Content Writing Tips For Your Business

What is Content For?

Content is an important part of your overall marketing strategy. Content marketing is a key component in creating a well oiled inbound marketing structure to stoke the sales in your business. The two main benefits to content marketing is SEO and authority.

 
For SEO we will address how to do the right keyword research to make sure you’re loading your content with the right keywords to help you rank better on Google. As well, we will address what it takes to become an authority in your field.
 
 
Beyond these critical points, it’s imperative to promote your content once you’ve created it. Simply publishing non-stop one article after the other, while very impressive, does not achieve the goal of getting your content in front of as many eyes as possible.
 

We will address this issue more in depth, but a great place to start is your social media channels and an emailing list. The main idea is that the more your content has it’s links spread across the web, the better you rank and the more you pull new eyes to your content and ultimately your business.

 

Content Writing Tips

 

Everyone needs a little help once in awhile, so these are 7 great content tips that I would recommend to any small business looking to get more traffic. So let’s get started

1.Keyword Research - You probably already know which keywords you want to rank well, but just knowing that one keyword doesn’t mean your work ends there. To write a keyword based piece of content that generates the results you want takes a bit more investigation. The way to do it is go to Google Chrome, open up an incognito window (so your search doesn’t get contaminated with your cookies) and search your keyword. The suggestions that come up at the bottom of the page are what Google thinks are the keywords most relevant to your target keyword. Ergo, if you load your content with these keywords in a sensible helpful way, your content will rank better than it would have otherwise. See the pictures below to understand what I’m talking about.

(The Target Keyword)

 

(The suggestions given by Google for related search terms)

2. Using Headers 1,2 &3 - Instead of just emboldening your headers, use H1, H2 and H3 where applicable. This relays to Google bots what you think is the focal point of your content, making it easier to read and giving you a couple of brownie points with Google.

3. Rock Out with Your Link Out - Make sure you reference your sources by linking out to them. This is not only a nice and respectable approach to using someone else’s knowledge, but linking out will actually help the Google bots realize that you are linking out to authority figures in your field adding to increasing your Google rank.

4. Keep things Short - To take a break from SEO inspired efforts, writing shorter paragraphs will help the actual people reading your content to digest it more easily. Shorter attention spans equal shorter paragraphs.

5. Write for Your People - Even though you should try to use the right keywords with the right keyword density, and you should write shorter paragraphs and longer content (most experts put the ideal word count per blog post at about 1400 give or take), always write what you need to write to deliver your message to the people you want to care about your business. Care for them, they will care for you.

6. URL counts- Make sure your target keyword comes up in the URL to help improve your rank.

7. A Cut Above the Fold - Make sure your header, banner and first words of text come before the fold to make it easier for Google to document what your content is about. (The fold is essentially everything you see before you start scrolling down).

 

Promoting Your Content.

 

As we mentioned before, publishing your content isn't enough. You must make sure you are actively trying to get your content in front of the right eyes.  Brian Dean, a true SEO maven, will tell you that promoting is just as important as publishing. Promote your content, it’s crucial. Here are 6 tips to help you get ahead.

 

  1. Snippets - Take different pieces from one piece of content and promote on multiple times on your social media channels. Especially do this with content that isn’t time sensitive. If you wrote something that is always applicable, you can always promote it.

  2. Answer Questions - If you go onto Quora, Reddit or even Yahoo! Answers you will see all different types of questions. If you see someone asking about how to remove gum from your hair and you just published an article called “7 ways to get gum out of your hair” this is your time to shine. Leave a link and a smiley face.

  3. Give a Shout Out - When you’re linking out to someone in your blog post and you’re using their knowledge, send them a link to your post. They will likely appreciate and with any luck, they will share it as well.

  4. Embedding Share Buttons - Just like your standard CTA, this is a call to action for your readers to SHARE YOUR CONTENT! This is an important piece to the puzzle and can not be overlooked.

  5. Pictures or Videos - Text can be pretty humdrum, so be sure to include photos or videos to catch the eyes of your target audience.

  6. Social Media - It’s free, promote your content. A no-brainer, but needs to be said.

 

So there you have it, some tips to get your content going strong. Don’t forget that Content Marketing is a piece of a larger marketing puzzle to get your marketing fully automated running like a well oiled machine.

 

Good luck and let up know about some content writing tips you have!