Content Writing Update – December 24, 2019

I’m trying to land the content writing project for a university website.

Content writing update

I exchanged samples with them. I also sent them my previous work.

Once everything seemed to be settled, they asked for a sample, which I sent today.

It is being assessed.

I have been regularly writing for a Japanese real estate client and I have set aside some time to work on her blog.

Just as I was about to start, I wasn’t clear about the title so I wrote to her for more clarification.

If she responds on time, I may complete her blog post and send it today itself.

Other than that, the taxi service for which I have been writing for 4-5 months now needs another blog post. I will create an outline today before wrapping up.

I’m also planning to add another web page to the main website section: Press release writing services.

For a long time I haven’t published a smaller blog post – curated from another link. I may do that after publishing the press release web page.

Improve your SEO with content auditing

Improve your SEO with content auditing

Improve your SEO with content auditing

For the past week I have been auditing my existing webpages.

In a hurry to build every section of the website, we often, quickly, build webpages without giving much care to the SEO aspect of those webpages.

These pages may be complete in themselves vis-à-vis delivering your core business message and conveying to your visitors how you can serve them, but in terms of SEO, you haven’t taken care of all the aspects of your content.

I exported the entire list of my main Credible Content business website webpages into an Excel sheet and now I try to rewrite the content of at least two webpages everyday.

Then, with color coding, I mark them done.

Is it improving my SEO?

For more than 1-1/2 months, I was bedridden.

I could only take care of client assignments and I couldn’t publish new content on my blog.

The content writing field is very competitive because practically, everyone can provide content writing services because most of the clients are unmindful of what is quality content.

Anyway, that’s an altogether a different issue, but one tends to lose search engine rankings very fast if one doesn’t publish new content regularly.

Since I couldn’t publish new blog posts and webpages on my own website, I lost search engine rankings for many of my top ranking keywords.

Even when I resumed my regular routine, I couldn’t focus on publishing your blog posts.

But I started rewriting my existing webpages – making them current and adding more sections and images.

I’m also optimizing these webpages for long tail keywords.

At least I have regained the rankings that I had lost.

What is content auditing?

What is content auditing?

What is content auditing?

Is there a content audit definition?

Is there a content audit tool you can use?

Is there any content audit criteria?

What exactly does webpage content audit consist of?

If you have had a business website you must have lots of webpages and blog posts that you have been adding over the years.

Many of these webpages and blog posts have old, outdated information that is not relevant to the current context.

You may have also lost their rankings because fresh content on the same topics or even on the related topics, have been crawled and indexed by Google and other search engines.

As I have written above, my search engine rankings suffered even when I couldn’t add new content for a couple of months.

Google is constantly looking for fresh content.

Content auditing means going through your individual webpages and blog posts (they already exist I presume) and then updating them.

Content auditing may include:

  • Adding fresh information.
  • Restructuring the content to make it crawler friendly.
  • Writing more content.
  • Incorporating your primary, secondary and longtail keywords.
  • Refining meta titles and descriptions.
  • Adding more images.
  • Updating obsolete information.

Content auditing can be as comprehensive as you want.

It can be an occasional exercise and it can be an ongoing undertaking.

Auditing can be full-fledged it during which you observe the following attributes of your existing content:

  • The number of clicks the link attracts.
  • First published date.
  • Author name (in case you have multiple authors).
  • Call-to-action of the webpage (what was the purpose of the webpage when you created it).
  • Page bounce rate.
  • Image alt tags.
  • URL.

Content auditing may take a few days, a few weeks or even a few months, depending on how much content you have.

Why content auditing improves your SEO?

Why content auditing improves SEO?

Why content auditing improves SEO?

When I say content auditing, I don’t mean just randomly updating your existing webpages and blog posts.

Auditing means having a serious look at them from the point of not just adding useful information, but also from the point of improving their SEO.

When for the first time you were creating those webpages and blog posts, maybe you didn’t have a clear idea of how to search engine optimize them.

Maybe you were not even aware that you should write your content keeping keywords in mind.

Or maybe you were too obsessed with the keywords and you didn’t pay attention to the overall quality and purposefulness of your content.

Or maybe you didn’t have an experienced content writer working for you and as a result, you neither have good quality content nor have optimized content.

Whatever is the reason, you should have a fresh look at your existing content and see what improvements you can make so that it not just reads well, it also improves your SEO.

Content auditing improves your SEO in the following ways

  • You use a tool like Google Analytics to know how much traffic your individual webpages and blog posts generate and which are the best performing and worse performing links.
  • You add more content – Google prefers lengthy pieces of webpages and blog posts.
  • You interlink your blog posts and webpages so that high traffic links can send references to your other blog posts and webpages that don’t get much exposure.
  • You rewrite meta titles and descriptions in terms of improving SEO.
  • You make the content fresh and resubmit the links, which Google likes.
  • You add more relevant images to give your SEO further boost.
  • You can re-share your content through your social media and social networking profiles getting more exposure to your older blog posts and webpages.

What are the benefits of content auditing?

  • Pinpoint main problem areas and rectify them.
  • Identify content for content repurposing (you may like to read How to repurpose old content?)
  • Improve quality of your content.
  • Restructure your content for better readability.
  • Incorporate primary, secondary and longtail keywords strategically and in a logical manner without compromising on the overall quantity of your content.
  • Enhance content usability.
  • Improve credibility by linking to trusted sources.
  • Improve call-to-action.

How to do content auditing?

This is something you yourself will have to figure out, but I can explain how I am doing.

I use WordPress as my CMS.

I use a plug-in that generates an HTML page of all the links that I have posted so far.

Using this plug-in I generated a fresh list and then copy/pasted the list into an Excel worksheet.

There are other tools also that can help you generate a list of all the URLs under your website, including Screaming Frog and URL Profiler.

I also use SEOPressor for WordPress to analyse my text as I write it.

I select a link and copy/paste it in the browser and then go to the WordPress dashboard to edit the link.

SEOPressor immediately tells me whether I have previously optimized the content or not.

I also check (using anonymous browsing) how the link ranks for the selected keywords and search phrases.

If SEOPressor tells me that I didn’t optimize the content the first time, I start working on it until the SEOPressor plug-in okays it.

Once I feel satisfied, I republish and resubmit the link to Google.

In the Excel sheet in the adjacent column, I enter the date on which I audited the link and then I also color code the link to mark it as “audited”.

This is how I do it.

I am an experienced content writer and I can immediately know if a certain webpage or blog post is optimized or not.

You may not have that experience.

You can hire a content writer to audit your website and then update the content.

If you have too many pages and blog posts, don’t worry about the cost.

You can select the most important pages and blog posts and hire a content writer to work on them.

However you decide to audit your content to improve your SEO, sometimes deciding to audit your existing content is better than adding new content.

 

Content Writing Update – December 20, 2019

From today onwards I will be maintaining an online journal of the various content writing assignments I’m working on these days.

Content writing update – December 20, 2019

How elaborate and how concise these updates are will depend on how much I have to write.

Today I wrote a small write-up for a technology client about the emerging content marketing trends for 2020.

The client is not necessarily  a content marketing company; they mostly provide technology solutions like mobile app development, Blockchain development and web design, and as an add-on, they also provide digital marketing services of which, content marketing is a part.

Aside from this, I’m doing some research work for a UK-based client who imparts coding training to school kids.

Their main aim is to change technology consumers into technology creators.

Instead of always playing games and using other apps, the kids should learn how these games are programmed and developed.

There is a university website and negotiating for and I hope I will start writing content for it in the coming couple of days.

I need to start writing copy of a white paper on how AI is helping people with disabilities.

I have received the outline from the client.

That’s it for today.

#ContentWritingUpdates

Just hired a professional content writing service? How to benefit the most

How to benefit from the content writing service you have hired?

How to benefit from the content writing service you have hired?in the taken

Have you just hired a professional content writer and wondering how to benefit from his or her content writing service?

Deciding to hire a professional content writing service is a good decision for your business. Your content quality is going to improve remarkably. You will be able to publish high-quality content regularly.

You may like to read: 5 reasons you need to hire a content writing service.

Just because you have hired a professional content writing service does not mean your job is over.

Remember that the content writer writing for you, no matter how good he or she is, does not have the sort of business experience that you have in your field.

After all, why do you want to publish content on your website or blog?

Why do you want to publish content?

Why do you want to publish content?

An unabashedly simple answer would be to improve your SEO.

Nothing wrong in that, but simply improving your SEO doesn’t get you business.

Providing quality content to your prospective customers and clients does.

Hence, you don’t want content just to improve your SEO, you also need content to constantly engage your audience.

You want to share your knowledge with them.

You want to tell them that you are capable of delivering what you are promising.

You have to showcase your successes.

You have to explain how you deal with challenges.

You know how you can deliver your promises.

You know what your successes have been.

You know what challenges you have overcome.

You need to share all this with your content writer.

Listed below are a few steps you can take to derive full benefit from your professional content writing service:

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve through the content writing service you have hired

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your content writing projects

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your content writing projects

This is very important.

Again, of course, you want to improve your search engine rankings, and who doesn’t?

But this is not the only reason why you have hired a professional content writing service.

Content writing and content publishing is all about creating a formidable brand presence.

When people visit your website or blog, they should get an impression that yes, this is a serious business website I’m visiting.

Businesses and individuals want to partner with thought leaders who have an authority over their field.

I have explained in this blog post how to build thought leadership with authoritative content writing.

Take your own case: assuming you’re looking for quality content that can help you establish yourself as a leader in your field; would you go with an inexperienced, unknown content writer or someone who is known for a unique writing style and has made a name for himself or herself as someone who can deliver results?

If you want someone to hire you, do you really feel that you deserve to be hired?

If the answer is an emphatic yes, this should reflect through your writing.

Hence, have a clear roadmap.

Why do you want content?

Do you want to improve your conversion rate?

Do you want to create an engaging presence on social media?

Do you want to run a successful email marketing campaign?

Do you want people to download your case studies?

Do you want to improve your search engine rankings for relevant keywords and search terms but at the same time, also improve your conversion rate?

Get actively involved in the process of content writing

Get involved in the process of content writing

Get involved in the process of content writing

The content for your website is not a commodity.

It is not a product.

It is not something that you pay for, get it, and publish it, assuming that your content writer is going to write exactly what you’re looking for.

In many cases, clients send me just a list of the web pages they want.

They are so disinterested that even for the main website content – homepage, services page, about us page – they want me to come up with good, convincing content.

Disinterested in the sense that they simply want to fill up “impressive” content without wanting to say something unique.

They think that since I’m a good content writer who can incorporate important keywords and key phrases and at the same time keep my writing professional, all they need is just to tell me what pages they want, and I can handle the rest.

Also, since they have internalized the notion that they are not offering something unique and hence, what needs to be written for their website can be picked from other, similar websites, their own input is not needed.

Sure, if I have experience in a field, for example web design, Internet marketing, digital marketing, software development, mobile app development, and even content marketing, I don’t need much help and I can come up with convincing content on my own, but if you want something unique, something that helps you stand out, then you must get involved.

You must present your unique perspective.

You must help me render a unique voice to your website content.

How can you do that?

Tell me what makes you special.

Don’t use general expressions.

What’s so special about you?

What defines you?

What motivates you?

What sort of team members do you have?

What types of projects you have worked on so far?

What are the tools – digital, physical and intellectual – that you have but your competitors don’t?

These are important bits of information.

Have faith in your content writer once you have hired a professional content writing service

Have faith in your content writer

Have faith in your content writer

You may say that this runs contrary to the concept of getting involved with your content writer or your content writing service, but it is not.

Sure, your input is needed.

But an experienced content writer knows what works and what doesn’t.

This is why he or she is a professional content writer and you have hired him or her.

In case you have hired a content writer just so that he or she writes what you feel he or she should write, you need a steno, not a writer, and especially not a professional content writer.

If you’re going to control how the content must be arranged, how the sentences must flow, and what words to use (aside from industry-specific words and phrases), you just need a driver, you don’t need a guide.

You need a mason, not an architect or engineer.

An experienced content writer knows how to write for different industries.

He or she knows what works and what puts people off.

He or she also knows what is good for your SEO, but at the same time, is also good for your conversion rate.

The point is, trust your content writer.

Focus on providing value rather than simply filling up your website with content

Provide true value through content writing

Provide true value through content writing

You will be wasting the skills of your content writer if you simply want to fill up your website or blog with “SEO friendly” content.

When people visit your website, every word counts, every sentence counts and so does every paragraph.

Even when they’re not consciously doing it, people are constantly evaluating the way you talk to them.

Also, when they come across your links on search engines (maybe even at 53rd position) they expect you to give them what you have promised in your listings.

For example, if you have found this particular link on Google when you have searched for “how to make best use of the content writing service you are working with”, or something like that, you should be able to learn exactly that.

You shouldn’t feel cheated.

You must feel well served by the link.

This is the entire purpose.

When people come to your website, they should have a sense of respect for you.

They must value your knowledge and your wisdom.

They must feel that you have their good in your heart.

This can only be achieved when you deliver value through your content writing.

Content writing rules to convert your social media followers into customers

Photo by Negative Space from Pexels

Whether you run a small local business or a big international company – you need to grow your social media presence. You should use social media platforms to connect with your customers, raise brand awareness, and boost your leads and sales.

In this article, we will consider seven simple rules on how to convert your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter followers into loyal customers. Follow these rules, and you will achieve all the marketing goals you have set.

Know your audience

Let’s start with the basics. If you want to write a remarkable social media post, you should analyze your audience first. You should conduct a little research to understand who exactly will read your texts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

It is worth mentioning that there is a difference between the audiences on your blog, your website, and social media. Not all people who read your blog posts follow you on Facebook, and vice versa. So even if you have a clear understanding of who your general target audience is, you still need to analyze your social media audience.

Avoid sales clichés

Don’t use sales clichés when writing captions for social media posts. The phrases like “save your time and money” and “hurry up to place your order” do not work on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to turn your followers into customers, you should make sure that your social media posts do not sound like an ad copy.

Try to understand one important thing. If you want to achieve great results, you should focus on the process of content production, not on advertising. Create a good social media post – and it will bring you more customers than any paid ad can do.

Personalize your message

If you want to move leads down the sales funnel, you should personalize your social media posts. You should use the words “you” and “your” where possible and discuss the issues that worry or interest your audience the most. Make your followers feel like you have written the post personally for him – and you will win his loyalty.

Photo by Kerde Severin from Pexels

Provide a value

If you have a goal to convert social media followers into brand advocates, you should create content that adds value to your target audience. To achieve success in the long run, you should focus on the needs of your customers rather on your products. In other words, you should provide your target audience with unique, valuable content first, and advertise your products second.

Let’s imagine that your company sells bakery accessories.

If you want to boost sales, you shouldn’t write a post that explains why your baking pans are better than items offered by your competitors. You should share a quick, step-by-step recipe of the delicious sponge cake instead. If you get your followers interested in trying out the recipe, they will visit your website and buy the necessary accessories.

Proofread your texts

Some content creators believe that social media users do not care about the correctness of grammar and that proofreading is not important. But in fact, bad grammar has a negative effect on social media promotion. Mistakes and typos in Tweets and posts distract users from the core message and make people doubt the trustworthiness of content in general.

Fortunately, today, you can proofread your social media posts fast and easily without spending a fortune. You can use affordable online grammar checkers. Or, in case if money is no problem for your company, you can hire a freelance proofreader.

Keep it simple

When writing for social media platforms, you should strive for simplicity. You should avoid using sophisticated words and rarely-use idioms. And you should keep your sentences short and concise.

Why it’s so important to keep social media posts simple? Firstly, people use Facebook and Instagram to entertain themselves, and they are not interested in reading long, complex texts.

Secondly, you should understand that your social media content attracts not only English native speakers but also users who speak other languages. And if you want to make your content accessible for overseas customers, you should simplify your writing to facilitate the translation process.

Be honest with your followers

If you want to improve customer trust and loyalty, you should be honest and sincere with your followers.  You should share your business insights, brand story, and information related to your products on social media.

You can be sure that your audience will appreciate your openness a lot. Your customers will reward you with increased loyalty and high sales.

Bottom line

Do you struggle to get more clients and increase sales? Follow the content writing rules that are given in this article. Craft social media posts that speak to your target audience, and you achieve results you expect.