9 Blog Post Templates for SEO, Content Marketing, and PR

Starting a blog and don’t know what content to publish? Or maybe have run out of ideas about what else to write? 

This compilation of the best blog content formats with templates will help you:

Before you start reading, make sure to download the PDF file with all the templates to keep them at hand.

Really quick before you start writing anything

You can skip this part if you know how to make your content satisfy your target audience’s needs and appear higher in search results. 

Do keyword research

A blog post that has no traffic potential is useless in most cases. And why write something that nobody would see and appreciate? That’s why you need keywords that can drive significant traffic to your site. 

Here is the most comprehensive guide on keyword research to help you find these keywords. Remember that your whole content strategy will depend on your keyword pool, so be diligent here.

Grasp the search intent

Once you’ve chosen keywords, you need to understand what a user wants while typing in this or that search query – the intent behind the keyword. It will help you decide on the content type. 

Here is how: Notionally, there are 4 types of search intent – informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional. Each of them correlates with a certain stage of a customer journey. And for each search intent, there are proper content types. 

Thus, informational keywords target the top-of-funnel content (guides, checklists, glossary posts, etc.) and beyond-funnel content (insider tips, product update posts, company news, etc). Commercial and navigational keywords target the middle-of-funnel content (product reviews, product comparisons, and case studies) and transactional bottom-of-funnel content (product reviews and case studies).

Here is a cheat sheet showing how your customer journey is intertwined with your content strategy.

For more detail, read our complete guide on search intent.

Run SERP analysis 

Once you’ve got keywords and understand what your target audience wants, you need to check out your competition. 

Quickly investigate what content types are at the top of the SERP by entering your query in the search bar and scanning the first  search results. Are they mainly listicles, how-to guides, or product pages? Take notes. 

Then go to Rank Tracker’s SERP Analysis Tool to check if you can really compete with others for a place under the sun and what is required for that. 

Download Rank Tracker

Now let’s finally see the templates.

1. Guide

Guides are the most popular type of blog post. It’s these step-by-step tutorials that teach people (to do) something and help them achieve their desired goals. 

To create a GOOD guide, one needs expertise. Or at least a thorough research of the topic. The matter is that you need to instruct readers in such a way that they not only just understand your point but also see the results of following your guide.

Now, let’s look at the structure of this content type: its title, introduction, text body, and conclusion. 

Title

Your guide’s title should always include a target keyword. Mention the issue that exists, the solution you offer, and the result a user will get. Preferably, add the number of steps required. 

The common title patterns are:

Introduction

Don’t go for long introductions. Briefly mention the problem and how your article is going to solve it. It’s also great to mention the target audience to make the introduction more appealing.

As for on-page optimization, include your keyword phrase in the intro naturally.

Body

Body structure will depend on the type of guide you are going to write. If it’s a step-by-step guide, the structure will be simple.

If it’s an ultimate guide on a topic, subheadings may be the following:

Conclusion

Write a brief summary of what was said in the article. It may go as a numbered/bullet list or just your thoughts on the concept described above. 

To engage visitors, encourage them to share their thoughts in the comments.

Features

Examples 

2. Listicle

The second most popular content type is a listicle. It's literally a list of some items: tips, apps, tools, myths, trends, mistakes, things to do, places to go, etc. 

The beauty of this type of content is that it doesn’t require deep knowledge of a subject from a writer. You can create a great viral listicle even without too much digging. 

So, if you suddenly find yourself pressed for time and with no fresh ideas in mind, write a listicle. It always works out well. 

Title

Traditionally, you should include your main keyword in the title. Besides, add the number of items that will be listed. As a rule, the bigger the number, the more catchy your headline is. Just take a look: 3 Blog Templates vs 9 Blog Templates – what would you choose? So, you should opt for a more extensive listicle at least for the sake of a catchier title and so that users get exhaustive information on a topic, of course.

Specifying a year/month to show the relevance of the compilation is also a great idea. Thus, you can attract even more traffic to your page. Compare: Top 5 SEO Tools in 2022 vs Top 5 SEO Tools. 

Common patterns for listicle titles are:

Introduction

Choose the shortest intro over a longer one. People search for lists to get instant gratification. They have no time for wading through some hefty text. 

Don’t forget to add a keyword here, however, it should look natural. 

Body

The structure will be simple: each new item = subheading. However, here you need to maintain consistency across all the points. For example, you can provide a short overview of each item first and then proceed to the details.

Conclusion

Don’t forget to write your concluding words. You may answer the question you asked in the title or intro. For example, if you asked the question “So, what are the best places to go in Atlanta?”, your conclusion can be “There are a dozen amazing places in Atlanta for any budget and taste. Go to A and B if you are an adventure lover and if you are a nature enthusiast, C and D are the places that will win your heart.”

You can also invite users to add more points to your list in the comments. It will make your post more engaging.

Features

Examples

3. Case study

Case studies are a rather specific type of content and extremely efficient in terms of SEO, sales, and PR. They drive traffic and gain backlinks, encourage users to buy, and are a great way to build a brand reputation.

In essence, these are real-life examples that show how these or that results were achieved with the help of your services or your products. They are supposed to “show off” the value of your offer. That’s why case studies are especially beneficial for SEO agencies and individual professionals.

Title 

Usually, content writers title such content in two ways: 

They also say two numbers in a title attract more attention, so use some numbers to denote the results and/or the time it took to achieve them. For example, “How [your client] grew revenue by X% in just X months using [your product/service]”

Introduction

Case studies love a good introduction part (unlike listicles, where you can totally neglect it).

Here, speak in brief about the things that interest your audience: the exact problem that existed, how you decided to cope with it, and your results.

Body 

Conclusion

Write a quick summary and give advice to those who face similar issues. Use a CTA to encourage readers to buy/use your product or service. 

Features 

Examples

4. Product review

A product review is an opinion or/and objective assessment of a product or service. Netizens love searching for this type of post when deciding on what product or service to buy. 

Obviously, you can’t review your own or your competitors’ products. So, usually, it’s always 3rd party reviewers who choose such type of content. 

Title

As a rule, product review titles are all similar in their structure: it’s always an object + the word review, e.g., SEO PowerSuite Tools Review.

You can also add a question or conclusion as well, e.g., SEO PowerSuite Review: Is It Really Worth the Money? or SEO PowerSuite Review: It Is Really Worth the Money.

Introduction

Introduction for product reviews is vital. Describe why and for how long you’ve been using a service or product. Besides that, tell readers what features you are going to expand on in your review. 

Body 

Product review structures are pretty simple and repetitive.

Conclusion

Deliver the verdict. There should be a bottom line of whether you would recommend the product or service. It’s also a good idea to include a pros and cons table to summarize your experience. 

Features

Examples

5. Product comparison

This is the type of blog post where you compare two or more products to find out which one is the best. As a rule, these products or services are of the same category, very close in functionality – in a word, direct competitors. 

You can compare products as a 3rd party independent reviewer. You can also compare your own product with competitors’ (to show off your advantages, of course). 

Title

The most common pattern met across the internet is the following: 

Introduction

Here you need to introduce both subjects of comparison and mention all the aspects you are going to break down: size, color, price, etc.

Body

There will be a more complicated structure as you need to describe and compare not 1 but 2 and more subjects.

You can go several ways: describe one product’s features one by one and then proceed to the second product. There is a variation of this approach: you can also provide reasons why the first product is better and then describe the beneficial features of the second product. Another way is to take one comparison point and compare two products within it.

Conclusion 

In your conclusion, you should recommend which product, service, or company is the best choice for a particular task, outcome, or budget.

Features

Examples

6. Glossary post

By glossary post, I mean a post for a niche-related term and a term related to your product/service exclusively. For example, What is PageRank requires a glossary post, as well as What is inLink Rank.

As a rule, such posts get their own category on a blog or site – a Wiki, FAQ, Glossary, or whatever you call it. 

Glossary posts are loved by brands as they drive a lot of beginners to their sites, so it's a great way to collect the top-of-funnel traffic. 

Title

There is a common title pattern for glossary posts, which is quite simple:

However, you can make it more descriptive, depending on what aspects you cover in your post: 

Introduction

Go for a short intro that tells users what aspects you are going to disclose in your post. There is no need for a long detailed introduction.

Body

You should describe all the basics without making the post too long. It’s a definition post, not an ultimate guide. The structure is free here, there is no single pattern for that. For each niche, it may be specific though.

Possible headings:

Conclusion

Sum up the important information given in a text and add a CTA. Just like with an introduction, there is no need to write long conclusions.

Features

Examples

7. Expert roundup

An expert roundup post features several experts’ citations on a topic. 

It’s one of the most interesting content types on the web. Expert roundups help you establish relationships with big names in the industry, promoting your own name. Plus, these experts will provide you with pieces of ready-made text, which you later need to shape into a beautiful post. That will save a bit of time for more important tasks. 

Note that you can either reach out to the selected experts directly or take their quotes from their already published materials and social media. 

Title 

Usually, expert roundups are titled in one of the following ways:

There are always words like experts, doctors, engineers – any professionals related to your topic. 

Introduction

You tell a bit about the subject matter and then mention the experts that shared their knowledge specially for this article.

Body 

Again, only your imagination is the limit when it comes to your post structure. The most frequently used ones are to put quotes within your context or to base your points on their words.

Conclusion

Write a brief conclusion and point to another resource – some related articles or a newsletter subscription form. The matter is that expert roundup posts get shared a lot on social media, they’ll often be read by people who don’t know you yet. What you need is to push them deeper into your funnel.

Features

Examples

8. Company news 

Company news is like a press release, but for your own blog or category on a site. It’s less strict, and not so formal – you tell what’s new in your company and how it will change the lives of your users. Thus, on the one hand, you talk about yourself but on the other hand, you highlight how you can benefit users even more.

If it’s a new business partnership or integration or anything you would like people to know about, it belongs to the News section of your blog. You can also find such posts placed in a separate subsection Newsroom/News.

Title

There is no specific pattern you should follow as it always will be something different. But you can check out some examples:

Introduction

Briefly, tell users what you are going to disclose in the post and engage users to read it. 

Body

Conclusion

Draw a quick conclusion. Also, you can ask readers to stay tuned. 

Features

Examples

9. Product update announcement 

Product updates are almost always the result of users’ requests. So, when companies improve their products, they need to announce that. This way, a company can say, “We care and we try to be better for you”. 

So, in a product update post, you need to tell users how this or that update makes your customer’s life easier, and what problems it solves. And not that you are so cool and hardworking – no. 

Title

Make your title clear. Use the signal words new, introduce, meet, announce, etc.

Introduction

Write a couple of sentences about the problem that existed and that you can now solve it with this or that new feature. Tell users what you hope to accomplish with it.

Body

Conclusion

Instead of a conclusion, write a strong CTA to push readers to try out this new feature. Also, offer to contact customer support for troubleshooting or if any questions arise. 

Features

Examples

Why do you need to use them all?

The great thing about having a wide variety of content types on your blog is that it gives you lots of different ways to address readers. 

It also provides you with a chance to target a large range of keywords in your niche, improving your blog’s SEO and thus ranking higher on Google. Let alone it’s your opportunity to improve your brand authority. 

Now, tell us what content you prefer. Do you have suggestions on what other types of content should have been included in this list? Feel free to share your thoughts in our Facebook community and on social media. We are always happy to hear from you.