of about 100 to 150 words, telling your readers what they should expect to learn from the post.
Another heading should introduce your topic. This is not mandatory but because you want to give some more explanation that could give your readers more insights into the topic, you can consider using another heading. You can also decide to employ not just one heading but two or three depending on how much valuable information you want to serve your readers.
List your tips, making sure they carry very brief information that is simple and easy to understand.
You can end with a brief conclusion. There are many ways to draw your curtains. One way is to ask your readers which tips they’ll be trying out or which of the tips intrigued them the most.

3. Steps Blog Post Template

Have you ever looked up a recipe online or tried learning how to use a Microsoft Office application? If you have, then you should have an idea of what a Steps blog post template is.

You use this template when you want to clearly illustrate how something should be done, especially by offering linear instructions. A steps blog post template allows you to break down information into steps so that your readers have a clear and precise outline of how a task can be carried out.

This kind of blog post template is best suited when you want to engage a tactical or strategic topic such as how to use your DSTV decoder. If you’re an entrepreneur blogging to serve your online clients, then you would be using the steps blog post template more often.

You’ll use it to show your clients how to use your product or service. Some examples will be “How to Design Your Webpage in 5 Steps,” “7 Steps to Keep Your YouTube Ads Working.”

This is what the structure of a typical Steps blog post template will look like:

The introduction comes first just like every other blog post template.
You can include a title if you want to present more information that should add value to the post.
Introduce each step as a heading. You could also use subheadings or bullet points to further break down your work.

Pro tip: When using a steps blog post template, make use of visuals such as screenshots, illustrations, videos, pictures, etc, to make your post clear and precise.

A step-by-step process resonates with expectations of a detailed and practical explanation, so making your post as visible and practical as possible will be helpful.

4. Cheatsheet Blog Post Template

This type of blog post template is useful when you want to provide your readers with quick references or help them remember tiny bits of specific information on a topic.

Cheatsheet blog post templates introduce several dimensions of a topic. For example, it could look into the definition, types, strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, comparison and contrast.

When using the cheat sheet blog template, use visuals, and keep it short, simple, and precise. Considering you’ll be exploring different angles of the topic, it’s best to be quick about it.

Remember, your readers are not interested in reading a long body of text; they simply want to jump in, get what they want, and jump out.

A good example of a blog post that employs the cheat sheet template will be “55 Guiding Rules to Setting up a Business.”

This is what the structure of a typical cheat sheet blog post template will look like:

Introduction of the topic
Stating of item
A short definition of the item
Explanation of the dimension of items
Statement on when to use the item

You can repeat this over and over until you exhaust the major concepts of the topic you’re blogging on. You can also employ flexibility by adding in quotes, tweets, and even notes.

5. Round-up Blog Post Template

These are those blog post templates that carry titles like most important, best of, latest trends, and most effective. When using this kind of blog post, keep information uniform by selecting particular criteria you’ll use in writing.

If you want to promote a product, this is the best blog post template that can work for promoting a product, service, software, or even individual. As such, you’ll use links within your content.

This is what the structure of a round-up blog post template looks like:

Start with your introduction as usual.
List your different points.
You can elaborate on each point by examining the pros and cons as well as other vital details like the price of the product or service.
You can also introduce other sub-headings to your post.

6. Stats Blog Post Template

One of the things people look up on Google and other search engines every day is statistical data.

Stats blog post templates pay attention to facts. When using this type of blog post template, get as many statistics as possible. The more statistics you have, the better.

Make sure your statistics are current and true to the time you’re making the post. Some of the prominent examples you’ll frequently see are “10 Mind-Blowing Statistics in Digital Marketing and How to Explore Them” or “100 Facts and Statistics on Facebook Ads That Will Thrill You.”

Adjust the Blog Post Templates to Fit Your Needs

Using these blog post templates is a great way to get started, but don’t feel confined to them.

You now have the tools you need to create the perfect blog post. Yet, your blog writing is the secret sauce that’s still missing. For one thing, when it comes to content creation, there’s no one size fits all.

As blog post ideation, style, and design continue to evolve, you should also get creative with these templates to keep your readers interested and engaged.

Now that you have learned about the different blog post templates you can use to drive traffic to your blog or website, you can start exploring and driving traffic to your site.

A little something for you…

Because you stayed until the end, I have a little gift for you.

To help you save hours of aimless writing and write the perfect blog every time, here are 6 more blog post templates you can use.

Get your FREE copy of 6 Blog Post Templates from HubSpot below: