Author Archives: Amrit Hallan

About Amrit Hallan

Amrit Hallan is a professional content writer who helps businesses improve their conversion rate through credible and compelling content writing. His main strength lies in writing search engine optimized content without compromizing quality and meaningfulness.

Difference between content writing and content curation

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There are basically 2 ways you can generate quality content for your website or blog:

Content writing/generating fresh content
Curating quality content from other reliable sources

The benefits of creating new content

By constantly creating new content and publishing it on your website or blog you establish your authority on the subject. You get to share your own knowledge, your own experience and your own expertise. Writing and publishing your own content is a very good way of building online intellectual wealth that not only helps your visitors but also helps you.

It also makes you an independent knowledge resource. When you’re generating your own content you don’t need to depend on external links, and to be frank, external links cannot always be relied upon. I remember when there was a big earthquake in Japan a very prominent website published an info-graphic comprehensively explaining how to survive an earthquake. I had linked to that info-graphic from one of my blog posts. Recently when there was a big earthquake in north-eastern India I wanted to share the same link. But when I visited it, it directed me to another, irrelevant (full of affiliate links) URL. The original info-graphic has been removed. Had I had the same info-graphic on my own website at least it would have been still there.

Obviously, the search engines are constantly looking for original content to index and rank and the more original content you publish the more advantage you get in this arena.

Original content writing is also a showcase of your communication skill. You are not simply providing information to your visitors just to gain traffic; you are actually putting in effort to create quality content.

The benefits of content curation or curating quality content

The biggest benefit of content curation is you can share high-quality content with your visitors without having to create it. Normally what people do is, create a quick synopsis of the original link, publish it as a paragraph and in the end append the original link.

Does it help your search engine rankings? Surely it does, provided you stick to the core theme. Suppose I decide to create a blog post solely having quality links on content writing. If there are 10 links in my blog post it means I’m going to write 10-12 paragraphs on the topic of content writing in order to briefly explain every link. So targeted content plus high-quality outgoing links (and in the form of trackbacks you may also get some juicy incoming links) can do wonders to your search engine rankings.

Content curation is a great way to create link bait opportunities because often it is difficult to get high-value content at a single place. If all the 10 links on content writing I’m linking to have great value people are going to link to my blog post as a valuable resource and they are also going to share it using their social media profiles.

What is good, content writing or content curation?

Both are important, I would say. There can be no content curation without original content so somebody has to write and publish original content and only then it can be curated.

The Internet can be chaotic as well as intimidating with millions of webpages and blog posts vying for your attention at a particular instance. So if you can find a single webpage or a blog post that has lots of links collected from different reliable sources it can help you tremendously.

Does content curation help your business?

Whether content curation helps your business or not depends on your business model. There are lots of blogs that simply publish lists gathered from various other blogs and websites (for instance, a web design blog curating web design links from scores of blogs and websites, just dealing with designing the top navigation bar).

As a personal advise I would recommend a 70-30 ratio. If you publish 10 webpages or blog posts every month and you also want to curate content, you should try posting 7 original posts and 3 collected links.contact

The Importance of Web Page Titles

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Of late I’ve noticed many of my clients are not particularly aware of the importance of web page titles. Many have just “Home”, “Services”, etc. as their web page titles. They either don’t know what they are, or even if they know, they don’t know their significance.

What is a web page title?

Modern browsers like Google Chrome and the latest versions of Mozilla FireFox don’t show the web page title text in the window title bar so may be that’s why many people don’t know of their existence. Luckily I found the web page title visible in Internet Explorer; here is what I mean:

Web page title in Internet Explorer

If you look at the source code of your web page, your title appears within <title></title> within the <head></head> area.

Why is your web page title important?

It is your web page title that makes your web page or blog post unique. When people automatically link to your web page it’s your title that becomes your representative text. Here’s why you need a well-defined, convincing web page title:

Search engines use your web page title. The search engines not only use your web page title to rank it (it should contain your primary keyword) they also show it as the hyperlink text when your web page shows up on their search result pages. It has been proven there is a greater probability of people clicking the link and coming to your web page if the link contains the keyword or key phrase they have just used.
Bookmarking tools use your web page title. When people bookmark your web page it is saved using your title. The next time people want to come back to your web page after looking it up in their saved bookmarks they’ll be able to identify it only by the title. Similarly bookmarking and link sharing websites like Delicious and StumbleUpon use your web page title to organize information.
Social media tools use your web page title. Have you ever tried to post a link using a social media plug-in? It is the title of the web page that accompanies the link/URL. If there is no accompanying title there is no way of finding out what the link represents and hence people will not share it on their social media profiles.
TrackBack services use your web page title. Services that automatically index the web and look for relevant pages look for your web page title to create indexes.
It’s easier for people to connect to your web page if it has a well-defined title. Everybody realizes the importance of quality incoming links and you will be basically discouraging people from linking to your important pages by not including a title. If a title is missing it forces people to come up with their own titles and this acts as a deterrence. Provide them a title so that they can quickly lead to your web page.
Your compelling web page title encourages social media sharing. It is your web page title that makes people share your link with their friends and followers. No matter how interesting information your web page contains, unless your web page title doesn’t carry the most important aspect of your web page it is not going to be shared.

So you can see, despite being just a single line of text, or important your web page title is.

But it is not that all the clients don’t understand the overwhelming importance of web page titles. There are many clients who are actually eager to pay extra for creating SEO-friendly and compelling web-page titles.

How to fire up your web content strategy

What do you want your web content strategy to achieve?

This is a very important question. Don’t simply publish content on your website just because your competitors are doing that. For an effective web content strategy you must need to know what you’re achieving and what are your long-term and short-term goals vis-à-vis publishing content on your website. Do you want to

Improve your search engine rankings by publishing keyword-rich content?
Make your prospective customers and clients more aware of your products and services?
Make your prospective and current customers and clients more aware of the overwhelming benefits of your products and services?
Want to keep your visitors engaged?
Strengthen your brand presence?
Rake up socially relevant issues?
Educate and inform your visitors so that they can make better decisions regarding what they should be buying and investing their money in?

Frankly, there can be 1000s of questions you can ask yourself before publishing content but the basic idea is, you should know precisely why you are publishing. The more clear you are, the better direction you will have.

What sort of audience you want to cater to through your web content strategy?

Last year I partnered with a client who wanted to address an audience who remains at the forefront of technology: people who would buy the first iPhone or the iPad or who would start using a pioneering service without waiting for someone else. For instance, people who started using Facebook and Twitter in their early years. The direction of the content was totally different.

So before going ahead with your web content strategy you must know who you’re talking to on a daily basis and then produce content accordingly.

What format of content your audience prefers?

I am a content writer but this doesn’t mean I always recommend text as the most preferred format of producing and publishing content. Different types of content formats can play a crucial role in your overall web content strategy such as video, audio-visual, audio, graphics, images, presentations, slideshows, and of course, text. The format of your content depends on your audience preference and the devices they use. If your audience prefers reading, by all means provide text. If they are more visual types then provide them images and graphics. If their devices can handle streaming video and they prefer that, then provide it.

Make sure that you stay away from the “me too” approach. Just because an XYZ website uses video doesn’t mean that you should use it too. Maybe it works for them, maybe it will, or maybe it won’t for you, or maybe it doesn’t even work for them but they still use it. It’s important to understand what format actually clicks for you and then produce plenty of it.

What channels you use to spread your content?

No matter how outstanding content you’re producing unless people know about it they are neither going to consume it nor promote it. You need to spread your content using proper channels. It can be your website/blog that enjoys lots of traffic. It can be your social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. It can be Youtube if video is your primary content format. Nurture different channels and then use them to engage your audience and distribute your content.

How do you track the performance of your web content strategy?

Without tracking performance you are simply throwing darts in the darkness. You need to know whether your web content strategy is delivering or not. Although you won’t have enough data to analyze within a couple of weeks, and you need some ground for scientific analysis, once that initial hurdle is crossed, you need to constantly evaluate how your content performs with different parameters.

You can analyze individual webpages/blog posts in terms of

How much traffic they were able to generate
What important keywords and key phrases they were able to attract traffic for
How many people retweeted and shared them
How many people left comments
How many people explored further pages of your website after entering through those particular pages/blog posts
How many back links were they able to generate, etc.

Please note that these webpages and blog posts may also have indirect effects such as getting you more Twitter followers and Facebook likes and there are surely tools to measure even these indirect effects.

In the end, web content strategy is not your backyard activity. It requires lots of effort, understanding of your own market and figuring out a slew of different matrices.

Something to keep in mind when it comes to paying your content writer

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I am writing this blog post for the benefit of those clients who often wonder why they should pay the amount I’m asking for. In more than 90% cases it doesn’t happen, but I think even if 10% clients have some doubt it makes sense to explain to them, what they are paying for.

What is content writing basically?

Content writing is of many forms but what I provide is a service that should help you build your business and put your best foot forward. I’m not in the business of providing $3-articles to improve your search engine rankings (they rarely do, and even if they do, it is a fluke that sometimes work and most of the times doesn’t).

I help you convey your message in a manner that it convinces your customers and clients to put your trust into your product or service (and into you) and consequently, do business with you. What I provide is a mix of content writing and copywriting. I might not be an excellent writer (I am gradually getting there) but when you want to speak your mind and when you want to make the right impact, I can certainly help you.

My content writing is a mix of content writing and copywriting

The fundamental purpose of copywriting is to help you sell, whether it is your product, your service, or your ideology or idea. Content writing on the other hand educates and informs your present and prospective customers and clients and creates a ripe ground for the business to take place.

So the content on your business website must be a balanced cocktail of content writing and copywriting. This is especially true when I’m writing for your homepage. Think of your home page as your front office if you open a brick and mortar business. You would like it to look its best and you won’t decorate it with cheap stuff. Every item in your front office reeks of professionalism.

Your website is your online office and your homepage is your front office. Although unlike a brick and mortar office, there are as many entrances to your website as there are pages and blog posts under your domain, eventually, sooner or later, people reach your homepage and this is where the most critical impact is made. You need to inform your visitors. You need to educate them as laconically as possible. And then you have to turn them into paying customers and clients.

Just like home page, most of the links appearing in your top most navigation are highly critical and in fact, sometimes they are more important than your homepage (because it is not possible to pack every bit of crucial information into your homepage).

So when you’re paying your content writer who is practically creating an entire business presence for you and you are wondering why you are paying what you’re paying, think about how crucial his or her job is. If you’re getting your content written professionally, it means that you understand that it matters to your business what text there is on your website.

I’m not saying pay your content writer through your nose and pay him or her at the cost of your business infrastructure, but don’t go for as cheap content as possible. Believe me, whether you do business with me or not, this doesn’t work. It might cost you your business if just at the outset you try to save on the most crucial aspect of your online presence – your website content.

When creating content, focus on value and not the length

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In a suggestion made in this Marketing Sharepa blog post titled Content Marketing: Focus on value, not length, the author says that it doesn’t matter how long your content is as long as it delivers value.

I believe this focus on content length is archaic…a vestigial reminder of media buys…essentially, the appendix of digital marketing…

And yet, people writing for your blogs and creating your content marketing may not be content experts. They may not be professional writers. Many are likely subject matter experts asked to pitch in and creating content is not a process they are comfortable with, so they want some guidance.

Now, I’m not saying quantity or length doesn’t matter; I mean it really doesn’t make sense to write just a simple sentence as a complete blog post even if that single sentence conveys the entire essence of your message. Nonetheless, you don’t need to go on and on just to create 400 or 500 words. A few years ago Matt Cutts of Google advised that your blog post or webpage content must be around 400 words in order to make it search engine friendly and my personal experience has echoed this estimate. But what if your webpage requires just a single paragraph?

For a person providing content writing services and charging by pages and words this might pose a problem but only when you are working with clients who are not farsighted. When you’re creating content and when you’re concerned about your search engine rankings it is not a matter of individual pages, it is a matter of collective content on your website and blog. Although while quoting I always say (300-500 words) but once the initial communication is over I make it clear to the client that it isn’t necessary that I’m going to stick with this upper and lower limit. I might write 200-250 words for a document if that’s what it needs. Having said that, I also convey that I don’t bother if sometimes the number of words go beyond 500 words, say 600 words or even 700 words. I flow with the requirement and don’t constrain myself with exactly how many words must be written.

As rightly pointed out by the author in the above-mentioned blog post, ultimately it is the value of your content that matters, not its length. Interestingly, if your content delivers real value it automatically gets good search engine rankings irrespective of how long or short your individual pages are.