Tips to Improve Your Content Writing
Content Writing has become a critical part of businesses today. It is one of the best ways to improve your website on the Google index, and eventually reach out to a broader customer base. The digital world has also made it easier for small and medium enterprises to penetrate their relevant industries, which has led to an increase in competition on a global scale.
However, writing content is not as simple as it may sound. There are a lot of different parameters top search engines like Google take into consideration to rank your website higher on search engine result pages (SERPs).
In this article, we will highlight five key parameters of good content that will improve the quality of your writing and consequently enable you to reach out to a wider audience.
1. Keep It Simple
Content writers often get caught up in refining their content to perfect. They go overboard to an extent that they forget to focus on the basics of writing. Here is a fun fact not many writers have gotten their heads around – top content doesn’t mean difficult vocabulary and complex sentences.
If anything, difficult to read content will shun the reader away, costing you a potential sale. A commercial piece should comprise basic English, simple vocabulary, and sentence structure that are built to convey ideas seamlessly.
You may test your readability score through software like Grammarly or on Flesch reading score – complex pieces will have a low readability score as opposed to work that is easy to understand for a general audience.
A rule of thumb is to write content that a seven-year-old kid would be able to decipher. You need to bear in mind that you are writing for the general public and a broader audience. The only time when complex writing is acceptable is when your target audience is composed of graduates and top-tier executives. In any other case, simplicity is key!
In short, when you sit down to write, don’t overdo your content with difficult vocabulary and complex sentences. Make sure that your entire audience can read through it without turning to Google for synonyms.
2. Work on the Flow
One of the most common mistakes writers make while developing professional content is that they lose flow.
What is flow?
It refers to how you pitch your ideas in a streamlined and orderly manner. For instance, in an informational piece about how to train your dog, you start with an intro, followed by types of dogs and mistakes people make while training them. After that, you move to the core part of the article: how to train your dog.
The problem with the abovementioned example is that it takes too long to cater to the actual topic. You have to bear in mind why the reader has clicked on a certain piece and what information they may be looking for. In this piece, the readers want to know how they could train their dogs.
How do you fix it?
Focus on the flow of the article. Start with a brief intro about why training dogs is important and how many people do it—then dive into training techniques. Once the core of the content is complete, you can follow up with common training mistakes or other relevant information that may help the reader.
An excellent way to work on the flow is to build the skeleton of the article before you start writing. This will help you convey your thoughts in a streamlined order.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO content writing is critical to help your pages rank on Google SERPs. A well-optimized piece of content will enable Google crawlers to spot your content, rate it on different parameters, and index your website or landing page.
The mistake content writers make here is to stick to outdated algorithms. This will negatively affect your digital presence, making it difficult for your potential audience to look you up online.
Expert content writers follow Google’s SEO guidelines regularly to make sure their content remains up to date.
Refining content as per Google’s updated guidelines soon after an update can give you an edge over the competition. In other words, you have a chance to rank on top of the SERPs and make your content visible. Here is a pro tip: don’t go overboard with keywords. Keyword stuffing is an outdated SEO technique that can negatively affect your content’s quality, not to mention your indexing on Google.
4. Know Who You’re Writing For
Remember when we suggested above that you should not produce complex content? You may think of this portion as an extension to that advice. Content is subjective – you must know who your audience is and redo your writing accordingly.
It will enable your audience to understand better what you want to convey through your writing. Well-comprehended content also improves the chances of a reader to respond to your call-to-action (CTA).
An excellent way to improve content for your readers is to include jargons that your audience will associate with. For example, if you are writing for finance professionals, you may use common terminologies used in the local financial industry. This will leave a subconscious impact on the reader, enabling them to relate to your words.
You can identify your niche before starting your content and then look up relevant keywords and jargon to include in your content. Higher relatability in your content will translate into better conversions in the long run.
5. Make Content Skimmable
Not all readers have time on their hands, which means they may not be able to read the entire thousand-word article. However, such readers may still be interested in your content. Making content skimmable is an excellent way to ensure that all of your readers can benefit from your content.
Skimmable content means proper use of headings, subheadings, bullet points, and conclusions. It will allow the reader to move directly to the part that they are concerned with. In other words, your readers will be able to move to the section of your writing that has solutions to their particular queries – they wouldn’t have to go through the entire article searching for relevant information.
Why Is Good Content Important?
The digital business landscape is becoming increasingly competitive with each passing day. SMEs and larger enterprises are honing their content to attract and convert readers. Businesses are also becoming more creative to benefit from Google’s SEO guidelines to improve their online presence. All of these measures are mainly centered around content.
In short, the following are a few benefits of ensuring top-quality content on your website, landing pages, and social media. It will:
- Improve your conversion rates.
- Attract greater amounts of traffic.
- Reduce bounce rates.
- Engage readers, making it easier to convert them.
- Make your content a go-to hub for relevant product or industry information.
Many other reasons drive businesses to improve their content daily. In fact, many enterprises today are hiring top-tier content writing services to ensure the production of premium content.
