Content for the simple sake of content… just doesn’t work on the Internet anymore. Adding a few keywords to ultra-boring SEO writing is not the solution.
Let’s face it! You wouldn’t read anything that has no value and is uninteresting…and neither will your customers and readers.
Your copy needs to effortlessly engage the interest of your readers, and as a consequence this will naturally build authority.
You need to develop your writing skills, and that comes with practice. But there’s something even more important than your writing muscles that you need to use to write engaging content – and that’s your imagination.
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, doing what we always do, thinking like we always do, and producing what everyone else produces. But to engage with customers you need to break out of the norm, expand your repertoire and think differently. To get you off on the right foot take a look at these 5 tips that can get your imagination and your writing skills whirring.
These are just some great examples of how to write catchy headlines that can grab your reader’s attention as well as Google’s attention.
2) Tell a Story
Your title needs to condense your story in a quick sentence, but your content needs to elaborate on that story, draw your reader to you, just as if you were down at the local pub telling a story. Some people argue that your content needs to be long, and that this will help your content perform better in search engines. However, length simply for length’s sake doesn’t work. Google doesn’t like overly wordy pieces with little to no real value. So instead, you should place emphasis on circulating content by offering:
Focus on giving information that is rich in context. Offer your expertise and write content that makes you into an authoritative source.
3) Use Keywords Sparingly
Yes, we admit using keywords in content takes a bit of a knack. You have to work at placing those marketing keywords strategically on your blog so they’re natural. SEO is a constantly changing world and Google changes the algorithms frequently.
Today, your website’s SEO efforts can easily be penalised, simply from having keyword overuse. Websites that are full of unnaturally placed keywords don’t often see too many benefits nowadays. This is an outdated method of optimization, so you want to make sure your piece isn’t too keyword dense.
Instead as suggested in the headline section of this article you can try the themed link building method when it comes to keywords. This is where you add a keyword in the title and the URL of the article when it’s published. For example:
If your blog title has the keyword ‘Blogger Outreach’ you’d have the title something like:
Blogger Outreach Best Practices
The URL of the live blog would have your keywords in it as well.
As you can see both the title and the URL have the keyword blogger outreach in it. This is a great way to maximize your SEO efforts without going overboard with inner content keywords.
4) Make Your Point Quickly
Yes, I know. In school they taught us to elaborate – and you should, just keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Remember, the web reader scans a document. Screens can be hard on the eyes so make it easy for your readers to see your point quickly – they just may not have enough time to read completely through your piece. Some ways to help make this happen is to:
Making your point quickly and efficiently while also making it easy for your audience to read is essential.
5) Make It Fresh
Stay on top of your content. Search engines prefer material that is new, relevant and interesting. So create a blog as this can help you manage your content and keep it fresh. Effective content needs to be creative, new and unique. Here’s some tips to help keep your blog or content fresh:
6) Connect the Dots
Find those connections between seemingly unrelated items and then relate them. You can for example, relate that interesting person you saw on the train this morning to your story. Think; What does that bike ride have to do with your business goals, or that cooking class with your new product. Tie it all together to bring about the content that people will want to read.
7) Change the Perspective
Last but not least, put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Think about what might be interesting to them. Change your perspective. Think how a child might see the situation or even an object like a paper clip or a table. Write from that point of view.
When you challenge yourself to see a solution from a different perspective you make your web content more interesting. Your creative juices start flowing and you find insight that really interest people in what you have to say.
Still have problems? Ask one of our content experts here at No BS to help with your content needs. We can create interesting content from even the most mundane topics.
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