Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
If you want to rank well in the search engines and actually drive lots of traffic to your blog, you need to structure your content properly.
I can’t tell people this enough times because most of them never listen. You can’t just randomly post content about your niche followed by two random posts about what you had for lunch and how you felt ill after.
You must follow a strict blog content structure and once established you must stick with it. If you want visitors to stick around on your blog or even join your email list – you must learn to structure your content. Here is how:
In this guide
1. Decide On Categories And Stick To Them
Properly structuring your blog content is vital. You can’t just randomly write about whatever you feel like. You need to create an initial set of 3-5 categories and write 5-10 posts for each one before you think about writing anything else. Why?
You’ll increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site. The majority of your visitors don’t just want to read a single post. Most visitors who visit your blog do so because they’re looking for LOTS of information on one subject i.e., a category.
The idea is to create a wealth of information on each category you choose. From A-Z, you need to cover everything from the basics to advanced ninja stuff. For example, if you have a category for “SEO” you might start by targeting the keyword “what is SEO” and writing a post about it.
I know for a fact that “what is SEO” gets a ton of searches every month. So, when visitors arrive on your blog post after searching the term “what is SEO” and read your great article – the chances are they’ll want to know more. From there, they might want to learn the other basics like “what are backlinks” and “On-page search engine optimization”.
If those follow-up posts aren’t there, you’re going to lose out on traffic and subscribers. It generally takes 2-3 page views to seal the deal with a visitor. I’ve found that 90% of my blog subscribers are the people who initially viewed 3-5 blog posts. So, create a wealth of information in each category to fulfill your visitors’ every need. Creating categories like this is also great for developing an internal linking structure, which improves your overall SEO.
2. Create A Resource Page For Each Category
Every category on your blog should have its own resource page. Let’s face it, category pages are boring, and until they’re completely customizable, you need to create resource pages. A resource page is just a page that structures your category’s content in the right order.
Category pages don’t structure your posts properly; they order them by post date. Let’s take SEO again. If a brand-new visitor lands on your SEO category looking to learn SEO from top to bottom, they’re going to have to wade through all your recent posts to get to the basics.
Each resource page should briefly talk about its category, how important it is, what readers will learn, and finally list the blog posts in order from A-Z (not alphabetically).
Let’s take the SEO example. Your resource page could start with a few paragraphs of information on the importance of SEO. You could then have sub-headlines and a few paragraphs for each one followed by links to the blog posts.
The sub-headlines could be: basic SEO, intermediate SEO, advanced SEO, and veteran SEO. Under each sub-headline, you could have a few paragraphs of info followed by links to the posts.
The idea is to create an amazing resource page that structures your category’s content in an appropriate order so visitors can educate themselves on an entire subject from A-Z. Keep in mind, you can and should only create these resource pages once you have written 10-30 posts for the category.
Resource pages are also great link bait! If done right, you’ll have people linking to them left, right, and center. If you’re building a list, it’s a good idea to place a custom opt-in form somewhere in each resource page. Doing so will allow you to build sub-niche specific email lists if you use your imagination.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions in the box below.
Comments
John W.
This is some great advice! I’ve been struggling with my blog structure for a while, and this really helps. Thanks, David!
Alice K.
Thank you for this post. I hadn’t thought about creating resource pages, but it makes total sense. I’m definitely going to start working on this for my blog.
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I’m not sure if creating so many posts in the same category is the best approach. Won’t that overwhelm readers with too much information on one topic?
Leila P.
I really appreciate the insights shared in this post! It’s always inspiring to see how you break down content structuring. Keep it up, David!
Ronald M.
It’s hard to believe that structuring content can make such a huge difference in SEO. Do you have any data or case studies that show this actually working? I’d love to see some evidence.
Kara D.
I’ve been blogging for a while now, but this concept of resource pages is new to me. How do you decide what to include in each section? I’m thinking of trying it out!
Steven H.
While I appreciate the tips, I think there’s more to consider when structuring blog content. What about more spontaneous, trend-driven posts that don’t fit neatly into categories?
Daniela F.
Hey, David! Great post as always. It’s been a while—how have you been? We should catch up sometime. Loving the new content, by the way!
Marco G.
This reminds me of a similar issue I had when I started blogging. I didn’t organize my content, and it was all over the place. This structure definitely would have helped back then!
Hannah L.
I recently discovered a tool called ContentCal that helps plan and structure blog content. You might want to check it out—it’s been super helpful for me!
Sophie W.
I’ve learned a lot from this post. It’s given me a clear direction on how to better structure my blog for SEO and user engagement. Thanks for sharing!
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In Izmir, the search volume for something like “what is SEO” in Turkish is nowhere near what David describes for English, so I am wondering whether the rule of five to ten posts per category still holds when the actual keyword pool is much smaller to begin with. Perhaps the category simply needs to be broader before there is enough to write ten posts about.
Elif, from the company-training side, the category-first structure mirrors exactly how we built onboarding content for new reps, broad topics get subdivided once there’s proven demand, not before. Your instinct is right that the ratio matters more than the absolute count of ten. A smaller market just needs a correspondingly smaller category before the resource page makes sense. The logic scales down, it doesn’t break.
Ten posts before you’re “allowed” to write anything else is a lot of runway. I write maybe forty-five minutes a day. That’s a couple months to unlock the resource page.