When you’re in a crowded conference room, there are usually two types of introductions. You might be wandering about and see someone you greatly admire. You pluck up the courage to approach them and introduce yourself with a statement like, “I love your recent book on marketing, especially your thoughts on the future of AI in marketing.”
Then you wait. The other person may strike up a conversation or respond politely and move on.
Another type of introduction is when a mutual friend introduces you to someone they already know. These are truly valuable introductions because the other person is much more likely to respond favorably, thanks to the reputation your mutual friend built with them already.
Link building is much like networking, except instead of a crowded conference room, you’re wandering the world wide web. External and internal links for SEO connect you to other sites, growing your network and reputation based on the linking website’s established reputation.
While link building can create valuable networks and boost your ranking, unethical practices can cause your ranking to plummet.
Traditionally, marketers refer to these SEO strategies as white hat link building and black hat link building.
What Is Link Building?
Link building practices create a network of SEO links pointing to your website. These links are like introductions from friends. They can build bridges to bring traffic to your website, and they recommend you go to Google.
When another site links to your site, they give their stamp of approval for your brand and content. If that site is already well-established and an authority brand, you can benefit from that site’s authority.
Think of it like shopping for toothpaste. You have generic brand toothpaste that blends in with the competing brands. However, you also have toothpaste with stamps that say “Recommended by dentists.” Because you trust your dentist, you trust their recommendation and may be more inclined to trust that brand.
In the same way, when brands link to your site, readers and Google see it as their recommendation stamp on your site.
The more links you generate from outside sources, the more Google will see you as an authority. Quality links can increase your search visibility by as much as 534%. When you establish yourself as an authority in Google, you are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages, generating more traffic.
SEO link building is just one of several factors Google’s algorithm uses in ranking. It is also one of the most critical factors for building authority and trust with Google and your readers.
Because link building plays a crucial role in ranking, content creators are always trying to crack the code. This often leads to unethical marketing practices that generate more links, but hurt the site in the long run.
Traditionally, marketers define ethical and unethical link-building as white hat and black hat practices.
When you watch an old-time cowboy movie, you can always identify the good and bad guys by the color of their hat. The good guys always wear white hats, while the bad guys tend to wear black hats. No one knows if this is the true source of the terms, but it’s a fun way to remember the phrases.
Today, marketers are starting to move away from those terms and simply refer to white hat link building as ethical SEO and black hat link building as unethical SEO.
While we are about to cover some of the best ethical backlink practices, you should first understand some of the unethical practices to avoid at all costs.
Buying Links
This practice has existed since the beginning of search engine optimization, when links started playing a role in ranking. Content creators realized they didn’t need to wait for others to link to them. They could simply purchase fake spam links and automatically jump in ranking.
That didn’t last long before Google penalized spam links while rewarding high-authority links. If you do this practice today, you can easily find yourself cut from Google search rankings.
Joining a Private Blog Network
A private blog network is a connected group of websites or blogs that all agree to link to each other. Websites do not always offer valuable content. Instead, they exist only to link to other blogs and increase authority. Google might not always identify private blog networks, but if the algorithm suspects you are requesting or purchasing links rather than earning them, it will penalize your search engine ranking.
Using Unnatural Link Profiles
Google looks for patterns when analyzing websites for authenticity. Websites with unnatural patterns often signal unethical practices.
A natural link profile will be varied since each person linking will have unique content. However, if you pay for links or create all your links yourself, your anchor text tends to sound similar, or most of the links come from the same place, signaling that all the links were not naturally generated but created to boost your brand authority.
If you do want to link to your own site from third-party sources, be sure to create a variety of link sources and anchor text.
Gray Hat Link Building
Not all link-building practices are black and white. Occasionally, you’ll stumble upon gray areas. For example, link swaps are considered a gray hat method.
You aren’t purchasing links in link swaps, so it doesn’t fall entirely under black hat practices. However, you also aren’t earning those links since you are making a trade, which isn’t entirely ethical either.
While gray hat practices are easy to ignore and continue using, we highly recommend not using these methods. Even if Google doesn’t penalize them yet, it may catch up one day. To be prepared for that day, always focus on the most ethical practices.
5 White Hat Link Building Best Practices
Switch out unethical link-building practices for these five ethical, white-hat link-building strategies for your SEO content.
1. Target High Authority Sites
When creating a link-building strategy, you want to focus on generating links from high-authority websites. While all backlinks can be beneficial, those high-authority blogs will have the most significant impact.
You can begin by linking to those high authority sites in hopes that they might reciprocate with links to your site. You can also offer to guest post on their site or introduce yourself, especially if the site often does top product or service lineups that you could be featured in.
Image from SEMrush
2. Use NoFollow Links Strategically
NoFollow links are links to your site that Google doesn’t count toward your site authority. These tags help weed out links that aren’t beneficial or quality.
You can use NoFollow linking to avoid being penalized by Google for unethical links. For example, social media links are often NoFollow links, allowing you to link frequently to your website to drive traffic without negatively impacting your brand authority.
3. Create Content Worth Sharing
The most effective way to generate links is by creating content worth linking to. If you have original research, unique ideas, and share-worthy snippets, others are likelier to add a link to your content or cite your data.
Quality content not only attracts backlinks but also increases your Google ranking.
4. Link Back to Your Page
While waiting for others to link to your website, you can create your own links.
Linking to your website on third-party sites can easily cross into gray link-building practices, so be careful with how you add those links. Links that you add just for link building are not ethical. Those links don’t add value to the third-party site but are only for your personal benefit.
Instead, use links in your content where they add value to the site—for example, linking to statistics you published on your home site.
You will also want to diversify your links. A natural link pattern has a balance of follow and nofollow links and comes from different content formats.
Image from SEMrush
5. Diversify Your Links
Not all your links have to be used to generate authority with Google. You can create links to increase traffic. That increased traffic, in turn, will help boost your authority.
Some places you can add links back to your site that may not help with authority but will increase your traffic include:
Blog comments on other websites
Social media profiles
Directories
Google My Business page
Build a Quality SEO Link Profile That Will Bring in Consistent Traffic
Backlinks are a crucial part of creating SEO-optimized content. At Express Writers, we create content with value-packed internal and external links that contribute to your link-building strategy.
Contact us to place an order for SEO-optimized content to start link building today.
In the race to build a formidable online presence, most businesses have their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts down pat. They employ efficient SEO strategies to secure a coveted position on Google’s front page.
But getting to the top of the search results is only half the battle. You still must convince prospects to click through to your website. How do you make your website stand out in a sea of sameness, given that everyone is giving it their best?
That’s what makes compelling meta descriptions a game-changer.
When properly executed, these one to two-sentence snippets can skyrocket your click-through rates (CRTs) and drastically grow your sales. Dig in and learn how to leverage the power of meta description for your business.
What is a Meta Description?
A meta description is a descriptive summary of your web page. It appears as a snippet below your page title and URL on the search results pages.
A properly written meta description informs the reader what the page is about and entices them to open the web page. Simply put, a laser-targeted meta description that’s optimized to perfection gives the reader a reason to pick your website.
As such, it helps to match your meta description to the search intent. Consider these snippets an elevator pitch. They should be compelling enough that people make the split-second decision to visit your website.
Is Meta Description Important for SEO?
Meta descriptions are essential for SEO but not in the traditional sense. For starters, search engines don’t consider them a ranking factor — at least directly.
Failing to include a meta description may not hurt your chances of getting to the front page of Google. But it may affect your chances of topping the search results page.
Google considers user behavior when ranking pages on the SERPs. If more people are clicking on your website, the search engine will reward your pages with higher rankings.
That’s because high click-through rates send a clear signal that readers value your content and find it helpful. Google is constantly tweaking its algorithms to match web users with the content that best suits their needs.
The search engines may bolden the keywords and other relevant information matching the search query in the meta descriptions. That helps readers click on the website that best meets their needs, growing your CRT.
In the latest update, dubbed Helpful Content Update (HCU), Google rewarded websites that met its trust signals with higher rankings while removing those that didn’t from the SERPS.
Does Google Rewrite Meta Descriptions?
Yes, Google rewrites meta descriptions—but only 70% of the time. Essentially, meta descriptions are merely suggestions. Google may auto-generate snippets based on the information on the page or user queries.
So why bother writing meta descriptions at all? Google generally rewrites meta descriptions if it believes they don’t satisfy the searcher’s intent. But that’s because you can’t possibly address all the angles surrounding a keyword — so it’s a good thing, too.
Still, Google is unlikely to rewrite the snippets for your high-volume keywords. Google will likely show your compelling and perfectly structured meta description for the most profitable keywords.
Therefore, writing excellent snippets for your highest-volume keywords gives you an edge. The compelling descriptions will appear as you wrote them and galvanize prospects into action.
How to Write Compelling Meta Descriptions
To the uninitiated, writing compelling meta descriptions can seem daunting. These tips can help you level up your snippets and grow your click-through rates.
Consider Your Audience
By the time you’re creating a blog post, you have incredible insights into your target audience. An accurate buyer persona helps you understand their needs, what makes them tick, and why.
Use this knowledge to create great meta descriptions that compel them to click on your title tags.
Ideally, your tags should clarify one thing — what that customer stands to gain by clicking through to your website.
Use Compelling, Benefit-Driven Copy
Always lead with the benefits when writing meta descriptions. Make it clear from the get-go how the reader stands to benefit by visiting your website.
Painful as it may sound, customers don’t really care about your brand. But they care about what your brand or products can do to make their lives easier, better, safer, or secure.
Naturally, the benefit depends on the problem and the keyword you’re addressing on the page. For instance, at Express Writers, we help clients crush their content marketing needs quickly and effortlessly. We make it abundantly clear on our home page.
The meta description also reflects this:
“Looking for high-quality content writing services? Look no further than Express Writers! Our team of skilled writers delivers engaging, SEO-friendly content…”
Keep Under 155 Characters
Meta descriptions are quintessentially elevator pitches. As such, you should keep them short and sweet. While there’s no technical limit when writing HTML meta descriptions, the sweet spot is under 155 characters.
Google usually truncates snippets based on the display space available across multiple devices. That’s about 105 characters on mobile and 152 on desktop.
An effective meta description leads with benefits to grab the reader’s attention. Keeping it under 155 characters keeps essential information from getting cut off.
Include the Target Keyword
It may seem counter-intuitive to include your target keyword since Google doesn’t use meta descriptions as a ranking factor. But having your primary keyword in the snippets pays off in droves.
Google often bolds the search phrases that effectively address the search queries to help them stand out in the search results. Pages with boldened keywords have higher click-through rates and can effortlessly boost your website traffic.
The bolding shows that your page explicitly addresses the prospect’s needs. It may, at least in the reader’s mind, double as Google’s seal of approval.
Write a Unique Meta Description for Each Page
You’re better off writing unique meta descriptions for each page on your website. In comparison, generic, duplicate meta descriptions are easy and convenient but can harm your CTR.
Unlike the generic version, laser-targeted snippets communicate value and earn Google’s trust signals to skyrocket your web traffic.
Writing a custom snippet can seem daunting when you have a large website, but it’s worth the effort. Apple has polished this approach into an art form.
When you use specific search phrases, such as buy iPhone, Apple uses the search intent to turn the meta description into a mini-sales page. The snippet entices you to learn about payment options, trade-ins, and carrier offers.
On the flip side, if you use a search phrase such as “Compare iPhones,” Apple understands that you need more information. The snippet lets you know that you can easily compare the features of the latest iPhone models on the page.
Writing a meta description for every page on your website lets you address search intent and reassure prospects that you have what they’re looking for.
Include a Call to Action
A meta description isn’t complete without a call to action (CTA). It’s not enough to tell a web user that you’ve got what they need — you need to tell them what they should do next. Direct them to visit your website — without using generic words such as click here.
Including CTAs in your meta description gets you more clicks. CTAs encourage people to take action.
By writing a custom snippet for every page on your website, you can match the primary keyword to the search intent. And also tailor the CTA to suit the readers’ needs.
Naturally, the CTA to use depends on the page’s content — blog posts will have different CTAs than product pages. With practice, you can perfect the art of writing concise and engaging meta descriptions that compel people to take action.
Effortlessly Grow Your Click-Through Rates
Persuasive and compelling meta descriptions are the ace in your sleeve when you need to skyrocket your CTR. They help your website stand out on the SERPs by telling your prospects that you truly understand their needs.
At Express Writers, we specialize in helping brands effortlessly meet their content marketing needs. Our team of crack-shot writers are skilled at things content marketing. From writing compelling blog posts and web content to address your customers’ needs to creating persuasive newsletters for your email marketing campaign, we’ll do all the heavy lifting.
Let us handle your content needs so you can focus on what really matters — growing your business. Contact us today for all your content marketing needs.
You know having a blog for your business or brand is critical to drawing in new customers and keeping the ones you have. However, you likely have wondered what the right blog posting frequency is. Should you post once a week? Every day? Multiple times a day? What’s the ideal blog posting frequency for you?
Of course, the answer depends on your needs, goals, and the size of your business/brand.
In this guide, we will answer these questions and help you craft the ideal content calendar for your blog.
What Is the Ideal Blog Posting Frequency?
At the end of 2023, there were over 1.1 billion websites. Of those, about 18% are active, which translates to over 200 million active websites on the web. Over these billions of websites, there are about 600 million blogs on the internet with millions of new blogs posted every day.
With statistics like this, it can make you wonder how you could ever make an impact in your small corner of the internet. However, with the right marketing strategy and blog posting frequency, you are more likely to attract the attention of the customers you need.
Knowing how often you should post blogs is a question that continually puzzles digital marketers because there is no single recommendation that fits every website.
Smaller businesses may find blogging less often, like one to four times a week, works for them, while larger businesses may need to blog daily or even multiple times a day. There is also the consideration of what types of content you’re covering. If you operate in a small, niche area where information is stable and does not change frequently, you might find success with blogging less often.
Another part of the blogging frequency puzzle is what your goals are for your blog. Most brands either want to drive organic traffic or increase their brand awareness. According to HubSpot, if driving organic traffic is your goal, you should blog more frequently, while increasing brand awareness doesn’t require as much content.
8 Considerations to Determine Your Frequency of Blog Posts
While you can take a guess at the number of blog posts that works for you, you will have better success evaluating industry trends and considering your blogging goals.
1. Look at Statistics
According to Orbit Media’s 10th Edition of the Annual Blogger Survey, blog trends have changed a lot in the past decade. While successful bloggers were previously posting every day, many of them are now posting less often. However, the difference is, their blogs are longer and more detailed. While a 500-word blog posted daily worked in the past, bloggers are finding longer blogs over 1,000 words posted less frequently get better results.
The survey shows the average blog post is 77% longer in 2023 than it was in 2013. As for how frequently bloggers post, the most popular responses were weekly and several per month.
2. Monitor Your Industry
Just like any other part of your business or brand, it is a good idea to look at the competition. What are similar content creators doing on their blogs? Monitor 10-20 blogs in your niche and see how often they are updated. If you’re not posting as often, you could get left behind.
This also means you need to keep up with any industry changes. If there are frequent updates in your industry, your blog posts need to reflect that new information. You can save time keeping up with this information by updating old content.
3. Consider Your Constraints
A large multi-million-dollar company is going to have more time and resources to put into blogging than someone who is a solo content creator. If you try to keep pace with a multi-person team, you are most likely going to feel burnt out and the quality of your blogs is going to suffer.
One option to increase your blogging output without overworking yourself or your staff is by outsourcing some or all of your blogging needs. Consider finding a high-quality writing agency or writer to help you expand your content calendar and keep up with the competition.
4. Focus on Quality
Just like most things in life, it is better to deliver quality over quantity and Google backs that up. In late 2022, Google released an algorithm update that added an ‘E’ to the SEO acronym EAT. The new EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. You will get better Google results producing high-quality blogs, released less often than pumping out lower-quality blogs more often.
If you can produce and publish a high-quality blog every day, that’s awesome. If your capabilities and mental load limit your blogging frequency to once a week, then that is ok, too. Just make sure whatever you publish is the best it can be.
If you are struggling to produce high-quality content, hiring an experienced professional writer could be the best choice. Consider how much you could gain by publishing premium content on a regular basis.
5. Remember Your Goals
It is easy to simply copy whatever your competitor is doing. However, that strategy may not give you the best results. Instead, you need to remember what your goal is for blogging. Why are you doing this? Consider the following questions:
Are you prioritizing SEO?
Are you trying to improve your brand recognition?
Are you trying to get a higher position in your SERPs for specific keywords?
The answers to these questions will help you refine your blogging purpose and frequency.
6. Focus on the Needs of Your Audience
What does your typical customer/reader look for or need when visiting your blog? Are they looking for new information every day? Do they have specific questions that your blog can answer? Is there information missing from your website that would prevent them from moving through the customer journey?
One of the primary functions of a blog, especially for a business, is to offer value. Publishing a blog that doesn’t add anything new, simply for the act of posting, is not going to perform well.
Focus on your ideal buyer/reader personas and think about what they would want to read. If you’re not sure how to create a buyer persona, it could be worth it to invest in a consultation with a content professional to help you create one.
7. Look at Pre-existing Content
If you have been successfully blogging for years, you likely have a large library of content. Google pays attention to content that has been recently updated, so it is a good idea to keep your most popular content fresh. Monitor your best-performing content. If the numbers start to slip, editing that content and adding some updated information can help it regain some traction.
For example, if your goal is to post four blogs a week, three of them could be new content, while one of them could be an updated blog.
8. Consider the Age of Your Blog
If you are just starting your blogging journey, it may feel overwhelming to start with a blank slate. You see other blogs with libraries full of hundreds of pieces of content, while you have just a few. In the early stages of a new blog, it is best to post frequently. This gives Google something to look at and rank. It also increases your chances of getting other websites to link to your content.
If you need help getting your blog up and running, hiring an additional writer or two can help you build a strong foundation.
Get the Blogging Content You Need with Express Writers
If your blog is not giving you the results you need, it might be time to get some professional help. At Express Writers, we offer a variety of content options including creating a content strategy. Whether you need one basic blog or you are interested in a regular blog plan, we have expert writers ready to meet your needs.
We work with a wide range of clients ranging from individual entrepreneurs to large-scale agencies. No content request is too big or too small.
Ready to get started? Explore our Content Shop today.
If you enjoy writing of any type, a career as a freelance copywriter could be a good choice for you.
When done right, a career as a copywriter can be satisfying and lucrative. It is also a great way to take control of your career and work-life balance. Freelance writers typically set their own schedule and choose the amount of work they do, a significant bonus for anyone looking for more flexibility in their careers.
If you have ever wondered how to get started as a freelance copywriter, this guide is for you.
What Is a Freelance Copywriter?
A freelance copywriter is a writer who works for clients on a project or contract basis. You are not an official employee. As a freelancer, you choose the clients you want to work with, set your own rates, create your own schedule, and hold yourself accountable.
Freelance writing is one of the most in-demand types of freelance work. After the general upheaval in the working world in recent years, many people want to be more in control of their money, work-life balance, and the type of work they do. Choosing a freelance position is a great way to get all of that.
As a copywriter, you can choose what type of work you take on. Accepting jobs from various clients allows you to diversify your portfolio, potentially leading to better, more lucrative work in the future.
Copy is the written content used to market brands and products. Copywriters create content for promotional and commercial use. Copy can be used for advertising, websites, billboards, email campaigns, newsletters, and blogs, just to name a few.
As a freelance copywriter, you may find yourself creating catchy taglines for magazine advertisements or creating an optimized blog article for the web. Copywriters are an integral part of the marketing industry.
How to Get Started as a Copywriter
Luckily, freelance copywriters do not have to invest in too much equipment or education. Most writers can get by with a computer, internet access, and some word-processing software. While having a formal degree or certification can give you an advantage, it is not necessary for most freelance writers.
Just like any other job, as you gain experience, you will get better. The main difference for freelancers is you must seek out these opportunities on your own. With the endless supply of online classes and content, finding these opportunities has never been easier.
1. Read Everything
One of the best ways to become a better writer is to become a better reader. The more words, content, and ideas you expose yourself to, the easier it will be for you to create creative content on your own. Find blogs, websites, magazines, and books that you love, and dive in. Figure out what type of writing you find the most compelling and try to model that on your own.
2. Get Organized
As a freelancer, you will need to make your own schedule. While this can feel exciting and freeing, it can also quickly become overwhelming if you don’t have a strategy. There are a few ways to go about this depending on your work style.
Keeping track of your writing schedule, particularly your deadlines, will be critical if you want to be successful as a freelance writer. While you can keep it old-school and use a paper planner, an online calendar or organizational app might be a better option. That way you always have access to your schedule no matter where you are. There is also a possibility that one or more of your clients will want you to use a specific app or tool while creating content for them.
Here are some popular organizational and workflow apps used by freelance writers:
Notion:Notion is an all-inclusive workspace where you can keep track of your schedule, collaborate with others, create content, and manage your project. It comes with a variety of features including an idea database, a weekly overview, and a calendar.
Clockify: For some freelancers, they find that work hours suddenly take over all parts of their lives. If you want to give yourself focused work time so you have the freedom to do other things in your life, an app like Clockify could be a great option. As you monitor your work hours, you may realize how long projects really take and this can give you a more realistic expectation for your costs. Perhaps you were undercharging clients because you were underestimating your time. Best of all, this app is free.
Asana: Another popular project management tool is Asana. Freelancers can use this tool to help them meet their goals, make plans, and monitor project progress. It also integrates with many other popular business tools.
While you can have a successful, profitable career as a copywriter, most writers will need to start on a small, less lucrative path. Clients will not pay you top dollar for content if you don’t have a good reputation and writing samples to share.
When first starting out, you may have to do some unpaid writing. This could be in the form of your own blog, writing content for family and friends, or contributing to websites. Once you have a good supply of quality writing, you can put it together in your portfolio. This is what you will share with potential clients.
As you build rapport with your clients, consider asking them to share their experiences working with you in writing. You can add these recommendations and reviews to your portfolio and personal website, if you have one.
4. Hone Your SEO Skills
At its core, copywriting requires you to be a skilled writer. However, there are many trends and industry trends to keep up with, depending on the type of jobs you take. You will need expert level research skills to keep up with all the information you need.
Most freelance writing happens on the internet. If the content you’re producing will live on a website, you want Google and other search engines to be able to find it. This means it needs to be optimized for those search engines.
If you run a company’s blog, for instance, you need to know how to write your articles to best match search engine requirements, so the blogs get the traffic they need. Google continually changes its algorithms and priorities. What gave you great results one month, might not work the next. You need to stay up to date on the latest SEO practices along with any changes in the industry you’re working with.
You might also need to know how to turn each blog into a captivating social media post or subscriber email. Each type of content requires slightly different skills and processes.
What Type of Copywriting Is Right for You?
As a beginner, it’s good to try everything. However, as you gain experience, you’ll find types of content and specific topics that you prefer to write about. Each types of copywriting has its own style and purpose.
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Includes: Website content, blogs
Focus: The primary focus of SEO copywriting is to create high-quality content. They also need to enhance the web page’s visibility. This typically includes incorporating focused keywords, links to other authoritative sites, and relevant calls to action. You need to do all this without affecting its readability, meaning it should read naturally and the optimization should not feel forced.
2. Technical
Includes: Articles (web and print)
Focus: Technical copywriting requires specific areas of expertise. For example, technical articles on computer programming will require extensive knowledge in that area. These articles will be less about telling a story and more about sharing specific knowledge and research with your readers.
3. Creative
Includes: Catchy phrases for advertisement, blogs, branding
Focus: Creative copywriters try to tell a story with their words. They want to create something that will leave an impression on whoever reads it.
4. Marketing
Includes: Advertisements, emails, billboards
Focus: For this type of copywriting, it is helpful to have a background (degree or experience) in marketing. The advertisements, email campaigns, and billboards you’ll create need to influence the public by speaking to their needs, while not sounding like a sales pitch. The best marketing copy leaves a lasting impression on those that interact with it. Just think about how many brand slogans you have imbedded in your brain.
5. Content
Includes: How-to guides, blogs, newsletters, social media, scripts, billboards
Focus: Content copywriters develop blogs and newsletters dedicated to providing information about a certain subject of product. Your writing is meant to bring in new customers or turn one-time customers into dedicated followers. Content copywriters focus on providing readers with useful information.
When first starting out, it can be helpful to try a little bit of each copywriting style. While you aren’t required to pick a specific niche as a freelance writer, trying a variety of styles can help you figure out what you like best and where your strengths lie. As your skills develop, you may find yourself naturally focusing on one area.
Where to Find Freelance Writing Jobs
Finding good freelance writing jobs can be somewhat tricky, especially when you’re first starting out. While freelance writing jobs are routinely posted on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, Upwork, and ProBlogger, it can be hard to break through the application process. Many jobs received hundreds or even thousands of applications.
For example, this freelance job posted on LinkedIn has over 300 applications after only one day. It can feel overwhelming if you are looking for work and must compete with hundreds of other people.
While it can’t hurt to apply to jobs like this, many freelance writers find success by attracting clients to them. This means building a strong online presence. For example, Romana Hoekstra has built her freelance writing career using LinkedIn as a platform. She routinely shares helpful content marketing information and has become an expert in SaaS marketing. Her clients reach out to her.
Building a strong profile on LinkedIn along with possibly hosting your own site can be a good way to establish yourself as a strong freelance writer.
In addition to your online profiles, you should build connections with people you know, including friends, colleagues, former clients, and old classmates. They can help expand your network or even refer clients to you.
Another good option is to search for agencies that hire freelance writers. These are typically marketing agencies that help other clients and businesses create the content they need.
Expand Your Career as a Freelance Copywriter with Express Writers
Honestly, the best way to start a new venture is to jump right in. The more you write, the better writer you’ll become.
You may find yourself writing a blog about the latest at-home exercise trends one day and exploring the best vacation cities in Michigan the next. As you expand your freelance writing career, you will learn the type of writing you’re passionate about along with the types of clients you prefer working with.
If you are a budding freelance writer with solid skills, consider working with us here at Express Writers. We are always looking for high-quality freelance writers with a good understanding of SEO best practices.
You regularly visit the doctor for checkups, even if you aren’t sick. You go to the doctor to PREVENT you from getting sick. By keeping up with these visits, the doctor can give you a status report on your health and catch any issues while they’re still minor and easy to solve.
Without those checkups, you might not receive medical care until an issue has begun wreaking complete havoc on your system and causing irreparable damage to your body.
Your website also needs regular checkups, which marketers call content audits. They are a crucial website health checkup that gives you the status of your website’s performance while also alerting you to any issues before they cause more significant problems.
Without a content audit, you’ll miss out on vital health updates and won’t know there are issues until your site shows severe damage, such as a drop in traffic or conversions. It also alerts you to what’s performing well and new opportunities to continue growing your site.
Let’s unlock the secrets of the content audit through this guide so you can begin giving your site its much-needed regular checkups.
What Is a Website Content Audit?
A content audit is a complete check of your content. Content includes all the assets on your website, such as blog posts, landing pages, and web pages. Leave no page overlooked.
Yes, that does sound like it takes time. That’s why most people perform these at least once annually. About 61% of marketers perform content audits two or more times in a year.
But, it’s not a task you want to skim over as you may miss crucial signs of issues or new opportunites.
What exactly are you looking for? Here are a few signs of issues:
Errors
Outdated content
Repetitive content
Poor content
As you perform a content audit, you will decide what needs fixing, updating, or deletion.
Ultimately, you’ll create a more positive user experience as readers encounter fewer errors and confusing or outdated content. The regular updates also keep your content relevant and running smoothly, boosting your search engine ranking.
Why a Website Content Audit Is a Must
Could you run a website without a content audit? Technically speaking, yes, you could. But that would be like living in a house without ever cleaning it. The house might remain standing, but the dust buildup and grime will scare away visitors and even cost you your health.
A content audit keeps your website looking updated, active, and valuable to your target audience so they feel welcome and eager to explore further.
Here are the top benefits of conducting regular content audits:
Performance Insights: You’ll gain insights into your content performance. If you want a successful website that attracts monthly traffic, you need to create content with high-performance rates. Reviewing your analytics during your audit builds a clear picture of your topics and formats that generate the most traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Audience Understanding: Knowing your audience drives your content, and your final goal is to connect and convert that audience. You want to understand their interests, pain points, motivating factors, and life changes. Understanding what content your audience engages with gives you glimpses into those details and what they might find most valuable.
Improved Ranking: When you refresh and update content, it becomes more appealing to both your audience and Google. High-quality, valuable content ranks higher in search results, boosting organic traffic.
These benefits offset the time and effort you invest in content audits. You’ll see better traffic, higher search engine ranking, and improved visitor impressions. One SEMrush report found that about half of those who regularly updated their content saw higher engagement and ranking.
How to Do a Content Audit to Maximize Your SEO
Are you excited to start enjoying those benefits on your website?
Dive into the five steps of performing an SEO content audit to get you started. Because of the time a content audit takes, we highly recommend scheduling it in your calendar so you have enough time blocked out to dive into your content performance and make the most of your findings.
If you’re a small site, a day may be enough. Larger sites will require several days to fully analyze.
1. Define Your Goals
Before you invest a single dime or hour in your content audit, you need to answer the why behind the audit. Your goals will provide context to your audit and focus on what you hope to accomplish. Without goals, your audit would easily take several weeks rather than days because of reading through hundreds of articles and pages.
You don’t need to read through everything. Just the data that’s most relevant to your goal.
Once you have set one or more goals, you will also know what metrics to focus on so you don’t drown in all the data you’ll uncover during your audit.
2. Take Inventory of Your Site’s Content
It’s time to roll up your sleeves and begin the hard work.
To truly understand your content and its performance, you’ll want to inventory what content currently lives on your website. It’s the only way to ensure you review every page for quality, value, and optimization.
The longer you have had a site with regularly published content, the longer this step will take.
We use spreadsheets to keep your content organized. You can detail the key points you want to track on the sheet and easily share it with relevant parties.
Start by adding these columns to your spreadsheet:
URL
Date audited
Title
Description
Content type
Keywords
Alt tags
Last updated
Internal links
Some other columns you might add, depending on your goal, include:
Shares
Comments
Word count
Content goal
While you can type this information manually, we highly recommend exporting as much as possible. If you work with HubSpot, it can export much of your website content for you, and then you can manually enter any details it didn’t add that you would like to know. Google Analytics is another valuable tool for exporting a page list under your site content tab.
3. Begin Analyzing Your Data
Now that you have a complete list of all your content, you can begin reviewing and comparing what you have. If you don’t already, we recommend creating and referencing a standardized guidebook outlining quality content.
At Express Writers, we have guidelines that detail our grammar rules, internal linking rules, external links, quality standards, and SEO process. It may seem extreme initially, but it helps keep our content consistent and helps us define what quality content is.
You will also want to compare your content to Google’s standards to improve your search engine ranking.
Here are a few areas you’ll spend the most time analyzing:
Keywords: Does the content contain a focus and secondary keywords? Are those keywords still ranking in Google?
URL and Page Title: Do both feature your page’s focus keyword? Is the title unique and descriptive?
Meta Description: Does your description accurately depict what your page’s content is about in less than 155 characters? Does it contain your keyword?
Content: Is your content valuable to readers? Is it well-written and free of grammatical, spelling, or factual errors? Is there any information that you need to update?
SEO: Does the content have the focus keyword strategically placed throughout, such as in the intro, title, and subheadings?
Linking: Does the page contain both internal and external links? Are all the links still functional?
While you’re reviewing your content, take notes. You’ll want to note your top-performing content and your poorest-performing content. Each group will have several articles under it to give you a good idea of what performs best and what needs work. It can also provide insights into the type of content your audience wants the most.
As you review your content, note any gaps. These are topics in your industry you haven’t covered much or at all. You will use these topics to fill in your content calendar. If you are performing your content audit near the start of the year, you have a win-win situation: refreshed website and free content ideas!
4. Map Out Your Next Action Steps
Once you have identified what is working well and where your content might need help, you can begin marking your content spreadsheet with follow-up actions.
You will mark all pages on your site, including landing pages and blog posts.
We have simplified this process considerably by using only three actions for all content: Keep, Update, Delete. We added a column to our spreadsheet to enter the most relevant action.
Keep: This content performs well and has checked all the boxes. You don’t need to do anything further for this content. It’s relevant, quality, and optimized content. You might further divide this group by marketing some of the best-performing content to repurpose in emails, social media, and other marketing campaigns.
Update: It needs an update if your content is missing details, like a keyword or internal links. You’ll also add most of your content over two years old to this category, as that’s when evergreen content begins to lose its value, so you can give it a little spring cleaning to keep it relevant. As you update content, check statistics, links, and SEO.
Delete: Not all content will last forever. Some content will no longer serve a purpose. It might discuss a service you no longer offer, cover an outdated technology, or simply does not resonate with your target audience. Keeping that content clogs up your archive and may prevent readers from finding relevant content. You can also boost your site’s speed by deleting any content that takes up space and speed.
Once you have these categories, you’ll want to prioritize the actions, especially for the update group. Cornerstone content and website pages will need to be higher in your refresh queue than other content to ensure you can keep your site running smoothly. Outsourcing your content updates will help you knock out those crucial items first.
5. Optional: Invest in Tools to Assist with Your Audit
If you have a large site, you’re probably looking at this process and beginning to panic. I know, it seems like a lot.
Thankfully, several tools available can help with many of these stages. Here are some of our favorite tools.
Google Analytics can help you dig into those engagement metrics and data to more accurately rank your content and identify where visitors stop.
Screamingfrog is one of the leading tools for downloading URLs and other vital details you’ll need for your audit to save you hours of manually entering those details.
SEMrush allows you to pull a complete content audit. This audit details performance data and identifies technical issues such as broken links and slow page load speed.
BuzzSumo will help you with your next steps. Once you save your content in the categories, you can search those topics in Buzzsumo to see what’s receiving the most engagement to help you know how best to update your content to boost engagement.
Content Strategies from Express Writers complement your audit. Our strategist helps you dig deeper into your data, understanding how it impacts performance and providing a roadmap forward.
We Can Help with Your Content Audit
As you’re conducting your website content audit, you’re sure to find plenty of needed updates. It might be older content or newer content that never quite reached those content goals.
Rather than investing all your time and energy only in new content, let’s take another look at your past content. We can help you update them, improving their quality and performance so you have less to tackle with your annual content audit.
Do you want to take your audit a step further?
Our content strategist can review the data and conduct more research on your site. Then, the strategist can present new opportunities, including keyword gaps.
Contact us to get started with updating your content and learning more about our content strategist services.
