Angela E.

Angela E is an expert authoritative writer at Express Writers.  Do you remember the Internet’s early days, when Yahoo! was king? For those too young to remember, there was a time when the world’s most popular search engine didn’t even exist, and no one ever thought of using “Google” as a verb. The “information superhighway” evolved quickly. It didn’t take long for businesses to realize that the Internet represented an untapped gold mine of potential customers. At the same time, tech folks were busily creating the apps so many rely on today, including Google. Google’s advanced search algorithms changed the Internet forever. Of course, that was back in 1999. So what does it take to rank on Google today? As always, Google’s algorithm is deeply confusing to most people (that’s why we broke it down once before). The main takeaway, though, is quality content — from authoritative voices. Note the keyword there: authoritative. If you want your content to be read, noticed, and shared – and why else would you create it? – you must position yourself as an authority. Authoritative content is the secret sauce to earning a strong ROI on your content. Luckily, we’re here: sharing that saucy recipe. Keep reading! Become an Authority in Your Industry: Create Authoritative Content You have to earn recognition as an authority, and that takes time and effort. Of course, it also takes creating powerful, engaging, valuable content, and doing so consistently. Building yourself up as an authority requires a blog. Of course, your entire site needs great, well-written content. But, if the only content you share through social media, email campaigns, newsletters, etc. is sales copy, your audience quickly tunes out. Compare it to your response to TV commercials and banner ads. Constant advertising eventually becomes white noise, ensuring you lose your audience. What’s more, it does nothing to build your voice as an authority in your industry. Your blog is the place to demonstrate your authority, your platform to prove yourself a thought leader. In other words, it lets you guide the conversation and add your voice to it. What’s more, your blog offers a natural way for you to regularly add fresh, engaging content to your site. This is a big deal when feeding the Google beast, which loves to gobble up fresh content. A realistic estimate on the time it takes to build your presence as an online authority is six months to one year. You can land on the narrow side of that estimate, though, if you follow some basic guidelines. Do You Know Who Your Audience Is? One of the most common mistakes people make in creating online content is attempting to write something for a general audience. You don’t see this in any other type of writing. Contemporary romance authors don’t throw in the occasional dragon to appeal to the fantasy crowd. Thriller writers don’t include a subplot about an angsty teen getting her first job and her first boyfriend over one eventful summer. Do you know why? These authors know whom they’re writing for, and so should you. Before you begin writing your piece, ask yourself, “Who am I writing this for? Who typed this search string into Google? What was he looking for? What problem does he hope to solve?” The answers to those questions guide everything that comes next. It Starts With a Killer Headline Shakespeare had young Juliet proclaim, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.” Shakespeare never wrote for the Internet. You can write the best content in the world, but if nobody reads it, you will never become an authority. Your headline is the key to convincing your reader to click that link. How important is crafting the perfect headline? Just about everybody who blogs about blogging has written about it: CopyBlogger Outspoken Media Make a Living Writing HubSpot Crazy Egg There are at least 20 more similar pieces out there, and each one is about the importance of nailing your title. To be clear: a compelling title that inspires readers to click is not necessarily a clickbait title. We’ve all seen clickbait titles, and probably clicked on a few. They’re anathema to good content creation, because they don’t deliver on their promises (hence the name). Readers have a lot of content available to them. Like, seriously, a lot of content. If your title doesn’t engage them, they won’t click on it. However, if your title is amazing but your content doesn’t deliver, you probably just lost them for good. This shouldn’t be hard to understand. You’re a customer; think about the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, treat other people the way you wish to be treated. Think about any business that ever insulted you with bad service – cold food, rude staff, not delivering on their promises. How often did you go back? For most, the answer is never. It starts with the headline and ends with the actual content. Grab their attention right off the bat, or lose them forever, and then deliver on the promise of your headline. This isn’t clickbait. Remember; clickbait titles don’t follow through on their promises. Your content delivers. Right? Fulfill the Promise of Your Title: Deliver Engaging Content Authoritative content draws in the reader and answers her questions in an easy-to-understand way. A simple way to make your writing relatable is to do exactly that: relate it to something else. Analogy and story telling are excellent tools. You may have noticed that we employed them numerous times in this post already. This device makes your content relatable because it takes an abstract concept and explains it through a recognizable story that nearly everyone has experienced at one point or another. Your reader takes these familiar ideas and applies them to new ones. Now that you’ve engaged your reader, inform her. Remember back to when you formed your idea of what this … Read more