Category Archives: Content Writing

The Road to Better Content Writing: A Content Audit

Content marketing strategists insist on the quality and novelty of content – which isn’t a bad thing at all; after all, this is what search engines prefer. It’s an uphill journey if you are new on the market, but if you have been around for some time, then you need to look bad at what you’ve done so far in terms of content.

Content audit: why and how

This is where a content audit comes into the picture. It’s good to know where you are standing before making any changes to your strategy. Did your existing content bring enough traffic? Did it convert well enough? A professional audit will consider all factors involved and reveal to you how your content has been performing up to the given point. The best practice is to schedule a content audit each year if you want your strategies to be successful. However, this is largely influenced by how much content you’re adding to your website and how frequently. It may therefore be a more or less laborious task. What is even more important is to schedule one right before anything else – it is an assessment of all your posted content. Do this before content writers begin to work on more material.

The effects of an audit

A content audit can get you to reconsider old content and refresh or repurpose it. Moreover, you will preserve good tactics and change what hasn’t worked. Audit results are used to identify any gaps there may be. It can certainly lead to a better understanding of the available solutions. Your writers will know what to focus on and how to create content that works. In addition, you will see which pages are indexed by Google, what is in place and what is missing in terms of SEO elements, what your URL authority is. An audit can get you to stop spending money on tactics that don’t work and also save more as you reuse existing content. A content audit can ease your maintenance efforts, improve the SEO and enhance the user’s experience.

All in all it will render a marketing strategy more efficient and allow you to make tweaks to the budget.

How to use it to your advantage

A professional will conduct a content audit based on a series of strict rules and tools. You may then consider certain aspects and parameters, to be used in shaping better strategies.

Identify the URLs that drive more traffic,
Find out what is being shared the most and provide more of that,
See what content type and word count yields better results and use it more,
Find the pages that generate more user engagement,
Begin to revise content, now that you’re armed with relevant data.

Make sure to get recommendations so you can adjust your strategy, including audit frequency. A content audit is different from a SEO audit but encompasses more, including SEO related elements of high relevancy. Use the data you acquire to create content that is better in terms of word count, approach, tone, information contained, shape, linking, optimization and so on.

How to Overcome Content Writing Block and Write more

Speak to any expert about what you need to become more successful online today, and the chances are that one of the first things you will hear is “more content”. Adding interesting and valuable content to your website can be incredibly difficult, as many people feel as though their service or product may not be interesting enough to gather enough readers. However, a bigger problem than this is coming up with fresh and engaging material on a regular basis. If you’re struggling to come up with enough ideas to improve your SEO marketing, then the following advice could be useful to you.

1.) Develop a Q&A or FAQ section

This is probably the best option available when you’re struggling for things to write about, as it gives you direct access to the things that your specific target audience is most interested in hearing about, or learning more about. There are plenty of customers or potential clients out there that will have questions to ask, and finding ways to answer those questions in a helpful and creative manner provides you with instant content.

Add a simple form into your website and give people the opportunity to send you their questions, then write a short post or article about each one. Another benefit of this is that your audience gets to see first-hand just how knowledgeable you are about your product, business or industry. As a result, they are far more likely to trust you with their money.

2.) Transcribe your Podcasts and Videos

Another way to develop new content for your website is to transcribe the podcasts and videos that you and your team have made in the past. You can then post these transcriptions within certain sections of your site as article, or even place them on the same pages as the podcasts and videos they are about. Even if you do mini training sessions internally, you could record those and have them transcribed too.

3.) Give your Business a Human Edge

One of the best things that you can do for your company is remind people that there are human beings working behind it. People are far more inclined to trust a person over a nameless, faceless corporation. Humanizing your business means talking about the various aspects involved in it. This could include:

Talking about the most embarrassing things to happen to your company
Talking about how you have overcome issues
Discussing your aims and concerns

On the other hand, you may sometimes find it useful to take about what’s actually going right in your industry, and how you feel that will impact the future of the world around you. Don’t be afraid to get passionate about what you’re doing, and let your audience have the occasional peek behind the curtain.

Remember it’s Going to be Hard Work

One important thing to remember about this process as you are searching for new ways to inspire yourself into further content is that it’s always going to be tough. Content writing is hard work and it requires a great deal of time, dedication and personal growth to get it right.

Tips on Writing an Effective Content

When users visit your site, they have a certain picture in mind of the kind of contents they are looking for. In order to keep these users on your site – and returning – you need to provide them with effective and valuable articles and contents. Many site owners are often daunted by the thought of writing high quality contents, but the task is actually not so difficult to complete.

Help Users Remember Your Content

One of the first things you need to keep in mind when writing your site’s content is to help users keep the content in mind. Use pointers, H1 and subheadings as well as other web elements to make the article more memorable. You can also attach suitable pictures, diagrams and charts to simplify the information.

Make Your Content Scan-able

When users first visit your site, they don’t normally read the content right away. What users love to do is scan through the site – or the article – for information. To lower your bounce rate, the articles you post must be informational even when users only scan them.

You can use bold, italic and coloured text to help strengthen key information in the articles. Similar to helping users remember, you can also use lists and titles to achieve the same thing.

Make the Article Practical

The most popular type of contents on the internet is practical guides. By helping users complete a specific task, you are providing them with valuable information. Instead of writing a long article about a topic, keep the article short and information-packed.

Keep the Articles Relevant

There are two things you need to keep in mind when writing articles that are relevant: the main theme of your blog or website and the latest trends. You need to align the contents you are sharing with these two sides of the content writing coin.

Following the latest trends will help you gain more traffic as well. Paired with high quality content and good web design, you can actually retain more visitors and increase your site’s traffic gradually.

Write for Your Audience

This is probably one of the most important things to do when writing web contents: write for your audience. The kind of language, writing style and overall delivery you use must be in alignment with how your audience see and read articles. If you are writing for a serious audience, for instance, using slangs and informal delivery may not be suitable.

Watch Your Keyword Density

Search engines are moving away from keyword-packed articles and currently valuing good, well-written articles more. Instead of trying to pack as many keywords as possible to an article, write a short article that your users can actually read and benefit from. The SEO-side of your content marketing strategy will take care of itself.

Stay on Topic and Have a Point

When writing an article, stay on topic and produce a point at the end of it. The point – or a conclusion – will provide that satisfied feel to your users, making them return for more articles and spend more time on your site.

Tips for Writing Engaging and Effective Website Content

When it comes to producing amazing content, the primary thing to know is what your readers want to read about. It’s no good putting paragraphs or pages of information out there that nobody is interested in, as that way all you’re going to get is a couple of dismissive glances at best. Writing for a content writer should not just be a way of generating a good source of income, it should also be a passion and a form of art that they feel blessed to be a part of. The best content writers you can find will be the people who absolutely love what they’re doing, and happy writers make for amazing texts.

Tip One: Use the Right Words

Sometimes, writers get so caught up in meeting their preferred word count that they forget about what really matters: Quality. If you can use a word to describe something instead of a convoluted phrase, do it, and try not to overwhelm your readers by explaining the same issue repeatedly, as this can get irritating very quickly. Remember, you should have a good balance of both quality, and quantity, not just one or the other.

Tip Two: Say ‘Your’ instead of ‘Our’

You’re going to get a better reaction from your audience if you seem as though you are talking to them from a faraway place. Seems strange, but if you’re talking about a particular topic, your readers want to believe that you have a specific expertise in that area. However, by no means should you make your readers feel like they are less important than you.

Tip Three: Don’t be ‘too’ serious

Depending on the topic that you’re covering, you can always try to add a little bit of light humor into your content to make it all the more engaging. However, there are a few things you need to remember if you’re going to attempt comedy:

Make sure that it’s natural (not forced)
Make sure that it’s relevant
Make sure that it is not offensive in any way.

Your readers deserve a little smile every now and again, so give them a reason to giggle if you can.

Tip Four: Add A Little Mystery

You don’t have to give your entire article away within the first one hundred words. If you can, try leaving a question to linger in the area throughout your first couple of paragraphs, without simply being evasive. Excite your readers and make sure they want to continue reading to found out more on the subject you’re writing on. If you were writing a novel, you’d need your readers to keep turning the page, one after another, and the same thing should apply to online content, although it usually comes in a much more succinct format. Link your readers from one paragraph to the next with mystery and intrigue, and at the end of your article, try to leave them wanting more, without making them feel like their main question hasn’t been answered.

How to Recognize a Good Quality Content Writer

Any website is made up of three made components. The place that hosts the website, or its URL, the graphics and design that go into creating the pages of the site, and the content. Although aesthetics are important for a high quality website if you want to catch your customers’ eye and keep them interested in the information that you have to offer, nothing is more crucial than good content. Google has stated that if individuals provide quality content on their website, then the people who read their information will value them, leading to more link backs and sharing. In simple terms, if your audience likes what you’re saying, then they’re going to help you find an even larger audience. However, managing your own content can become a little overwhelming when you have an entire business to manage and run, so a lot of people turn to content writing professionals for help. However, it can be difficult to split the professionals, from the people who really aren’t worth the money.

Make sure your Writer Cares about what they’re doing

Perhaps the most important thing to make sure your content writing candidate has, is passion. In order to produce amazing work, your content writers need to truly enjoy what they’re doing, they should be inspired to produce fantastic content, and this will translate onto your website pages. When you’re trying to connect to an audience, there’s nothing worse than a writer who just gives you the bare minimum, or a selection of dry facts that have no voice or personality behind them. Make sure that you find a content writer who your audience will be able to connect with. After all, content marketing is about building the image of your brand and giving your audience a sense of personality that they can create a relationship with.

Make sure your Writer does their research

The unfortunate truth is that when you hire a content writer, they may be pretty well educated, but they’re not going to know absolutely everything about absolutely every subject. Rather, your writers should be prepared to look for the information they don’t already have and provide you with informative and more importantly, accurate, content. Make sure that any content writer you consider hiring is willing to:

Check the facts they’re supplying you with
Look up information about the topic they’re writing on
Re-do any work that you don’t feel is up to scratch.

A writer shouldn’t be expected to know everything, but they should be expected to take the time and search for more knowledge on the things that they don’t know. You should never have to accept half-done articles or shifty statistics that may or may not be correct. If your content writers are giving you data to present as fact, then make sure those facts are solid, and reliable. After all, you don’t have the time to go around checking every piece of content to ensure that you’re giving out the right information.

Understanding the 4 Different Types of Content Writing Today

These days, anyone who is realistically looking into setting up his or her business online is bound to come across the term ‘content writing’ at one point or another. In the simplest of terms, content writing can be defined as the creation of written text in a variety of different forms, such as:

Articles
Forums
Blogs
News Updates
Reviews

Generally speaking, the term ‘content writing’ could easily apply to all types of writing on the internet. However, as many online entrepreneurs will recognize, everything in the world of business has multiple facets, types and categories, and content is no different. A five hundred word piece of content on any single subject could be written in hundreds of different ways, and only one or two types of content writing will be relevant for the specific purpose or goal you are trying to achieve. Many people who do not realise this make the mistake of using the incorrect content in particular places, and by doing this, they miss out on the success that they could otherwise be generating.

Ghost Writing

One particular type of content writing called ‘Ghost Writing’ is the situation wherein content is written by one particular person, but is used by another person under his or her own name. Often, in the internet marketing world, you can find many writing services that offer SEO articles under the category of ghost writing. The client can then take the SEO articles and subsequently post them on other people’s blogs, in directories or even in his or her own blog.

Web Content Writing

Web content writing or marketing content is a descriptive piece of text based on the idea of advertising or selling a service or product. Often, you will see plenty of examples of this kind of content on websites where the purpose or business of that website needs to be explained and advertised to the general population. Often, the objective of this particular style of writing is to draw visitors to the business domain through search engine results, but also to ensure that the visitor is encouraged towards a desired action, such as buying a product or hiring a service.

Press Release Writing

Once, in traditional terms, press releases were used within businesses to make customers more aware of the updates and developments taking place within a particular industry or company. Press releases were used to announce the arrival of a new and improved product or department, the expansion of the business, new mergers, important business events that were taking place and new marketing deals. However, in the modern media of today, the term ‘press release’ can be regarded somewhat differently, even though some businesses still commit themselves to following the original format. Press release in new, and digital media are often used as a form of sales pitch by medium or small organizations, allowing them to act as part of the sales-central or marketing areas of content.

Technical Writing

Technical writing is the type of content that is often restricted to particular complex or complicated industries and technical concepts. The purpose of this kind of writing is to attempt to simplify or convey a complicated idea to the general public, whether they are from the same industry or not. A good example of technical writing in everyday life would be if you were to see scientific evidence or content being written and exposed to mainstream media, allowing information that would otherwise require expertise and advanced knowledge to be recognized and understood by the common man.

Although these examples display some of the forms that content writing can take on the internet today, there are constantly new and evolving forms of content to see.

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