How does Michel Houellebecq, the name of fine literature, know so much about haploid gametes? I can imagine him writing by the window, Paris rooftops laid like beautiful women as far as the eye can see. It’s 1997, the end of Western civilization. The rooftops are burning, and Houellebecq is drafting Atomised.
But that’s completely off-topic.
Speaking of which, the question is pending – how come writers know so much about everything?
Now Houellebecq is smirking: research, research, research.
In my humble experience as a content writer, I’ve become an expert in hair transplants, HR, bed bugs, data collection, proxies, crypto trading, interior design, credit cards, THC, and legal contracts. That was only this month. Over the years, I’ve written about everything, from soup to nuts – and I loved it.
How do I research all these specific, often obscure, niche topics?
A writer must read – a lot.
And I don’t mean books. Well, I read them, too, and I warmly recommend creating a habit out of it, but more on that later. Whether you’re a hired writer or a wanna-be auteur, you should do a lot of reading. You might have a different topic each day or not; the approach is still the same – before you write, read.
You can research most topics with Google at a glance and in-depth.
For every 800-word article, I typically spend an hour googling and reading – at least.
When a topic doesn’t ring any bells, like the aforementioned haploid gametes, I keep reading until I know enough to explain the subject matter to my toddler (he’s pretty smart). Of course, the depth of knowledge you should acquire depends on the level of expertise you’ve been requested to deliver.
In any case, researching a topic means reading about it.
Finding the best sources
You should know that most articles on the internet are paid. They’ve been written by experts-by-the-hour, writers like you and me. Regrettably, not all of us approach our jobs with the same work ethic. Not all of us care about integrity. Some of us have better things to do. Somewhere else to be.
Be that as it may, you should learn to recognize a lazy writer from the first sentence.
Curated sources are not all bad, far from it, but reading the source material is better. As a rule of thumb, credible sources such as encyclopedias, textbooks, and scholarly journals are the best. Common problems with these sources are their length, inaccessibility, or technical jargon.
For quick research, the best alternatives are:
Online magazines that conduct their research;
News outlets that write and post first-hand reports;
Websites with .edu and .org domains (all reputable).
When researching less academic-oriented topics, such as blogging or beauty, you generally have to rely on your digital and information literacy. You will learn to recognize a (real) expert blog writer in time. You can also tell when that writer is trying to sell something without actually selling it.
That is something you get from experience, so reading is critical.
Evaluating source credibility
There is a systematic way of double-checking information quality, though.
Many writers use the so-called CRAAP test, which California State University developed in 2004 to help students with their research. You can apply it to both academic papers and blog posts. Considering how much misinformation circulates the internet lately, anyone could benefit from using the CRAAP test.
Here’s how it goes:
Currency: Is the source up-to-date?
Relevance: Is the source relevant to your research?
Authority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field?
Accuracy: Is there evidence to support the source? Are the claims cited correctly?
Purpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source?
The last one – purpose – is the one I use most frequently. I’ve mentioned this earlier, but it’s too important not to do it twice. A whopping percentage of online content exists for content marketing purposes. Educational, glad-to-be-of-help content is so rare that you can spot it from miles away.
Active reading as a practice
All the best writers I know take notes.
Note-taking is so incredibly helpful because it forces you to pay attention and helps you process and acquire information on the go. You can do it the old-fashioned way, using a pen and paper. You can also download a browser extension that lets you highlight in different colors as you read.
Having two screens also helps, or you can split one screen in half. That will enable you to take notes directly in the document where you’ll be writing the article and keep researching the topic on the other half of the screen. I’ve found the highlighter thingy and split-screen combo to be the most effective.
In addition to notes, there’s another component to active reading: curiosity.
So, let’s talk about that.
Nurturing an open mind
Although I already knew a trick here and there, I spent some time reading about this topic before researching “researching” became too meta for my taste. Perhaps I’ve become a research expert since most of the best practices were already familiar to me. However, to my surprise, I did learn something new:
People love researching topics they know nothing about.
Research every subject matter as thoroughly as you can for the sake of curiosity, which inspires change and breeds creation. Learn something new to potentially teach somebody something important. Study your haploid gametes. Don’t just wing it because your pasta has just arrived (super creamy, by the way).
Next time you’re researching an unfamiliar topic, open your mind and keep reading.
It has become pretty challenging to pick the right content writing agency or freelancer for your project with hundreds of them out there. You want to ensure content quality and that your outsourcing partner goes through all the bullet points in your project brief.
Meanwhile, all content marketing agencies claim they work with the best writers and have profound experience producing content for various industries. The same goes for freelancers. How do you choose the right one then?
Here is a cheat sheet you can use to pick the best outsourcing partners for content writing every time the options overwhelm you.
Review their past work.
Every content writing agency or freelancer has a unique working style.
However, you have your unique business needs and goals. You are trying to maintain a consistent brand image, and not every style will reflect it.
Your primary goal is to ensure that their writing style aligns with your short- and long-term goals.
The best way to do it is to review their past work. Ask them to share some content they worked on in the past; it will help you see who they are. Going through their previous work will enable you to understand many things.
Most importantly, you can check the depth of their content, their research process, and whether they are detail-oriented or not.
If you notice they can produce quality, in-depth content in different styles, tones, and voices, it’s a good sign that they will be able to meet your unique requirements.
Check their expertise in your particular industry.
While you are at it, make sure to ask to review some content they produced for your competitors or industry in general.
It will help you assess their experience in your niche and whether they understand the industry you are involved in, including your target audience’s pain points, needs, and expectations.
Discover what content writing services they offer.
When someone says content, the first thing that comes to mind is a blog article. However, content marketing is quite a broad field, and it leverages all sorts of content types. Everything from an email copy and social media post status to an eBook and whitepaper is content.
It’s in your best interest to discover all content writing services your potential outsourcing partner offers.
This practice is beneficial if you are looking for a long-term partner. You will be able to stick with one content writing service provider or freelancer even if your needs change and you decide to use other content formats.
Look for online reviews.
Reviews and ratings have become a golden standard when purchasing products and services online and offline. The best of the best freelancers and content writing agencies know that, and asking clients for feedback has become a standard practice for them.
Combing through the reviews can help you discover what your potential partner does best and where they lack expertise.
Fortunately, many freelancer platforms such as Upwork have ratings and reviews sections you can access for free. Don’t rely on only one source of information. Feel free to expand your research and look for reviews on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), social media, and relevant forums.
Visit their official websites, too. That’s where you can find client testimonials and maybe some case studies.
Do they have a revision policy?
The more complicated your content writing requirements are, the higher the chances that an agency or freelancer will get it done perfectly on the first try.
It takes time and some back-and-forth communication to get what you want. You might need to request revisions, ranging from minor to more extensive edits.
It’s essential to check whether they have a revision policy. You should read it to discover if there is a limit to the number of free revisions.
Many agencies are ready to negotiate the terms, especially if you come to them with a long-term project. Feel free to bring up this topic when talking with a representative.
Can you trust them with SEO projects?
Long gone are the days when companies produced content exclusively to provide value to their readers. While delivering value remains one of the primary goals, SEO slowly becomes imperative.
Publishing quality content with relevant keywords can help you improve your SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) ranking, drive more organic traffic, generate more leads, boost conversions, and increase sales.
How do you tell if you can trust a potential partner with your SEO projects? The first thing you can do is check whether they specialize in writing SEO-friendly content. It should be right there, listed under their service offer.
You can even take it one step further and use a free rank checker to see their SEO rankings, which keywords they rank for, and how much traffic their website generates.
Check and compare prices.
Content writing services come with a price tag that reflects professionalism, reliability, punctuality, and expertise. When choosing the outsourcing partner for your content writing projects, it’s vital to consider the price.
The optimal outcome is to get precisely the content you want without breaking your budget.
Consider making a spreadsheet when researching potential partners where you can write down essential differences, including the price point of their services. At the end of your research, you will be able to compare potential partners and find the most cost-efficient option without sacrificing the quality of the content.
If you have any questions about the prices, you can contact your potential partners and ask them to provide a brief explanation of the charges.
Is there a quality assurance policy?
While finding a freelancer with a quality assurance policy is rare, it has become a standard among content writing agencies.
Quality assurance encompasses various practices, including using third-party tools to ensure 100% uniqueness, desired level of readability, and no spelling and grammatical mistakes.
Most agencies have editors to streamline this process and ensure that the writing style and keyword density meet all the requirements in the project brief.
Check for quality assurance, and if it’s not available online, feel free to ask your potential partners if they have one and how they ensure consistent quality of the content.
Always start with a small test project.
Finally, you should know that going full-partnership right from the start is not obligatory. When shopping for content writing services, you should start outsourcing a small test project. There is no better way to assess a potential partner than to work with them.
You won’t only end up with a content piece and be able to assess its quality. A test project puts you in a position to see how your potential partners work and communicate and how fast they respond to your messages.
Conclusion
Outsourcing your content writing projects offers many benefits, including more time for your staff and higher flexibility. However, you can find it daunting to pick the right partner for the job. Hopefully, the tips I’ve shared here will help you align with the best possible outsourcing partner for content writing.
Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” It’s a long and winding road with streams of creativity and occasional obstacles like the notorious writer’s block.
That condition of creative stall aside, content writing is a fantastic way to enrich your knowledge as it requires constant reading and learning. You encounter numerous topics and become an expert in multiple fields over time. After all, being a jack of all trades is in a content writer’s job description.
However, stepping into content writing shoes brings many challenges. Here are the most common you might experience and tips to overcome them.
1. Lack of target audience information
Writing a compelling copy that resonates with readers is impossible if you don’t know your target audience. You must understand their needs, pain points, desires, and opinions to connect with them, engage them with every word, and provide real value.
Whether a client showers you with information on a specific niche market or their target audience is broad, research it to understand its problems and language. That’s the only way to write with purpose, develop top-notch content, and achieve your client’s goal.
2. Poor communication with clients
Communication can make or break your writing projects. Spoiler alert: sometimes, it’s not you; it’s them.
Not every client uses clarity when communicating their vision and goals. Some don’t go into details, leaving you with vague or confusing instructions. Others set no expectations upfront, providing only a keyword or a link to include in the piece.
You must ask for the specifics to ensure you’re on the same page and eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth conversations. The more information you have, the easier it will be to hit the bullseye and exceed your client’s expectations.
3. Unfamiliar topics
Your content writing journey will take you to paths you’ve never crossed before. Unfamiliar topics might scare you away, but that’s the exciting part that grips and compels you to push the boundaries of knowledge and discover new possibilities.
Yes, it’s all about research. I don’t mean googling a topic and reading only the first few sources – that’s not nearly enough to understand it inside out.
Lazy writers take that path of least resistance to save time, ignoring the unquestionable fact that in-depth research is crucial to delivering high-quality, informative, relevant, accurate content.
Take at least an hour to study the building blocks of an unfamiliar topic before putting words on paper, virtual or otherwise. That’s the key to creating well-researched content that impresses every client.
4. Limited creative freedom
Many content writers find restrictions on creativity frustrating. How to create a compelling piece if you have to lock your creative muse in a cage?
Unfortunately, this challenge has only one solution – adhering to your client’s instructions. Not respecting their wishes could cost you the project and hinder your future collaboration.
If the topic allows it, you could ask for some degree of artistic expression, ensuring you don’t stray off the path if the client gives the green light.
5. Insufficient SEO knowledge
You can’t develop relevant, authoritative pieces that rank high in SERPs (search engine results pages) without SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knowledge.
When I started my career in content writing, I had no idea what SEO meant. Anchor text, meta description, backlinks, you name it – loads of terms I had never heard of before.
I knew I had to get down to business and learn everything. I acquired new skills that clients valued and expected and have been honing them ever since because search engine algorithms keep changing, making room for further improvement.
Take the time to master SEO, and you’ll consistently create brilliant content.
6. Ensuring readability
Many content writers struggle to communicate ideas, often getting lost in their thoughts and moving away from a project’s primary goal.
They write overly long sentences trying to convey the message, insert unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and use too much technical jargon that makes the content difficult to understand. Complex diction and uncommon phrases also plague content pieces when a writer wishes to sound more proficient.
That negatively affects readability and the potential for the target audience to read the content and take action.
Write concisely, break your content into short paragraphs, and use numbered or bulleted lists to improve readability.
To enhance your writing’s authority, integrity, and quality, use a readability checker like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly.
7. Never-ending revisions
Revisions are sometimes necessary because, after all, every client should receive a high-quality piece that meets their needs. However, some clients might ask for seemingly endless rewrites that exhaust you mentally and physically.
This problem ties back to communication. Discuss expectations with every client before starting a project and ask for any references that might steer you in the right direction.
Most importantly, limit revisions because you don’t want to waste precious time if you can’t see eye to eye with a client. Drawing a line will prevent incessant micromanaging that stands in the way of your creativity.
Final thoughts
These challenges are only a glimpse of the obstacles you’ll encounter as a content writer, but don’t let them scare you away. You can overcome them quickly and enjoy a fulfilling, rewarding experience.
Don’t forget to improve your time-management and organization skills to keep procrastination and distractions impacting productivity at bay, especially when dealing with tight deadlines.
If you need top-grade content writing skills and don’t have the expertise or time to develop them on your own, outsourcing is the best way to go. You can take care of your content creation needs by outsourcing content writing to professionals.
It’s an effective, easy, and affordable way to get your hands on high-quality content without effort. According to the latest CMI report, more than 70% of online businesses resort to outsourcing to meet their content marketing needs.
Hiring someone to handle your content creation and distribution ensures you receive high-class content that will resonate with your target audience and meet the strict SEO practices. Because of that, content writing is a vital part of your business strategy.
Using whitepapers, magazine articles, social media posts, sales decks, and marketing materials allows you to build relationships with your partners, consumers, and workforce. With that in mind, let’s review some of the best reasons to consider outsourcing content creation to professionals.
1. Saving time and focusing on the core mission
One of the most significant benefits of outsourcing is saving time. Since you don’t have to do your content writing yourself, you’re free to use the time on your hands however you see fit.
The professional content creator you hire to do your writing will take care of all the hard work, including doing research and writing engaging and attention-grabbing content.
Creating and publishing regular blog posts requires a lot of time, effort, and resources, not to mention managing the entire content marketing campaign and handling tasks like search engine optimization and making regular social media posts.
Since you can’t clone yourself to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, shift your focus on the core activities to harness the full potential of your business mission. Leave the writing to professionals while you go about your vital tasks as a business leader.
Outsourcing is also a cheaper option than hiring an in-house team to produce the precious content you need.
2. Creating a publishing schedule to publish more content
Another excellent reason to consider outsourcing content creation is doing more with less. Content marketing is a full-time job that requires dedication and a lot of investment.
Since you can’t run a business and constantly write top-grade content, you can make it easy on yourself by allowing professionals to put together high-end content for you.
All it takes to handle your content needs is to communicate your writing needs to a freelancer or an agency and leave the rest in their capable hands. There’s no need to carve time out of your already busy daily schedule to write content and burden yourself with unnecessary obligations.
Since top-class content requires time to research, gather, put together, and publicize, it’s better to rely on freelancers and agencies to produce engaging content that will be real eye candy for your target audience.
Many brands struggle with publishing more content without sacrificing any of the quality. They all realize that they need more writers at some point.
So, beat your competitors by outsourcing your content writing to professionals and watch as your audience grows bigger.
3. It’s cheaper to outsource than to hire an in-house team
Depending on where you’re stationed, outsourcing could save you a lot of money you would have to invest in hiring local professionals to handle your content writing for you. Since many freelance writing platforms are on the web, you can compare writer fees and find professionals who match your budget.
On the other hand, you’ll have more time to monitor your market, keep an eye on your competitors, track new trends, and focus on marketing, ideation, and business strategy.
The results could be more than satisfying:
Higher content marketing ROI;
Top-quality content;
Fewer worries on your mind regarding employing a full-time writer.
Believe it or not, hiring a full-time writer could cost you thousands of dollars on overheads, training, equipment, and IT costs that come with employing an extra member of your team. Outsourcing allows you to eliminate those unnecessary costs and only pay for the content.
4. Outsourcing gives you more flexibility
Even though hiring a full-time writer offers some benefits, it also comes with certain downsides. For example, having one writer for all your content means you’re stuck with a particular writing style. If your content needs tend to change over time, you’ll find it challenging to adapt.
Outsourcing gives you more flexibility and scalability regarding the quality and quantity of content you receive. It allows you to hire more writers, work on different subjects from various angles and cover a broader range of topics.
Sometimes, a simple change of tone of voice is enough to broaden your target audience and connect with your readers more meaningfully. Every market and industry changes over time, and you need to cope with those changes to keep your business up and running.
Since content plays a critical role in achieving that goal, you need to ensure that you can produce as much as possible. If your content marketing starts bearing fruit and you need to scale up, outsourcing can ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.
5. Freelancers bring new ideas
In an overwhelmingly competitive digital business landscape, businesses are as successful as they’re ready to innovate. Introducing new ideas and talent and exploring new concepts could bring you the attention you deserve.
Freelancers are usually experienced with these sorts of things, and they can bring the knowledge, skill, and experience to reshape your content needs.
They can introduce you to your industry’s new trends, help you to gather new ideas, and create unique standpoints for achieving your content marketing needs. Since outsourcing allows you to tap into a massive pool of writers, you’ll always have a string of fresh ideas in the palm of your hands.
6. Outsourcing allows you to cover a range of topics
Every brand is an expert in its area, but a different approach is sometimes necessary to reach broader audiences and expand into new markets. Since your content probably covers an expanding range of topics, outsourcing is an excellent way to cope with the increasing demand.
Freelance writers come with certain expertise, and every writer specializes in a different area. In other words, outsourcing allows you to tap into a range of specialties and experiences to explore every subject more profoundly and present your audience with accurate information.
Conclusion
As you can see, these are excellent reasons to consider outsourcing your content writing needs to professionals worldwide. Getting your hands on top-class content offers many benefits to your business, so many that this post would have to be considerably longer to mention them all.
Aside from harnessing the power of immense talent, you can cover more topics, reach more prospects, and save time and resources. Working with professionals can only be a good thing and bring you closer to achieving your business goals.
So, hire freelancers or collaborate with a content writing agency to get your hands on brilliant content that your readers will love. You will work with people with different backgrounds and acquire new perspectives that allow you to beat your competitors, forecast trends, and better understand what your target audience truly wants.
If you’re a content writer, you’re probably aware of the ever-increasing need to improve your SEO content writing skills. SEO is virtually a science, but it’s also a modern-day art form.
As an SEO writer, your job is to keep your mind open, research new trends, and find the best way to please your biggest fans – your readers and search engines like Google.
However, what works for readers may not work for Google and vice versa. So, the trick is to develop a unique style that can satisfy both your target audience and the most popular search engines in the world.
Just as you need to feel the pulse of your audience to produce the best content that’s a real treat for their needs, you should do the same for search engines. You need to learn some of the essential SEO content principles and practices to do that.
This short guide will share some facts on the best SEO writing practices, the essential SEO terms you should know, and some valuable tips for writing top SEO content.
SEO writing and types of SEO content
Any content that aims to achieve as high a ranking as possible in the search engine results pages (SERPs) is defined as SEO content. Writing such content requires high-quality writing skills and analytics proficiency.
You need to make your content SEO-friendly if you wish to see it rank high in SERPs. However, optimization isn’t enough to achieve your goal of writing perfectly optimized content for search engines.
The texts you write must achieve two primary goals:
Conveying your message and emotion to resonate with the reader’s sentiment;
Providing all the necessary facts to explain the target keywords and phrases.
To achieve these goals, you should synonymously optimize your content for both your audience and keywords.
Google is designed to address the needs of internet users. If your content can please the needs of your readers, they’ll spend more time reading it, which will improve your traffic and click-through rates.
The result will be an astonishingly high ranking for your content and more than a satisfying bounce rate. For your information, bounce and click-through rates are two vital ranking factors.
Now that you have some basic information about SEO writing, let’s list some of the best content types for top SEO ranking:
Lists – top 10 most popular tools, web design ideas, Google searches in 2022, etc.;
Guides – guides are articles that provide in-depth explanations on a particular topic, including tips, definitions, strategies, etc.;
Articles – news, features, interviews, etc.;
Videos – ranging from long-form videos to bite-size clips, video content is the most popular and engaging on the internet;
Blog posts – a blog is the best way to connect with your target audience, answer their questions, and improve your SEO ranking by targeting specific queries and keywords;
Infographics – the best visual presentations to provide in-depth explanations for internet users looking for quick answers and capture quality organic traffic;
Product pages – serving as landing pages for PPC campaigns, product pages provide product descriptions to help readers understand how specific items work and what they can do;
How-to guides – articles that provide step-by-step instructions on how to use a particular product, tool, program, application, etc.;
Slideshows and images – presentations, graphics, charts, etc.
Now, let’s move on with the essential SEO terms every modern-day content writer should put their finger on.
Essential SEO terms for your content-writing vocabulary
Here’s a comprehensive list of the critical SEO terms to keep in mind.
Long-tail keywords
Containing 3-6 words, these are sets of specific keywords, terms, or phrases.
SERPs
As mentioned earlier, SERPs are search results pages on a search engine. When an internet user performs a query, they will see the results that they can further explore.
It’s vital to mention the position of SERPs or the accurate ranking in Google Analytics. The best listings are those that appear on the first page of Google.
Anchor text
Anchor text can be a word or a phrase that contains a hyperlink that leads to the desired web page, blog post, etc. It’s an excellent way to direct your readers to another blog post to keep them longer on your website.
Meta description
Since internet users have a short attention span, you need an engaging and attention-grabbing summary of your page that can compel them to click on a result in their SERPs. Keep it short, concise, and between 155-160 characters.
Click-through and conversion rates
A click-through rate is a percentage of clicks for a particular result in SERPs that shows how many times users have searched for that result. A conversion rate tells you how many users have clicked on your website, blog, or a specific page to take the desired action.
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is the number of users who deliberately landed on your website via a search engine.
How to write SEO-friendly content
Here are the top tips on writing SEO-friendly content.
Avoid keyword stuffing and add keywords naturally to keep your audience engaged.
Provide content that answers the essential questions of your target audience.
Create your SEO strategy by adding keywords throughout the content, including the introduction, last paragraph, and headings.
Make sure your content is clear, error-free, and readable by using bullet points, short paragraphs, coherent sentences, and subheadings.
Add keywords to meta descriptions to encourage readers to engage with your content.
Add images and short descriptions to make your content more accessible and searchable.
Add videos and other visuals to increase engagement and ranking.
Add backlinks to direct your readers to high-quality content on authoritative websites.
Make sure your articles are reader-friendly, relevant, informative, accurate, and unique.
Know the language of your readers and cater to it.
Add internal links to help search engines understand your site structure and index and rank your website.
Use long-tail keywords to create engaging headings.
Make sure your content contains LSI-related keywords.
There, now you’re free to knock yourself out by writing the most SEO-friendly content of your life.
Conclusion
We sincerely hope this short guide helps you rank your content much higher than before. SEO is an ever-evolving science that will never stay the same. It constantly grows, changes, and transforms from one shape to another. Keep in mind that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for writing top-grade SEO content.
It all comes down to how much time, effort, and resources you’re ready to invest in discovering the endless SEO possibilities. Always put your readers first and revisit your content from time to time to make sure it follows the latest SEO practices.
Writing excellent content is the key to content marketing, blogging, and SEO. It’s an essential part of your website, yet many companies often overlook it. Text is a universal medium you can use to communicate with clients properly and provide valuable information.
People will always want content, but their opinions and needs change. It can sometimes be challenging to keep up with those evolving needs and deliver adequate materials. However, there are some general rules you can always follow.
For example, readers don’t want to get bombarded with messages, brands, products, and irrelevant services. Content creators need to stay on top of the current “climate” and understand consumer behavior and interests.
Research is paramount.
Research is crucial, especially for blog posts, no matter what kind of content you work on in your niche. Even when writing on a topic you’ve covered before, it’s essential to get updated with the latest trends, events, and statistics.
However, it’s not only about researching once you’ve figured out your topic. As a blogger, you need to be interested in the issues you cover and stay ahead of the curve. That means reading and learning constantly.
Proper research will help you deliver valuable information in your posts. You will also be able to brainstorm unique posts nobody has covered before. If you want people to read your blogs, you will have to offer something more than just recycled posts.
Gather information from reliable sources.
Focus on top Google results.
Use tools to discover trending topics with relevant keywords.
Always use the opportunity to learn something new.
If you want to write well, you’ll have to read.
As mentioned earlier, one of the bloggers’ essential qualities is staying updated with the relevant narrative. Most people focus on their writing and don’t read anything unless they’re doing research, but that is a lazy approach.
Being interested in your niche and constantly acquiring more information to stay relevant is the key to success. The best blog posts are unique, and creating something new is often easier said than done. Sure, you could do something nobody has done before but is it precious for your target audience?
To create both original and valuable content, you need to have a lot of knowledge at your disposal and connect the dots nobody else has. For example, if you want to compare three different products and give your readers the real “scoop,” you will have to learn about, test, and see what others think about them.
Take the time to read whole posts.
Look for opposing views.
Reading helps you improve your writing skills as well.
Share your input and opinions.
Blogs aren’t technical writing, and you have a lot of room to be creative. After all, this type of content is equally about entertaining people as much as educating them. So, there’s room to be subjective and share your experiences.
When you are publishing in a particular blog niche for a long time, you get a better perspective and can offer something new. It’s generally a good idea to be bold. State your opinions to engage readers and make them want to criticize your work or agree with you.
However, do that only when you have the knowledge and experience necessary to make conclusions. Otherwise, sharing unfounded claims will backfire and make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about, driving readers away from your blog.
Nurture your creative side.
Don’t be afraid to share controversial opinions.
Think outside the box.
Share facts and statistics backing up your claims.
Think of your blogs as long answers to specific questions.
Relevance is vital, and every niche has its fair share of unanswered questions.
Most people are reading and searching for blogs that will concisely answer their questions. Before you start writing a post, check if someone else has already given answers to the same questions.
If there are no answers available, make sure to give them. Even if there are specific answers but don’t provide all the relevant information or have a different approach, it’s also a good idea to write on that topic.
With this kind of approach, you will be able to tackle more relevant issues and quickly come up with unique topics. Of course, it might require some time and effort to see if someone has covered that topic online, but it’s worth it.
What questions are bothering you?
See what questions are repeated online.
Start with a simple question and branch out.
Before you go
Creating “perfect” content is a never-ending challenge, and you have to treat it that way. Readers, stories, and you change, meaning that a good blog post today might be irrelevant in a couple of years. As a writer, you have to be prepared to keep on learning and hone your skills.
When it comes to web content, hardly anyone talks about accessibility or knows anything about it. However, it’s essential to make the most of all options in this hyper-competitive business environment. That is where content accessibility comes into play.
On top of that, working on this aspect of your website will help you create a stronger brand with great values. Providing a fantastic user experience with your content was a thing of improvisation in the past, but today we have the best practices and data available.
You only have to be willing to use them to your advantage. Just because you’re producing content doesn’t mean that you’re too cool to follow specific guidelines that ultimately bring you results.
What are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard set by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). This standard defines making your web content accessible to people with special needs, neurological disabilities, learning issues, language problems, cognitive or speech impairments, visual disabilities, etc.
With these guidelines, you can make your content more usable and accessible to older people and regular users.
The W3C released the first WCAG in 1999, and the current standards are WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1. These two are pretty similar, but the 2.1 version includes additional requirements for mobile accessibility.
Crucial principles of the WCAG
These guidelines include four essential design principles that outline how content becomes accessible. Accessibility is a vast topic that can focus on coding approaches to legal regulations. However, you can apply the four WCAG principles to any aspect of accessibility. Here are short descriptions of each.
Perceivable
The first primary thing content should allow users is to process information quickly. Avoid using formats for your content that are difficult to process. That also means giving textual content for people who can’t hear and audio content for those with sight problems.
It’s vital to add various assistive technologies to help users consume content differently. Just think about it: are there pieces of content color-blind people, people with low vision, or people with hearing loss can’t perceive on your site?
Operable
Operability is another essential principle. After all, people need to be able to operate and use your content with different tools. For example, many people can’t use a mouse, so it’s a good idea to include keyboard operation.
Usage should be more forgiving as people with disabilities are more likely to make mistakes. Include confirming options, cancellations, warnings, and instructions for completing actions.
Understandable
Just because your content can be usable and appropriately perceived, it doesn’t mean people can easily understand it. All of your content should have concise and clear language that is easy to understand. When someone acts, they should expect logical outcomes.
Implement consistency across your content and include forms with clear labels and logical flow. Even though your content should be different, it should have a familiar structure.
Robust
People use various technologies, and you should optimize your content to perform seamlessly across different browsers, devices, and platforms. However, that doesn’t mean that you should optimize for old web browsers or Windows smartphones. Offer flexibility but within the “regular” limits.
How content accessibility helps
Content accessibility guidelines aren’t just about meeting standards. You can get real benefits that will help your business and your customers. Here are some advantages you should know.
Better user experience
At its core, content accessibility is about user experience focusing on easy content navigation, responsiveness, readability, and the ability to view and interact with it in various ways, depending on users’ needs. Content is all about user experience, especially since Google’s SEO guidelines emphasize that.
More people will see your content.
The more accessible your content is, the more people will click on it. All people with disabilities will respect that you’ve made things easier for them and made your content easy to access.
However, it’s not only about people with disabilities, as typical users will also check out what you have to offer.
More people are likely to consume your content.
When producing content, you should know that persuading people to click on your content is equally challenging as making them stay and consume it.
Modern consumers have short attention spans and are used to having a perfect experience. If they don’t get it, they will leave, which you can’t allow.
Conclusion
To sum things up, there are four crucial areas of your content you should check when assessing the level of accessibility. Make your text large enough and structured adequately with short paragraphs, sentences, and lists.
Create a consistent content hierarchy with a logical flow to make things easier to understand. It’s not just working on your content but also making it readily available to everyone.
Content writing has come across many changes in the past few years. The act of creating content has a lot of dimensions when it comes to visual design. It can be very challenging to work on the visual presentation of your content, especially if you’re a rookie.
Therefore, you should learn as much as you can about design elements, fonts, and multimedia files and how you can use them to bring out the best in your content. However, it’s almost impossible to know the best way to design the visual presentation of your content.
Fortunately, I am here to help you on your journey! This article will help you understand the importance of visual elements and teach you how you can use them to enhance the quality of your content.
Fonts
The linguistic aspect of your content is one thing; the typographic element is another story.
As much as you pay attention to delivering the best possible textual content, you should also be aware of the importance of typography and the proper way to use it.
Make sure you use appropriate fonts for your content. For example, Comic Sans may not be the best choice for your business-related content. Also, avoid using fonts that are difficult to read, as they can draw attention from the actual content you’ve worked so hard on.
It’s best to follow your instinct and experiment with as many fonts as possible. We’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity of using thousands of fonts online. Explore them and choose the right font to make your content pop out in the best possible way.
Images
Images can boost your content on many different levels. Although you may think that they are often unnecessary, remember that people like to visualize everything and will most likely read your article if it has alluring visual elements.
I advise you to use images that will present your content in the best possible way. Although searching for the right pictures may be tiring, they can help you gain a higher reach within your target audience.
However, you shouldn’t just search for your desired photos on Google. Find royalty-free images you can legally use and keep an eye out for intellectual property rules to avoid paying hefty fees for copyright infringement.
Videos
Adding videos to your content can also bring out the best in your ideas. Videos can visually present your content and explain it to your audience way easier. They can boost your reach and visually satisfy your audience.
You can use videos in many different ways. You can create step-by-step guides that can explain your content more thoroughly. You can also use various videos to enhance your headings and boost your visual presentation.
However, make sure you don’t overdo it. Don’t forget that not every textual content needs a video, and sometimes a well-written text can be enough to inform your audience about a specific topic you’ve tackled.
Visual marketing
Marketing is one of the best traits in many industry branches nowadays. If you manage your marketing the right way, you won’t have any trouble finding the best visual presentation and call for action in the future.
Visual marketing consists of creating images, videos, and other multimedia elements for your content. Try to make a visual identity for the content you share in a way where your audience can recognize it as 100% original and high-quality.
You should know many visual marketing tricks before creating and managing your visuals. Try to blend your colors the right way, use the right fonts, and assemble all elements in the best possible way.
Design tools
You can use many available design tools to bring out the best visual presentation of your content. Design tools can help you achieve the best visualization for your content in the easiest way possible.
You can use different design tools related to graphic design, templates, collages, quote graphics, animation, font design, presentations, renders, charts, screenshots, slides, gifs, photos, videos, and even memes!
Different design tools offer various helpful features to enhance your visual presentation and let you avoid additional creative work. Remember, sometimes it’s better to work smarter than to work harder!
Infographics
Infographics are there to visually present your data and make it easier to understand your content. You can use them to summarize your text and make content reading a more fun experience for your audience.
The most necessary thing in infographics is the overall design. Try to approach it in a fun way without losing your essential points. I advise you to use infographics when sharing various types of statistics and numerical data.
Try to understand that people will more likely access your content if you offer a visual presentation of your text. Let’s face it – not everyone likes to read a thousand-word article about any topic and would better understand it in a more visual and fun way.
Overall design
After you write your content, it’s time to choose the right font, images, videos, infographics, and other visual elements. You have to piece them together like a puzzle and create a meaningful visual experience for your readers.
The overall design of your page will make your audience stay and interact with your content. So, try your best to create a brilliant style and make it uniquely represent you.
If you ever hit a wall when designing the visual presentation of your content, don’t forget to search for inspiration online, as you can find many creative ideas and templates that can ease your design journey.
Conclusion
Content creation can often be stressful. Not everyone can do it, as it requires an eye for detail and a sense of style. Nevertheless, managing the visual presentation of your content can turn out to be pretty fun!
So, make sure you browse through infinite possibilities before choosing the correct elements for your design layout. There are many options to choose from, so try to stay patient and unleash your creativity.
Making a name for yourself as a content writer is a long-term effort. It requires staying committed and disciplined while always looking for new ways to improve your skills, workflow, and deliverables — tools for content writing are the first thing to take a look at as there are many that can help.
As time goes by, you will figure out that it’s impossible to provide the best content to your clients or audience without using the right tools. After all, you can’t make bricks without straw.
Fortunately, you don’t have to organize articles, find new article ideas, and improve writing manually or in a makeshift manner; there are tools for that.
Here are the top industry-standard tools for content writing professionals in 2022. We’ve conveniently placed them in categories according to their purpose.
Improve the quality of your writing with tools for content writing
As a content writer, it’s essential to acknowledge that writing is a skill that you can continuously improve. Fortunately, there are several tools to help you stay on your toes and improve the quality of your content over time.
Grammarly – improve your style, grammar, and spelling
Grammarly is one of the most popular online writing tools with Chrome and MS Office plugins. It also has dedicated apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. It automatically checks your copy for spelling and grammar errors as you type. That’s what it can do if you use a free version.
Should you decide to invest in Grammarly Premium, you can benefit from many other features, such as:
Plagiarism checker;
Essay checker;
Tone detector;
Style guide;
Snippets;
Analytics;
Brand tones.
Cliche Finder – improve the quality of your posts
Repetitive and overused phrases can significantly reduce the quality of your content. Remember, your content should provide value. Every word you write should contribute to value.
Cliche Finder is a perfect tool to have in your toolbox. It’s entirely free and will help you find the repetitive and overused phrases in your content.
Readable – achieve the desired readability level using tools for content to automate things
Most of the time, content writers are required to produce content for broad audiences. That means that your content should be easy to consume. If you use complicated words, long phrases, and paragraph-long sentences, you can quickly lose your readers.
That’s why you should ensure an optimal readability level. Readable is just the right tool for the job. It provides scores for all relevant readability indicators, including:
Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease;
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level;
Gunning Fog Score;
Coleman Liau Index;
Automated Readability Index (ARI);
SMOG Index.
All you have to do is copy and paste your content into Readable, and it will analyze it for you. It will pinpoint the sections that reduce the readability so that you can easily edit them.
Excel at SEO writing
It’s 2022; it would be redundant to speak about the importance of SEO. Here are several tools for content writing to help you excel at SEO writing and stun your clients.
Surfer SEO – optimize your content for higher ranking
The ranking potential of your content depends on how effectively you utilize your targeted keywords. Surfer SEO is one of the best premium tools for the job. It can help you discover additional search terms related to your primary keyword.
The platform also features automatic scoring to help you optimize your content for higher ranking while ensuring you don’t over-use any keywords.
Frase – streamline writing content briefs
Frase is another premium tool for SEO writing. While it can help you do your keyword research and write SEO-friendly content, it can also enable you to write more efficiently.
With Frase, you can streamline writing content briefs. The platform can generate optimized briefs on your topics in seconds.
MarketMuse – identify essential topics you need to cover
To ensure your optimized content provides the most value, you need to cover all essential topics. That is where MarketMuse comes in. It even has a free plan for you to test it.
Once you provide the keyword for your project, MarketMuse will provide all the vital topics you need to address in your content.
Optimize your workflow with content writing tools
While content writers work in a creative industry, it doesn’t mean that they can’t benefit from a bit of structure and automation. Here are some unique tools to help you optimize your workflow.
Almanac – create documents and collaborate in real-time
Almanac is a document editor platform that streamlines real-time collaboration. You will get access to a workspace designed with productivity and efficiency in mind. Plus, you get to customize it to your liking.
Almanac also helps you organize your documents and add custom metadata to your folders and files to help you find things with ease.
Google Docs – a powerful piece of software for content creators
Google Docs is a free platform that features excellent word processing capabilities. You can use it to streamline document creation, organization, sharing, and collaboration.
The platform comes with a built-in spelling and grammar checker, and the version control system and comments are beneficial for teams and working with clients.
Evernote – keep track of your projects
If you want to structure your writing process and still be able to track your projects, you should take Evernote for a test drive. You can write notes while doing your research and quickly convert them into to-do lists.
Evernote supports integration with Google Calendar to help you track and never miss a to-do. The only downside of using Evernote is that it doesn’t have an offline mode when using it for free.
Easily ensure a 100% unique copy with tools for content writers
Search engines have quite rigorous rules regarding plagiarized content. Let’s see how you can ensure a 100% unique copy.
Copyscape – the ultimate plagiarism checker
While there are many plagiarism checkers out there, Copyscape is considered the best of the best tools you can use to check your articles for plagiarism. It provides a premium service, but it’s surprisingly inexpensive.
Just copy and paste your article, and it will highlight the plagiarized sections with the links to the original content that you need to paraphrase or delete.
Duplichecker – a free plagiarism checker
Duplichecker is a free alternative to Copyscape. It works fast and comes with an intuitive interface. However, you can use it to check up to 1,000 words-long articles for plagiarism for free.
Get ideas for your articles
After writing hundreds of articles, you can quickly run out of fresh ideas for your content. Here are some tools to help you with that.
HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator – discover fresh blog ideas for free
HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator is a perfect tool to have on stand-by. You can use it whenever your creative juices stop flowing. All you have to do is type in your keyword, and the tool will provide five fresh blog ideas you can use for inspiration.
Portent’s Content Idea Generator – increase productivity with ready-to-use blog topics
Portent’s Content Idea Generator provides the same service as HubSpot’s tool above but with a comedy spin. You will get your ready-to-use blog topics whenever you experience writer’s block. However, jokes and witty remarks will accompany those topics to cheer you up and spark your creativity.
Tools for content writing are a guarantee of quality
You can use these industry-standard tools to become a better content writer. As a content creator, you have your unique needs and wants, so we will leave it to you to test the tools you find most beneficial to build your tech stack and stun your readership and clients.
In Part One of our SEO checklist, we focused on on-site aspects of SEO, like preparing it for crawling. We dealt with various aspects of website optimization that would be considered good practices by search engines, and therefore, improve the website’s ranking. If you haven’t read the first one yet, you can find it here.
In this part of our SEO checklist, we are going to focus on the aspects of optimization that need to be done off-site, hence the name Off-Site SEO. Basically, the goal of this aspect of SEO is to improve the image of the website in the eyes of search engines, therefore improving its status and, through that, its rankings.
According to Search Engine Rankings Factors conducted by SEMRush, off-site SEO factors account for around 50% of all ranking factors search engines take into account. Furthermore, off-site factors are far more dynamic and proactive when impacting your rankings – it’s something you can consistently work on to improve and do so in continuity.
The parameters to focus on:
popularity
relevance
trust
authority
Now, we could focus on each of these parameters individually but that would be impractical since each and every off-page SEO technique will always impact more than one of these – if done properly, of course.
We’re going to split these off-site factors into two parts, links and social signals, but it should be obvious that these two aspects of off-page SEO are inseparable. How, you ask? Well, we’re going to give an example so that we can make the situation 100% clear.
When you create a quality link coming from, let’s say, an authority blog from your niche, you are actually getting more than just relevant link juice. Part of the traffic that lands on that page has a chance to, through the backlink you got, land on your website.
Furthermore, the article you published will most probably be shared by the blog in question on their social media pages. Some natural shares may occur as well. This means that you didn’t create just a static link but a PR “signal” that will have some kind of reverberation in the online environment.
The example above perfectly explains why SEO isn’t a precise discipline. A lot of things depend on other people. In some situations, the “viral potential” of your content may get you amazing results with practically no extra effort, while in others, the result ends up being minuscule despite your efforts.
Before we dive into how to actually work on your off-site SEO, we need to stress the importance of preparing your website for this kind of effort. Investing time and money into off-site aspects of SEO while your domain is a mess is basically like putting lipstick on a pig. The pig is still going to stink.
Now let’s dive into the link building aspect of SEO.
Links
When we talk about off-page SEO, we have to mention backlinks. They are still very powerful and impactful, but a lot of marketing “experts” used them in a spammy fashion, and Google doesn’t like spam. So, what is the white hat approach to this?
Well, there are a couple of things you can do we will start with the most common one.
a) Guest blogging – First thing’s first! If you wish to ensure that you don’t get punished for getting links, you should absolutely avoid paying for them. Guest blogging can be approached from a few angles.
You can approach websites that accept guest posts and get a link to your website from the bio or even from the content if you have a way to link to it naturally. The most common way to get a link from the article itself is to create relevant, well-researched, and well-written content on your domain so you can link it as further reading.
This takes some forethought and planning. To create this type of content for your blog, you need to have at least a general idea of where the content will be linked and the subject matter you are going to be dealing with in your guest posting campaign.
b) Link roundups – Being that content creation is a constant in the online environment, not all content will be 100% original in terms of subject matter. A lot of publications diversify their content by adding weekly or monthly roundups of the best content from their respective niche. If you want to be included in these kinds of roundups here is what you need to do.
First, you need to find the people doing these roundups. You can do this in a few ways. Prospecting potential roundups can be done by using Twitter and Google search without having to invest in a specialized tool. Just focus on the keywords that you are interested in and search for people who do roundups on a regular basis. Build up a list and see what kind of roundups they do. After that, you should focus on creating content that will be a good fit for the roundups you want to be a part of.
Being in a roundup can be very beneficial for a number of reasons. First, you get a link from a relevant source. Second, they share the roundup on their social media profiles. Third, the people who are also in the roundup will share the piece because they were mentioned. So, get ready for traffic.
c) Broken links – Another way to get links back to your website is to do broken link building. The web is constantly in motion, links grow old and, after a while, they are removed. This happens for numerous reasons.
Sometimes, the content is removed, other times the entire domain gets shut down. Regardless, old links often turn into 404 messages and, by using some simple tools like Broken Link Builder and Check My Links to search relevant websites for broken links, you can create link building opportunities.
Once you find relevant broken links, you should prompt the website with a heads-up about the link and a suggestion for a replacement – that replacement link should lead to your domain.
Of course, this technique also requires you to have relevant content on your domain so that you can actually offer it as a viable replacement. Links that are not optimal or barely fit the bill will have a smaller chance of being accepted as a replacement so be careful with this.
d) Brand mentions – If your brand has already made some progress when it comes to mentions in the online environment, you might want to look into that. In a lot of situations, mentions in the online environment go by unlinked.
Sometimes, it will be a direct brand mention, sometimes the mention will focus on one of your services or products. Regardless, a good idea to generate links is to approach the people who mentioned you in the first place and ask them, very politely, if they would be willing to add a link to that mention.
Your success rate here should be very high since there is absolutely no reason not to link to a brand once you’ve already mentioned it – it simply fits naturally and makes the content better.
e) Competitive analysis – This is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it still works. If you are unsure about the direction you should take your link building campaign, you might want to take a peek into what the competition is doing. Being that you are in the same niche, there is a huge chance that you are doing a similar content strategy.
You can use tools like Moz’s Link Explorer to do this kind of analysis. You don’t have to copy your competitions’ work to the letter. It might be a bit wiser to avoid focusing on just one competitor altogether. Instead, pick and choose the ones that fit your goals best. You can analyze the steps they took to get those links and do something similar.
Social signals
While social signals are, in most cases, not a straightforward ranking factor which can boost your rankings directly, it can have quite an impact on your SEO campaign passivly.
Let’s see how.
As a business, you are trying to establish your brand as an authority in a certain field or as a good manufacturer of a certain kind of product.
If your brand name gets a lot of searches along with a particular product name and the users are not abandoning your website, then Google (or any other search engine) will assume that you are a good option for people searching for this product.
This may lead to them boosting your website’s rankings for queries that don’t include your brand name but just the keyword. This way, the brand can position itself as an authority in the niche and a trustworthy product provider.
We still haven’t talked about how you can get these social signals to help you position your brand better. Let’s do this now.
a) Influencer marketing
Influencers are people who have large followings and can impact buyer opinions in the online environment. They usually achieve this kind of influence through creating good content that provides value to people and through cultivating their social media following.
The good ones also strive to keep their reputation pristine and their reviews, advice, and opinions as unbiased as possible.
Due to the reasons cited above, brands tend to approach influencers with offers of collaboration hoping to improve their brand presence. The goal is to improve the brand’s reach, convert new leads, and even possibly gain some links in the process.
We would like to stress that, even here, like with any other stage of an SEO campaign, relevance is very important. You could always reach out to influencers that have the largest network of followers in what we like to call “the spray and pray” method.
Our suggestion is to attempt to reach out to influencers from your niche who can reach people that are actually interested in your subject matter.
Sure, you can pay a person with a following that counts millions of people to promote your brand, but if their post about your brand doesn’t do well, you’ve pretty much wasted your budget.
Here are the most popular types of influencers, so that you can get a general idea of where you should start.
Podcasts – These long-form online radio shows tend to attract a large audience. This is because they are not encumbered by time restrictions and can actually go in-depth when covering a particular subject.
YouTube – Vloggers have become extremely popular in the last decade, especially since they can monetize their efforts through built-in YouTube ads. Cisco predicts that video content will account for 82% of all consumer traffic.
Celebrities – These extraordinary individuals naturally gain the attention of vast crowds of people. They have immense followings and hiring them to promote your services or products will cost you an arm and a leg (in most cases), but it will pay off. They have a huge reach and they will promote you on social media.
Entrepreneurs – When it comes to B2B (Business to business) advertising, things are a bit trickier. The fact is that most executives and CEOs won’t be influenced by random advertisers, but they will check what other entrepreneurs suggest, especially if they operate in the same niche.
These are just some examples and you should do a lot more research before you decide in which direction you want to go.
c) Social media
Now, since you are going to be creating content as part of your SEO campaign, you should focus on creating a social media presence for your brand so that you have somewhere to share it. Keep in mind that these profiles will be off to an unimpressive start, but consistent work and cultivation of your following will give you an outlet for your content and a place where those who are loyal to your brand can keep up with the latest news.
There are really a lot of decisions to be made here, both related to the networks you plan on targetting and the approach to building your follower base.
d) Discussion boards, Q&A, Forums
While it may seem that every other form of online community has dwindled, aside from social media networks, this really couldn’t be farther from the truth. Forums are still very much alive, various question and answer websites like Quora as well, and other forms of discussion boards are still filled with people who are looking for a civil and troll-free online space for public discussions.
These places are perfect for improving brand awareness and building a reputation as experts in the niche. One of the few genuine ways to establish your brand’s presence online and turn your employees into brand ambassadors is to actually make an effort to answer questions outside your support inbox.
Now, you might want to ask: “What has this got to do with SEO?” Well, the thing is, search engine crawlers won’t only identify when your brand has been mentioned with a link leading back to your site, but linkless mentions count as well. Comment sections, forum threads, replies, and so on are a great way to boost your brand presence.
Furthermore, through this method, you can also increase traffic to your website. This is especially true if you have created a blog populated with in-depth posts that answer industry-related questions because you can actually link to these posts when you answer questions.
The way to do this efficiently though is not to just jam a link in the reply and carry on. You have to make an effort to give an answer to the question that is being asked but refer them to your post as a source for a more comprehensive answer.
The way to think about this is that you are not answering a privately asked question to just one person, you are answering a question for anyone who searches for it in the future.
SEO is a long-term investment, there is no questioning this, but it is also one of the ways to ensure passive traffic that matters. Keeping your rankings healthy for queries that are relevant to your niche is a great way to create leads. Consistent traffic also opens up the possibility to put up ads on your website and generate some passive income.
We do advise you to stay away from Black Hat SEO techniques, not because they won’t work (people wouldn’t even try them if the didn’t) but because if search engines find you doing these, then your website is going to get penalized, your hard-earned (and paid for) rankings are going to drop, and you might even get deindexed.
We hope that we were able to help you understand just how effective SEO can be as a way to improve your brand’s online presence. All the best from the Podroom Creative team!
