How to Write Quality Content
One of the major concerns for anyone starting to build a website is how to write quality content.
Quality content that will strike a chord with your readers and get them to interact with your website.
Interactions that will put markers into the Google rank index which will help your site grow in the ranks and authority in your niche.
Lets face it we have all arrived at websites where the content has been that poor that we have simple clicked on to the next page listed on Google.
We don’t want that to happen to our visitors as that is lost readers and possible followers of your website never to return.
So how do we go about writing content that will engage our readers and keep them hooked to the bottom of the post and on to other pages and to interact with our website.
Well to be honest there are many techniques to master to be able to do this properly and hopefully we shall be able to reveal these to you as we work through this post.
Basic structure of a website post
- Title
- Opening statement
- explore that statement with point 1
- continue with point 2
- possible point 3 and 4
- Conclusion
As you can see this is fairly basic but all posts should have this basic principal. The way these points are displayed is dependent on the type of post you are trying to write.
- Is it an informational post?
- Is it a review?
- Is it a sales page?
- Is it a comparison page?
As you can see these posts will have different layouts but the main principles still remain. All will have a title, opening statement, points and conclusion.
The way those are developed depends on the post type. All of these posts will have an interaction point.
That can be a call to action of some kind, a link to a product, a review post, or asking for social sharing.
These help get our post noticed by Google as the more interactions the post has the higher it will appear on their search results and the more traffic our post will get.
So its important to get this correct. We want as many of those visitors arriving at our post to interact in some way.
This topic is so large it warrants a few posts on it so we will not go into the variations now. We will just concentrate on the actual written content within the post.
Writing to attract good SEO metrics is very important.
What I mean here with SEO or search engine optimization metrics is using keyword placement and writing your content to include different variations of your keyword to attract traffic from those as well.
For placement it is important for on page SEO to include your main keyword in your post title, the first paragraph and somewhere towards the end of the post.
If your article is very long as in a pillar or silo post then you can include it more times throughout the post.
It is not recommended to put the keyword in too many times throughout your post though. This is called keyword stuffing and will get you de-indexed with Google.
TIP: You can also name your image that goes along with your post so it includes or has the main keyword also.
If you write your content naturally you will put in automatically relevant similar keywords which are called LSI Latent semantic indexed keywords.
What this means in its basic term is other associated words and phrases that are similar in meaning to the keyword you are using.
For example the keyword “taking your dog for a walk” can be associated to, “walking your dog”, “dog walking”, “walk a dog”, etc etc.
As you can see if you write naturally a piece on any subject matter you will be writing LSI keywords as you go. The trick here is to not to think too much about it.
If you try and fool Google or other search engines into using keywords that you deem important but don’t really sit with proper grammar you will find a negative effect on your post.
Simply write as if talking to your friend explaining to them the subject in mind. Don’t try to over think or re-work it.
If looking for KW ideas for your post keywordtool.io is a good place to check out. Google Adwords is another place to check out for keyword ideas.
Be careful you don’t take the traffic figures as fact as these figures are presented for Google Ad campaigns and not strictly search traffic.
It does give you a list that you can download to work into other keyword tools like Jaaxy for more accurate results.
Make sure to check for grammar errors!
Writing quality content also requires proper use of grammar and correct spelling. It is better to write with quality in mind from the outset.
Remember that people from all around the world may visit your website and if you use a lot of street vernacular they may be confused or misinterpret it incorrectly and completely miss the point you were trying to make.
It is therefore better that you try to write correctly and correct any mistakes you see as they are pointed out to you.
Writing inaccurate or grammatically incorrect will not make much of a difference to the way Google finds and ranks your page or post but the real test is how do your visitors react with it.
If they cannot understand you then that interaction will be very minimal and your post will stink in the rankings.
Don’t be worried here if you make the odd mistake that will not hurt but if you consistently write badly written content readers will be put off quickly and it will hurt your website overall.
My advice is to proofread all your work and if you can get a family member or friend to do the same. If English is not your first language you can pay for someone to proof read it for you.
A cost that may be required to take on to keep things correct you can use fiverr or oDesk to recruit people for this.
You could if you require get someone to translate from your native language to English if looking to compete on the English servers.
When building a website the first thing you need to come up with is the niche and for the purpose of this post we will conclude that this is already in place. Then comes the content.
We need to search for keywords’s that have traffic looking for them that we can rank for. Tools like Jaaxy and others will help us find these keyword’s.
So when we choose a keyword apart from things like traffic and competition one other consideration is can we write an article that will provide our readers with something that will enhance their interaction on the website.
Practical example to follow!
For example you have a niche on leather motorcycle jackets and you searched and found that “discounted leather motorcycle jacket” has reasonable traffic and low competition.
You may think OK I can write a post on this and get traffic however are you really providing your readers with a good post.
I would assume anyone who has searched for this keyword will be looking for shops already selling discounted jackets and coming to a written post about that may not provide the best opportunity for you.
If you had a post with links to websites that have discounts on jackets with pictures and some text you may get some reward but ranking that post will not be as easy.
In fact there are many affiliate marketers who stay clear of words like discount, sale, special offer etc as these are usually taken by e-commerce websites and are normally hard to out rank.
Unless you are building such a site then that would be OK. The main point here is this keyword may not be the best use of your time and effort.
On the same niche a keyword like, “how to choose a leather motorcycle jacket”, may provide better reading for your visitors. You can break this article up into points very easily
Title : How to choose a leather motorcycle jacket
(someone coming to this post will be wanting to know what to look out for so you need to provide that info)
Opening statement
When choosing a leather motorcycle jacket there are a few things you need to consider these are, quality of the leather, purpose, body protection and of course cost.
We shall discuss these options giving you the pros and cons of current trends and ones to avoid and in the process show you how to choose a leather motorcycle jacket.
Point 1 Quality of the Leather
The main bulk of the price for a jacket is made up in the leather. You may think leather is leather but not so.
You have 3 main options Budget, Moderate and Exclusive. As the price goes up so does the comfort and pleasure in wearing the jacket for long periods.
Budget leather will be tough and fairly inflexible and is good for rough outdoor work or motorcycle riding if not worried about style.
Moderate leather will be more flexible and easy to wear and can be used as a fashion accessory as well as casual motorcycle riding.
The exclusive leather is very flexible and really nice to wear feeling like a second skin. It is much more a fashion item than a motorcycle riding jacket as coming off and damaging it will prove very costly.
Point 2 Purpose
Not everyone looking to purchase a leather motorcycle jacket has actually got a motorcycle. As a fashion apparel motorcycle jackets have been used in many circles, rock music being one large group.
Others just like the look and feel of them and use them just as a jacket for going out. Lastly the main group is motorcycle enthusiasts who need the jacket to wear while out cruising.
Point 3 Protection
Some jackets will have extra built in body protectors to help in the event of falling off the motorcycle. Sliding down the tarmac on a nylon fabric is not a pleasant experience as the material shreds in seconds causing a damaging abrasive effect to your flesh and bone.
Leather on the other hand will allow you to slid on the tarmac without this effect and protect you from serious injury.
Point 4 Cost
As mentioned above there are three main options available in leather motorcycle jackets quality, purpose and protection and these all have a bearing on the final cost you will be required to pay.
Motorcycle jackets can cost anywhere from $50 – $5000 depending on these options.
Conclusion
When choosing a leather motorcycle jacket you first need to decide what you need it for is it for fashion or will it be practical or indeed a combination of both. Then what type of leather can you afford from budget to exclusive.
If the jacket is practical how much body protection should it have. Lastly what is your budget?
I would go for the best jacket you can purchase without breaking the bank as a quality jacket like an Affiliate jacket Link
So there you have it, jackets are wide and varied come in many styles, colors and textures. I do hope this post has shown you how to choose a leather motorcycle jacket.
Any queries or comments please leave a note below
So there we have an example of a post 559 words with keyword in title the first and final sentences, 2nd keyword 3 times in the post and 3rd keywords motorcycle, leather, jacket throughout the post also.
The room for your affiliate link at the end. As an unwritten rule only use that link once every 500 words. So if you were to write a 2000 word (pillar post) you could put in 4 links if appropriate to the post.
Breaking up your content to be read easily.
Read these next 2 sections which are identical to see which reads easiest.
- Post structure tools to keep things interesting!
Within the post structure we also need to do several things to help the reader go through our post without getting bored, confused or feel the need to leave. Things like breaking blocks of text down into smaller segments, highlighting key points with BOLD italics or coloured text. Use bullet points or page indents to change sections of text and make it stand out from the rest. Add images and graphics and put in subtitles and comment boxes throughout the post. OK if you are writing a small 400 word blog post the need to do all of this is not required keeping segments small and maybe 1-2 sub titles is all that is required but if you plan to do a pillar post like this one then the need to divide it up further with these tools is more evident. The majority of readers/visitors searching the web want to find the information they need quickly and if you don’t give it to them easily they will bounce (Google term meaning leave without interaction) very quickly.
- Post structure tools to keep things interesting!
Within the post structure we also need to do several things to help the reader go through our post without getting bored, confused or feel the need to leave.
Things like breaking blocks of text down into smaller segments, highlighting key points with BOLD italics or colored text.
- Use bullet points or page indents to change sections of text and make it stand out from the rest.
- Add images and graphics and put in subtitles and comment boxes throughout the post.
- OK if you are writing a small 400 word blog post the need to do all of this is not really required.
- Keeping segments small and maybe 1-2 subtitles is all that is required but if you plan to do a pillar post like this one then the need to divide it up further with these tools is more evident.
- The majority of readers/visitors searching the web want to find the information they need quickly and if you don’t give it to them easily they will bounce (Google term meaning leave without interaction) very quickly.
Creating content in this way allows the reader to scan through a post quickly to pick out key points that interest them or they are looking for.
[box] If they like what they find there is a good chance they will continue to read the whole post and interact with it which is what we are aiming for.[/box]
Do research beforehand.
If you are writing a blog post about a topic you are involved in then the words will come easy as you explain the subject in hand. If however you are in territory and writing about new subjects then the need to do your research beforehand is vital.
In doing a new blog post I will first come up with an idea, search for a decent keywords, go to a few websites promoting similar posts on the same content, read what they are saying and then write roughly in a note pad my post structure dividing each section into smaller points.
Then when I am ready to start typing the post I have all the relevant material to hand.
Even if you know the subject matter well it is a good practice to jot down beforehand how you are going to divide up the post.
It will save you time in the long run cutting and pasting a poorly typed post into a better written one.
You will still have to do a bit of editing when you have typed it as when you read through your posts again and again you will see things that need added moved or deleted.
So in Summary
Research your subject.
Jot down points and basic post structure.
Write in small sections making it easy to scan.
Use highlighting tools to break up content further.
Proofread your post, fix spelling and grammar mistakes.
As the internet evolves so does content procurement and we all need to be flexible to keep ahead of the curve.
What tools or tips do you use to write your content?
Image © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Stocksolutions
Hi Mike. Thanks for the tips, I will be looking into putting these into effect as soon as I write my next blog post. When I make my reviews, I always do a ton of research and jot down ideas on a notepad. Looking at my list really helps me stay focused on what points I am trying to make. I remember starting out, it would take me forever to write a blog post because my mind is always wandering and I keep forgetting what I was even trying to write half of the time.
It’s important to keep on track. I know what you are saying I do that also. Even with a layout in front of me something will pop into my head and I will go off on a different tangent.
Nevertheless that’s what it’s like to be a creative writer you have to go where the flow takes you. It can be frustrating though if you have planned to get a piece of content out in a 2 hour time line only to find you are only halfway done after wandering down a winding road instead of taking the straight route.
It takes practice and repetition to become a decent writer to be able to put out content that is not only readable but quick. I am still working on that one myself but I am getting better at it.
This is a great read! I appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge on the subject of writing good, quality content if you are trying to start an internet business. Many of these tips I had not previously thought of but I will be keeping in mind for future writing on my own site. I had never thought to outline my writing beforehand. I am going to do this with my next blog post, I think it will help save me some time while writing.
Thanks again,
Jess
Hi Jess, putting an outline down on paper will most definitely save you time when writing your post.
As you divide the post into smaller sections, subsections, paragraphs and sentences you will find you have the meat to write the post all that is then required is some finesse to tie it all together.
HI Mark, very informative site and excellent written. I always want to know how to write quality content on my website. I have problems with grammars because I am not from english speaking country, and I don’t want to lose my traffic because of grammatical issues, so your idea to to find anyone proofread before I have published, it is great idea. thanks for great content.
Christian it can be difficult to write correctly in another language that’s for sure. Especially when you want to write quality content for your readers.
You can always hire someone who can translate or proof read your articles for you. There are guys on Fiverr and Odesk that can do that for you.
If you can write, or are willing to learn, you definitely have a tremendous advantage online. Your article “How to Write Quality Content” sums it up nicely. Really, anyone following your outline will do fine.
And your point about research is so important. Normally, I find if I don’t know what to write about, it’s because I haven’t done my research. Actually, I like to over-research so I know when I sit down to write I’ll have plenty of information.
Also, I like to jot down a hasty outline. In fact, once the research is done, it would be easy to organize it all in the outline you suggest.
That is part of the reason I suggest working on a niche you know something about as you can write more freely and answer questions without having to do too much research first as that can take up a lot of time.
Writing quality content shouldn’t be that hard when you are involved in, that way and can do some moderate research. It will always be more difficult when you step into a niche you are unfamiliar with. However if you work at it you will soon become an authority.
What a great piece of advice on how to write decent content for a website!
I’ve been looking for something this simple for a while now. I love the way you have provided a template for us newbies to follow!
How long would you say the perfect article for the internet should be?
A blog post used to be acceptable at around 400 words but now it seems 1500 – 2000 is more acceptable to the main search engines.
If you are competing against websites on a particular keyword who have a lot of content then you will need to make sure your content is close to or exceeds theirs.
Writing 400 words when the others are doing 1000 will not cut it, you need to do 1000+
Great post! You really covered all important aspects on how to create a great and helpful post. I agree that most of the folks have a fear of writing a post thinking that it should be perfect before publishing it while in fact it’s wrong. You don’t need to be a professional writer to write a post and I even know some internet marketers who have been able to drive a lot of traffic to their sites by writing epic posts without any previous experience. Grammar is really critical for your success because if you have tons of grammatical issues you can easily lose a good amount of your traffic.
Yes Rufus totally agree grammar needs to be as perfect as you can make it. A few small mistakes are acceptable but blatant typos and bad grammar will definately put your readers off and not give you or your website a professional image.
This is a very informative post. High value content is very important in order for the readers to stay longer in the site. Through this the bounce rate will be low and the average time on site will increase. Also if you have high value content on your website, people will value your site as an authority, they will come back for other related articles and they will share it in their social media accounts which will promote your site and attract more visitors.
Hey Keye you got it, good quality content creates good followers and increases traffic flow. The more you write well the better for the website and your promotions.
Like all aspects of internet marketing it does take a bit of time to learn how to let an article flow properly as not everyone is a born writer. However over time and with patience you can become a decent writer and if all else fails you can always hire someone to write for you.
Hi Mark,
Here’s my routine when writing my blog content.
I do my keyword research on Jaaxy and check on the SERPS. If I like what I see, I’ll grab that keywords and start a draft on Google Docs.
Why Google Docs? Well, I like the autosaving feature and there are colored highlighters for me to mark my internal/external links too. I can also enlarged the article to fit my screen so I get this ‘non-distractive writing’ mode.
I research for images using Photopin and Google Image to look for relevant infographics. Then, I use Ginger to proofread the article.
Before hitting publish, I would read my article several times aloud to see if I can improve on anything – textual or visual.
After publishing, I would share on my social networks and engage with other bloggers on SiteComments.
I used to take days to complete all these steps. Now, I get it done within 3-4 hours. Practice makes (near) perfect I guess 🙂
Great you use Google Docs too! I thought I was the only one, only kidding.
Its definitely a great way to write content as you can add to it and leave as and when you need to as it automatically saves as you go. Also you can log in from anywhere any device and write a bit.
I have been on trains, buses at work and home working on the same article before getting it posted.
Hey Mark,
I love your tips on how to construct your posts and pages. I”m OCD and notorious about my keywords, images, ALT tags and H1, H2 or H3 tags. But, as you mentioned above, maybe too overly concerned with it. LOL! Regardless, I rarely see content management and SEO tips laid out the way you have, clear, concise and actionable content.
Well Done!
Cheers,
pj
Thanks pj , you can get too over involved with LSI keywords and tags etc. Its much better to write in a natural way about your topic and provide your readers with the answer to a question they may be searching for that try to fool the big G :).
Website theme is looking simple and good. It is overall looking very genuine. There are no spammy content which is good. One thing I feel might be a better idea is to have your own banners. Every WA member are using the same set of banners. This can sometimes reduce your conversion rate. This way you can test to see which kind of banners is producing more conversion rate and which one is not. Just my thought! Overall the website is looking good.
Making your own banners is definitely a good idea. I’m not overly confident in graphics design so I may outsource that with the guys at fiverr or odesk.
This is a great systematic approach to writing. I recently thought about getting a book or something to get a bit more learning on writing copy or just a step by step approach. I like your breakdown. It made me think about various posts ive written where i just kind of go in there like blaaah blah blah, and i even lose my own point. In a way its like linear reduction. Rather than thinking of it as an entire big ass post, you break it down into little parts and deal with one at a time. Very useful info. Thanks!
Hey Chris thanks for stopping by, Going over old posts is a great way to re-work and improve them.
Its a good idea to do it regularly as you will know more about a particular subject in one month, two months and further in time from now. So you can add your new findings into the post.
This improvement and re-working of content works well for SEO.
Great Article! The section on LSI answered a specific question I had today. Thanks for the in-depth explanations, they were very helpful.
Hey Keely glad you enjoyed it, LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing is a complex notion.
Some bloggers try too hard to cover all the LSI keywords available for an article and end up with one that doesn’t sound proper at all.
Its much better to write naturally, as if you were talking to a close friend explaining to them about your topic.
Unless you are working on a technical document that requires concise grammar and wording its much better to come across friendly with your readers using writing that flows as if from an conversation.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Very detailed post Mark and great to get a reminder of some of these points.
I agree with you on the longer content point in your comment above. I too came across several articles recently that said this was the way it was going.
I think for me it reminds me that the timeless maxim applies. It’s all about ‘Quality, Quality, Quality!’ Write genuine good content for your readers, top it off with some simple and effective SEO and you should be good to go.
Yes indeed wise words.
Writing quality content will give your readers what they are looking for and when finished they will hopefully be active participants on your comment roll and share your post out to their groups.
All those social markers count up and Google loves to see them. Writing 2000 words of quality content is not that difficult once you get into the habit of it. I can write about 500 words in 15-20 mins depending how it flows so I can knock out 2000 in an hour to an hour and half. When I do me research and put down my points to work on.
Then comes the editing, the placement of images, the sub titles, the indentation and so forth these little tasks all add up making the post run into 3-4 hours depending on how much I play around with it.
For someone working part time at this that can put a huge dent in you allocated time and make it very difficult to post often. 🙁
However a good friend of mine told me when I was just starting down this path its much better to put out 1000-2000 quality posts less often than put out 400-500 less than perfect posts more often.
Some newbies to internet marketing get caught up in the need to produce posts and forget about the quality. I have seen so many start out campaigns with loads of small posts that are uninteresting and don’t make much sense.
If they followed this process they should be on the better path to success. 🙂
A very good post, I am glad I found it. I am fairly new to building a website and writing content. In the section about writing to attract SEO metrics. I have discovered that I am so used to writing very concisely from my old job, that I cut out all those opportunities of what did you call them.. latent semantic keywords. Very interesting, thanks for sharing.
Hey Vic working to improve Latent Semantic Indexing can be a bad idea if you overdo it.
It is much better to write naturally about the topic in hand and those LSI keywords will fall into the piece.
Sometimes bloggers get too focused into the placement of keywords that they loose the structure required to make an article flow properly.
It can sound to readers like pigeon English or something similar if not put together correctly.
Its much better in my opinion to write naturally this way you will be learning “how to write quality content”, without having to think about it.
The Google algorithms are getting so clever that you may get punished in the future if you try to stuff LSI keywords into your posts.
I always try to write about subjects that I really know a lot about. This allows me to offer content that is pertinent and original. I liked the way your post was written. I usually don’t read long posts but your’s held my interest
Hi John I recently read a post on quicksprout discussing the correlation between word count and ranking metrics.
It shows that post that have 2000 words are better ranked and shared than smaller posts. If fact most of the posts that rank at No 1 spot have higher word counts than once thought.
Maybe the day of 400 word posts is a thing of the past and we need to put in more details to get better ranking.
I’m glad you stuck it out to the end hopefully you got some relevant info you can use on your blog to write quality content going forward. 🙂