How to write content that converts?

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The best way of developing conversion-friendly content is to clearly define what conversion means for that particular piece of content.

Conversion can be micro and macro. Macro conversion for almost every business is to generate more leads and customers/clients. This is the ultimate conversion goal.

What do we mean by micro-conversion?

Micro-conversion would be, people signing up for your newsletter, or downloading your white paper or case study, or simply sharing your content from their own social media profiles.

Micro-conversion is blog post specific, or web page specific, or a newsletter campaign specific, or even a social media update specific.

For example, after publishing this blog post, if I share the link on LinkedIn, why do I share it? I share it because I want maximum number of people to click the link and come to this blog post to read.

Once they are on this blog post, after reading it, it would be good if they signed up for my newsletter.

It would be better if they shared my link from their own social media accounts. It would be better if they linked to my blog post, or one of my blog posts, from their own website or from their own blog post. This improves my search engine rankings and enables my prospective clients to find my website on Google.

For most of the people, micro-conversion is improving search engine rankings for a particular keyword, especially the keyword or the key phrase they are using in the current blog post. Hence, their micro-conversion goal is met if they are able to rank the blog post higher for the keyword being used.

Another example of a micro-conversion would be to cover a topic in such a manner that it draws lots of traffic from Google and social media due to its quality and relevance.

Multiple micro-conversion successes lead to your macro conversion success – get you more leads, more customers or more clients.

Here are some things you can do to develop conversion-friendly content, or content that converts:

Always have a clear objective of what you intend to achieve.
Deal with a specific topic or a specific solution/answer.
Don’t cram too much information.
No need to always focus on selling and marketing.
Have a true intention when writing content.
Inform & educate instead of trying to impress.
Make it easier to read and share.
Write as if you’re talking to someone face to face.

I know, these are very clichéd pieces of advice, but you will be surprised to know how few content writers actually take care of this.

Content writing and searcher task accomplishment

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The more focused your content writing is, the better can be your search engine rankings. When you write on topics that are focused on providing a solution to a single problem, you cater to a concept called “searcher task accomplishment”.

The concept is simple. When you googled something last time, what was the exact reason. Were you looking for meaning of a word or an expression? Were you searching for your favorite celebrity? Did you want to check the latest Covid stats in your area?

How satisfied were you? Did you need to visit multiple websites (repeatedly coming back to Google and clicking the next link, or modifying the search) or were you able to find all you needed to find on a particular link?

You will say that I’m stuck in a loop (in case you have been reading my recent updates), but this is exactly why these days I’m focusing more on shorter blog posts that address a particular topic, and nothing else.

Writing shorter posts makes it easier for you to focus rather than scatter your topic among multiple topics that may be related but may also be overcomplicating what you’re trying to say.

This is not to say that longer blog posts cannot be focused. For example, if you write something like “How to use content writing to improve your SEO?” I can easily write 3000 words on the topic with every point covered in detail, without digressing from the main point.

But sometimes, just short answers are needed. For example, “How to write the perfect headline for your new blog post?” – It hardly takes 200 words to explain this concept.

It hasn’t yet been established that Google specifically uses the search task accomplishment factor in its rankings, but logically things are moving towards that.

Google is a product. It is a search engine. Hence, it intends to find the best possible information for your queries. The company’s entire existence depends on its ability to find you answers you’re looking for.

Through various behavioral patterns Google can find out whether people who find your link are satisfied with the discovery or not.

This is not very difficult. Suppose someone looks for “the best content writer for my IT consulting website” on Google.

Content writing services Google listing screenshot

He finds the link. Clicks it. Immediately comes back to Google and clicks the next link.

If the person doesn’t spend much time on the first link that he found, Google assumes that on that link he didn’t find the information he was looking for, for this particular search query. Google takes note of it.

If many people use this query, click the same link and then come back to Google to carry on with the search within a few seconds, Google assumes that the link does not have the right information and hence, begins to lower its rankings.

The reverse is also true. People use the above query, find a link, click it, and spend some time on the website. They explore other web pages. They read the complete web page or blog post.

Even when they come back to Google, the search engine knows that there was some relevant information on the link and that’s why people are spending more time on it. It assumes that they are finding the information they are looking for, for the search query they have just used.

Hence, tricking people into visiting your website can be counter-productive and it can actually harm your search engine rankings.

When you are writing content, concentrate more on the searcher task accomplishment factor. Provide the right information for the right query. This way, even if you are not writing longer blog posts, you will be providing answers to people’s questions and as a result, link by link, improving your search engine rankings.

Backlinks is one of the biggest benefits of educational or informational content

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One of the biggest benefits of informational content is link building.

Sometimes you may wonder what is the use of publishing lots of educational or informational content? This is the content through which you share your knowledge, experience, and wisdom with your visitors.

For example, what is the benefit of writing a blog post like What is search intent and how knowing it improves your SEO?

You must think that clients are looking for a content writer or a copywriter. They don’t want to be educated; they just want a talented writer for their websites.

One of the widely recognized benefits of sharing your knowledge through writing is that it establishes you as an authority figure.

I can write extensively about content writing only if I know a lot about content writing.

If I don’t know how to write engaging content, how am I going to write engaging content for my clients, and how do my clients know that I actually know how to write engaging content?

Sure, I can share my portfolio with them. I can send the links of various websites for which I have written engaging content.

Why publish lots of educational content or content for informational search intent?

Educational and informational content gets you more backlinks

You need backlinks to improve your search engine rankings. People are ready to pay for quality backlinks.

When you have lots of quality educational content on your website or blog, people link to it voluntarily.

I have so many blog posts people have linked to.

How do they find my blog posts?

Mostly when they are searching for relevant content on Google or some other search engine.

I also share links to my existing and latest blog posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Once they start linking to your content, it becomes self-perpetuating. It is like, your links are appearing on the third or fourth page of Google. People find your content and link to it. Your links move to the second or third page. It becomes easier to find your content. More people link to it. Then your links move to the first or the second page. And so on.

Due to better rankings of the present links, even the rankings of the links that were previously not ranking higher, begin to appear higher.

Hence, more people start linking to them, and the cycle continues.

It is not an exact science. You never know at which juncture people begin to find your content with greater regularity. But eventually, if you keep on publishing quality, link-worthy content, it happens.

Educational content is easier to rank on Google than commercial content. Google gives informational content preference over commercial or transactional content because maybe it wants people to promote commercial or transactional content through advertisements.

People publishing educational content are looking for educational content. And if you are publishing informational or educational content that is link-worthy, people start linking to it.

This improves your search engine rankings for your relevant keywords. This makes it easier for your prospective customers and clients to find you.

How much educational or informational content should you publish for backlinks?

There is no limit.

I will give you an example of my own website.

Mine is not an e-commerce website. People don’t come and buy stuff here. It’s mostly information. I share information with them, and they hire me as their content writer or copywriter.

On my website, my content falls primarily under two categories:

Transactional content
Informational content

Transactional content is the main website content that I have that talks about my website content writing services, my blogging services, my email writing services, my content consulting services, and so on.

These must be around 50-60 pages. Even among these pages, not every page is transactional content. Even on my main website, I have published lots of pages that simply explain to my visitors what different services mean. I inform them and then leave it up to them whether they want to contact me or not.

Among all the content on my website, 90% of the content exists on my blog. There are over 800 posts and counting. This is all educational and informational content. It is this content that is responsible for my rankings. Whatever visibility I have on the web, it is because of this educational content.

My educational content has improved the rankings of my transactional content.

Is link building the only benefit of educational content?

One of the major benefits, yes.

It’s not that your informational or educational content doesn’t get your clients. Mine does.

Even when I didn’t enjoy better search engine rankings, I got content writing assignments on the strength of my content.

For example, once I published a blog post titled What are topic clusters and pillar pages and how they improve your SEO… within a couple of days a client wrote to me that he loved what I had written on the blog and he was looking for a similar blog post for his company website. I’m still writing for him.

There are multiple examples like this one.

I normally don’t send out follow-up emails

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With the exception of a few messages that I get from LinkedIn, most of the messages come from my website.

People who are looking for a content writer or a copywriter land on my website, go to my contact form, submit it, I receive it, and then I respond.

When I send a reply, I assume that they need my services. Sometimes I briefly describe what they need, hoping that as we interact more, they will be able to share more information with me. I even send them sample links.

In many cases the client doesn’t get back. The reasons can be myriad. Maybe she doesn’t like my reply. Maybe she gets busy. Maybe she had contacted multiple content writers and copywriters and someone else responded and there was no need for her to get back to me.

Until a few years ago I used to send a follow-up email after 3-4 days. I would ask, “I hope you received my reply – just making sure. In case you’re looking for more information, do let me know, I will be happy to provide it…” and so on.

Then I stopped.

Initially it was because I got busy. I started getting enough assignments and unless someone’s name appeared in front of me (in the form of an unread message), I wouldn’t reach out.

Sure, when I am already working on an assignment and when I send the first draft and when the client does not respond, I do a follow-up, but that’s because I already know that the client is interested in my work, and she may have not got a chance to look at my document.

Gmail (Google Workspace) has this feature that highlights older messages if it feels I should have followed up but I haven’t.

In such cases, I go with the flow. If I feel I should write back to the prospective client, I do, otherwise I don’t bother.

As I have written above, initially it was because I was busy. Then my attitude towards my clients changed.

Almost all the clients with whom I end up working seek me out. I’m not saying I don’t value all my clients, but the clients who really want my services, follow-up. If I don’t respond for a couple of days, there is an email from them, or a message on WhatsApp or Telegram.

This works well for me as well as my clients. I prefer to work with clients who pursue me rather than me pursuing them.

The clients who don’t respond once I send them a reply either don’t need my services, or the initial offer that I have made isn’t acceptable to them. In both the conditions, I should neither waste my own time, nor theirs.

Although I’m quite better than many content writers and copywriters, I don’t delude myself into believing that I am among the best. I’m not arrogant about my abilities.

Nonetheless, there are some clients who benefit a lot from writing, and once they start getting the written text from me, they stick with me. There is a client who claims that his business picked up only when I wrote his website content.

I want to work with SUCH clients.

I remember that client pursued me for weeks. I was busy in disability activism as well as my current assignments those days. Eventually I wrote for his website.

The clients who really need my services get back to me. The clients who don’t, I don’t bother with them. And the clients who think I should pursue them multiple times before they give me their work, well, they’re not the right fit for me.

This is why I’m publishing more smaller posts these days on my blog

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What is the benefit of writing smaller posts?

Since I have just started publishing comparatively smaller posts on my blog, many thoughts are coming to me.

One of the biggest benefits of writing smaller posts is that you are not bogged down by what the supposed length should be.

Another benefit of smaller posts is that you don’t necessarily have to write it for your own blog. Although I’m not crazy about sharing my content on third-party platforms more than necessary, shorter posts can be reused on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

You don’t need to follow a format. You can use bulleted points. You can use single sentences. Sometimes, you can just use a few words.

You can also bulk create your posts. It hardly takes 5-10 minutes to write 100 words or 200 words. Write them somewhere and then publish them as and when you want.

Or, you can use a scheduler like Buffer app to automatically publish your post at the designated time.