It’s perfectly possible to write a great listicle about… well, pretty much anything. In this post, you’ll learn how to do just that. What is a listicle? Why do people like listicles? How to write a good listicle Examples of listicles done well What is a listicle? Listicles, otherwise known as list-posts, are articles structured around lists. Usually, they expand on each list item with additional information to make them more useful for readers. Why do people like listicles? Here are just a few reasons: Easy to skim because each subheading usually corresponds to a list item.
Easy to digest because
They’re broken into bitesize chunks by definition. Easy to gauge because you always know how much is left from the number in the title. Is that an exhaustive list of reasons? No, but we can’t list them all. Check out this post by Smithsonian Magazine if you’re curious about other reasons for their popularity. How to write a listicle Writing a listicle is easy. Just open a blank document, list a bunch of things and you’ve got a listicle. But writing a listicle that drives traffic and that people actually want to read is a bit more complicated. Here’s how to do it: Choose a topic Ensure it makes sense Decide on length Choose a format Choose a winning angle Brainstorm list points Expand on your ideas Flesh out each point.
Illustrate your points Wrap
Choose a topic If you want your listicle to drive traffic from search engines, you need to choose a topic that people are searching for. Because keywords typically represent topics, you can do this with a good keyword research tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Just search for a broad topic, then go to the Phrase Match report where you’ll see keyword ideas sorted by their monthly search volumes. Not every topic is suitable for a listicle format. That’s pretty obvious for some topics, like “how to tie a tie.” You can tell from the query that people are looking for a step-by-step process, not a listicle with lots of different methods. But things aren’t always so obvious.
Take a topic like “seo expert.” It’s not clear whether people want a step-by-step guide, a list of tips, or something else. You can figure this out by looking at the top-ranking results in Google. Because Google’s business model relies on them delivering relevant search results, the top results are a great proxy for what searchers want to see. Generally speaking, the number of items on your list should roughly match the number of list items you see among top-ranking pages. After all, if they’re all well into the double or triple digits, then a list of five items probably isn’t what searchers are looking for.
