Use SEO tools along with content writing to improve your search engine rankings

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Using SEO tools along with content writing

Using SEO tools along with content writing.

I have personally experienced that content writing in itself can improve your search engine rankings. But with so many people competing for limited space on the SERPs, you need to take extra measures to highlight your content and make it easier for the search engine crawlers to make sense of it.

When you are regularly publishing content on your website or blog, I am assuming that you have a CMS or a blogging platform. Most probably you are using WordPress.

You may also be using something like Drupal or Joomla! but the basic thing is, when you are regularly publishing content, you need a publishing software. You can’t be creating and uploading independent HTML pages.

Every CMS gives you a GUI to write and publish content. Within your content you can have HTML elements such as <h1> and <h2> tags, images, hyperlinks and bulleted lists. You can also have page title and description meta tags.

In most of the cases, these are more than enough to improve your search engine rankings and there shouldn’t be a need to use an extra SEO tool.

Nonetheless, as I have mentioned above, to make sure that your quality content is crawled, indexed and ranked by Google and other search engines, you use SEO tools to analyze your content and incorporate keywords.

Do I use SEO tools along with content writing to improve my own search engine rankings?

Yes I do.

What SEO tools do I use along with optimized content writing?

In the very beginning I used the All-In-One WordPress SEO plug-in. Oh yes, I have been using WordPress since time immemorial.

Although WordPress allows you to create the title of your blog post or web page, per se, there are no or little provisions for adding meta tags. Besides, sometimes, you want your blog title and the actual HTML title to be different.

The blog title is the main headline that you see atop every blog post. Normally, it comes between the <h1></h1> tag.

The title of a post is the meta tag <title></title> and so is the description <description />.

WordPress by itself does not have provisions to add these bits of information. There are important for your SEO. To add them, you need an SEO tool.

As I have mentioned above, in the very beginning I was using the All-In-One WordPress SEO plug-in but later, I don’t know when, I started using the Yoast SEO plug-in. Both these plug-ins allow you to enter title and description information. The advanced version of Yoast SEO also analyzes your text for keywords.

For a few years I have been using SEOPressor. This is also a WordPress SEO plug-in. Along with giving the usual stuff like deciding separate title and description for your posts and also for Facebook and Twitter postings, you can enter three keywords and it analyzes your text.

Sometimes, when you are using your keywords, you may end up overusing them. SEOPressor warns you if you are overusing or under using your keywords and then makes suggestions. It also makes LSI keywords suggestions – alternative keywords that you can use to improve your SEO.

If your text-image ratio is low, it advises you to add more images.

I don’t use SEOPressor often (although I pay for it every month) because I find it constraining. To mark your blog post “optimized” you need to score beyond “75”. Since lots of effort is involved to reach the mark of “75” and beyond, instead of focusing on the quality of the content, you may end up trying to reach that mark.

Besides, reaching that mark isn’t a guarantee. Many times, I have been able to feature my blog posts among the top three results on the SERPs despite scoring below “60” by the SEOPressor analyzer. Conversely, even after crossing “90” the posts appear on fourth or fifth page.

But, anyway, whenever I want to make an extra effort at creating an optimized post, I use it.

Do I use another SEO tool along with content writing?

Not necessarily. Being a content writer, I am more obsessed with creating quality content rather than worrying about the SEO features recommended by the SEO tools.

I believe, or rather, I have experienced, when basic SEO needs are taken care of, such as having your keywords in the title and description, having your keywords in the first 100 words of the blog post or web page and then scattering them with different alternatives throughout the text, you begin to get higher search engine rankings.

I also use the Google Search Console regularly to submit the newly created blog posts or the old blog posts that I have just updated. You don’t need to wait for Google to come and crawl your content. You can submit your link and ask Google to crawl it. This way, your link is crawled, indexed and ranked comparatively quickly.

The importance of writing voice when writing content

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Having your own writing voice

Having your own writing voice.

“This is so Amrit,” is the comment someone left on my Medium blog post, some time back. On Medium I mostly publish journalistic, opinion or literary blog posts. I write in my own style. My writing has its own voice.

Do I also have a “voice” when I’m content writing for my clients? I have a style, certainly.

Clients who prefer my style of writing stick with me.

There are some content writing clients for whom I have been writing for more than 5-6 years. Recently a client contacted me after 10 years, and this is when you can easily do a search on Google and find a content writing service.

Hence, there are many clients who prefer my style of writing. But, is the style of writing also your voice?

Voice is something different. Many writers can have the same writing style. In fact, the content writing and copywriting advice that you get on the web is all about style. Everyone who has written for a couple of years is full of advice these days.

Your voice gives a unique feeling when you write. Classical writers have a voice. Charles Dickens had a voice. If I read something from Charles Dickens (aside from the fact that he was a racist asshole) and you don’t tell me that it has been written by him, I can make out that it has been written by him.

Having a writing voice renders a sense of unique personality to your content. Just because you are writing content for your business website or blog, doesn’t mean it should be devoid of personality. There are many entrepreneurs who write for their blog or website with a strong presence of personality.

Writing voice can be developed and it can be inherently present inside you. In fact, I believe that the voice is always there and when it begins to manifest, you allow it to manifest.

How I let my writing voice manifest

Honestly, I don’t do it consciously. I just let it flow. I’m not saying that I am always flowing. Sometimes my writing sounds stiff. This is when my soul is not into the topic. I’m not saying that I do a lousy job of content writing but if you ask me about my voice, it is missing.

I have reached a stage when I don’t have to worry about making writing mistakes. So, from that angle, I don’t need to worry.

Even when I commit mistakes, they are less of mistakes and more of whims. Yes, I have my own writing whims. Fortunately, I’m able to explain my whims to my clients.

Confidence is essential if you want to develop your own writing voice. Confidence must come from ease of writing. Inflated confidence can be counter productive.

I’m talking about the confidence that comes from muscle memory. When you don’t have to think to perform an activity. In fact, more than confidence, I should call it “being there”.

You must have come across the expression, “sing as if no one is listening, dance as if no one is watching.” Don’t worry about how people are going to judge your writing.

Yes, there should be no spelling mistakes. There should be no grammar mistakes. The writing must be clear. The message that needs to be delivered, must be delivered without ambiguity. Your writing must reek of enthusiasm because if you don’t feel enthusiastic about the idea you are trying to convey, your readers won’t feel enthusiastic too, and the entire effort and money will go down the drain.

Hence, this is how you have a writing voice:

  • Cover all your bases.
  • Writing must be in your muscle memory – you shouldn’t have to make an effort.
  • Write about the audience, about the reader.
  • Don’t fret about writing advice but at the same time, make sure that your writing is readable on smaller devices.
  • Focus on the message and not on your style.
  • Deliver value and be enthusiastic about it.
  • Don’t try too hard to sound verbose, but at the same time, don’t shy away from using your favorite words just because people may think that you are trying to show off.

Yes, as a content writer, I get paid for my content writing services. But mostly I’m writing for the pleasure of writing. If I have made enough money, I don’t mind writing for free. In fact, all my journalistic writing is for free, is for the love of writing. Maybe that’s why, people have begun to recognize “me” when they come across my blog posts and articles on other websites.

Use content writing to solve customer problems

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Content writing to solve customer problems

Content writing to solve customer problems.

For a couple of days, I have been trying to make MS Word switch on the “AutoSave” feature. This is a good feature: automatically saves every keystroke to OneDrive.

I tried to have a conversation with their “Virtual Assistant” and it kept throwing mega-long URLs at me according to what I was typing in the chat window. After that I talked to a human support provider. I did what he advised me to do and spent 40 minutes. The problem persists.

I haven’t had much time to get this sorted but having ready-made answers to customer problems saves time from multiple angles. I would suggest Microsoft to have shorter URLs. Non-tech savvy people get intimidated by long cryptic URLs.

You can use content writing to provide answers to most of the questions your customers may have. This way they don’t have to waste their time trying to explain to a support executive or your chat bot what’s troubling them.

As a content writer I often write the FAQs section for many clients. This is a good place to use content writing to solve customer problems.

I have observed that most of the clients want to create the FAQs section keeping SEO in mind. This is not a bad strategy but if you completely focus on SEO, your FAQs section doesn’t help your customers much.

Even if you solely focus on solving customer problems through FAQs, it is going to be good for your rankings.

How does content writing help you solve customer problems?

In many ways.

I have already written about the FAQs section above. In the FAQs section, through engaging and compelling content writing, you can cover every possible question your customer may have.

Creating an FAQs section shouldn’t be a one-time affair. In fact, I would suggest you set up your CMS in such a manner that people responsible for maintaining your website are able to add questions and answers on the fly.

Each time your support staff comes across a question from one of your customers that hasn’t yet been answered on your FAQs section, the question and the answer must be immediately added to the section.

You can also write lengthy trips in the form of blog posts and “Glossary”. I have a content writing glossary on my website. Right now it isn’t as comprehensive as I would like it to be, but I have started compiling content under it.

You can have a similar glossary on your website, describing all the terms that people need to know before and while doing business with you.

When you are writing and publishing content to solve customer problems, do keep in mind that you write everything from the perspective of your customers. There is no need to be defensive.

When I’m writing about different content writing topics, my main concern is to tell my visitors how my content writing services can help them

  • Improve your SEO.
  • Increase conversion rate.
  • Improve level of engagement on their website and blog.
  • Carry out effective email marketing campaigns.
  • Increase their content depth.
  • Publish fresh, helpful content on an ongoing basis.

I also share lots of content writing tips with them.

Even when sometimes I commit mistakes or have unfavourable experience with my clients, I write about them because I know such content helps my clients.

The more helpful content you write for your customers, the more cared they feel, and the more cared they feel, the more loyal they become to your business.

Personal brand building through strategic content writing

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Building your personal brand with content writing

Building your personal brand with content writing.

What is different about writing content for personal branding?

What is content writing for personal branding?

What do you look for if you need a content writer to build your personal brand?

Personal branding is the association that people make with your name.

What sort of feelings does your name arise among people you are targeting?

What do they think about you? Do they respect you? Do they recognize your authority? Do they pay attention to what you say or what you publish?

Building your personal brand matters to you if you seek business partnerships through the power of your name and recognition.

Content writing can help you clearly define your personal branding on the web and reach your target audience through it.

In the times of Covid-19, an increasing number of people are working from home.

Many successful professionals have lost their jobs and they are eking out their own livelihood.

Previously they were using their talents and abilities for the companies that hired them, but now they’re trying to use their talents and abilities as individuals rather than employees of a company.

Personal branding through content writing

For them, building their personal brand is as important as setting up a business. In fact, for people offering their skills as individuals – for example, I promote myself as a content writer and my content writing services are basically me – it is very important that their target audience recognizes them for their talents and abilities.

But first,

What is personal brand building?

What does personal branding mean

What does personal branding mean?

Personal branding has two attributes: your name and its association.

Although, I don’t want this to be my identity everywhere, in business circles, when someone comes across the name Amrit Hallan, I want people to immediately associate the name with “content writer” or “content writing” or even “SEO content”. My regular content writing helps me in this regard.

If enough people see my name enough number of times and they can recall that I am a content writer, my personal brand is established.

Even conversely, when people come across terms like “content writer” or “content writing services” or “content writing” or “SEO content writer” they should be able to recall, “Oh yes, Amrit Hallan does that!”

Of course, branding is more than that. Branding isn’t just about knowing what you do, it is also about how well I do it.

Hence, aside from knowing that I am a content writer, my personal branding means people know that I can help them improve their search engine rankings or provide them content that improves their conversion rate.

They recognize me as someone they can depend on. They respect my knowledge. They acknowledge my experience and expertise.

Famous examples of personal brands would be, if you come across Guy Kawasaki, you can immediately recall that he is an Apple evangelist, a venture capitalist and an author. If you come across Avinash Kaushik you know that he’s a data scientist.

So, personal brand building includes:

  1. Associating a skill, a knowledge domain, some character or quality, a speciality or anything that sets you apart from the others, to your name.
  2. Making sure that you are easily findable based on what you can deliver.
  3. Trust factor.

Why trust factor?

When you want to get work based on what you can deliver, people need to trust you.

For example, if someone hires me as a content writer, that person should be able to trust that I’m going to deliver quality content writing.

He or she must feel reassured that once he or she decides to work with me, he or she can count on me.

Otherwise, no matter how great a content writer I am, if I’m not reliable, if lots of people have shared bad experience about me online, brand building is of no use.

Hence, personal brand building means establishing yourself as an authority in a topic or domain so that people hire you or decide to do business with you, coupled with creating your presence so that people can easily find you when they need you.

“Finding” doesn’t just mean that when people come across Amrit Hallan the expression “content writer” must immediately pop up in their minds.

Sure, this should happen. But it should also happen the other way round. When they are looking for a content writer, they should be able to find me.

Enter content writing.

How quality content writing helps you build your personal brand

Quality content writing helps you build a personal brand

Quality content writing helps you build a personal brand.

As I have explained above, brand building means associating your name with something that you can deliver, as well as associating something that you can deliver with your name.

Along with that, it should be easier for people to find you for what you can deliver.

Quality content writing helps you achieve all these.

Associating yourself with your capability through content writing

Suppose you want to be known as a business coach.

You can just write on your website that you are a business coach, you give good advice, you have helped so and so and hence, people who are looking for a competent business coach should get in touch with you and preferably, should hire you.

There is nothing wrong in doing that, but the problem is, just like you, thousands of other business coaches have similar websites.

They have more or less the same information.

They call themselves great.

They showcase their achievements on their websites.

They also have testimonials.

They also insist that people who are looking for business coaches must contact them and hire them.

In such a case scenario, you need to establish yourself as an authority in your subject. You must stand out.

Why do professionals write books?

There are many business coaches who are also authors.

If there is a choice between hiring a business coach who has published a few books and a business coach who has never published, who do you think people are going to hire?

Yes, you’re right. The business coach who has published books.

Writing and publishing a book is not a mean feat.

Just the fact that someone has completed a book tells you that the person can focus and work hard.

Don’t see yourself writing a book in near future but would like to be known as a professional in your field? You can work with a content writer to publish authoritative content on your website or your blog.

Regularly publish articles and blog posts on your website. They are as good as writing and publishing book. Sometimes, even better.

Seth Godin, for example, built his personal brand through his blog. He wrote and published books much later.

Share your knowledge. Share your insight. Help people who come to your website.

When people regularly come to your website and read your thoughts on business coaching, they begin to associate your name with business coaching. They begin to recognize your brand.

Isn’t it obvious? If you are constantly writing about business coaching and how it can help people, people begin to recognize you as a business coach.

If your advice is good, if your advice is applicable and if people begin to benefit from your advice, they begin to trust you.

They begin to talk about you. They begin to tell others that you are a business coach. Even those who have never come to your website start visiting your website.

Making it easier for people to find you for your skills through content writing

Regular content writing and publishing builds your presence.

When you publish blog posts and articles on your website, you promote them on your social media timelines. You may also broadcast them to your newsletter. It becomes easier for people to find you.

Your targeted content also improves your SEO. Your organic search engine rankings improve for relevant search terms.

It’s obvious that when people search for your name it should come up in search results along with your speciality.

But, even if someone searches for your speciality, your name must come up.

If someone searches for a business coach in a relevant field, if you provide business coaching services in that relevant field, your name must come up.

Persistent content writing helps you achieve that.

Search engines love fresh content. They also love authoritative content.

You can provide them both with regular content writing and publishing on your website and blog.

You achieve personal brand building when people are able to find you, whether using search engines or social networking websites or direct references, both by your name and by your skill.

Again, you can achieve this level of personal brand building only through regular content writing.

Why regular?

Just as you are doing personal brand building, so are other professionals in your field. Everyone is constantly catching up. This is the reality of our times.

What sort of content should you write and publish for building your brand?

Your content should be able to achieve the following if you want to build a personal brand on its shoulders

  • Help you stand out
  • Build thought leadership
  • Grow trust and credibility
  • Help you build a solid network

Listed below are a few writing tips to build your personal brand through content writing:

Write a brand mission statement

What defines you?

Who are you as a person?

What do you do and what do you deliver?

What change do you make in people’s lives?

What do you stand for?

What is your philosophy in life?

What are your values?

What can be your most valuable contribution?

Write a list of your brand content goals

What do you want to achieve with you content that will help you elevate your brand?

Do you want to raise awareness about your field?

Are you a brand ambassador of your field of expertise?

Do you want to portray yourself as a trustable individual?

Do you want people to get familiarized about your thoughts and opinions?

Write and publish content regularly

Once you have clearly defined your objective and figured your target audience, start publishing content regularly.

You can begin with explaining the various concepts of your profession.

For example, if I claim that I can help you improve your search engine rankings with my content writing services, I should be able to illustrate this ability through proper examples.

In my case, my clients get live examples because they can find my web pages and blog posts for the search term they are using.

Regularly publish your research and observations.

Talk about your interactions with other industry leaders.

Share useful information from other sources that you come across.

Remember that regularity is very important.

The Internet is quite noisy.

In fact, it is one of the noisiest ecosystems in the world.

Within seconds thousands of pages, blog posts, videos, and images are added to the web.

Amidst all that, you need to remain visible if you want to build your brand on a sustained level.

Even the biggest names begin to lose their presence when they don’t constantly write and publish content.

Be persistent. Remain focused. Share your knowledge. Prove to people that you are an authority in your field. Sustain it over a long period of time. You have built yourself a personal brand.

How to write an effective cold email?

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How to write effective cold emails

How to write effective cold emails.

To be frank, I have never written a cold email for myself. I have written many for my clients – I’m still writing a couple for a client in Italy.

They are highly recommended. Even for my own business I have been advised multiple times to use cold emails.

Even LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to send “cold” messages to your contacts.

Here I am going to discuss some effective ways you can write cold emails.

  • Write a clear, convincing subject line.
  • Use the name of the recipient in the greeting (definitely).
  • Introduce yourself in the smallest possible sentence.
  • Immediately come to the point.
  • Use small, direct sentences.
  • Avoid being pretentious.
  • Politely ask to get back.

What is a cold email?

Updating on August 22, 2020: In more refined form, sending out cold emails is also called an “outreach strategy”. Many companies are running their own outreach programs in the wake of Covid-19 to generate more leads and get more business opportunities. Here is a nice blog post on Outreach Tips by Rand Fishkin.

Cold email does not mean you refrigerate your laptop for some time and then write an email on it.

A cold email is an unsolicited email message that you send to someone without having contacted that person before. It is like approaching someone in the crowd and the person is not expecting you. Or knocking at someone’s door to sell something.

It is like the cold calls that annoy you all the time. The big difference is, unlike cold calls, you are not forced to pick up your phone to check who is calling. The email message remains in the inbox and you see it when you check your email, unless, you have set up a noisy notification for new emails.

Is cold email spamming?

Cold emailing is a prominent part of email marketing. Though, there is a very thin line that divides cold emailing and spamming. They are different.

In spamming you send out email messages relentlessly, using a cheap email broadcasting server.

Somehow, you get hold of a large number of email ids. You have no idea to whom these email ids belong. You think that if you send your promotional message to 20,000 people, at least 50 may respond and since sending spam is quite cheap, you may get a good ROI.

I’m not saying it works, but most of the people think that it works.

In most of the countries, spamming is illegal. The Russian spam mafia is notorious.

The moment it is detected that the spam has originated from your server, the IP address of your server is blacklisted by the email clients like Gmail. They have very advanced technologies these days to detect spam messages even by analysing the subject lines. There are already millions of blacklisted IP addresses.

In cold email, you send one email message to one person. You send a personal message. You know who that person is.

For example, I visit your website and notice there are many mistakes in the text. Being a content writer, I can help you write better content for your website and blog. I find your email ID and I write to you. I give you some examples of how I have previously written for similar websites.

Similarly, I come across your profile on LinkedIn. I read about you and find out that you are a real estate agent or a realtor. You have a website that can use a better content writer. The past year I have written for many real estate agents and realtors. Hence, I write an email to you introducing myself and offering my service.

This is, non-spam, cold emailing. I know who you are. After reading my email, you will know that I am a content writer. You know why I am writing to you. There is clear communication. Then, it is up to you whether you want to take that communication forward or not.

Does writing cold emails work?

I have mentioned above that even LinkedIn encourages you to send cold messages. They call it their “InMail” feature. I get lots of messages from my LinkedIn contacts.

As traffic on my website is gradually picking up, many people send me pitches for guest posting. Since I already have a link on my website and blog that encourages people to contact me, although these are cold email messages, one way or another, I am already expecting them.

So in this case, I can say that the cold emails that people send me often work. I know in most of the cases, well, in all the cases, they are looking for backlinks, but they also help me save time by giving me quality content for my blog.

Coming back to the topic, cold emails do work. Since most of the people who use them don’t know how to draw a line between writing effective cold emails and spamming, cold emailing gets lots of bad rap and people are wary of using them and receiving them at both ends of the spectrum.

In this Inc.com article, the writer, Larry Kim claims that his response rate is approximately 1 in 5 with cold emailing, which is higher than the traditional email marketing response rate.

Personally, I believe there should be no reason why cold emails shouldn’t work, provided you send them with a sense of purpose. The key is, what approach you follow.

Before I talk about how to write effective cold emails, I’m assuming you are going to write the emails to people who can actually benefit from your proposition.

Writing effective cold emails

Recently I was reading a copywriting book by Robert Bly and many of the suggestions can be applied to sending cold emails. He says that the most important task is making people pick up your pamphlet, read the headline and then proceed towards the body text.

You need to follow the same approach when sending cold emails.

The importance of the subject line when sending effective cold emails

You must come up with the subject line that prompts people to open your email message. If they don’t open it, they don’t read it. If they don’t read it, they don’t respond to it. If they don’t respond to it, there is no use contacting them.

Hence, without getting too dramatic, the subject line of your cold email is a matter of life and death in the context of your email. So, spend a lot of time figuring out what subject line you’re going to use.

There is no definitive subject line that you can use, but be as specific as possible.

It will take some time for you to finally settle on the right subject line. For example, what subject line would I use if I send out cold emails?

Some of the ideas that come to my mind are:

  • “Need a content writer for your website?”
  • “Introducing my content writing services”
  • “Hello, I can write content for your website”
  • “I can improve your SEO with my content writing”
  • “Some suggestions for the writing mistakes on your website” – use such subject lines carefully.

There is no need to be dramatic because dramatization may confuse the recipient. Clearly specify what you’re offering.

Writing the main copy of your cold email

If you cannot personalise your cold email, don’t send it. Just don’t.

Hence, always greet the recipient with his or her real name. Even if you have to make an extra effort to find the name of the person, find it, and then use it.

Remember that your cold email is not a marketing message. It is a one-on-one interaction. You are bringing up something. Of course, you’re promoting your product or service, but since this is a personal message you need to be tactful.

Introduce yourself as clearly as possible. Don’t use a very long sentence. Preferably, in a single sentence, tell the person who you are and what you do.

Then, in the second sentence, tell the recipient why you are writing. It needs to be a genuine reason.

For example, if I am sending out a cold email, first I am quickly going to tell that person that I am a content writer. Then I will tell the recipient that there are certain things that I noticed on his or her website and thought of contacting.

Every content writer has a different style. When I write emails, I don’t want to impose my opinion on anyone. I want the other person to make his or her own decision and I apply the same approach when I’m writing cold emails for my clients.

Keep your writing style conversational. Use some references to convince the other person that you have actually gone through his or her website and are writing a personal message and not merely using a template.

60% of the email writing must be about what the other person is going to gain by associating with you. Don’t focus too much on problems. Focus on solutions. Focus on benefits.

In conclusion, in a couple of sentences, you can talk about your experience, the number of clients or customers you have served and how you have been able to benefit the others.

In the end, ask the person to contact you.

Concluding remarks

Writing effective cold emails is all about making a personal connection. You shouldn’t mass email cold emails because then they become spam.

Just because you have got someone’s email ID doesn’t mean you should be sending emails to that person. Maybe he or she doesn’t even remotely require your services.

If you are a content writing service, should I be offering content writing services to you? Of course, if I need to partner with you or collaborate with you, there is nothing wrong in that, but I shouldn’t be offering you my services for YOUR website.