A craveable, delicious, delightful blog post isn’t much different from a pastry.
As long as you follow the recipe, steps included, you will create a post your readers are hungry to devour – and might even return for more.
The good news is you won’t make a special trip to the grocery store to get started on the perfect blog post. Everything you need is in your virtual pantry – you just didn’t realize it.
Writing a blog post, especially in today’s competitive market, is intimidating. Once you break it down and understand the ingredients, however, you can whip up these readable bits on the fly and stay up with the trends for the future of blogging in 2023.
So, What Do You Need to Craft the Perfect Blog Post in 2023?
The future of blogging has certainly changed. What worked last year doesn’t necessarily apply today. Therefore, staying up on the latest blogging and SEO trends is essential so that you know what Google expects – and, more importantly, what today’s reader wants.
The Perfect Blog Recipe
Before you start to type, you want to make sure you have the following essentials ready to add to the mixing bowl:
1 click-worthy title
1 attention-keeping introduction
A pinch of creativity
A few cups of informative, scannable subheaders
A splash of succinct body copy
A handful of authoritative research and your expertise
1 part formatting
1 delectable conclusion
A dusting of enthusiasm for the topic
A garnish of passion for your niche
Putting it Altogether – How the Future of Blogging will Change How You Use These Ingredients
As you can see, the ingredients haven’t changed, but how and when you use them has.
We will break down each portion of this recipe so that you know how to mix it all in and get your readers to come back for more.
Creating Your Title
By far one of the most essential ingredients!
Your title sets the stage for what the reader can expect, even determining if they ever get past the SERPs to read your blog.
Spend time on this stage of your recipe. In fact, whatever you title it as your “working” title, be prepared to come back and rework it until it is just right later.
Don’t hastily toss forth the first title you have in mind. Instead, let it sit and rest, and the flavors meld together. Think of title creation as a slow, steady simmer rather than a rapid boil.
A good title mixes intrigue and information and is not too long.
Yes, Google says there is no limit, and the length of your title will not influence your search engine results. Instead, it affects whether or not someone will click on it. The first 60 characters matter the most – so make those count even if you have a 100-character title.
Whatever you do, don’t over-sprinkle in the keywords for your title – not only will it kill your readability factor and turn off any enthusiastic taster, but it will turn away Google too.
Roll Out Your Introduction
Your introduction supports your title. So perhaps you may not create it until you have solidified your intro – and that’s okay.
An introduction requires time and patience. While you will mix up something short, sweet, and enticing, you will also want it to rest a few hours before you revisit and rework it again. While adding a keyword to the introduction is essential, ensure it is not the highlighting flavor.
An introduction gives readers just a taste of what else is to come, but the full flavor doesn’t explode until the end. Of course, if your introduction isn’t tasty enough to keep reading, the end doesn’t matter much.
So, take your time, rework it after the entire blog is done, and ask yourself, would I eat this up?
Never Forget the Power of Creativity
Too many recipes lack creativity.
Think of those five-star restaurants – are they working with “vanilla” recipes used over and over again?
Of course not.
They are hashing out something unique that stays with their branding but still tantalizes the tastebuds.
Never leave out a pinch of creativity in your content – all of your content. Creativity should be tossed in from the start; if you can’t taste it, add more.
Start Rolling Out Subheaders
Subheaders help your reader scan and understand what they are about to digest. They should go in an even flow, make sense, and inform.
Ideally, subheaders are introduced every 300-500 words max (there’s nothing wrong with adding them in fewer words as long as the words in between pack a powerful punch). Subheaders are a great place for optimizing with secondary keywords but don’t overdo it.
Time to Mix in Your Body’s Copy
You have a working title, and you’ve rolled out the subheaders. Now comes the time to mix together your blog’s body.
But before you add anything, do your research. You may be an expert in your niche, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need resources to back up what you say. Today, using authoritative, high-quality links is still a must-have for any recipe. Search Engine Journal states that every site needs credible, authoritative, and trustworthy content – and a reader can’t take you at your word without some citations.
As you mix up that copy, make sure to spice it up enthusiastically. Nothing turns a reader away more than negativity. So, likewise, be as passionate about your niche as you want your reader to be as you create your blog – if you are not excited about it, why should they be?
A few other things to keep in mind while you mix up your body’s copy:
Optimize Gently. Optimizing your content is like working gluten. Too much, and it’s gotten too chewy, stiff, and undesirable. Yes, keywords matter in 2023, but how and where you use them has changed.
Focus on Your Brand’s Authority. What Google praises more than keywords are brand authority and trustworthiness. Ever heard of E-E-A-T? Nowhere in that acronym is keywords. What is, however, is expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness.
Be Unique. Today, readers are overwhelmed with choices. You won’t stand out in the crowd if you are the garden variety. Personalization is important.
Focus on the Reader and Not on Google. Yes, Google matters, but the person you are talking to in your blog post is not a search engine but a reader. Center your content’s quality, information, and focus around the reader; you’ll win them every time. Focus on keywords and search engines, and your recipe falls flat each time.
Arrange Your Formatting
No matter where the future of blogging goes, one thing is sure: the wall of text is never coming back.
Today’s reader doesn’t have the patience. Today’s reader prefers the amuse-bouche rather than traditional hors d’oeuvres. They want all of the flavors in a quick little nibble rather than having to enjoy it in a few more bites.
UX planet estimates that readers only take in about 20-28% of the body.
To increase the amount read, make it pretty – after all, we all eat with our eyes and not our stomachs.
Ensure you have an excellent mixture of:
H1, H2s, and H3s to break up the chunks of the body
Sprinkle in bulleted or numbered lists to get to the point
Add images to keep the reader’s attention on the page
Top it Off with a Conclusion
Your conclusion is where you drive action. The reader has stuck with you until the end, so this is an essential piece of content to deliver. Just as with your introduction, keep the conclusion short and sweet. Nothing over-the-top, nothing out of character. Just end the blog on a tasty note with a solid CTA that tells your reader where to go for their next meal.
Let it Rest before You Do the Rest
If you are self-editing your blog posts, you’ve mixed, mashed, sprinkled and dashed, but now it is time to let it rest. A good four to six hours is all your blog post needs before it is picked up again.
Come back refreshed and ready to cut out the fluff, trim the fat, remove unnecessary ingredients in your copy, and add a few more splashes of your brand’s unique voice where it seems suitable.
You’ve Followed the Recipe – Now What?
You’ve followed the recipe, but it is not quite time to plate it.
Before you plate your dish and send it out, you want to make sure you have social media posts and your email newsletter ready to fire off the second your blog goes public. Share across your favorite social media platforms with the same enthusiasm as you did in your piece!
Crafting great content is a lot like creating a great recipe. Not all of us are natural-born chefs, but we don’t have to be. While the future of blogging continually changes, one thing that will never change is the power of hiring talented people to craft your delicious content.
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.
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 take your product, look at it in a fresh new way, and sell it to new customers with a novel perspective on what makes it so great. We take your tired content topics and breathe new life into them, illuminating and showcasing your brand voice in the process.
If your sales language and content writing are bogged down in jargon and marketing-speak that don’t really mean anything, then you most definitely need the help of a content writer.
4. Fresh Content, Consistently, Means Better Results
It should go without saying at this point, but I’m saying it anyway. (Do you see a theme emerging, here?)
Search engines love fresh content.
They also love quality content.
To rank well, to stay on Google’s page one, you need both.
75% of SEO experts cite content as the most important factor for an SEO-friendly website.
Keeping your site’s pages filled with ever-changing, fresh, keyword-optimized content that isn’t spammy, that’s written for humans, and is fun and engaging for an internet audience to read, is going to be the best dang thing that ever happened to your website. Period.
Guess what.
The best content writers do that. ALL of it.
Your content writer will have his or her finger on the pulse of your web traffic in a way you never could. They know how to write consistently great content while using SEO techniques – all without sacrificing readability, customer engagement, or accuracy.
I get it. You have overhead, and hiring even one more person will make your budget that much tighter.
No worries. You don’t need a sky-high budget to get stellar content writing.
Even companies on the barest of budgets should be able to afford the services of a freelance content writer for a project or two, and if the content is effective, then your bottom line will start looking up, enabling you to bring that freelancer on board regularly.
[bctt tweet=”❕FACT: You don’t need a big budget to get stellar #contentwriting. Even bootstrapped brands can afford a content writer for a project or two. ➕ with effective content, your bottom line will grow, so you can hire that writer regularly.” username=”ExpWriters”]
Need a Content Writer? We’ve Got Content Writers.
Content writing is an integral piece of the marketing puzzle. Without the right, skilled expert in your corner, content creation and publishing will be much, much harder than they need to be. They’ll take more time, more money, and cause more headaches.
You get it. You need a content writer.
If you’re ready to dive in, we’ve got you. ❤
If you need a content writer, like, yesterday, Express Writers has a literal writer army at your disposal. Check out our Content Shop and find out what we can do for your business.
What’s the one thing you need to do to master a new skill?
Practice, of course!
This is as true with learning to play tennis as it is mastering content writing: the more you practice, the better you get.
Today, content writing is a critical talent, and mastering it can help you stand out in the crowded online world.
Sound hard? Don’t worry, it’s easier than you might think. Just follow these seven simple tips, and you’ll be on the top of your content writing game in no time at all.
How to Improve Your Content Writing: Why Creating Great Online Content Matters So Much
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for all of 2016 (and maybe the decade before that, as well), you’ve probably interacted with some form of online content.
Whether it was a blog, a webpage, a social media post, or even a product description, online content has touched your life in one way or another.
This industry is nowhere near dying. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Today, online content is one of the primary sources that humans use to communicate with one another.
Sound crazy?
Think about it!
Regardless of what you do for work or fun, chances are that you interact with some form of digital content every day. Do you read blogs? Do you surf the web? Do you shop online? If so, you’re interacting with online content!
The average person interacts with 285 pieces of content every single day.
This rounds out to 54,000 words (the length of a novel) and 1,000 different links – consumed daily.
A whopping 63% of that content is written, while 37% is media content.
If that doesn’t put the importance of online content in perspective, I’m not sure what will!
Due to the rise of digital content, and the level of importance that consumers now place on it, learning how to improve your content writing is one of the smartest things you can do.
How to Improve Your Content Writing in 7 Steps
Regardless of whether you’re a marketer, blogger, small business owner, or just an online enthusiast, improving your content writing is one of the best ways to succeed in the digital world.
Here are seven tips to help you head into 2017 strong:
1. Up your image game
For most people, “adding an image” to a blog means plugging in a stock photo for the featured picture.
This is not enough.
Today, images make all the difference in a person’s willingness to read your content. In fact, HubSpot reports that content that includes a relevant image gets a massive 94% more views than content that is only text.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional photographer to add images to your posts. Today, there are dozens of free and high-quality stock image sites you can take advantage of. You can also hire out custom images, or create your own on a site like Canva.
No matter what you do, make sure any images you include in your posts are high-quality – there should be no blurring or odd proportions – and relevant.
2. Dig deeper than average to verify facts and statistics
It’s easy to fill your writing with general statements. It’s much harder, however, to go to the source and find relevant, solid statistics to back up your claims. This is one simple way to beef up your online writing.
Today, it’s easier than ever to find quality statistics for any industry you’re involved in. A simple Google search with the word “statistic” at the end will reveal thousands, if not millions, of hits. Before you go plugging them into your content, however, you need to know how to determine what is a high-quality source and what’s not.
One fantastic, 100% trustworthy tool for determining this is Alexa.
Alexa is an Amazon subsidiary that allows users to access traffic and rank estimates based on mass browsing behavior. Alexa’s ranks are updated daily and the tool offers a quick view of sites that are high-quality and sites that are low-quality – the lower the site ranking number, the better it’s doing online.
To use Alexa, just head to Alexa.com/siteinfo, and type in your target URL. If it ranks over 100,000, it’s a high-quality link that you can include in your content.
Save this handy-dandy visual guide:
3. Add an infographic
Right now, infographics are shared and liked on social media three times as often as any other type of content out there.
Like any image, the infographics you use in your content must always be high-quality, relevant, and professional.
4. Publish a case study
A case study is one piece of content that announces “I have arrived!”
Here’s why: case studies are not something that every content writer produces. They take time, they take expertise, and they take real, demonstrable success that your clients are willing to let you share.
Because of this, they are an incredibly powerful type of online content that can serve to enhance your reputation and help you land more customers.
If you’re interested in publishing a case study, you’ll have to set a time frame and start paying close attention to your results. If you have a specific job or interaction with the client that you believe would be fodder for a case study, reach out to the client and ask for permission to share the details.
Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author, is commonly quoted as having said that it takes 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” to become an expert at something. If that’s true, the more you write, the better at it you’ll be.
While there are dozens of technical or professional ways to improve your online copywriting, one of the best things that you can do to get better is simply to write more.
The more you write, the more honed your skills will be, and the more efficient you’ll be at spotting mistakes.
In addition to making you a better writer, writing more often can also help you become more visible online, since it will naturally increase your social shares and enhance your network of readers.
6. Use a headline analyzer to test your titles
One of the simplest and most overlooked tools for writers is the headline analyzer. There are several different models out there, many of which are free.
Designed to test a headline for its concentration of emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and power words, a headline analyzer takes your headline, evaluates it, and lets you know what you need to improve.
If you’re just learning to craft a great headline, a headline analyzer is a fantastic way to catch common mistakes and pivot your writing style accordingly.
Even for writers who are already professionals, a headline analyzer is a fantastic way to improve your online content and learn how to be a better writer across the board.
7. Find out which topics your readers want
Doing some research into trending topics in your industry is another fantastic way to immediately improve your online writing. Use a tool like BuzzSumo to locate trending content in your industry.
If you’d prefer to take it to the “streets,” head to a website like Quora or Reddit to figure out what your audience is talking about and what their questions are.
While most people assume that the topics they come up with are the ones their audience wants to read, the audience is the best resource for figuring out what you should be writing about.
With that in mind go to the places your audience hangs out. See what they are talking about. Once you’ve done that, bring it back to your blog. This is a sure-fire recipe for becoming appealing and compelling online.
Learning to Improve Your Content Writing Just got Easy
There are tons of cheap tips for learning to improve writing on the web.
At the end of the day, however, improving your online copywriting comes down to wanting to do it.
Here at Express Writers, we’re passionate about helping you improve your online writing. With the help of these seven tips, you can become a better online writer, learn more about the digital world around you, and grow your skills in 2017, and beyond!
Still need a bit of help managing your online copy writing needs? Contact Express Writers today to learn more about our team of experienced writers and purchase your content package now.
If you missed this week’s #ContentWritingChat, there’s no need to worry. I have you covered with a recap of some of the best tweets from the chat. Our topic was Strategies for Rising Above the Noise With Your Content with a wonderful guest host, Carrie Morgan. If you want to learn how to create better content that stands out, keep on reading!
#ContentWritingChat February 23 2016 Recap: Strategies for Rising Above the Noise With Your Content
Our guest host this week was Carrie Morgan. Carrie is a published author of the book endorsed by people like Jay Baer, Ann Handley, and Jay Baer, Above the Noise: Creating Trust, Value & Reputation Online Using Basic Digital PR. She’s also a Digital Public Relations Consultant and you can find out more about her via her website, Rock the Status Quo. Be sure to follow her on Twitter: @morgancarrie.
As Carrie pointed out, knowing your audience is very important. You need to know who you’re writing for in order to create great content they’ll love. Nicholas agreed, but he also brought up user experience. Your website should provide a good experience for each visitor.
If you want people to notice your content, make sure you’re optimizing your posts for search engines and sharing regularly on social media, as Carrie suggested. When you take the time to optimize your posts, you’ll rank higher in search results, increasing the likelihood your target market finds your content. You don’t have to be an SEO expert, but you should at least know the basics.
A great reminder from Netvantage Marketing: Be original! To truly stand out online, you need to be yourself and put your own spin on things.
Don’t be afraid to just ask your audience what they’re interested in and what they need help with. They hold the answers to your questions. All you have to do is ask! You can create a survey for readers to complete or figure out where they spend time online and engage them. Kristen suggested spending time in forums and reading blog comments.
Build trust with your audience through your content. Share authentic content that provides value to your audience, as Yanique pointed out. Make sure you’re also engaging them, as our CEO, Julia, said. Starting a conversation and building relationships with your target market is essential to building a level of trust.
Stand out from your competitors by consistently providing high-quality content to your audience. Carrie says you should constantly work to improve your writing skills. The more you write, the better you get!
As Nicholas mentioned, visuals are another way you can stand out from your competition. Create eye-catching graphics your audience will love to help your blog posts and social media updates get attention.
To become an authority figure in your niche, you need to provide your audience with the content they’re looking for. Use BuzzSumo and Quora to find topics to write about. This is something we do often here at Express Writers! When you become an authority in your niche, people are going to come to you for your thoughts. And as Michael said, you can’t be afraid to share your opinion.
Make sure you get your content out there. Kathleen suggested utilizing PR and link building as ways to reach beyond your own niche.
A great answer from Village Print & Media: Create content that is relatable, relevant, inspiring, problem solving, and conversational. Your audience will love it! Ema suggested creating eBooks, webinars, and more that your audience will love and give it away for free. Everyone loves free content, but make sure they’re high-value!
And be sure to keep Kristen’s tip in mind the next time you’re writing content. Ask yourself if you would take the time to read or watch what you’ve creating. If the answer is no, there is a good chance your audience won’t either.
Carrie brings up a great point about brand consistency. Utilize your brand colors, fonts, etc. when creating images for your blog posts and social media. It helps your audience to easily recognize your graphics! If you really want to stand out with your graphics, ditch the typical stock images. So many of them have been overused so you want to find images that aren’t everywhere and find ways to make them your own.
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Be sure to join us on Tuesday, March 1st, 2016 at 10 AM CST!
The cornerstone of great online content is great SEO.
And yet, without content there is no SEO. It’s an interesting complex.
Without great SEO content, no website can rank well, can’t be found by users, and can’t go viral on the web.
With this in mind, it’s clear that writers who want to develop their online brand and improve the functionality of their online content are essential, as well as their skill sets.
To help you achieve great SEO content, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite SEO writing tips to help you succeed. Read on to learn more.
10 Smart SEO Writing Tips for Better Content
Great content is the sum of its parts, and one of its most important parts is SEO. Unfortunately, many writers simply don’t understand how to take the (few) tenants of SEO and apply them to online copywriting.
Fortunately, those who want to learn can simply take the following SEO writing tips and plug them into their online content for better results, starting today:
1. Keep all of your content high-quality
Today’s publishers are under an intense amount of pressure. People want more content than ever before, and they want it faster than it’s often possible to produce it.
Because of this, many publishers and marketers weaken and start publishing low-quality content just to have published something. Unfortunately, this is the wrong way to go. While it may seem like low-quality content can be optimized just the same, it’s important to remember that great SEO goes much deeper than technical mumbo-jumbo.
While you may be able to use the same keyword phrase in low-quality content as you do high-quality content, its effect on your readers won’t be the same, and you’ll likely sacrifice some relevance and value as a result.
Keep in mind that, in the world of SEO, all good things begin with quality content. Without a quality piece of content to optimize, your SEO efforts won’t pack the punch they should, and your content risks falling flat on its face.
By insisting on publishing only high-quality content, you can help ensure that your readers will find value in your material and that all of the SEO work you do down the road serves to enhance an already powerful piece.
2. Keep your topic relevant to your audience
No matter what you’re writing, don’t lose sight of your audience.
Some writers have a tendency to drift off to unrelated topics in hopes of being engaging and unique to a wide assortment of readers, but this misses the mark entirely.
Instead of leaping from one point to the next, ensure that your content features a cohesive structure and that it’s all designed with your target audience in mind. Focus on what you’re writing and keep who you’re writing to in mind.
Unless your content has a well-defined target audience, it never really stands a chance of ranking well, and the likelihood that it will go viral in a particular segment or group is small. Make it simple.
With this in mind, do your homework. Research your target audience and find unique ways to speak to them in your online copy. Make it fun. People will know good quality writing when they see it, and they’ll know you’re talking to them when you take proactive steps to do so.
3. Experiment with formulas for your headlines
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in the world of SEO it might sound more like this: “Imitation is the fastest path to success.”
You know that sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy are famous for their click-bait headlines, and, if you’re like most readers, you’ve probably clicked a few yourself.
As it stands today, one of the most critical components of any piece of content is its headline. In addition to providing an SEO boost by featuring relevant long-tail keywords, a headline also has a dramatic impact on click-through-rate, which, in turn, has a significant impact on SEO.
With this in mind, it’s clear that you cannot afford to let your headlines slack. Because of this, you may want to try headline formulas and see where they get you.
While nobody is advocating that you steal your competition’s headlines, or borrow excessively from successful companies, taking note of what they do and applying it to your business is an excellent way to boost your headline success and influence your click-through rates in a positive way.
In light of this, get to work testing out negative headlines, lists, headlines that reference your audience, and those that inspire curiosity. When you find one that works well, play with variations of it. In addition to boosting your SEO, this will also make you a better writer.
4. Avoid overstuffing your content with keywords
Keep your eye on how many times you use your target keyword. While keyword density obsessions have slackened in the last several years, keywords still need to feel natural, and if they don’t, you’re liable to get penalized by Google.
A good rule of thumb is to stick to in a keyword for every 50 or 100 words of content. More than that, and it will sound redundant. Less than that, and your content won’t actually be optimized for the keyword.
Wherever you use your target keyword, keep it simple and to the point. Users will pick up on awkward keyword inclusion faster than you can say “hot potato,” and they’re willing to abandon your content because of it.
5. Break your content up into headers and subheaders
In addition to making your content easier for users to read, breaking it into headers and subheaders also helps your content look more appealing, and it can have some distinct SEO benefits, as well.
One of the best guidelines for this practice comes from WordPress’s powerful Yoast SEO plugin. This plugin, which evaluates on-page content for SEO and readability, generally recommends that there be no more than 300 words between headers or subheaders. This keeps content readable and skimmable for users.
6. Update your content on a regular basis
Updating your content can mean a few things. In some cases, it may simply mean publishing new content on a regular basis. In other settings, though, it can mean going back into older posts and updating them for relevance and accuracy today.
This is a critical tactic for anyone who publishes a lot of content and can help ensure that your content ranks well and continues to provide value to readers.
If you think about it, all content needs an update now and then. Either because statistics within it have changed or because a few simple switches can make it more relevant to a modern audience. By updating your content often, you can help ensure that you steer clear of unneeded SEO penalties while continuing to provide value and relevance to readers.
7. Meta descriptions are there for a reason
Meta descriptions are short pieces of content designed to help inform readers and search engines about your article. They are usually 160 characters or less in length and should contain your keywords.
While many writers either don’t create meta descriptions, or just copy and paste their descriptions from one piece of content to the next, creating unique, relevant, and well-written meta descriptions for all of your content can go a long way toward making it more valuable.
8. Make use of writing tools
Writing tools (like the aforementioned Yoast SEO plugin) can go a long way toward improving your online copywriting and helping you achieve better SEO.
In addition to Yoast, there are also spelling and grammar checkers like Grammarly, plagiarism checkers like Copyscape, and dozens (if not hundreds) of keyword research tools and topic analysis tools in between. (We’re building a tool that will have a deeper search than Copyscape for original content checking–Copyfind!)
While these tools may seem unneeded, they can go a long way toward improving your content and boosting your chances of ranking well in Google’s SERPs.
9. Keep your content original, always
This applies to your voice and your material.
While your voice should be unique to your brand, your content should be original, as well. All of it. This means no copying or borrowing from other sites, even your own.
While many writers believe that duplicate content isn’t an issue that could ever affect them, a Search Engine Land study reports that a whopping 29% of sites have a problem with duplicate content. With this in mind, run your content through a plagiarism checker (like Grammarly or Copyscape) before you publish it and be sure that your alt. descriptions and meta information are always unique and original.
10. Spice your content up with visuals
Visuals can help enhance the interest and relevance of your content, which can make it more useful for readers. With this in mind, grab an in-depth screenshot or a quality stock photo to illustrate your content’s key points and provide context.
SEO Writing Tips for the Modern Writer
While SEO best practices change like the weather, these ten SEO writing tips are here to stay and can help you craft quality online content your readers (and search engines) will love!
Do you need skilled SEO copywriters to help your content rank well online? Visit our Content Shop to find the perfect copywriters for your online project!
