Category Archives: Copywriting and Content Writing Tips

How to Improve Website Conversion Rate with Content Writing

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improve-conversion-rate-with-content-writing-online-copywriting

Ultimately, everything is about website conversion rate. Whether you achieve it through content writing or any other method, you constantly want to improve your conversion rate. Through targeted online copywriting you can considerably improve the number of people doing business on your website.

Once they have arrived on your website, it’s all about keeping them there as long as possible and convincing them into doing business with you through engaging online copywriting.

You have a website to promote your business, ideology, cause, or simply to waste people’s time. Whatever you want people to do, the number of people doing it compared to the number of people coming to your website, is your conversion rate. Here is how you calculate your website conversion rate:

conversion rate

Here is an informative blog post on What is good conversion rate. The author correctly says that the industry perception is that 2.5%-5% is considered to be a good conversion rate but it can be easily taken to 11-15%, and in many other cases, even 25%.

Read: Can a web content writer help you improve your conversion rate?

Why do people worry about improving their website conversion rate?

Aside from the obvious reason – we all want to get more business out of our websites – people want to improve the overall performance of their website to reduce advertising costs.

Suppose, you are spending $2 for every click Google sends your way through your AdWords campaign. For 100 visitors, it means you are paying $200 to Google. If your convert 3 people and you are selling a product worth $75, by spending $200 you are selling your product worth $225. Your margin is $25.

This is not a good margin to have. You can either try to reduce the PPC cost (this can be achieved by creating more efficient AdWords campaigns), or you can try to improve the number of people buying from you (you should try both).

What if instead of 3 people out of 100 people, 5 people buy from you? Suddenly, your margin is $175. What if 10% buy? Your margin is $500.

This is one of the most obvious reasons why for many businesses improving conversion rate of the website, as much as possible, is very critical.

Aside from this, who doesn’t want to improve his or her website conversion rate, whether the person is advertising through AdWords or simply getting organic traffic from Google and Bing?

The connection between content writing and website conversion rate

There is a direct connection between how much helpful information is there on your website and how well your website converts.

There is a difference between content writing and copywriting and I will come to that later. In this section, I’m going to talk about content writing.

The purpose of publishing high quality content on your website is to provide highly relevant and useful information to your visitors. When they can find solutions to their problems on your website, on an ongoing basis, they begin to trust you.

Instead of constantly asking people to do business with you, let them associate you with useful information.

Take my blog for example. Although it is obvious that ultimately, I want people to hire my content writing and content marketing services, on my blog I try to share as much useful information as I can. Most of this information can be used by people to improve business on their own without ever having to contact me.

Still, there are many people who don’t want to create content on their own. They seek help. They know that I know my stuff. They’re constantly coming across my content on not just my blog, but also on Twitter, LinkedIn and other places.

When they’re looking for a content writer they know whom to contact. When they want someone to take care of their content marketing, they know whom to contact.

The same way regular content writing on your website can help you improve your conversion rate.

When it comes to improving your conversion rate with persistent content writing, it isn’t same as calculating your rate from a landing page.

For a landing page it’s easier to track your conversion rate because you know how many visitors you are getting from a particular link (from your AdWords campaign), and how many from these are actually buying from you.

Through content writing and content marketing, you improve your brand presence and when you improve your brand presence, your conversion rate improves. You may say that content writing doesn’t directly improve your conversion rate, but it becomes a medium.

Due to the strength of your content, you begin to improve your search engine rankings and your overall presence on the Internet begins to improve. People respect you for your knowledge and expertise. They would rather do business with someone they respect than someone they don’t respect or don’t know.

Here is how strategic content writing can improve your website conversion rate

  • Eliminate all doubts: There might be many questions and confusions that stop people from doing business with you. Even when they try to find a business like yours, they search for questions and queries on search engines. Try to answer as many questions as possible through targeted and engaging content writing. Create an information hub on your website. Let there remain no question unanswered.
  • Optimize your content for search engines: In order to improve your conversion rate you need targeted traffic. Optimize your content so that you get people from search engines who would actually want to do business with you.
  • Highlight the value you provide: This I’m also going to discuss in the online copywriting section, but people are not interested in knowing how great your product or service is. All they want to know is, how you are going to improve their lives. Giving my own example, people are not interested in knowing whether I can write like James Joyce or Zadie Smith; they want to know how I can get more customers and clients for their business website. If I can convince them, I get their business.

How online copywriting can improve your website conversion rate

Talking about conversion rate and ignoring online copywriting is like trying to improve your health without talking about food.

I don’t intend to boast, but most of my clients who work with me the second time (repeat work) come back to me because of my online copywriting skills.

Persuasive writing is needed to improve your conversion rate.

There is a difference between content writing and copywriting. Anybody who can write well can be a content writer. For copywriting, you need to be able to convince people to trust you and then do business with you. The art of persuasion and your website conversion rate are inseparable.

As I have mentioned above, copywriting is all about highlighting your benefits in as convincing manner as possible.

Your customers and clients want to know what you can offer. You can let them know in drab, factual language, or you can talk to them in a conversational, friendly style to make them comfortable and to make them trust you.

The best way to improve your website conversion rate is through storytelling. Then they can relate to the characters of the story.

A story can be woven around how your product or service helps someone in trouble.

Suppose you run a helpline service for people whose car has broken. You provide an alternative means of transport. You get the car taken to the repair shop. You can also arrange other facilities like food and stay in case these are needed.

So, you can write a story about one of your customers called George who was stranded on the highway during a rainy night. Although he was 120 km away, your rescue truck driver drove in the storm, reached George, gave him dry clothes to wear and safely drove him to a nearby motel. Afterwards, the car was taken to the service station. An alternative car was provided to George in the morning so that he didn’t miss his important meeting.

This can be a moving story and many people will relate to it.

This is the power of copywriting. There might be thousands of helpline services like these, but you tell the stories of how you have actually helped people.

Effective online copywriting can immensely improve your website conversion rate because it addresses the real issues people are facing and not just addresses those issues, but also offers solutions in an engaging, interesting manner.

Here are a few pointers to use online copywriting to improve your website conversion rate:

  1. Write in a conversational style.
  2. Empathize with your audience.
  3. Mention everything important “above the fold”.
  4. Use call-to-action at strategic locations.
  5. Use smaller, compelling sentences.
  6. Avoid using links because you don’t want to distract people.
  7. Keep up the pace.
  8. Use language people are totally comfortable with.
  9. Focus on the benefits.
  10. Convince people that you totally understand their problem and you have exactly the solution they are looking for.

After having said all this, if you want to improve your website conversion rate you have to use a mix of persistent content writing and a sprinkling of occasional copywriting to convert visitors into buyers and customers.

10 productivity tools that I use for content writing

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10-content-writing-productivity-toolsEvery serious content writer has some productivity tools that he or she uses to enhance his or her, of course, productivity. I do have my favourite content writing tools. In fact, they are not just content writing tools, they are tools that you can use for various activities, but I use them to organize my thoughts, to research information that I gather and to make sure my writing does not contain errors and mistakes.

I keep on experimenting with various content writing productivity tools. So, when I mention these 10 productivity tools that I use for content writing, it doesn’t mean I always use these tools. These tools keep on changing. They keep on appearing and disappearing from my day-to-day activities.

Here are my 10 content writing productivity tools

1) MS Word for writing webpages, blog posts and articles

I don’t use MS Word simply because it’s a word processor because if one wants to use a word processor, there are many available, even free. I use MS Word for content writing because it allows me to work on blog posts and webpages in a blog editor. Yes, there is the template that allows me to write blog posts in MS Word and then publish them (straight away or in draft mode) from MS Word itself.

You have to set up the blog within MS Word and once you have done that you can directly publish to your WordPress blog (most contemporary platforms are available). You can set up multiple blogs.

But that’s just one reason.

The biggest reason why I use MS Word, especially the blog template, is because I can horizontally increase and decrease the size of the window and the text wraps accordingly, just like in a text editor.

flexible window of MS Word

As you can see in the image above, the text has easily wrapped according to the width of the window.

The problem with the main MS Word template is that you cannot shrink the size of the window horizontally. But when you are working within the blog template, you can resize your window just like you can do in a normal text editor.

Talking of text editor…

2) WriteMonkey as my content writing productivity tool

WriteMonkey is a very nifty text editor. It is especially for distraction free writing. Once installed you can customize its layout according to your preference. You can either work in full-screen (the text editor takes up the entire screen) or if you press the escape key on your keyboard, you can resize the editor according to your preference. It also has a typing sound. You can have your own color scheme, your own fonts, your own font sizes and basically everything can be customized according to your preference.

Previously I have also talked about the Q10 text editor but it hasn’t been updated for years.

3) JotterPad as my content writing productivity tool

JotterPad is a mobile app for writing. In itself it is a great app. You can combine it with your Dropbox account and suddenly you can work on your PC, laptop and mobile device whenever you feel like. I use a combo of JottorPad (on mobile), WriteMonkey (on PC) and Dropbox (on PC and mobile).

These days sometimes I write complete blog posts in JotterPad and they are immediately synced with my PC. JotterPad as one of the best writing apps I have ever used. It has different formats for you to work in; for example, you can work in a newspaper format, a screenplay format and even in normal format. You can also create your custom format.

4) Google Docs as my content writing productivity tool

I’m not a big fan of Google Docs but I often use the service when I’m collaborating with my clients because many clients prefer Google Docs due to its collaboration feature. Another good thing about Google Docs is that even the mobile interface is quite good. Whether you’re working on your PC or your mobile phone, the Google Docs template seamlessly resizes easily. And the content is synced in real-time.

5) OneNote for storing useful information

OneNote I think is quite underrated, especially compared to Evernote. I have never had a problem with Evernote (aside from the fact that the notes cannot be arranged manually) but OneNote is quite flexible.

Just like Evernote, you can clip entire webpages or parts of webpages straight from the browser and then save them and the notebooks and pages that you have created in OneNote. The information organization capabilities of OneNote are great. I have saved massive amounts of research data using OneNote. I also organize my content writing schedule using OneNote.

Google Keep is also great for quickly saving information and notes. It’s quite handy when I need to save some information on my mobile phone and later on I need to access it from my PC.

6) Hemingway Editor as my content writing productivity tool

A good thing about the Hemingway Editor app is that it forces you to write very simple text. As the name indicates, it’s an editor. It comes with its own style enforcer and proofreader. The editor recommends that you write so that even 6th grader can understand. If you are using too many adverbs, if you are using passive voice, if you are using phrases that have simpler alternatives and if you are writing long sentences, it highlights those portions and prompts you to use better alternatives.

I purchased a copy a few months ago but I don’t use it as often as I should. But I do sometimes.

7) Xmind mind mapping tool to organize my thoughts

Do you use any mind mapping tool for writing long pieces of content? It helps you organize and move around your thoughts visually. You can go as deep as you can. These days I am using Xmind. I also used to use Free Mind, but recently it began to have some problem with the version of Java that I have installed on my PC. So, I started playing around with Xmind, and although it is a bit pricey tool, its free version is quite sufficient for what I need to do while planning and writing content.

8) Dragon NaturallySpeaking as my content writing productivity tool

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the best dictation software available these days. Although you can do voice typing using the Google Docs Voice Typing features these days, it cannot equal Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

As I have mentioned that I have cerebral palsy with more than 80% physical disability, I dictate more than I type. Read Looking for a content writer with a disability?

Typing with hands was always a problem. I could use just one finger to type. I knew that Dragon NaturallySpeaking existed but I didn’t want to purchase such an expensive software application. Then one day my wife insisted that unless I bought it, it would be very difficult for me to survive as a content writer in such a highly competitive environment. I have been using it for almost 8 years now and I never fail to upgrade.

9) Google voice typing as my content writing productivity tool

Since I use my mobile phone a lot these days for content writing I must mention Google voice typing feature in the Google Android keyboard. Although most of the Android keyboards these days allow you to glide your finger across the keyboard to write extremely fast, sooner or later I have to resort to using Google Voice. To be frank, Google Voice is more accurate than Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The problem is, it is not as flexible as Dragon NaturallySpeaking when it comes to making corrections and using punctuation. But on a mobile phone, using Google Voice makes it much faster to type.

10) Timely as my content writing productivity tool

Why do I mention Timely? I mention it because after all it is a productivity tool although you cannot directly use it for writing content.

You see, when you are working on your own it is very difficult to monitor yourself. You don’t even realize and you get distracted. While in the midst of writing a blog post or a webpage suddenly you get distracted and start checking, maybe Twitter updates, or something else. Timely keeps you focused. It is constantly ticking.

Timely, if you don’t know, is a time tracking app. Although you can completely use it in a web browser, you can also download and install the desktop app and once you start it, a rectangular interface is always in front of you, telling you that minutes and seconds are ticking away. You don’t want to waste those minutes and seconds. It keeps me focused if I have it running in front of me.

So, these are my 10 productivity tools that I use for content writing. As I have mentioned above, it’s not that I continue to use them. Sometimes I discard them because I want to try out new tools. For example, I keep switching between MS Word and various other writing tools. Recently there was a time when for almost 6 months I didn’t open MS Word even once because the mobile app version was very lousy. I was totally smitten by WriteMonkey. Then I suddenly started using MS Word because one, they improved their mobile version and two, I find it more flexible, more powerful, and almost as easy to use as WriteMonkey.

Do you have your favorite content writing productivity tools? If yes, do share them in the comments section.

Image source: Evernote

How to repurpose old content

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repurposing-your-existing-contentRepurposing old content means creating different versions of the content that already exists on your website or blog. Do you have many blog posts and articles already written on your website? Have you gained all the benefit that you could have gained from the content you have written or generated so far?

It is a necessity that you constantly need to write new content. You can also use your existing content to create new content. This is called repurposing your old/existing content.

Suppose you have a blog post that you wrote a couple of years ago that was received very well by your audience but right now it isn’t getting much attention may be because it is old or maybe people have moved on. The information contained within that blog post is still valuable. What do you do?

Here are a few things you can do with that old blog post in order to repurpose your existing content

  1. Create a slideshow of the main points – People love slideshows created in PowerPoint and other presentation tools. Extract the main points of your old blog post and then create individual slides from those main points along with attractive visuals. Then distribute that slide’s repurposed content.
  2. Rewrite the blog post with a new perspective – Wisdom is eternal but there are always new ways of making use of that wisdom. Technology has changed in the past two years (since you wrote that blog post). Even the way people do content marketing has changed. Why not rewrite the old blog post by adding more information, updated information to it?
  3. Create graphic visuals of important portions – There might be many important portions – a paragraph, a couple of sentences – that you can take from the blog post and combine them with related images and then create graphics. Then you can upload those graphics to Pinterest or simply share them on Facebook and Twitter.
  4. Post important and impactful sentences from the old blog post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

These are just a few ideas that you can use to repurpose your existing content. You can come up with many more according to your niche.

How to strike a balance between SEO and quality content writing

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balancing-quality-content-writing-and-seo-content-writingI’m writing this blog post because people ask about this: how to create SEO content while maintaining the quality of the content? But they are not separate. If you practice quality content writing, the SEO part handled on its own.

These days, SEO doesn’t mean creating keyword-rich content. I don’t mean to say that you don’t use your keywords when writing content, because keywords are important. But they are not the only thing that matter. Other things that matter are:

  1. The quality of your content writing.
  2. The depth of information and wisdom that you have shared.
  3. The usefulness of your content writing.
  4. The approval and endorsement that it attracts from people.
  5. The collective competition your content writing faces.
  6. The quantity of quality content writing that already exists on your website or blog.

All these attributes are necessary to get good search engine rankings. Without them, no matter how hard you focus on your keywords, you’re not going to get much headway.

As I have written above, keywords matter. If you are spending sleepless nights thinking how to strike a balance between SEO and quality content writing, here are a few things you can do to give yourself some peace of mind:

  1. Create a list of your primary and secondary keywords. Take a printout of them. Keep them in front of you when creating content for your blog or website so that you never lose sight of them.
  2. Create vertically focused webpages and blog posts. Don’t try to cramp too much into a single webpage or blog post. Handle one topic at a time and pack as much information as possible on that one topic. Create bulleted lists discussing various aspects of the topic. Create hyperlinks wherever possible. Make ample use of headlines and sub headlines. Provide as much information as possible without sounding repetitive. Don’t insert needless sentences just to accommodate your keywords. Your keywords will be covered if you already talk about your subject.
  3. Give precedence to quality content writing. When you are preparing your first draft focus on the quality. Write well. Collect all the information you can collect. Create concise, simple sentences. Organise the information in a scannable manner. Use a language that your core audience can understand. What I mean to say is, totally focus on quality in the first draft.
  4. Then, strategically, start inserting your keyword. They must appear natural. Try to create headlines and some headlines with your keywords. Try to use your keywords in the information that you present in bulleted form. When linking to other webpages and blog posts on your website through hyperlinks, use your keywords in the anchor text. When inserting images, name your images using your keywords. Use your keywords in the alt text of your images.

There is only this much you can do to “SEO” your content writing. Mostly it depends on the quality of your writing and the competition your writing faces.

10 ways to find the best content writing/SEO copywriting service for your business

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Looking for the best content writing and SEO copywriting services for your business

Looking for the best content writing and SEO copywriting services for your business?

Finding the best content writing service for your business is one of the most, in fact, the most significant part of initiating an effective content marketing strategy.

A big problem on the Internet is, although you can find lots of information, often it is very difficult to find the information you actually need, the information you can use to grow your business.

The same applies to finding the right content writing and SEO copywriting service for your business.

Whom do you hire?

How do you decide?

Sometimes a company looks lousy but delivers great content.

Sometimes a company looks great but delivers lousy content.

A great problem is you cannot find that out unless you have worked with the service provider for some time.

Content marketing, although is the strongest marketing tool available on the Internet, also takes its own good time to give you results and by the time these results manifest, it is a bit late to realize whether you should have hired this particular content writing service or not.

The same goes with SEO copywriting services. Any decent SEO effort takes anywhere between 4-5 months before it begins to show even small results (especially when you face lots of competition).

By the time you realize that you haven’t partnered with a competent SEO copywriting service, you may have spent lots of time and money.

Is there a sure shot way of finding the best content writing service for your business?

Is there a set formula that helps you find the best SEO copywriting service to improve your search engine rankings?

No, there is not. But of course you can minimize the chances of ending up with a lousy service.

What are the best ways to find the right content writing service  or the best SEO copywriting service for your business?

The best way of finding a content writing-SEO copywriting service for your business

The best way of finding a content writing-SEO copywriting service for your business.

Your business is unique, your customers and clients are unique, so your content requirements are also unique.

Why so much stress on being unique?

It is your USP – unique selling proposition.

This is what sets you apart.

With thousands of people offering almost the same sort of service or the same sort of product, especially on the Internet where one website is just a click away from another, how do your prospective customers and clients decide whether they should do business with you or with someone else?

You need to provide something that they cannot get from someone else or at least it is very difficult to get it from somewhere else, or at least, comparatively much more expensive, or whatever.

The thing is, there must be something that should draw them to you rather than to someone else.

Once this is decided and settled, let us explore some ways to find the best content writing or SEO copywriting service for your business.

The service – whether content writing or SEO copywriting – has a website

For a long-term business partnership this is a must.

Yes, you can find good content writers from niche business directories and portals, they are not very reliable because most of them don’t have much stake in being consistent.

Since most of these business directories accept listings for free or at a nominal fee, you don’t find very dedicated and serious people in these directories (I don’t intend to paint everyone with the same stroke).

Of course, if the very same people also have websites running legitimate businesses, things become different.

When a content writing service has a business website it means it is serious and it has invested time and effort establishing shop on the Internet.

The website looks professional

If they have a website, the website should look decent and professional.

It doesn’t mean it should be able to compete in design contests, but it should have a clean design with all the needed information available on the website.

The homepage copy should clearly explain all the services that are being provided.

There should be terms and conditions.

An FAQs is a must.

All the contact details must be available on a separate, dedicated page.

The SEO copywriting service also has a blog

What’s the use of working with a content writing service if it does not promote its services via content?

Most of my business comes from my blog.

My business also comes from LinkedIn and Google, but even traffic from these websites is drawn to my blog so that is the main attraction.

On my blog regularly sharing tips, guides and my thoughts on content writing an SEO copywriting..

Just imagine, a content writing and SEO copywriting service not being able to promote its own services through its own content.

There should be a business blog that is regularly updated.

The content writing service has a mailing list

This is because no matter what people claim, email marketing still rules the roost when it comes to promoting your services and products on the Internet.

500 people subscribing to your email updates are far better than 5000 people “Liking” your Facebook page or following you on Twitter.

So yes, a serious content writing service would obviously have a newsletter subscription box on the website and if it doesn’t, it isn’t serious about content marketing.

Every best content writing and SEO copywriting service publishes a newsletter.

Here, I’m using the superlative “best” as a category. I know there cannot be multiple best services.

It has a solid social media presence

Most of the world these days spends time on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn (just to name a few).

It is also a good way to attract people.

Want to find someone?

Want to find the best products and services recommended by people you interact with on daily basis?

There is a great chance that you will find its reference on Facebook or Twitter (or whatever social networking platform is in vogue when you are reading this).

Also, if the content writing service can be easily reached on Twitter you can get a response faster in case you have some problem.

Your best content writing or SEO copywriting service puts greater stress on quality than quantity

If you have quality content on your website or blog, your search engine rankings automatically improve.

So if a content writing and SEO copywriting service says that you should have lots of content to cover all your keywords so that your search engine rankings can improve, you are being shortchanged.

Of course you need to cover your keywords but that is secondary.

The first priority should be the quality.

The content writing service has a strict policy on plagiarism

Just because text is digitally present everywhere on the Internet it becomes very easy to copy/paste it and then slightly spin it to pretend as if you have unique content at hand.

This is what those $ 5-per-article services do.

It’s a sure shot way of nipping your content marketing strategy in the bud.

The service you’re planning to hire for your business must have a strict policy about how to handle plagiarism and how it controls its content writers in case it has multiple content writers.

Its content writing an SEO copywriting charges are reasonable

Actually what’s reasonable differs from business to business, but you can find out what the industry rates are and do the calculations accordingly.

As I have mentioned above, those $ 5-per-article services can wreak havoc with your content marketing campaign for your SEO strategy, but in the rarest of rare cases, they can also work to your advantage.

If your content writing service is charging pittance try to figure out how it sustains itself.

Take for example charging $ 5 for an article or a blog post.

If I charge you this rate, try to figure out how much money can realistically make.

Even if I write 10 articles or blog posts in a day I will only be able to make $ 50.

How much can I be worried about providing you quality content this way?

It also sends me a signal that if you desire cheap content then maybe you aren’t even interested in quality that much.

It works both ways.

You get what you pay for.

So if a content writing service or an SEO copywriting service charges a very low rate, always be cynical about their offer.

The charges should be reasonable from both ends of the spectrum.

It can scale according to your requirements

It isn’t always about how much content writing and SEO copywriting the service you’re planning on hiring can do, it’s also about how much content you need.

Perhaps you require 10 blog posts or articles everyday but your content writing service can only supply 2-3 at the most.

This deal is not going to work for you.

Similarly, if in a package they offer 20 blog posts every month but you require only 5, and they don’t have an alternative package for you.

Again, it’s a no-deal.

So you should look for a service that can scale according to your business.

Many businesses and individuals vouch for it

Recommendations and testimonials tell you that the agency has provided excellent services – services that have actually helped businesses grow.

Simply writing content doesn’t help much.

The content must be able to take a business forward.

It isn’t also just about improving your SEO.

Your content should also be able to improve your conversion rate and in fact, this is much more important compared to your SEO.

So if a content writing service has actually helped businesses, they will readily provide testimonials and recommendations.

Despite taking care of the above-mentioned 10 attributes that can help you find a content writing & SEO copywriting service for your business you can end up with a lousy service provider, but then this can happen in any industry, in any service and with any product.

Taking care of these 10 things will just reduce the chances of ending up with an inferior service.