Content Writing: Process and How To
Whatever form of advertising you choose, written content is essential. The best way to show off your content is on the Internet. Not only is the Internet the primary method for finding information, but it allows businesses to go in-depth about themselves and their objectives. But here’s the trick: as more businesses create websites, it becomes harder for consumers to find your business. Here are some tips on how to fix up your content and increase website traffic.
Step 1: Deciding
The first step in creating content is deciding on the content. Some questions you might want to ask yourself are: Who is my target audience? How can I appeal to them? What is the best way to separate my business from the competition?
Step 2: Research
Once you have a list of goals and objectives, the next step is research. Consider the question:
What are my readers looking for? Answer this question effectively and thoroughly. Once you’ve determined the answers, research them. Find articles, studies and other sources that make the information relevant and updated. Facts and statistics always ensure your credibility. Just make sure you give credit to the author.
Step 3: Refining
After research is the refining process. It’s important to refine your research and ideas. Having many sites and topics researched is a good start, but some points may take you off topic, making the article jump around. Narrow your research so it all ties into one central idea.
Step 4: Create an Outline
Now that the content idea has been picked and the research performed, the next step is to create a basic outline. Organize your thoughts and research into an outline that works for you. The outline is not writing a first draft, but simply organizing the points you will discuss.
Once the outline is created, fill it out with the information you’ve gathered. This will be your first draft of the article, so don’t worry if the wording or transitions seem choppy and out of place. The point of drafting is to get your ideas fleshed out on paper, following the outline you’ve previously created.
Step 5: Pause and reflect
After all the research, ideas, and other information is written out, take a break. It’s best to cool off for a little while, whether that is a couple of hours or a day. After cooling off, when you return to the article to do a final edit, you will be able to see more mistakes and have more patience with it. During this break, send your content to someone else to peer edit. They’ll often find mistakes you wouldn’t have found. They can also offer a fresh perspective and find areas that make sense to you, the writer, but aren’t as clear to the average reader. After peer edits and your own edits are done, read the content out loud. This method may make you feel silly, but we promise, it is the best way to catch any small, last-minute mistakes before publishing.
SEO
Now that your content is well-written and published on your website, the next step is to find consumers that want to read it. The best way to gain readers is to increase your SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO helps get readers to your site, based on the results they type into search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, etc.
Search engines are already serving millions of users every day by finding answers to their questions. So the more you increase your SEO, the more likely search engines will place your website link higher on the page, making it easier for users to find.
According to SERPs, a SEO software platform, “the majority of search engine users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages.” Take advantage of these top places to get the most traffic to your website.
So how do you increase your SEO? There are many ways, starting with the content you produce. The more relevant your content is to people’s questions, the more likely they are to click on and visit your website. The more traffic you get, the more your SEO increases. If users like the content you produce, they may promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or other social media channels, further increasing your SEO and bumping it higher on search results pages.
Another option is to use specific keywords. As users type those words, your website will appear higher in the search results. There are many other methods of increasing your website SEO, either by paying or advertising, but the fact remains, in order to compete with other businesses, SEO is vital.
CTA (Call-to-action)
The call-to-action are one of the best marketing components, yet rarely used. These are simple, targeted phrases that are as their name implies--a call to take action. Marketers use these action phrases to motivate their audience into action, whether that is to follow your business on social media, sign up for e-newsletters or to stop by your business. Start with considering your goal; what is the one step you want customers to take? Once you have a goal in mind, focus on creating a call-to-action that would achieve that goal.
When creating a call-to-action, make sure to motivate customers to engage with your business. More than just reading the newsletters, motivate customers to take actions that would create more of a relationship. Also, get right to the point. Don’t use a lot of big words in an attempt to sound professional. If anything, customers will get confused and stop reading.
Writing content is an essential piece to promoting your business. Make sure to take your time when writing; start with ideas, research, and fill in an outline. In order for customers to find you, fill in your content with specific wording to increase SEO and always add a call-to-action at the end.
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