You’ve probably seen checklist blog posts before. They are often the most popular posts on websites like Buzzfeed, and they’re pretty easy to write once you know what you need to cover. If you want to create your own checklist blog post but aren’t sure how this is the article for you! We’ll go over everything from research needed to formatting tips – all of which will help keep readers engaged throughout your post.
What is a checklist post?
A checklist blog post is a bit like a how-to blog post but takes a more step-by-step approach. How-to articles can include instructions in a 1-2-3 format but other times, they might explore different ways to do something. With a checklist, you could almost print the blog post and tick the items off as you go.
Checklist blog posts are popular in niches such as fashion, food and beauty. They are also popular on sites like Buzzfeed where they can be used to complete a certain look or recipe.
The checklist blog post is the ultimate guide for how to do something – with all of the steps laid out in an easy-to-follow format.
What should you include?
A checklist blog obviously needs to have a checklist or step-by-step process in it. But you do want to add some context before this.
You might want to start with why you would do the thing you are teaching. For example, if you were teaching someone how to embed a YouTube video to their blog, you might start by explaining that this is better for site speed than having the video play in the post.
You might also want to give a bit of information about any tools, equipment, supplies or software required. This is especially important if there’s something that isn’t quite as common.
For example, in a jewellery tutorial, most people will know what flat-nose pliers are but might not know what a crimping tool is. Plus this is a good chance to get those affiliate links in for the products to help people find them easily.
How to format a checklist blog post
Formatting a checklist post should focus on formatting the list of tasks in the checklist.
- All items should be lined up on a line, regardless if they are labelled or not
- Tasks with labels should have an asterisk (*) next to them and those without should still have a bullet point (or dash (-)) so that readers can easily identify what is a priority when they are following the process
- The start of the checklist should state what it is for
- All items in the checklist need to be numbered so that people can follow them easily
- If you have more than five tasks, consider breaking up your list into multiple checklists within one blog post or splitting off a second blog post entirely.
What SEO factors do you need to think about?
Checklist blog posts are similar to other types of posts when it comes to good basic on-page SEO. So remember to use your keyword and other related keywords in the post’s headline, sub-headlines, title tags, meta descriptions etc.
But checklist blog posts also require a detailed table of contents (TOC) which is an outline with numbered headings. This will help you create links to each section which boosts SEO because people can click on those links from search results and increase the chance of getting traffic.
Creating a useful resource
The aim of a checklist post is always to create a useful resource. Whether it is a simple five-step checklist or a multi-level list with various sub-tasks to complete, the aim is always to make it easy to follow and helpful for the person following the steps. That will also make it more likely to rank on SERPs as well.
If you have found this useful, don’t forget to check out more of our how-to guides here.
