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Why Hire an Expert Copywriter?

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Why Hire an Expert Copywriter?

“How do I know your writer(s) know my industry?” “Why do I need a writer for MY industry of expertise?” These are great questions we get all the time. And to answer them best, we’ve structured our team with over 90 writers and four core levels (general, expert, specialty, and authority). We’ve studied Google’s guidelines, and we don’t believe just any writer can write for every industry. ✋ In fact, Google has very specific guidelines around how they measure expertise, authoritativeness, and trust for all industries. Especially when it comes to finance, law, and health, the guidelines Google uses to rate and review content get even stricter. (I wrote about Google’s rating guidelines here on the Write Blog.) Here’s our belief: Writers do have specialties, and industry expertise — and that absolutely should be matched up to a client and their industry/expertise. Or, to put it simply, you need a writer who knows your industry like you do to write your content. There are plenty of reasons why. Let’s go deeper into the top 3 to illustrate why this is so important – for your content, your brand, and your content marketing success. Here’s why you should hire an expert copywriter. [bctt tweet=”Why hire an expert copywriter? It’s simple: It saves time ⏲, money ?, and headaches ?‍♀️. More on why you need an industry expert writing your content on the @ExpWriters Write Blog:” username=””] 3 Good Reasons to Hire an Expert Copywriter Who Knows Your Industry 1. You Need the Right E-A-T to Stay on Google’s Good Side For many industries like healthcare, finance, and law, sharing your expertise online with content is tricky – especially if you’re not writing the content yourself. The reason? These industries and many others provide high-stakes information to consumers. Giving wrong or erroneous advice could result in major life problems for the people on the receiving end. Google calls this type of content “YMYL” – Your Money or Your Life. Now, your expertise isn’t in question, here. If you already outsource, it’s your content writer you should be worried about. Even if you give your writer plenty of direction, mistakes happen. And, if they’re not an expert in your industry, those errors are a lot more likely to plague your content. Unfortunately, Google de-ranking your content and pushing it down to page 10 is the least of the consequences. You’ll also dramatically break your readers’ trust if you give them bad advice or information. That equates to fleeing leads and potential customers who disappear. See why your writer’s expertise matters so much? For deeper insight on how to rank in Google, check out our FREE ebook: How to Rank in the Top of Google & Win Traffic, Prospects, & Buyers. The problem isn’t just rampant in high-stakes industries, either. An inexperienced writer who doesn’t know your industry or your product/service in, say, beauty or pet care or natural living can do just as much damage to your brand reputation. How? When your content isn’t written from a place of knowledge and authority, it shows. It will be inaccurate, lacking in substance, forgettable – or all three. Where does that leave you? With content that constantly needs major edits, rewrites, tweaks, and revisions. It will never be “right” from the get-go, which is a total waste of your time and money. Your content reflects your brand. Full stop. If your readers notice a disconnect, they’ll stop caring and fall out of your marketing loop. ❌ [bctt tweet=”When your content isn’t written from a place of knowledge and authority, it shows. It will be inaccurate, lacking in substance, forgettable – or all three. It will never be “right” from the get-go. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. You Don’t Have the Skills Necessary to Write Winning Content Copywriting with finesse and intrigue isn’t a skill you can learn overnight. If you want to hook readers, hold their attention, and incite action from them (subscribing to your email list and making purchases are two biggies), you have to use copywriting techniques. The thing is, they take years to hone. Specific skills, including marketing knowledge and storytelling, give copywriters the ability to appeal to particular target groups, hold their attention, qualify your product or service, and convert readers into buyers. Formatting is just as important as language, so professional copywriters are well-versed in writing within certain marketing formats and publishing standards. All this, while simultaneously coming across as professional, intelligent, and convincing, using your brand voice and point of view. ?? Considering every single industry needs digital marketing to stay relevant today, it’s sad that copywriters aren’t more respected. Their skills are VITAL. But not everyone has them. And not just anyone knows how to write content that succeeds, builds a brand, and creates ROI. Expert copywriters do — and that’s why you should hire them. Need I say more? Interested in learning those copywriting skills yourself? Check out Unlearn Essay Writing, the ultimate course to learn how to write for online audiences. 3. Your Content Needs to Build Trust, Not Break It The trust you build with customers is ever-changing. Each time they interact with your brand and read your content represents chances to increase that trust quotient. And more people than ever before are reading content online. In 2020, search traffic nearly doubled from 3.5 billion/day to over 6 billion/day. 80% of people reported consuming content from a brand over the last year – whether they read, watched, or listened. Source: 2021 Report: What Buyers Want from Content Marketing More people reading content = more chances to attract your target audience. Once you attract them, it’s key to build trust – not break it. And trust-building needs two factors to work: Time – Relationships with customers built on trust take time to grow. Trust isn’t built with one piece of content. It takes many, many pieces of great content (and other good interactions) to solidify trust. Consistency – Maintaining a consistent presence over time means you show up, again and again and again, … Read more

9 Characteristics of the Best Web Copywriters

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9 Characteristics of the Best Web Copywriters

According to Flannery O’Connor, a good man is hard to find. Source: Amazon But what about a good web copywriter? Sure, plenty of people out there say they can write for the web. But, as the common saying goes, talk is cheap. How do know when you’ve stumbled on a professional word ninja, or when you’ve been hoodwinked by an upstart money-grubber masquerading as a copywriter? Luckily, we have some ideas. Look carefully at their qualifications, both the ones they say they have and the ones that shine through their writing samples. The best web copywriters will be able to claim all of the skills we have compiled below. If you’re a copywriter working your way up in the industry, study this list and take note. Having these skills could be the key to nailing your next big gig. Marketers/agencies: Look for these traits in the next writer you hire. 9 Skills, Traits, and Characteristics the Best Web Copywriters Have in Spades The best web writers have honed their raw talent and turned it into an occupation where they earn money for every word they set down. Do you (or the web writers you’re hiring) have all the skills on this list? 1. Nimble Creativity The best web writers need to be able to turn on a dime and write in a completely different style and voice for different clients. That means their capacity for nimble creativity needs to be very high.  Online writers also need to be able to produce copy and content when that creativity well is drying up. A nimble, can-do attitude is essential, here. Sometimes, you just have to buckle down and get some words out. The best writers who live and breathe online content will be able to do it and do it well, no matter the circumstances. 2. Research Chops Research is a huge part of online writing. To underline your authority, you have to prove yourself in your written content and copy. That means relying on the knowledge and research of others, along with your own. It means citing sources and studies, and providing statistics and evidence that back up your claims. The online writer who is well-versed in research best-practices, including how to properly cite sources and link to them in content, is indispensable. 3. Strong Understanding of the Basics of Constructing Great Sentences Writers construct, tweak, and manipulate sentences to get their ideas across clearly. Without the basic ability to craft really good ones, can you call yourself a writer? This ability includes understanding grammar do’s and don’ts like noun-verb agreement and comma usage, but it also includes knowing how to create a compelling call-to-action, how to write effective meta descriptions, and how to compose a zinger of a headline.  As a copywriter, you need to know which of these is correct. (Source: Grammar Girl) 4. Sales and Online Marketing Knowledge Does your web writer understand the various stages of the buying cycle/sales funnel? (Have they even heard of a sales funnel?) Do they get how to tailor their words to what the audience knows/doesn’t know at a particular stage? What about landing page copy? Do they understand how best to craft a page that leads the audience to take action? If they don’t, they should. If you’re the writer, according to Content Marketing Institute, your knowledge should be T-shaped. You need a deep knowledge of content – best-practices that earn traffic, engagement, and conversions, and how to tie in SEO –- that’s a given. You also need at least a passing understanding of online marketing concepts like technical SEO, UX, press & PR, and analytics.  5. Generalist AND Specialist Expertise A web copywriter needs to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of one… Or two. The former is important for that aforementioned nimbleness factor. You need to be able to pivot from topic to topic without much trouble, research topics if you’re shaky, and write about them like you know what you’re talking about. That is the power of a skilled generalist writer. On the other hand, you also need specialist knowledge in at least one topic. This means you have the background to write about that topic from the viewpoint of an expert. This background can include education, experience, or a mix of the two. A blend of both is a good place to start honing your expertise. Either way, the best writers can specialize and write with an incredibly authoritative tone for at least one industry. 6. The Power of Persuasion Persuasive writing is a huge part of online copywriting.  Your readers’ attention spans are shorter than ever (the average currently clocks in at 8 seconds – one second shorter than that of an average goldfish). They’re distracted by every shiny thing that’s blinking at them or screaming in all caps.  Source: Muck Rack They’ll click away from your content faster than you can blink – unless you can persuade them to stay. This means knowing and using proven writing styles and copywriting formulas that keep visitors glued to the page. It also means formatting your words for maximum ease-of-reading on tiny mobile device screens or headache-inducing computer monitors. There’s a lot that goes into persuading audiences online, so the copywriter who can do it (and do it well) is worth their weight in gold. Want to get better at persuasive writing? Check out the work of past and present copywriting giants. Look to David Ogilvy, Joanna Wiebe, Jon Morrow. It’s hard to vet good copywriters. Luckily, we do it for you. Check out our services and hire our expert writers. 7. Empathy A copywriter’s job is to speak to the reader on a deep level. You need to be able to address their hopes, fears, and desires like they’re your own. The only way to truly get on their wavelength is to empathize with them. If you have a fair amount of natural empathy, you have an advantage. If you don’t, you can practice it. Step … Read more

7 Ways Content Is Setting the Trends for SEO & Google Algorithms

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7 Ways Content Is Setting the Trends for SEO & Google Algorithms

There’s just no veiling this fact, folks: Content has been king for a while now. Bill Gates forecasted this all the way back in 1996. In 2013, Entrepreneur told us to ditch the cold call sales technique and invest in blogs and Twitter instead. Notable sources like Copyblogger forecasted 2013 would be the year of the writer. There are over 6 billion web pages in existence, both active and inactive. About half a million new pages are created and published daily. That’s a lot of web content to sift through, and Google is there to make sure specific pages get to the top. That begs the question: How is content impacting it all? How Is Content Setting the Trends? So how exactly is content setting the trends for how Google looks at, ranks, and values their indexable pages? Worthy question. Let’s take a dive through that sea! ? [bctt tweet=”About half a million new web pages are published daily. That’s a lot of content to sift through, and Google is there to make sure specific pages get to the top. ? @JuliaEMcCoy asks: How is content setting the trends?” username=””] 1. People Want Relevancy They want topics relevant to their likes, as well as topics that flow with current trends. If you’re still busy waxing eloquent on how amazing Brave was while everyone else is going on about Frozen, you’re like the person who wears socks with their sandals. Relevant topics are the only way you are going to gain and maintain readership. This might seem a little frustrating, especially if your topic doesn’t seem to be the most relevant out there, but finding ways to make it mesh with its surroundings will help immensely. You can use some SEO copywriting tips such as creating an eye-catching title, having a strong start to your content and having a strong call to action. This will help readers feel your topic is relevant, get you further up on that Google search page, and, in the end, get you more readers. 2. People Want Content Content is important to the average web browser and internet user. Information — literally on any topic under the sun — is all around us and out there for the curious. We can google any topic or question and get an answer in seconds. In today’s information explosion, good, trustworthy content matters. It satisfies our curiosity, answers our questions, alleviates our fears, and eases our pain. Readers like to get information quickly, but they also want to know they’re receiving it from a knowledgeable source. If your content is too short, people may suspect you’re not as knowledgeable as you seem, especially in the age of article regurgitation. It seems everyone is an expert on spitting out the informational bare bones, but not many are experts in delving into the juicy meat of a subject. “But what about those casual browsers?” you ask. By offering a heartier wealth of information, you have the potential to turn those casual readers into intent readers, hungry for more information. 3. People Love In-Depth Discussions You’re used to hearing that you need to have short and concise blogs to attract more readers, but the reality is Google ranks blogs with higher word counts and quality content. This is because they believe people are more likely to stick with an article that’s longer than the short, concise article we’ve all been told is important. People want to see that lengthy post. They may not read every single word, but they’ll believe you are the authority on your topic if the post is longer. That might seem strange, but think about how you feel when you search for an article. Do you prefer a site that seems much more knowledgeable, with lengthy descriptions, or one that barely gives any discussion on the topic? 4. Quality Is Mega-Important in the Game of Google While long, in-depth content is a factor in ranking with Google, another important factor is the quality of your content. If all you do is write specifically for the search engine and sacrifice quality in hopes of getting more viewership, you’ll find that you rank a lot lower than you initially thought you would. Google wants to make sure the content they rank is quality, something that is filled with interesting and engaging information. Whatever your niche, make your content incredibly valuable to people interested in your product or topic. Give facts that aren’t too well known, try to stay away from the generic, overdone articles. Find ways to implement relevant pop culture references to connect what you are discussing with something that the majority of people love. If you are a little confused as to what’s relevant, just pop onto Facebook, wade through all the Buzzfeed quizzes and find the stuff people are posting about. When it comes to finding your site at the top of a Google search, the more quality blogs, or content, you have is important. It is another part of the new Google algorithm, according to Jeff Quipp over at the Huffington Post. You also want to be seen as an authority on your topic. Need more insight on ranking in the top of Google? Get our in-depth checklist right here. 5. Authorship Matters In the game of Google, you rank, or you lose. There is no middle ground. Well, OK, it isn’t as intense as Game of Thrones says it is, but close enough. You want your page to rank in order to get those readers. Readers don’t like to sift through page after page to find what they are looking for, so eventually they will give up the further down the search page they go. If Google sees you as an authority in your field, they will rank you higher than those whom they do not deem to be experts. By combining quality content with Google authorship, your page will surely find itself ranking high. 6. Blogging Is Important for Gaining (and Keeping) Customers … Read more

Are Press Releases Still Beneficial for SEO & Exposure Today?

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Are Press Releases Still Beneficial for SEO & Exposure Today?

To many marketers, press releases may seem like an outdated way to share information. The thing is, that’s just not true. Today, thousands of press releases are distributed around the world every single day. But just how effective are press releases — for your SEO rankings and online exposure? The answer isn’t simple. Used the right way, press releases can be an extremely beneficial and effective marketing tool. Used the wrong way, press releases are absolutely useless. Let’s take a deeper look. First: What Are the Benefits of Press Releases? 1. Send Out Your Brand News Straight from the Horse’s Mouth Do you have a news-worthy story, an announcement, or some other piece of information about your brand where the facts are vital to get right? (Think new product launches, earnings reports, company mergers or acquisitions, or an official statement on an issue.) Do you want that news distributed to a targeted network (e.g. local news stations)? If the information is going to make news anyway, sending out a press release is a great way to take control of the narrative (for your part in it, anyway). Companies have been doing it for over 100 years for a reason. Press releases help you get out accurate facts about a news event so they’re reported correctly when journalists pick up the story. [bctt tweet=”Used the right way, press releases can be an extremely beneficial and effective marketing tool. ? Used the wrong way, press releases are absolutely useless. ? Find out the difference ➡” username=”ExpWriters”] Did you know? We write press releases that have a 100% acceptance rate with outlets like PRNewswire, PRWeb, etc. See pricing! 2. Startup? Publicly Traded Company? Get Important Press Coverage If you’re a publicly traded company (read: swinging around big numbers) OR a startup looking for investors, buy-in, new customers, etc… For your most important news and announcements, you need more than a simple blog or social media post to get it out there. Press coverage gives you the potential to show up in local AND major news publications, where your target audience gets their news. It’s a good investment to draw up a press release and get it distributed for maximum exposure in these cases. 3. Increase Brand Awareness Good press release writing can do a lot more than simply announce your news to the world. It also has the potential to earn you positive brand mentions and associations. Even if they don’t include a backlink to your site, those positive mentions still matter for building brand awareness, authority, and a good reputation. And, according to Search Engine Land, the search engines might be using these linkless mentions to determine your website’s authority. After all, the people who read your press release matter. Their opinions and perception of your brand matter. If your press release does a good job of presenting your brand positively, and news outlets pick it up and their subscribers read it, those are big wins. Need a stellar press release written for your brand? Trust our proven team. When Are Press Releases Useless? Don’t get me wrong. Press releases are great for meeting certain goals. But if you’re not using them the right way, producing and distributing them can be worthless. Particularly, I’m talking about syndication.  Now, syndication as a tactic to get your press release more widely read and shared is a good idea. Syndication as a strategy to get SEO rankings and backlinks: bad, bad, bad. To illustrate this point, let’s look at a study I did a few years ago. The findings are still relevant today. Syndicated News: Is It Worth the Investment? (A 2016 Study) $6,100.00. That’s what one big brand was spending per month on press release distribution, according to a study by marketing agency owner Tim Grice, posted on Moz in 2012. That’s a huge number. At Express Writers, we used to offer syndicated online press release distribution to all of our customers, at rates well below what our former news partner charged on their own site. Our clients got a good deal—and we felt happy to offer it to them. That is, until October 2016—when we stood back and looked at the actual benefit of using online, syndicated news for Google rankings. I even got two experts on the line to help me dig up solid truths about this industry. (I’m indebted to Steve Rayson at BuzzSumo for pulling metrics and data for me, and Tim Grice at Branded3 for an updated quote.) Our findings weren’t good, by any means. The Story Behind the Study: What Inspired Me to Take a Deeper Look at Press Release Distribution In 2012, when we started offering press release distribution at EW, I saw amazing, fast results in Google. For instance, one press release we did back then was about a stuffed toy. The company’s keyword, a solid, low competition long-tail, ranked #3 in Google in just days — and that #3 result was their actual press release. Now that was value! But I had not seen those kind of results since. And we’re talking out of dozens to hundreds of press releases that our team wrote and distributed. On average, we were distributing 6-10 press releases for clients in a month. But we had SO many clients complain about the reports we sent them. “This is all the data and results we get?” And the truth was, we didn’t really have an answer for them. The quality of the news results online was finicky. I’d see an online Fox station pick one up — and then it would be gone the next day, when I was ready to send the link to the client. Results weren’t permanent. And nothing showed in the first page of Google for their (great) long-tail news keywords. The more I saw this happening, the more I realized I needed to research syndicated distribution. A bad feeling in my gut drove me to do it before we renewed our contract that year. And sure enough, … Read more

5 Reasons You Need a Content Writer

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5 Reasons You Need a Content Writer

I know why you’re reading this blog. Dream with me for a minute. ? Imagine a near-distant future where we’re all gathering together freely once more. ? You and I are attending the year’s biggest content marketing conference. Before we head to the event center for talks, presentations, and meet-and-greets, we agree to meet up at that quaint little coffee shop on the corner near our hotels. We sit at a table by a window looking out onto a sunny city street. Bright-eyed, early shoppers pass laden with bags, and businesspeople in suits and blazers hurry by on their way to their first morning meetings. We sip our coffees and chat idly about the upcoming events of the day. We even indulge in a little gossip. After my last sip of espresso, I ask, “So, how is your company’s blog doing?” You reply with a pained sigh, and lifelessly mutter: “It could be doing so much better.” I lean in and give you my full attention while you lay out a laundry list of problems: You can’t keep up with the consistent blogging schedule you need to get anywhere. You’re hyper-focused on quantity and obsessed with pushing out content just to get it out there. Ergo, much of your content is just okay, while most of it is downright rushed and bad. You haven’t even thought about SEO. Writing isn’t your forte, nor is it the specialty of anyone else on your team, so you struggle mightily when it comes time to create content. Your main competitor, on the other hand, has an incredible blog and is jumping ahead of you by leaps and bounds with the audience they’re drawing in. And the list goes on. You sit back in your chair, rubbing your temples. Just thinking about the situation gives you a headache. You know what I’m going to say. I say it anyway. “You need a content writer.” You Need a Content Writer: 5 Reasons to Invest in Your Content Even though this is an imaginary situation, the point still stands. If you’re like most small brands, some or all of this is ringing true. In a survey on the state of content writing in 2020, Mantis Research and Typeset found most small business owners, marketers, and communications professionals experience a disconnect between knowing what successful writing looks like and actually achieving it. 76% say they know what successful writing looks like, but only 45% think their content is extremely/very effective. Nearly half of all business communicators struggle to understand what their audience wants to read. Those with only moderate success with content writing struggle with most aspects of the process: writing and publishing consistently, maintaining quality over time, writing headlines, writing for SEO, writing concisely, getting the words to flow, and meeting deadlines. [bctt tweet=”Most small business owners & marketers experience a disconnect between knowing what successful writing looks like and actually achieving it. How do you close the gap? ➡⬅ Get yourself a content writer ?” username=”ExpWriters”] As you can see, you’re not alone in your struggles. But there IS a solution. You need a content writer, and I’m here to tell you why. (Imagine me giving you this advice over that same cup of coffee from our hypothetical friendly chat. ☕) 1. You Don’t Have Time I talk to business owners and even marketing specialists every day who respond to my question about their web content the same way you did. Sometimes, I just want to reach through the phone, shake them, and ask “Why do you think you’re not doing better?! It’s because you don’t have time!” I want to, but I don’t. At any rate, the reason you can’t keep up with a busy writing schedule is simple: You don’t have time. You’re too busy actually running your business. Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple, too. Hire a content writer. Not only do we have the time to develop your content for you (because this is our job and what we spend our days doing), but we do this all the time, so we can make it happen more quickly than you can. You don’t have the workflow down. We do. 2. Content Writing Is More Than Writing When you hire a content writer, you’re not getting someone who will write generic content that may or may not apply to your business. You’re hiring a team member who will take an interest in your business and will be eager to learn how you work, who your audience is, and where your big successes and failures are now. Once we have all the information we need, we’re going to be doing more than writing – we’re going to be communicating with your audience on a level you’d never have time to maintain. Not only that, but content writers are experienced with writing for SEO — including keyword and topic research — as well as editing, writing for social media and other content formats, and more. Content writing means we have to be good at a little of everything – and that’s good for you. Want to learn to master content writing, yourself? Start here ? Check out the Unlearn Essay Writing course. 3. A Good Content Writer Brings a New Perspective A common mistake of CEOs and business owners who also do their own marketing and advertising? They’re just too close to their own products. They can’t see the forest for the trees, so to speak. Your content writer, on the other hand, is coming to the table with no biases and a fresh perspective. They’ll look at your product with zero prior knowledge of its existence, in many cases. A content writer who’s worth his or her salt will take an interest in your business and will work tirelessly to understand it while maintaining their clear-eyed objectivity. It’s this objective stance that helps them write creative and innovative content that doesn’t rehash the same old tired clichés plaguing your industry. That’s our job. We … Read more

How to SEO Optimize Your Blog Posts in WordPress: 8 Easy Steps You Can Follow

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How to SEO optimize blog post in Wordpress

SEO optimizing your blog posts in WordPress is a must-do for earning rankings, wooing targeted traffic, and nabbing blog ROI. After all, if you spend all that time producing a wonderful piece of content, you need to give it legs to stand on. Without SEO, you’ll put that blog at a disadvantage from the start. On the other hand, optimize correctly, and Big Things are more likely to happen. (See our case study below of ranking for a super-hot keyword in 30 days.) If your blog is set up in WordPress, SEO optimizing a blog post before publishing is incredibly easy to do. You just need to know what to do. Here are the 8 steps to use every single time you publish a post to thoroughly hit all those “SEO check marks.” As you’ll see, you can optimize every single element of your blog — from top to bottom – and get more out of every blog you publish. (Note: While this how-to applies to WordPress, specifically the classic editor, you can take these general steps and use them with whatever publishing platform you please.) How to SEO Optimize Blog Posts in WordPress: 8 Steps 1. Edit and Proofread Your Blog Post 2. Add Relevant Images to Your Blog 3. Format Blog Content for Readability and SEO 4. Add Easy One-Click Social Sharing Codes 5. Check Your Links 6. Include a CTA 7. Optimize and Add Meta Title and Description with Yoast 8. Optimize Your Blog for Social Sharing with Yoast (Yes, Yoast Does That!) [bctt tweet=”Get more traffic and pull in more customers by ranking at Google’s top. This checklist ? will help you go that extra mile — 8 steps on how to SEO optimize every blog post in @WordPress, via @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] Why SEO Optimize Your Blogs in WordPress? A Case Study Why take all the trouble to search engine optimize your blogs? Like we referenced earlier, Big Things Will Happen. Case in point. We have over 1,300+ blogs published on the Express Writers’ Write Blog across ten years, which have earned over 21,000 keyword positions in Google (case study here). 90% of the blogs I write and publish here start with a keyword search. If I can map the keyword to ROI, we take it into the blog creation stages. Here’s a specific blog post example. We have earned a #1 organic ranking and featured snippet for the keyword “how to build a digital content strategy.” (Even our custom-designed images for the blog are ranking in Google Images!) One key player for this blog’s ranking power is the work we did on optimization before publishing. From the title to the copy to the subheaders to the images, CTAs, links, metas, and more, everything is optimized for search engines. Search success is a big deal, but I don’t need to tell you. Over and over, brands that edge into top positions on SERPs get the lion’s share of the spoils, including higher click-through rates and more traffic. Need great content to fuel your blogging presence? We offer packaged blogging plans. See pricing here. According to Advanced Web Ranking, the CTR for organic position 1 on Google is 38.02%. Meanwhile, the CTR for position 10 is 1.13%. Google alone processes over 40,000 search queries every second. If your brand isn’t present on the search landscape, you’re missing out on a huge piece of the traffic pie. [bctt tweet=”.@Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second. If your brand isn’t present on the search landscape, you’re missing out on a huge piece of the traffic pie. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] So, that begs the question: Are you covering all your SEO bases? Are you optimizing everything you can optimize to give your blogs their best chance? How to SEO Optimize Blog Posts in WordPress: The “How-To” of Each of Our 8 Steps 1. Edit and Proofread Your Blog Post First up: Make sure your blog is edited and proofread for typos. You want a clean, error-free blog post for obvious reasons. (Google says the quality of your content directly impacts your rankings. More on their E-A-T, or Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness factors.) A quick scan with your two eyeballs will usually suffice, but if you’re not the best editor, hand this task off to a trusted second party. Or, install the Grammarly Chrome extension to check your grammar and spelling right inside the WordPress editor. [bctt tweet=”‘First up: Make sure your blog is edited and proofread for typos. ✔️ You want a clean, error-free page for obvious reasons.’ – @JuliaEMcCoy on how to SEO optimize blog posts” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Add Relevant Images to Your Blog After editing, it’s time to add and optimize relevant images. If you’re working from a draft, you should be able to add them into WordPress without a problem. Just place your cursor where you want the image to go, then drag it straight into the editor. Once you’ve got pictures placed within your post, optimizing them goes like this: Make sure they’re inserted correctly. Don’t place images so they mess with your paragraph formatting, and keep your image placement consistent (e.g. centered, in-between paragraphs). Images should be original size to ensure they’re clear and crisp. Only size down if they’re huge or the file size is bloated (anything over 4-5 MB usually can be scaled back without sacrificing quality). Add alternate text to every image. This is important for rankings! Alternate text is a descriptive text that provides context for people who are visually impaired or need to use a screen reader to browse the web. Alternate text (or “alt text”) describes your images to search engines, as well, so they’ll potentially show up in image searches. This is exactly what we saw with our own blog post from the aforementioned case study we talked about. To add alt text to an image in the WordPress editor, click the image. A toolbar will pop up – click the “Edit” icon (the pencil) to add image … Read more

How to Create Long-Form Blogs That Your Readers (and Google) Will Love

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how to create long-form blogs

Blogging. What comes to mind when you read that word? Maybe it’s chillaxing on the beach with a laptop and a martini while typing up your latest adventure? Yeah, that stereotype is about as old and tired as the content best practices from the last decade. (Not to mention unrealistic. Also, don’t take your laptop to the beach.) Maybe it’s the endless to-do list-slash-content calendar that’s one more dismal thing you have to do to make your business run – and what’s it even do, again? Oof. Hand me that martini. Here’s a bit of news: if your ideas about blogging fall into either camp, you’re doing it wrong. Here’s what blogging looks like in the 2020s, plus how to create long-form blogs that work FOR you (rather than being WORK for you). [bctt tweet=”What does #blogging look like in 2021? ? How do you create long-form blogs that work FOR you (rather than being WORK for you)? @JuliaEMcCoy has the answers on the Write Blog ?” username=””] What IS Long-Form Content? Like a lot of things in the content world, the idea of long-form comes from journalism. There, it referred to a story that ran over the typical length – about 500 words (or about 14-16 inches depending on the paper’s formatting). In content writing, long-form similarly refers to content that is longer than your typical content. It’s hard to pin an exact number on that average because it changes. In particular, it’s growing. Let’s paint a picture. The phrase long-form content has floated around on the internet for a long time – the first mentions start around 1998. This was the early days of Google before we’d really figured out the true magnitude of the search engine’s power. In those days, long-form content referred to anything over 300 words. That’s about the length of this section. However, by 2018, the average had crept up to 1,100 words. Blog posts that went over that frequently ranked higher, got more engagement, and enjoyed more widespread sharing on social media. And guess what? Marketers noticed. By 2020, HubSpot found that the average blog post was 2,164 words – almost double what it’d been two years earlier. Blog posts have been trending longer for some time. Blog post length is creeping up over 2,000 words. Source: Orbit Media. So, what is long-form content in 2021? According to BuzzSumo, long-form content is anything over 2,000 words. According to HubSpot, it’s anything between 1,000 and 7,500 words – buuut you want to hit 2,500 words minimum to get the most shares and backlinks. However, according to Core DNA, your content doesn’t get to wear the badge of long-form until it’s a whopping 4,000 words (about 2.5 times the length of this article). This brings us to another point… When to Use Long-Form Content If longer articles catch more eyeballs, win more clicks, and result in more shares, then longer is always better. Right? Wrong. Like everything, long-form content is a tool with some very good applications. Use it when: You’re building pillar content. One meaty, well-researched article full of links to articles that deep-dive into subtopics can transform your content. Long-form content is excellent here. You’re trying to outrank competitors with long-form content. If your competition is routinely posting 2,000-word articles, your little 1,100-word work of art won’t cut it. In these cases, long-form content combined with the skyscraper technique can work wonders. The topic needs it. What’s worse than bad content? Content that fails to fully address the topic. If the topic needs 2,000 words, don’t try to squeeze it into an 800-word blog article simply because you have to publish four articles per month. You’re better off having your writer do one 2,000-word article that really delves into the topic than four 800-word posts that scratch the surface. The content will land in front of the reader in the deeper stages of the buyer’s journey. A 35-minute read might be intimidating to a casual browser or someone with a short attention span. Target serious seekers with your long-form content. You’re building authority or thought leadership. Long-form content helps improve a site’s Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness – or EAT, one of Google’s quality guidelines. [bctt tweet=”If longer articles catch more eyeballs, win more clicks, and result in more shares, then longer is always better. Right? ? …Wrong. Long-form content is a tool with some very good applications. Learn WHEN to use it here ?” username=””] How to Create Long-Form Blogs That Everyone Will Love So, you’ve got pillar content planned that will position you as an authority in your industry. Great! Here are four tips to follow when creating long-form blogs that will impress both your readers and the search engines. 1. Break Out the Statistics! Did you know that blogs are considered the fifth-most trustworthy source of information? And having statistics in your blogs is one of the easiest ways to boost that trustworthiness rating. Statistics have a lot of benefits, especially when they’re unique to your business. They give your readers some brain candy, and they prove to Google that you’re an expert in your industry. Therefore, DO: Compile unique statistics to give to your writers whenever possible. Emphasize fresh statistics (within two or three years, depending on your industry). 2. Diver Deeper into Topics Are there 26 blog posts already on the topic you want to write about? Think about another way to attack the topic. Differentiating yourself in the search engine does more than just give your readers something fresh. It also sets you apart from the competition by showing original thought leadership – you aren’t just rehashing what someone else has already said. DO: Find angles and leverage your content differentiation factor. Look for studies or research that hasn’t been used by others. Do your own case studies and incorporate them into pillar content. Want to learn the ins and outs of creating not just long-form blogs, but long-form blogs that create ROI? Check out The Expert … Read more

14 Reasons You Should Hire a Copywriter

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14 Reasons You Should Hire A Copywriter

Writing and publishing consistently great web copy is absolutely vital for your online presence. How much so? Conductor published the first known study where they looked at the impact of educational content on customers. Guess what they found? Study participants said they were 131% more likely to purchase from a brand, after reading content from that brand. 78% of respondents found a brand “helpful,” while 64% found the brand “trustworthy” after reading content from that brand. These numbers increased by 8-9% one week later! Those are powerful numbers. But, it can get overwhelming quickly if you don’t know how to do it, or where to start first in terms of hiring a copywriter or even trying to do it yourself. This means that sometimes your web copy can get pushed to the back of your pile of important business-related items. Yikes. What should you do if you can’t spend the time writing excellent web content to help set your site apart from competitors? Hire a copywriter, of course! Let’s take a look at just why you should hire a copywriter and how one can help you create the best web copy ever for your business. [bctt tweet=”Did you know? @Conductor found that 131% of people are more likely to purchase from a brand after reading content from that brand. This and 1️⃣4️⃣ more reasons to hire a #copywriter ✏” username=”ExpWriters”] 14 Reasons Hiring a Copywriter is Your Best Idea Yet Let’s take a look at 14 great reasons why you should hire a copywriter. Ready? 1. More Time for Your Morning Coffee (Or Anything Else You’d Rather Be Doing) One of the main reasons why you should consider hiring a copywriter for your content needs is simply because you will have more time. This means you can spend your time drinking your favorite cup of coffee or tea in the morning ☕, or spend more time on another aspect of your business. Creating consistent, engaging content can take up a significant amount of time, and copywriters are a great way to save that time. Expertly trained copywriters are able to write excellent copy quickly while still hitting the mark you want. 2. A Professional Copywriter Can Perfectly Capture Your Services When you hire a professional copywriter, you aren’t just getting someone who can write amazing pieces, you’re hiring someone who can capture your services. Copywriters are trained to learn as much as they can about various industries to make sure they write quality content. In addition, many industry-specific copywriters out there have special training, making them perfect to write for your niche audience. 3. Never Worry About High-Stakes Copy Again Sometimes, you need copy that does some seriously heavy lifting. Maybe you have a big product launch coming up, so you need tons of enticing, persuasive copy that encourages customers to buy. Maybe you’re publishing a mega blog guide that you poured a ton of resources into, and you need a headline that gets people to click and start reading. Or, maybe you invested in Facebook ads and you really need some great ad copy to make the investment pay off. Whatever your situation, sometimes you can’t mess around with amateur copy. In cases like these and many more, you need to hire a pro copywriter, one with experience and results behind them, to get the job done and churn out that ROI. 4. Grammar Issues, Begone Not everyone is skilled with grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and that is usually perfectly fine. However, when you’re writing web content, you want to make sure every aspect of your copy is perfect for the big Google machine, not to mention your reputation as a brand and/or a professional expert in your field. You know if you’re a strong writer or not, and it’s a good idea to make sure you hire a copywriter if you are not strong. Copywriters have various degrees in fields that require great grammar, which means they will be able to craft expert material for you, Google, and your readers. In addition, many copywriters also have copyeditors on speed-dial who can look through the content to catch any little mistakes that do make it through. Grammar is vital for great SEO, so make sure you always have excellent grammar simply by hiring a copywriter. 5. A Copywriter Knows How to Write Persuasive Content When writing for the web, persuasive copy is a must. However, not everyone has the talent to create persuasive content that helps pull customers through the sales funnel without coming across like a 1970s used car salesperson. Copywriters know the importance of creating persuasive content for their clients without focusing heavily on sales-speech, because we know this can easily turn your readers off. When you write your own content, it might come across as far too sales-y for your readers, simply because you don’t have the expertise to walk the fine line between being persuasive and sales-driven. Beat the doubt on whether or not your content is too persuasive (or not persuasive enough) by hiring a writer who can create expert copy that will turn readers into customers quickly and easily. 6. There IS Such a Thing as Being “Too Close” to a Topic You might think being very close to your industry is helpful when it comes time to create copy, but this can actually be detrimental. First of all, when you’re too close to your industry, you might not realize just how confusing your jargon is to newbies or those outside of it. Second of all, when you’re writing about your own business and services, you might find it hard to be objective enough. We all think we can be until it comes down to it, and then we begin questioning and doubting, which you don’t want reflected in your content. When you hire a copywriter, you’re able to have someone write about your services in a great light without focusing heavily on jargon, making your content easy to understand and enticing. 7. Copywriters … Read more

How to Update Old Content: Your Ultimate Guide to More ROI From Every Old Piece

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How to Create Massive Content ROI: Your 4-Step Guide on How to Update Old Content

You’ve done it! You have a great site, and you’ve had a ton of traffic. …But lately, your viewership has begun to slip. The anxiety starts to sink in as you rack your brain for fresh, new content. And you wonder, “What do I do now?” No need to panic! It turns out, you’re in luck. If you need time to get those creative juices flowing before you start on that awesome new piece, there’s a solution you might have overlooked. What is it? Your own, already-published content. That old content sitting in your archives! ? That’s right. There’s a gold mine right beneath your feet — you’re sitting on old content that could be incredible with a little glow-up and some tweaking. You might ask, “But how do I update old content?” Fear not. It’s easier than it sounds. In today’s blog I’ll show you, step by step, the best ways to update your old content to create massive ROI. Ready? Let’s get into it. How to Update Old Content and Create Massive ROI Why Update Old Content? How to Update Old Content: 6 Essential Steps Find the Right Content to Update (Audit Your Content) Edit and Update Inaccuracies, Typos, & Wording Check for Broken Links & Outdated Research Craft a New Headline Update the Images and Copy in Your Content Finesse the Meta Content & CTAs Republishing: How to Show Off Your Updated Content How to Republish Content in WordPress Should You Change the URL? Updated Content is New Content Make Your Old Content Sparkle [bctt tweet=”It pays to focus on creating irresistible new content. But never forget – your old content deserves some extra love, too! @JuliaEMcCoy lays out 6 steps to a flawless old content makeover. ✨” username=”ExpWriters”] Why Update Old Content? You might be thinking here — “But, my content is already perfect and I’ve had a ton of views. Why should I change it?” The truth is, if you’re not updating your old blogs, you’re missing out on more traffic to those posts and more potential new readers and leads. Returning to those killer posts you’ve already spent time and money on is an essential part of improving the ROI and the quality of your site. For our own Write Blog, we’ve updated old content transparently and achieved serious ROI from doing so, like with this gargantuan SEO guide: We earned nine new backlinks and more than 20 new comments on this piece alone after we updated it. As you can see, revitalizing your old content helps keep your site up-to-date, on-trend, and in plain sight of Google’s site crawlers. But what about your loyal readers? Trust me, they will thank you for being a reliable resource for the latest and greatest content. Blogs are now the 5th most trusted source for online information. By staying up to date on the latest information and revamping your old content, readers know they can count on you to keep them in the loop. Besides, you’ve already invested the time and effort to create them, why not make them all that they can be? Source: Andrea La-Rosa Think of it this way… You know that hairstyle your dad or your uncle rocked for years? Well… It’s not quite on-trend anymore. Blog posts are a similar situation. You can still love them, but times have changed and so has the information online. It’s likely that, no matter the topic, there exists new and potentially better information about that subject you so diligently researched. So, stay on trend! Schedule in the time for researching and updating, and see what else has surfaced since you posted. How to Update Old Content: 6 Essential Steps Okay, I’ve convinced you. You’ve decided to refresh your old blog posts. But should you start now? And if not now, when? Everyone asks me this question! The answer is, if you have two or more years worth of content, and you haven’t updated anything within that time frame, you’re missing out on valuable leads that could become conversions. Make it a priority to schedule time to update your blogs every quarter. I recommend updating at least 5-10 pieces per quarter for optimal results. This adds up to some serious ROI if you make the commitment. If you’ve decided the time is now, get your editing pickaxe in hand. ⛏️ Let’s take a look at your previous masterpieces to see what’s worth updating. 1. Find the Right Content to Update (Audit Your Content) A great place to begin a content audit is Google Analytics. There you can find metrics like bounce rate, social shares, and time-on-page. These will help you determine which previous posts are the best-performing, and thus worth updating. To start, open your Google Analytics account. On the left-hand side, go to Behavior. Then, click the Overview button. Next, navigate to the bottom right of the page and click view full report in the bottom right-hand corner. On the next screen, there will only be 10 posts by default. You can change this by going to the bottom of the page and editing the Show rows option to any number you like: 100, or even 5,000. Then, return to the top of the page and click Export. Boom! You now have a perfectly organized list of your posts. From here, look closely to determine which posts have the highest conversion rates, the largest amount of traffic, and the lowest bounce rate. These are your golden nuggets that keep visitors engaged. But what if you don’t use Google Analytics, or what if all your posts have similar stats? Not a problem — there are other ways to determine which posts you should focus on. One way is looking at which of your posts are evergreen. Evergreen content is content that will provide unique value for your visitors, generate traffic, and result in conversions for the foreseeable future. If you’re unsure what falls into that category, think about the pieces that took you some time to craft. Examples … Read more

Tone of Voice & POV: How to Use Both Correctly for a Stronger, More Consistent Brand Presence

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Tone of Voice & POV: How to Use Both Correctly for a Stronger, More Consistent Brand Presence

How do customers perceive you online? It begins and ends with your point of view and tone of voice. ? ✍️ Overwhelmingly, brands with their POV and tone of voice nailed outperform their “meh” competitors – you know, those forgettable brands with a bland presence. Consistently presenting a brand across all platforms increases revenue by 23%. When a brand has a strong point of view with clearly defined values, 64% of customers say that creates kinship and encourages them to buy. Another 77% of customers say they buy from brands that share their values. (How do brands express their values? Through their point of view!) So, if you have your brand voice on lock, you’ll more easily connect with your target audience, build trust, and convince them to buy. Unfortunately, some of the most common mistakes I see in content writing have to do with botched tone of voice or point of view. From clients we work with to students in the classes I teach to writers I talk to – a misunderstanding of these two fundamental writing concepts continually rears its head. The problem is misunderstanding can lead to major gaffes in communication. (Can you say disappointed, annoyed customers?) These are tricky concepts if you don’t know the rules and logic behind them. Luckily, learning about tone of voice and point of view isn’t too hard. Plus, the massive results you’ll earn are worth it: a more consistent brand presence that will draw your customers to you, consistently, time and time again. ? Let’s get into it. Your Guide to Point of View and Tone of Voice: Table of Contents What Are Tone of Voice and Point of View? 1. Tone of Voice 2. Point of View First-Person POV Second-Person POV Third-Person POV How to Use Tone of Voice and POV Correctly for a Better Brand Presence 1. Choose Your Tone of Voice from the Four Dimensions, Then Refine 2. Don’t Go Too Far with Tone of Voice 3. Choose Your Words Wisely Your Tone of Voice and Point of View Define Your Brand What Are Tone of Voice and Point of View? First up, let’s clearly define the meaning of point of view and tone of voice in writing. 1. Tone of Voice In communication, tone of voice determines how the writer comes across to the reader. What emotion(s) come through? How do they feel about the audience they’re writing to? Tone of voice directly affects communication no matter where or how you’re talking. In speech, the literal tone and pitch of your voice convey how you feel about what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to. Likewise, your writing tone of voice has a direct impact on how your audience interprets your meaning and intentions. In writing, however, the key is word choice. The words you use, and the way you phrase them, define your textual tone. Look at these tone of voice examples for an imaginary editing service. They convey the same message, but each has a different tone: Sympathetic tone: Writing is hard. If you need help refining your prose, we’re here for you. Witty tone: Writer’s block is as much fun as sitting in gridlock traffic for an hour. We get it. We can help you get unstuck. Direct, straightforward tone: We’ll refine your writing, correct your grammar, and make your work shine. Angry/combative tone: How the *$&!! did you get into this line of work with so little talent?! You obviously can’t write, so what CAN you do? (That last example isn’t copy so much as harsh commentary, but it’s a good taste of how your tone of voice can change drastically by adding in a few all-caps and extra punctuation. This is a prime negative tone of voice example.) A good synonym for tone of voice is writing style. 2. Point of View Point of view (POV) is perhaps more confusing for some people than tone of voice. Let’s clear the air. Point of view refers to the narrator of a piece of content and their particular perspective. This is the person who’s telling the story, relaying the information, or reporting the events. Everything is told from this person’s point of view. However, sometimes the narrator is not the writer, and vice-versa. The writer may assume the POV of someone else, essentially stepping into their shoes and writing from their perspective. This can be a different person, character, or entity (such as a brand or organization). Whether you’re writing as yourself or writing as someone else, you’ll use different types of POV: Source: Grammarly First-Person POV This type of POV is the most personal. With first-person, you’re writing directly from your own experience (or directly from your chosen narrator’s experience) using words like “I,” “me,” and “mine.” Example: I know writing is hard. For me, I had to read and write every day before I became any good. First-person POV also can be plural, i.e., one person speaking on behalf of many. In this instance, you’ll use words like “we,” “us,” and “our.” Example: We know writing is hard. For us, the key was to read and write every day to improve our skills. The 1st-person point of view is one you’ll see most often in personal stories, where people are describing their experiences. You’ll also find it in modern fiction writing. Ann Handley uses first-person writing to great effect in her blog posts: Second-Person POV Writing in second-person means you’re talking directly to the reader, using words like “you,” “your,” and “yours.” Example: You can learn to write well. It just takes a bit of practice. Soon the skill will be yours to command. Sometimes, first and second-person POV can intermix – you can write both personally and directly. Example: I know how difficult writing can be. You don’t need to be intimidated, though. You’ve got this! This is the most common type of point of view you’ll find in online content writing. See this example from Brian Dean … Read more

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