The truth is, in order to be a good web content writer you need to be a good writer in general. If your writing is all messy, with poor formatting, full of mistakes and missing cohesion, you definitely need to work on it, since your writing is representation of you and your company.
Writing a good content is a choice, and it is up to your choice of putting your effort and energy into it. If you want to boost SEO ratings, gain traffic and leads, having a good content is what will get you there. Besides, as Google decided to punish copyright violators and reward unique ones, you would not want to get into trouble because of laziness. Instead, you could even make a better living!
Uniqueness and originality
Not only does your writing have to be original in terms of not anybody else’s, but also it should promote originality. Writing about outdated topics that have been heard and seen is not really taking you anywhere. Try to catch some novelty, or pose critical but argumentative attitude that contrasts the prevailing thinking. And even if you decide to write about something familiar, the way to write it is what matters. Use some humor through arguments, vivid examples and personal experience in the field.
Make sure your content is applicable
It is known that content that has no practicality is forgotten easily. Giving readers advice on ways to apply what they have learnt from your content and seeing that happen is what you want. A great example of actionable content writing is the Noob Guide to Online Marketing. As soon as you write your blog post, give your readers tips on how they would apply that. After all, no practice- no results.
Make your content easy to scan.
When people want answers, they use search engine, and expect that google will get them accurate and fast answers. What readers will mostly remember from your post is their own point of interest, so make sure you make it simple and practical.
Ensure good sourcing
Inaccurate information can be dreadful for your company and your reputation as a writer. Statistics have to be verified, and you need to choose the right sources. The more you have- the better. Besides, you’re helping the search engines by linking to other sources. Thus, the search engines will make sure about the content of your content and its arrangement.
Update your writings regularly
Starting a blog or website is like having a dog. You need to take care of it and feed it regularly so that it lives. Similarly, you can’t just quit your job once you’ve started it. If you do, you not only lose your readers, but also search engines do not favor sites that are not updated regularly. How much you will update your site is up to you, try to make a rough estimation, at least once a week, preferably twice.
The most important after all is that you write something about which people can relate with. Stay simple and original, keep good humor and create thought-provoking content- there you go the recipe for success.
Don’t spend all your time writing
Yes, content writing is generally about the ‘writing’ part. However, if you spend all day 24/7 writing, then you’re not really focusing on the ‘content’ part. Some of your time should be spent spit-balling new ideas, researching for good content ideas, honing your craft through reading other content writers’ work, and planning content for the future.
If you work as a content writer for an organization, you will need to be attending meetings for this sort of thing and discussing your ideas with your team. But even if you’re a freelancer, you should spend some of your time networking to find new leads.
Make sure you understand marketing
Marketing is an excellent way of communicating with other people. Having some tricks up your sleeve when it comes to marketing is ideal as a content writer, because you will understand better how the reader’s brain works and be able to slip into their psyche. If you want people to read your work, you have to understand how to make them want to read your work. It’s as simple as that!
There are plenty of online courses to take on marketing, but you can just read up on marketing via the internet, too, and teach yourself the ins and outs of the industry.
Make your content current
As already mentioned, you should be publishing content regularly. Part of this involves being up to date with current events so that you can write topical pieces readers will really enjoy.
While this does include knowing about what’s going on in the news and knowing a bit about social media trends, it also involves the simple act of keeping up with important holiday dates. Readers love to dig into pieces that match the time of year, be it Easter, Christmas, Halloween, or Independence Day.
Remember that websites are not chronological
If you had written a book, you would know that the reader would pick it up and start at the first page, then read all the way through to the end (if you can keep them hooked!). The same is not true of a web page. The visitor to your site could have entered the site through any page at all.
As a result, every single page needs to be easy to scan, promote the ideas and values of your site, and all should contain a call to action that gets readers to subscribe to a mailing list, read another post, check out a product, or interact with your site in some way another. Consistency is very important here.
