What is the best way to improve your content?
From making outlines to interviewing subject experts, here are 12 answers to the question, “What are your best tips to improve your online blog/article content?”
- Outline Your Article
- Ignite Your Audience
- Make Your Introduction Count
- Update Your Writer’s Toolbox
- Answer Key Consumer Questions
- Utilize a Topic Cluster Strategy
- Hire a Copy Editor
- Reoptimize With Long-Tail Keywords
- Take the Fluff Out
- Optimize Your Graphics for Search
- Build Internal Links
- Conduct Expert Interviews
Outline Your Article
Outlining can often seem like a needless, tedious step. In truth, it will save you time in the long run and will help uncover gaps in your content/knowledge. Above the outline, write who your audience is, what they know already, and what you want them to know/do after they’re done. Use that as your guide as you write the outline. Then, writing the actual article will just be a matter of following the outline, without time-consuming surprises.
Meghan Blanchette, Director of Marketing, Iron Fish
Ignite Your Audience
I felt a palpable spark in my soul when, in my 20s, I would find my favorite magazine stuffed inside the mailbox: Jane. Jane knew me in a way that echoed across every glossy page I couldn’t absorb fast enough. While a far cry from a brand peddling products or services digitally, what Jane’s editors got right still echoes true today for content marketers–ignite your audience.
This starts by knowing your readers to a T—their habits, needs, fears—and how you can create moments of discovery to become relevant to them. So connect with your target readers. Poll them, interview them, and hang out where they hang out to understand what topics are important to them and why. Because it is not about what you’re trying to sell. It is about what brings value. And only then will you become a consideration.
Megan Sobieski, Content Strategist & Freelance Writer
Make Your Introduction Count
Blog readers are looking for a quick and obvious answer to the all-important question: “Why should I care about reading this post?” Don’t let your introductory word count go to waste by relying on lengthy, generic sentences that don’t capture attention or create curiosity.
Keep brevity in mind while crafting a compelling intro section that informs readers about the topics you’ll address in the post (and what they’ll be able to learn). If possible, 100 words or less is a great goal to aim for as you improve the flow of your content.
Hillary Walters, Owner & Freelance Marketing Writer, Hillary Walters Content & Copy
Update Your Writer’s Toolbox
There are a wealth of tools (many of which are free to use) that can improve your writing and dramatically increase your output. They’re useful regardless of how experienced you are as a writer.
For example: say you’re writing a blog post on a recent event. Use a transcription tool like Otter to transcribe the recording. Use ChatGPT to provide a summary of key points based on the transcript and generate an outline for the post. Once your draft is done, feed it into the Hemingway Editor to check for readability and grammar. When you’re finished, use a tool like Midjourney to generate an image since posts with images tend to perform better. These are only a few of the tools out there.
By using them, writers can focus on the most demanding and creative parts of writing. The result is that you can create better content faster, which can have a huge impact on the results of your content strategy.
Bailey Seybolt, Head of Content, Tribe AI
Answer Key Consumer Questions
With online blogs and content in general, the magical recipe isn’t that complicated. Find out what the audience wants (is asking). Answer the question(s). Deliver the information in a way that’s easy for the consumer to understand, process quickly, and in the format and destination they wish to receive it.
Brands have a habit, especially in the B2B space, of making the mistake of believing that content needs to be overly sophisticated. It doesn’t. It needs to be focused on one topic and set up to deliver the related answers or information. This is the secret to good content, how to drive engagement and traffic, and ultimately how to improve SEO. If you write what they seek, how they search for it, it’s that simple.
Sarah Bricker, Sr. Manager Marketing Communications, VirtualHealth
Utilize a Topic Cluster Strategy
Improve your blog content by using a topic cluster strategy. First, choose a broad keyword that you want to be connected with online. Then think of all the questions you get regarding that keyword and the subtopics that stem from it. For each question or subtopic, create a blog post around it with details. Make sure that the keyword for these is more detailed than the broad keyword (aka a long-tail keyword).
Once you have published several posts on the subtopics, create a longer blog post with the broad keyword as the focus keyword that brings it all together and links to each of the subtopics of this content. This longer piece of content is known as a pillar page, and this entire strategy is known as a topic cluster. This strategy provides almost endless content ideas, uses links and relevant keywords to improve SEO, and shows you are the expert on that subject. The icing on the cake? You are providing valuable information to your customers. Google loves that!
Beth Gillem, SEO Specialist, Dogwood Media Solutions
Hire a Copy Editor
I think any writer can lose sight of their own writing. I believe editors are invaluable because they provide a new set of eyes to see and correct typos, grammar, spelling, and other issues, and they can also help you boost your on-page SEO by suggesting where to put keywords and how to format your writing.
Your content and the reputation of your business will benefit from the expert eye of an editor who can help you streamline your writing for greater clarity and readability. It’s much more preferable to find out about problems before publishing than to discover them after the fact.
Zephyr Chan, Founder & Growth Marketer, Living The Good Life
Reoptimize With Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are more specific and targeted versions of a keyword phrase or topic, which can help improve the search engine rankings of content and make it more visible to potential readers.
Additionally, by re-optimizing content with long-tail keywords, you can ensure that it remains relevant and up-to-date with current trends and topics. Finally, optimizing content with long-tail keywords can help optimize for voice search, as more people are using voice search to find specific information.
Jaya Iyer, Marketing Assistant, Teranga Digital Marketing
Take the Fluff Out
Removing unnecessary words and getting straight to the point will convince readers to continue reading your content. There is a fine line between fluff and dialogue that adds genuine value to your posts, whether to entertain, inform, or inspire. Get rid of any text that doesn’t offer anything significant in this overall initiative. Everything your audience consumes should be strategically written to grab and sustain their attention.
Nick Allen, Founder & CEO, SportsLingo
Optimize Your Graphics for SEO
You can improve an existing online blog or article content by updating the graphics you share in it after some time. This move gives the content a fresh look, and the visual aids will aid with comprehension for newer readers who will land on the page.
Make sure to optimize these updated graphics for search by adding alt text to them. People can land on your blog or article by clicking on the picture that comes up when they do a search.
Alvin Wei, Co-Founder & CMO, SEOAnt
Build Internal Links
Many SEOs focus on external link building, but internal links can be just as important. Internal link building is the process of linking pages within your website. It improves user experience by making it easier for visitors to navigate your site and find relevant information. It can also boost your search engine rankings by showing search engines that your site is well-organized and has a clear hierarchy of information.
Larissa Pickens, Co-Founder, Dapper Confidential
Conduct Expert Interviews
Conducting expert interviews is a great way to supplement your blog with valuable content. Deep insight from someone credible in your industry whom your audience is interested in is likely to increase the post’s engagement and readership.
Additionally, if the expert you interview links back to your site or shares your post and information with their audience, then your brand becomes linked with the expert, bringing more awareness and credibility to your blog.
Charlotte Schofield, Venture Director, Access VC
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