Top Content Writing Tips for SEO Content Writing

SEO Content Writing Tips

Content is important in digital marketing. SEO content is heart of any SEO campaign. In this article, I will share top tips to write SEO friendly content.

Focus on your writing — This may seem obvious, but our life is full of constant interruptions. Do what you can to reduce them in order to avoid distraction. Turn off your phone or social media. Isolate yourself. Free yourself from constraints or excuses to do something other than writing. Simply write and focus 100% on that. Writing is rhythmic. It sucks you in. Distraction free writing allows you to continue down the mental pathways without losing track of your intended thoughts.

Vary your sentence structure — Gary Provost in his book, ‘Make Every Word Count,’ had this to say on varying sentence length to create rhythm and flow to his writing: “This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.” Do you hear that? The musicality possible by simply changing how we write is amazing. Avoid using stilted prose or dull language. This is an extremely simple fix and the more you pay attention, the more you will see it littered in the works of great writers.”

Revise your work — The first draft is only the first step. It is the husk of your post. Now that you have got it all out, step away from it for a day or so. Come back to it with fresh eyes. Then begin to cut. Cut, cut, cut, cut. Don Ruff writes, “I’ve found the best way to revise your own work is to pretend that somebody else wrote it and then to rip the living crap out of it.” Learn the art of revision. Identify what is important, what the crux of the argument is. Look for ways to enforce that or supplement it. As you write and rewrite, what emerges from the fifth draft will be a completely superior piece to what you churned out with the rough draft.

Proofread — If you write something and do not go over it multiple times, you will miss a ton of typos, misspellings, grammar errors or weak sentences. ! Print it out and read the the entire thing out loud. *Note: Go back to that previous sentence. Did you notice the second “the” or did you just skim over it? When we read we tend to to skip certain obvious words, so that we can focus more on on the less common words. We recognize them and skip over them so quickly that we don’t always notice when there are two of of them. * Note: Go back to the previous two sentences… you fell for it again. You will be amazed how many mistakes your eyes miss, but your ears pick up. Mark changes or issues with a colored pen. Double-check your work. After this, make the changes, rinse and repeat. It also is very important to have someone else read your work. Another pair of eyes is invaluable. Every single professional writer has others who read their work for mistakes and to identify places where it could be strengthened or needs to be clarified or focused.

Respect your audience — Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.” If you do not have something worthwhile to say, or a blog post to be proud of, do not put it out until it is ready. Your audience does not owe you anything. They give you their time and their attention (many times only half of that attention). It is your job to entice them, capture them and then reward them for that.

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