The design, aesthetics, content, and functionality of a site makes the first impression on the people visiting your website. These factors also play an important role in enhancing the user experience of the site. In the present article, we will talk about how to create content that makes your audience stop scrolling and read your article, blog post or any other content that you have created.
Businesses, organizations, and individuals publish around 2 million blog posts every day. The tons of content also bring a ton of competition to the industry. The quality of the content plays a critical role in turning site visitors into satisfied customers as well as in increasing the rankings of a site.
When you want to write click worthy content, it is important to create high-quality content that meets the standards set by the Google algorithm. Google has also released a helpful content update on September 14, 2023. This Google algorithm update is focused on improving their classifier to identify helpful content. The last helpful content update was in December 2022. Google has also shared guidelines for creating helpful, reliable, and people-first content.
Before you proceed further to read tips on writing effective content that engages and inspires your audience, here are some important data that will help you understand the importance of creating quality content consistently:
- Organizations that prioritize blogging tend to attain 13x the ROI of those that don’t. (Source: HubSpot)
- 60% of people purchase a product after reading a blog post about it. (Source: HubSpot)
- 91% of marketing pros surveyed by Semrush achieved success with their content marketing in 2021. (Source: Semrush)
1. Create an outline for the content
The key to write a click-worthy blog post is outlining the topics you wish to discuss before you actually begin writing. Outlining will help construct and organize ideas in a thoughtful manner. Begin by brainstorming what you will write about and then create an outline to organize the main points in a logical order. Here are some simple tips for creating an outline for your content
- Define your goal – Know what do you want your content to achieve? Do you want to inform, engage or persuade your audience?
- Identify your main points. What are the key takeaways that you want your audience to get from your content? These should be directly related to your goal.
- Organize the main points of the content in a way that makes sense to the readers.
- Add supporting details to each point by evidence, such as facts, statistics, examples, and expert opinions.
- Consider your audience: Know the level of knowledge of the audience about the topic and tailor your content to their needs
- Review and revise your outline: Once you have a draft of your outline, take some time to carefully review and revise it if needed. Make sure that your main points are written in a clear and concise manner, and that your supporting details are relevant and accurate.
Outlining will help you construct and organize content in a thoughtful way. It provides a steady foundation to the writer when beginning the writing process. Here is a simple outline for an article about the Best Practices for Anchor Texts to Maximize SEO Benefits
Title – Best Practices for Anchor Texts to Maximize SEO Benefits
Outline
- What is anchor text?
- Different types of anchor text
- The benefits of anchor text
- How to optimize anchor text for SEO?
- Additional sources
- Summary
Here is another example of an outline of an article – How to find, use, and implement long-tail keywords for SEO success?
Title – How to find, use, and implement long-tail keywords for SEO success?
Outline
- Introduction
- What are long tail keywords?
- Why long tail keywords should be part of your SEO strategy?
- How to find long tail keywords
- How to measure effectiveness of the long tail keywords?
- How to use long tail keywords in your SEO strategy?
- Summary
2. Begin with a head turning headline
Despite the adage “don’t judge a book by its cover,” most people still do, considering the book’s title as well. In this era when people are short on time and attention span, your headline should give them reason to stop scrolling and read your blog post, article, or any other content that you have published. Your headline should summarize what the content is about, generate interest and curiosity in the readers, and direct attention. Here are some tips to write appealing headlines:
• Write a catchy and precise headline with specific information.
• Be creative yet simple and straightforward.
• It should be a complete sentence or imply a complete sentence.
• Use strong, active verbs and vivid language to capture readers’ attention and make them want to learn more.
• Your headline should be no more than 65 characters (11 words) long. This will ensure that it is visible in search results and social media feeds.
• Use numbers or data to grab attention
• Incite emotions to make people click and read your content such as such as hope, excitement, curiosity, and desire. However, it is important to be dignified, authentic and genuine while writing inciting headlines
• If you are writing content for social media, you may use witty headlines, but be careful not to harm the sentiments of the audience.
Here are some examples of effective headlines:
- 10 Ways to Turbocharge Your Productivity
- Keyword Stuffing: Why it’s a Red Flag for Search Engines?
- How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good
- 10 Types of backlinks to Avoid in a Successful SEO Strategy
- Top 10 SEO Rank Tracking & Monitoring Tools – Free & Paid
What you should avoid in the headlines?
1. Avoid using misleading headlines that will leave readers disappointed or confused.
Examples
• You’ll never believe what happens next!
• Shocking secrets that will change your life
• Lose weight fast without any effort!
2. Avoid using all caps or excessive punctuation that can make your headline look spammy and unprofessional.
Example
THIS IS THE BEST MOBILE APP FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
3. Avoid keyword stuffing in the headlines.
Example
How to Make Money Online: 10 Ways to Make Money Online Fast and Easy
4. Don’t use offensive or insensitive language.
• The Most Annoying Things Tourists Do
5. Avoid using generic headlines that could apply to any piece of content.
Examples
• 5 Tips for Healthy Living
• How to Be More Successful
6. Don’t make false or exaggerated claims.
Examples
• This diet will make you lose 20 pounds in one week!
• This investment opportunity is guaranteed to make you rich!
3. Write an interesting introduction
Powerful introductions compel readers to read your article. They evoke a sense of curiosity in the readers. A weak introductory paragraph fails to delight the readers, and they won’t like to read it further. Eventually, failing to keep your readers stick to your content will result in higher bounce rates and decrease in rankings of your site.
One of the best ways to write an interesting introduction is by making your audience jumping straight into the content promised by your headline. Here are some important dos and don’ts of impactful intros.
• Try to connect with audience by talking about personal experience or opinion.
• You may begin with personal story, questions, data, scene setting such as imagine etc.
• Refer to a concern, challenge or a problem that people or targeted readers encounter in general
• Explain why the article is important for the readers
• There is no hard and fast rule how long should be an introduction but typically its maximum length should be up to 3 short paragraphs.
• Tell the readers what is coming next in the article
• Keep in mind that it takes time and practice to write effective introduction
Here are some examples of introductory para in a blog post
4. Focus on writing easier to consume content
Keep in mind people are short of time and have plenty of choices, so you not only need to create the content that piques the interest of the audience but also make it easy for them to understand and grasp it. Here are some simple tips to make your content easy to consume for your audience
• Use concise, straightforward sentences and paragraphs.
• Use subheadings, bullet points, and lists to break up your material.
• A table of content should be included to make it easy for the users to read particular topics
• Limit each paragraph to one topic
• Break up large sentences into smaller ones, wherever feasible
• Use bold font, quote marks, or other visual accents to draw attention to essential concepts.
• Use lists with bullets or numbers to express a lot of information in an easy to read manner
5. Write for your audience
The audience should always be a focal point of your communication. One must conduct an in-depth research to get an idea about the type of content consumed by the audience. One must also analyze the existing content to get an idea about the audience taste. When you are writing content, it is important to consider the following:
• The diversity of your audience
• Beliefs and value system of the audience
• The audience’s level of knowledge
• The audience’s purpose for reading
By considering all of these factors, you can tailor your content to meet the specific needs and interests of your audience. It will help in making your content more engaging and relevant. Here are some examples on how to consider the preferences of your audience in your content:
If you are writing an article about a new technical product, you will need to use different terminology depending upon whether your readers are technical experts or novice users. Similarly, if you are writing a marketing brochure, you need to highlight different benefits of the content depending on the needs and interests of your target audience. By taking time to understand the preferences of your audience, you can create content that is more likely to resonate with them and achieve your desired results.
6. Use conversational writing
Write as you are talking to the audience is the latest trend. Conversational writing is becoming increasingly popular because it is more engaging and easier to read than traditional formal writing. When you write as you are talking to the audience, you are using a more natural and relaxed tone.
It makes readers feel more connected if you are addressing them personally. In the era of social media dominance, when people consume a lot of content, conversational content is gaining popularity among the audience. Especially, when people read anything on blog, web content or social media, they expect a conversational style. This type of writing is also normative for ads, direct mail, and consumer newsletters. Here are some simple tips to integrate it into your writing style:
• Write in short paragraphs and sentences.
• Ask questions and address readers in the content.
• Share your personal experience or opinion but in a dignified way
- Use humor and wit, where appropriate.
- Tell stories and anecdotes.
- Use humor and wit, where appropriate
- Avoid using jargon and technical terms.
7. Use the E-E-A-T Concept
The word E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. It is used by search engines to determine the quality and credibility of a website’s content.
One should show his/her credentials and experience in the niche to demonstrate the credibility of the content. There are billions of blogs published every day and there are a numerous article already existing on the similar topic, so why should readers choose your content over other existing content? People prefer reading content from experts in the industry. They also prefer to consume content from reputable sources.
One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to make your content credible. Good quality content often demonstrate first-hand experience of the author. If people will find content well researched and authoritative, they’re more likely to click on it. Here are some tips to make your content more credible:
• Link the points in your content to the authoritative sources
• If you link your content to mainstream media sources, government sites, universities, and high-profile brands, it may make your content more credible
• When you are making claims in your content, make sure to support them with data and statistics from authoritative sources. It will demonstrate that you’ve done your research and that you’re not just making things up.
• Be transparent and balanced about your biased and limitations.
• As new information becomes available, make sure to update your content to reflect it. One must update the content regularly for keeping up with the latest trends and developments in your field.
8. Enhance the visual appeal of your content
Visual content is capable to convey complex information into an easy to understand format. Also, it works great on social media. One must use info graphics, checklists, templates, and other types of visual content to deliver value to the audience in a memorable way. It also greatly helps to enhance user experience and on-page behavior signals. There are many different types of visual content that can be used in enhancing the appeal of your content
• Charts and graphs
• Info-graphics
• Images
• Videos
9. Proofreading and editing
Proofreading and editing are the techniques of verification of the content, either by the author himself or herself or by another person. It is not only important to check grammar and spelling errors in a piece of content; it is also important that the idea of the article is communicated in an effective, clear, and concise manner to the audience.
Proofreading tips:
• Read your work carefully to find and eliminate errors
• Read your work aloud to catch errors that you might miss when reading silently
• Read your work backwards.
• Proofread for one type of error at a time such as grammatical errors, spelling error and punctuation errors
• Ask a colleague or an expert to proofread your work.
Editing tips:
• Check for overall content structure, clarity, consistency, and the flow of your ideas.
• Don’t be afraid to cut out unnecessary words and phrases. The more concise is your content, the better it will be to read and understand
• Ask someone else to edit your work.
• Use a grammar checker and spell checker, but don’t rely on them completely
9. Optimize your content for SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of improving visibility and ranking of your content on search engines like Google. Most agencies have SEO professionals to work on the optimization aspect of the content. However, you can use simple SEO techniques to optimize your content as much as possible. However, be careful while optimizing the content as using keyword stuffing or other wrong tactics may do more harm than good for you. You can also seek help from SEO experts or a digital marketing agency. Here are some tips for optimizing your content for SEO
• Find competitive keywords and use them in your titles, headings, and body
• Use engaging meta-titles and descriptions of the content
• Use long tail keywords in the content as they are more specific
• Optimize image and videos used in the content
• Link your content to other relevant and authoritative content
• Improve structure and function by using schema markup and structured data
For taking care of SEO part, you can always seek help from SEO professionals or digital marketing agency.
11. Encourage social sharing
• Social sharing is when your audience share your content with their networks on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. It helps you to reach new audiences. Here are some tips to improve social sharing of your content
• Create engaging and high quality content
• Add social sharing buttons and widgets to your content
• Share your content on social media platforms where your target audience is active. For example, if your target audience is business professionals, you may want to focus on sharing your content on LinkedIn.
• Create incentives and rewards for sharing, such as contests, discounts, or freebies.
• Monitor and measure your social media performance and engagement
• Use relevant hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to get your content seen by more people.
• Encourage comments, questions, ratings, reviews or other forms of feedback that allow your audience to share their experiences and opinions
• Interact with the readers by responding to the comments, question or queries of the reader
12. Make your content actionable
The ultimate goal of your content should be to provide value to the readers. The more valuable is the content, the higher will be its chance to appear on SERPs. By providing actionable tips in your content, you can help your readers to achieve their goals and solve their problems. This will make your content more valuable and informative, and it will also help you to build a loyal readership.
When people find your content valuable, they may even sign up to your mailing list or download the guides, ebooks or share it with others.
• Use call of action to tell your readers what you want them to do next. This could be to sign up for your mailing list, download a guide, or share your content on social media.
• Make sure to links to resources, tools, and templates that your readers can use to take action
Summary
Content is an important ingredient of any website. It is important to focus on creating high quality content that provides value to the readers. Some of the effective strategies to create compelling content are using engaging headlines, interesting introduction, call to action, visuals, proofread, edit, optimize and share your content and engages with the readers. These simple tips can also help to enhance the engagement and the reach of the content. By following these tips, you can write effective content that will engage your readers and achieve your goals.
