How to create content that people want to actually read.
Creating quality content is a feat, it takes time to research and be creative with word to capture the target audience. There is a lot of content out there – some with catchy and interesting titles but lacking in substance. Readers end up leaving the page even before they go through the entire post – most likely because it just contains fluff, or you end up reading a sales pitch.
So how do you capture the attention of your audience? One of the basic components of good content is trust building between you and your audience. It starts by curating good content the reader would want to read – to either educate, inspire, motivate them. If you consistently provide quality, there is no need to hardsell – instead you have people going in to your sales pipeline effortlessly.
Part of our advocacy is quality content. Here are our thoughts on how to create content that inspires loyal followers.
Do your Homework
Get your facts straight. Doing research is part of due diligence when writing good content. It isn’t just about sounding credible and trying to be an expert on a certain topic, as readers can spot pretentious writing a mile away. Instead, focus your energy on conducting thorough research on your topic.
Here are some aspects you can include when researching:
- Learn more about your topics by surfing the web. Use the right keywords by searching and entering in the exact information you seek. For example: “How to rank on Page 1 on Google”, the more specific your keywords, the greater chances you will find relevant content
- Most relevant content is found on the top 3-5 pages on the search engine page results or as what internet marketers call “ the golden triangle”. So start from there. Read, and determine the scope of the topics covered on the article- and create an outline from the ideas that you get, and add your own.
- Once you have your outline, start adding your thoughts on the topics. Work on a catchy title, and catchy subheadings as well. Look into your competitor’s pages too and see how you can outrank them in terms of content.
- An important note, when you want to share statistics, facts and case studies to support your claim, ensure that these sites are given credit by backlinking to them.
Catchy Titles and Subheadings
We have all grown accustomed to attention grabbing titles online. It is always wise to invest time coming up with one. Titles represent a short description of what the content is all about – and of course you have to stay true to the title. Nothing disappoints a reader when they realize the post is not what they expected. That goes back to the building of trust between you and your readers.
However, just because super creative titles are trending, doesn’t mean you jump in the bandwagon and copy the ones you like. Instead, get inspired and create unique titles of your own until you get it down to the perfect length; also, ensure it accurately represents what you are actually writing about. In this article, we titled it “Is your Content made of the Good Stuff?”. However, other options could include:
- Quality Content: Are you doing it? Yay or Nay
- What Makes Up Good Content and Why People Want to Read
- How to Create Content People Care to Read
- Free Guide: How to Write Quality Content to Gain More Followers
- 3 things you can do to make people read your content
And the list goes on and on. Of course, with titles you have to remember to Keep it Short and Simple, yet describes your article as accurately as possible. Also, most CMS like WordPress have a limit on the number of characters per title so ensure that you have title optimization in mind. Ensure your blog post title is no more than 60 characters.
A good title also depends on the emotions or behavior you want to evoke from your readers. Do you want them inspired and motivated? Do you want them to stay informed? What is the end goal of creating the content? Is it to get more social shares, to gain more followers, have them subscribe to your email list? Do you want them to purchase your product? Sign up for a webinar, etc.. Once you have determined the goal, ideas will flow. Otherwise, people drop off your page and do not revisit your content again.
Notice that most internet marketers use titles that immediately present what the reader can benefit from when they read your content. Take for example the title, “ Free Guide: How to Write Quality Content to Gain More Followers” or “Be the next top blogger online: 3 things you can do to make people read your content”. These are titles that offer value proposition from the start of the article.
Subheadings help organize your ideas throughout your article, so make sure that your content is optimized with subheadings that keep the readers remain interested. Also, subheadings provide navigation especially with long articles, and make your content SEO-friendly.
Lastly, if you are running out of ideas, you can look into blog title Generators online. They are free and easy to use and is an effective guide to creating an SEO friendly title. Some blog title generators like Hubspot title generator are good resources for validating titles you may have in mind, and help optimize
Make it SEO friendly
Does it matter? Yes, and your readers may not notice as they read through the article that it has been optimized for SEO. Ensure that you have a list of secondary keywords and latent keywords to use all throughout the article. Aside from the major keywords you want to rank for of course.
To structure your content in the most SEO friendly way, start with an optimized title. Continue on to optimize the sub paragraphs and subheadings, making sure that you do not veer off course the topic, as you group thoughts ideas and concepts into a bulleted, numbered or indented manner.
Also use proper grammar all throughout. Tools like Grammarly help you fine tune your spelling and language, and at the same time improve your Readability score on CMS platforms WordPress.
In addition, the use of transitional words such “as” “such as”, “however” ”and” “in conclusion”, “moreover”, etc. helps organize paragraphs and optimize it for better readability. You can look up lists of transitional phrases online to use as a reference when you write your content. If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin, then chances are, it will require you the use of this in most parts of your post. These phrases help link ideas together and keep your posts organized.
For the rest of the content, keep your readers engaged by writing in a certain tone that appeals to most audiences. Make them feel you are talking to them directly, and set the tone that the article is about them, not you. How they benefit, what can they can out of it and how they can improve out of it – If you are writing it essay-like on boring topics such as the ‘potato famine in Ireland” – make sure it still resounds to the current times and what can everyone learn from it. In short, keep them engaged and interested.
According to Neil Patel a good length of an article starts with 500 to 1500 words. Since Google likes content rich pages, ensure you update your posts until it reaches 2000 or more, keeping in mind to optimize sub-headings accordingly and use internal links for added reader benefits.
Creating good content takes time and effort but it should be something that you enjoy doing and have a good grasp on. Nowadays, it is not only what you write about but also how you write it. By keeping in mind the to maintain the integrity of your topic, optimizing the title and the entire contents of the article and making it SEO friendly, you can be on the right track to getting more likes and shares on the articles that you share. Remember, social media traffic is just as important so ensure that your article is directed accordingly and most of all, worth sharing.
No time to write? PivotPath can help you get started on creating quality content posts that your readers will surely like and share on social media. Let us know what your ideas are and we can brainstorm together to come up with an optimized content calendar. Learn more.