How to write a blog post in WordPress so readers and Google know what it is about

A post nobody finds

Take a typical post from a small business blog. A joinery workshop has a blog and publishes a piece called “Our thoughts on wood”. The post has 600 words, one photo and no headings. It opens with the story of how the workshop was founded. The information on which wood to choose for a kitchen worktop appears in the seventh paragraph.

People type “best wood for kitchen worktop” into Google. The post title doesn't contain those words. Nor does the first paragraph. Google has to guess what the text is about, and a reader who lands on the post scrolls and leaves.

The content may be excellent. The problem is the structure.

Anatomy of a post: what it is made of

Every post has several parts. Each does something different and each lives in a different place in WordPress.

How to add a Heading block and change its level is covered in the Heading block documentation. The post title is already the H1 heading, so in the content you start with H2.

The same post before and after

Let's rebuild the joiner's post. The knowledge stays the same, only the order and the names of the parts change.

Before:

• Title: “Our thoughts on wood”
• First paragraph: the workshop's history since 2009
• Headings: none
• Links: none
• Description in Google: the first sentences of the text, cut off halfway

After:

• Title: “Best wood for a kitchen worktop: oak, beech and ash in practice”
• First paragraph: “For kitchen worktops people most often choose oak, beech or ash. Oak is the most durable, beech is cheaper but more sensitive to water…”
• H2: Oak, beech or ash: a comparison
• H2: How to look after a wooden worktop
• H3: Oil or lacquer
• H2: How much a made-to-measure worktop costs
• Links: to the worktops offer and to the post about oiling
• Description in Google: its own, 150 characters, with the phrase and a reason to click

The workshop's history doesn't disappear. It moves to the end of the post or to the About page.

Google explains how titles are built in its guide to title links in search results. In short: descriptive, concise, no list of keywords.

How to write a post in WordPress step by step

1. Write the reader's question in one sentence. “Which wood should I choose for a kitchen worktop?” That question is your phrase.
2. Check you haven't written about it already. If you have, it is better to expand the old post. We explain how in the guide on how to refresh an old post.
3. Plan four to seven H2 headings. Each one answers one sub-question.
4. Write the first paragraph as the answer. Two or three sentences that are enough for someone who reads no further.
5. Fill each part with substance. Your experience, rough prices, photos of your work. Your competitors don't have that.
6. Add two or three links to related posts, pages and products. More in the piece on internal linking in WordPress.
7. Write the title and description for Google in the SEO plugin panel. We explain how in the piece on meta descriptions in WordPress. The Yoast guide to writing a meta description also has good tips.
8. Choose a category, a featured image and a short address. No year in the address if the post is meant to last.
9. Open the preview and read it on a phone. That is where you see whether the paragraphs are too long.

Google describes what it looks for in content in its guidance on creating helpful content. The most important question on that list: does the reader feel, after reading, that they learnt what they came for.

The keyword in a post: how often and where

The phrase should be in the title, in the first paragraph and in one or two headings. After that, write naturally and use variations and synonyms. SEO plugins measure keyphrase density, but their score is only a hint. Text written for the counter reads badly.

How the chat writes a draft post in your WordPress

The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce has a “New blog post” task. Your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) first checks whether a similar post already exists and suggests expanding it instead of creating a duplicate. Then it shows a plan: a title, four to seven H2 headings, the main points and two to four internal links to existing posts, pages or products.