14 Most Common Content Mistakes & Roadblocks
September 3, 2021
Aligning Paid & Organic Search Campaigns
September 13, 202126 SEO Content Writing Hacks
Content writing is a broad term that encompasses many different types of writing. Some writers focus on creating content for blogs, while others are experts at crafting social media posts or articles that will be published online.
The thing that all these types of content have in common is their goal: they are all trying to draw the attention and interest of readers so they can sell them something. In this article, we’ll cover all of the content writing hacks you need to know to improve your content marketing strategy.
Table of Contents
1. Identify Your Target Audience
If you’re writing content for a blog, your target audience is the people who will read it. If you want to write an article that will be published online elsewhere, then the readers of that site are your target audience.
Once you know who they are and what their interests may be, it becomes easier to craft each post so that it resonates with them on some level.
2. Include Relevant Keywords
One way to improve search engine rankings is by including relevant keywords in your long-form content or blog posts. This doesn’t mean stuffing the text full of unrelated words just because they sound like they might make sense–it means only using those words when appropriate and where adding them makes sense in context.
3. Keep the Content Simple
Don’t try to make your content too “academic” or complicated; it should be readable by a 12-year old and still hold the interest of an adult.
4. Use a Consistent Voice in all Content
Your business has many facets, but when you write for different venues–a blog post versus an email newsletter, for example–the voice can change significantly. This is not only confusing for readers who are used to seeing that style from you every time they hear from your company (which isn’t often!), it also narrows down what sorts of topics you’re able to cover because some will resonate more with one audience than the other.
This means that if possible, use just one writing voice throughout all of your content marketing.
5. Add Humor to Your Writing
Humor is a great way to make your content more engaging, and it’s something that most people respond well to. However, adding humor can be difficult if you don’t have much experience with writing this type of content in the first place.
To add some lightheartedness without being too heavy-handed about it, try starting off by incorporating puns or word play into your blog posts and articles whenever appropriate.
The thing that all these types of content have in common is their goal: they are all trying to draw the attention and interest of readers so they can sell them something. In this article, we’ll cover all of the content marketing strategies you need to know for improving your own strategy.
6. Catch the Reader’s Attention Immediately with a Hook
It’s important to grab the reader’s attention from the start if you want them to stick around for more than a few minutes. Try starting your blog posts and articles with an interesting fact or question that will pique their interest, then offer some sort of answer in order to keep it going.
7. Add the Focus Keyword Immediately
If you’re writing content for a blog (particularly for a brand new blog), your target audience is the people who will read it. If you want to write an article that will be published online elsewhere, then the readers of that site are your target audience.
Once you know who they are and what their interests may be, it becomes easier to craft each post so that it resonates with them on some level.
A great way to do this is by using keywords strategically–adding these words where appropriate throughout the text without being too heavy-handed about it while also including them in titles or headlines if possible
Adding relevant keywords can help improve search engine rankings as well because Google looks at which terms appear most often in order to determine relevance when someone searches for a keyword that’s relevant to your business.
8. Use a Conversational Tone
The best way to connect with people on a personal level is by writing in the same tone that you would use if you were speaking face-to-face. This means using contractions, slang, and other informal language.
It also means showing your personality through content–sharing bits of your own life when it’s relevant or linking out to sites that are similar to yours so readers can see what they’ll get from visiting there.
You want potential customers who find your blog posts interesting enough to read more about them online but not just once; otherwise, all this work will be for nothing.
9. Add Keywords to Your Headers
In order to make your blog posts or articles more findable, it’s important that you include keywords in the headers.
This is especially true if you’re using an SEO plugin like Yoast–after all, their main function is making sure search engines can index your content and rank it higher when someone searches for one of those terms specifically.
But adding keyword-rich descriptions isn’t limited just to titles; they should be used throughout each post as well because people are often scrolling through headlines before deciding which article interests them most
Don’t forget about meta descriptions either since these will appear on Google search results pages below the title and URL and offer a brief overview of what readers can expect from reading this particular post.
10. Use Plenty of Visuals
The best content is almost always accompanied by visuals–images, videos, graphs.
It’s important to make sure these are relevant because they’ll help keep the attention of readers in a way that plain text alone can’t. Images and other visual assets also have the added benefit of making your blog posts or articles more visually appealing so you’re less likely to get bored reading them
11. Re-Examine Your Work Regularly
If you want to write great content for your target audience on an ongoing basis, then it’s necessary to re-examine what you’ve already done regularly and ask yourself how you can improve upon it going forward.
Do this every time there has been a significant change in tactics or strategy or when Google changes their algorithms.
12. Create Original Studies
There are a few different ways to publish original content without actually writing anything new, such as by conducting market research or creating infographics based on statistical data.
One of the best strategies for achieving this is through surveys, whether you solicit responses from your current readers and respond with advice tailored specifically to them or reach out
to people who have never read your blog in order to gain a fresh perspective that can help shape future posts.
13. Use Social Media Strategically
Many companies create social media accounts just so they can share links back to their own website, but there’s more potential than that here. It will take some time and effort at first, but if done properly, it should provide qualitative benefits beyond a spike in traffic numbers.
14. Add a FAQs Section with Long-Tail Keywords
Your blog post topics may be less diverse than on a traditional website, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore your audience when it comes to include search engine optimization.
To do this successfully, create an FAQs page with long-tail keywords in the title and content so people who are searching for them will have all their questions answered immediately.
15. A/B Test Your Call-To-Actions (CTAs)
There are lots of different CTAs you can use on your blog.
The most popular types include “subscribe,” “sign up for a free trial” or anything that requests an email address in exchange for something valuable, which is typically some type of content like a newsletter or course they should receive as a result
16. Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Blog Posts and Articles
Social media is the best way to help reach new readers who may not otherwise have found your article through traditional methods.
It also doubles as another form of SEO optimization since social networks will display these buttons prominently when someone shares one of your posts with their own followers. The more shares there are from unique people, the better chance at higher rankings.
17. Avoid Writing Fluff
For some reason, people have a tendency to write articles that are too long and not include enough actual content.
This is the worst thing you can do because it’s going to turn readers off from your blog altogether. Make sure you keep your content concise and on-topic to improve your blog’s engagement rate.
18. Avoid Writing Jargon
Another common mistake blog writers make is using jargon that isn’t easily understood.
This may not seem like a problem at first because it might be too easy to assume you’re the only person who understands what you’re talking about, but remember: your goal should always be to inform and educate people with content they can actually use.
19. Use the Hemmingway App
There are a lot of tools you can use to improve your writing skills, but one that I find most helpful while blogging is the Hemingway App.
It analyzes the quality and readability of any given content by highlighting problems with it in red like overly long sentences or passive voice. Using this tool will also help you create more engaging content for your business.
20. Repurpose Your SEO Articles
We’ve already discussed how you can use surveys to post original content without having to do any writing, but what if your research is more specific?
The answer: repurpose it. If you come across a study related to SEO hacking and think there’s value in the information for your audience, then take that data and turn it into an article.
21. Write Long-Form Content
If you’re a writer, then it’s likely that your natural tendency is to write long-form content.
But if you find yourself in an editorial meeting and everyone else wants short posts for their blog series, resist the urge to push back against them because this can seriously harm your SEO rankings.
22. Add Plenty of Long-Tail Keywords Naturally
It’s a common misconception that you should only include keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions, but this isn’t true.
In order to get the best results for long-tail keyword targeting, make sure you also mention them frequently throughout your content.
23. Use Numbers Strategically
Numbers are a great way to break up text so it doesn’t feel like one run-on sentence on repeat. They’re especially helpful when trying to convey statistics or other data points as they give readers something specific and tangible rather than just an opinion from someone who could be lying about their credentials or experience with what they’re talking about.
24. Master the Active Voice
The active voice is a powerful tool to use when communicating any message, but it has an even greater potential for SEO purposes.
This type of writing makes your content more readable and compelling because the subject of sentences are performing actions instead of being acted upon by other words or ideas.
25. Create Short Paragraphs and Sentences
This one might seem counterintuitive at first, but there are some advantages to writing short paragraphs and sentences.
For instance, it’s easier for readers to digest the information you’re giving them without having any distractions from other thoughts or ideas that keep popping up in their head when they read.
26. Use Subheadings Strategically
Subheadings aren’t just a great way to organize your content; they can also help boost its SEO rankings as well because web crawlers like Google will see them as different pages within the article rather than all taking place on one page.
This makes it easier for search engines to index your blog post quickly and more efficiently so people who are looking for specific information have an easier time finding what they need.
Need Help With SEO Content Writing?
As you can see, there are so many ways to improve your SEO content writing. Why don’t you call on the experts at SEO.co to help? Our team of content writers can assist in developing top-notch content for your business, including increasing the frequency and scale of your blog writing.
To learn more about how we can help, contact us today to speak to a member of our team.
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