Providing information
about a product and creating content around it forms the crux of content
writing. It is one of those effective marketing strategies, which is the
cornerstone of digital marketing. Although spreading the message through words
has been in use as far as one can think about advertising. It has turned a
corner with the advent of the internet and online business. Companies are
conscious of the importance of the web and are investing substantial resources
to stay ahead in the game. Much of the action in terms of word-based content is
centered around securing a good page rank on search engines.
You could say that the Google algorithm is becoming more ‘intelligent’ by dwelling into the semantics behind the sentence. This makes it all the more important to choose the words wisely when doing analysis for keyword research. Also, particular attention should be paid to “People also searched for” at the bottom that gets generated during a search. It is a treasure trove of the right kind of words that can be included in the final list of words during keyword research.
Search engines have
become the all-powerful reason that can make or break a brand. And writing
content in order to attain a good page rank is called Search Engine
Optimization or SEO. The idea behind SEO is to optimize the content with words
having high search volume. However, writers can get carried away by SEO and
start writing only for search engines. This can be counter-productive as the
resulting content would be lacking the necessary zeal to persuade users to read
and engage. The alternative is to keep SEO in mind while keeping the reader’s
interest alive during the course of writing. In this article, the effort is to
bring out good writing for better marketing online.
Get the Target Audience
in Place: There is a reason why
it is important to have the target audience in place before the start of the
writing process. Once you have an audience in place, it becomes easier to shape
the message. To start with you have to dwell into the background and mould the
content to the preference of the audience. Writing for different sets of
demographics differs with the kind of vocabulary, content formats and the
platforms on which they can be engaged in. When writing content you need to be
one of your demographic and look at their problems with their perspective. This
process would materialize content that is authentic and
compelling.
Set the Tone: Once you have envisioned your target audience.
Your content needs to have tone for it to create an impact. Tone is defined as
the author's attitude towards the subject and can be inferred through the use
of descriptive words. It can be formal, informal, friendly, or playful and
forms the fine nuances that give the edge to the content for it to stand out
amongst competition.
Your writing can appear
bland and academic if your sole purpose is to appear knowledgeable and clever.
This beats the purpose in the long-term. Rather, the writing should be akin to
the way you speak. Your blog post needs to be written as if you are speaking to
a single reader to bring the audience closer to you.
Stick to an informal
tone when creating content. Although, there is an audience that prefers a
formal tone. In the long run, it has been seen that the content struggles to
find new readers. Users do not consume content in order to appear clever. They
need solutions to real-world problems and you need to welcome them with
informative and relevant content.
Write for the Single
Reader: You can be misguided
by the fact that we keep talking about an audience. However, when it comes to
reading the content, it is only a single person in front of the screen. You
have to visualize and write for this person in mind to connect to the larger
audience. Writing in this manner resonates better with the audience as they
will feel a personal connection to it.
Blog writing is all
about integrating certain words to personalize the experience for the readers.
Usage of words like ‘you’ and ‘because’ only strengthens the tone. Overall, the
readers do not care about you, and what you stand for, whether you are a
success or a failure. All they care about is the value you deliver. It is when
you start delivering value - they would share content, link to your
content and recommend your products to other people. Start this by
shifting your focus to ‘them’. It is ‘your’ blog but it is not for ‘you’. It is
for your readers. Reduce the usage of ‘me’ and ‘I’ and your readers will notice
how important ‘they’ are.
Though following all the
rules does not guarantee success for all the content that you create. The
audience makes the choice and decides which content gets the most publicity.
Keyword Research: A lot has changed within the Google algorithm
since the last time you checked. After the ‘Hummingbird’ update, it has been
rephrased as Topic Research. Although, people still use both Keyword &
Topic search interchangeably. The fact of the matter is that Google gives more
weightage to the meaning behind the query than before. For example, if you
search for ‘vacuum cleaner broken’, the search results would have links to
‘fix’ the appliance as compared to the past. Earlier, the query generated
results with emphasis on words used in the query. Today, the stress is on
decoding the meaning behind the words used for the query.
You could say that the Google algorithm is becoming more ‘intelligent’ by dwelling into the semantics behind the sentence. This makes it all the more important to choose the words wisely when doing analysis for keyword research. Also, particular attention should be paid to “People also searched for” at the bottom that gets generated during a search. It is a treasure trove of the right kind of words that can be included in the final list of words during keyword research.
Competitor Analysis: Rather than struggling alone to come up with
innovative strategies to make your content competitive. You could always take
inspiration from your competition. Look what they are doing right and what
seems to be working well for them. What is getting them high SERP compared to
you?
- Analyse their SEO strategies. Avoid
going for words that are working for them. Rather target words they haven’t still utilized or under-utilized.
- Create content around their
topics they haven’t touched yet and try to downplay their strengths.
Effort should be to focus on topics, where they are currently weak in.
- Do not get sucked into copying
your competition and trying to catch them on their own game.
Evergreen Content: The life-span of written content is limited. Content
that remains relevant with the passage of time makes for evergreen content. It
does not need updating with time and receives a consistent amount of traffic by
beating news cycles. These factors make it the holy-grail among writers since
it reduces the need to constantly churn out new ideas and content. Here’s
how you go about
- Use a keyword tool to
understand the search volume for a specific topic. Also, look at top-ranking pages in Google to check on the amount of traffic the topic receives.
- Tools like Google trends
can help you gauge the popularity of the topic over time. Stay clear of topics
that have seasonal upsurge and downturns.
- Search intent for the keyword
needs to remain constant. If it changes over time or can be replaced by
some other keyword, there is likely to be great volatility in rankings.
- Avoid usage of words that
signify time in the content such as last year, yesterday & 201X. Usage of dates & year only serves to work for a while after which it stands to lose relevance.
Go Long: It has been a known fact that Google prefers
long-form content. This does not mean you start getting hung up on words and
start filling pages that's going nowhere. Always return to the purpose and the solution to stay the course. Be confident about the value the content provides
to convince a potential buyer through long-form copy. Some known facts include:
- 1,890 words are the
average needed to rank number one on SERP
- 2,500 words are the
average required to receive maximum links
- Most socially shared
content is in long-form
Final Thoughts: There
are many parameters such as punctuation & grammar, statistics, formatting,
images and compelling headline that can add to the merit of the article. Our
effort has been to bring forth elements that amount to enhanced marketability
of the written content. Creating content is just the beginning and a lot goes
into making it available to masses out there. Understanding the market, putting
out content on a regularly with
consistency and going all out to promote it makes for a successful writer in
the crowded marketplace.
-------Sujit Susheelan