Content writing, a field where everybody thinks they are an expert until or unless they have to do it. Content writing is the dream job for everyone today, work from home, work as much or as less as you want, no boss over you, and so on, the list of advantages is never-ending. So, what else would anyone want?
“Writing isn’t about using big words to impress. It’s about using simple words in an impressive way.” – Sierra Bailey
But is it so easy that anyone can do it? The answer is yes, it can be done by anyone but few things need to be kept in mind to succeed. If you know what you are doing then you are already a step ahead of others but there are always some do’s and don’ts to be followed by everyone. By understanding the dos and don’ts, one will be set to be more productive. But first of all for those who don’t know what content writing is, let’s discuss it.
Content writing is the process of writing, planning and editing data over the internet. It varies from writing a blog, article, content for status updates or tweets to writing biographies, product descriptions, news articles etc. The main function of content writing is digital marketing for something. It involves writing authentic, most relevant, readable and marketable content that the audience finds worth reading and informative.
Content writing is very important for any business online. A well-written description of a product can itself do wonders for any business. However, poor quality content on your business or blogging website could result otherwise. People nowadays like to read about something first before buying it and reading poorly written content online might turn them away. The same goes for blogging, one bad blog can steal a lot of audience from your website. Bad/poor content works as a vacuum cleaner; it sucks the good and throws it away.
SO, here are the dos and don’ts that can make any content writer more productive and attractive to their audience.
The dos are very important but the don’ts are the key to success here. A content writer might do everything write but forgets to follow one don’t then the results will be not in their favour. So always keep it in mind, a thousand rights might do you some right but one wrong can do a lot of wrongs.
Dos
∎ Professionalism
While there is absolute space for creativity and personal touch in the world of online content, there is no space to leave professionalism. It may seem that adding personal opinions and viewpoints are necessary to attract the audience to your website but a simple viewpoint can also hurt the feelings of many audiences which might in return provide adverse effects. Always remember that your audience might look like they like your viewpoint but there is a very thin line that can change that liking to hate.
So, a writer should always stay within professional limits while writing something.
∎ Sometimes less is also better
Sometimes, a content writer might know too much about a certain topic and feel like sharing all with their audience but it might have adverse effects as the audience want to know everything in less time. Nobody wants to invest too much time in reading something.
An entirely different thing is graphics. Some writers try to add too many pictures, graphs and other graphics to make their content look attractive. The thing is, your content might look like a photo gallery if you overdo it.
So, keep things in mind and do only enough not more than that.
∎ Quality is the key
Quality is the key to content writing, everything else is secondary. Nothing is more important than the content that is interesting and read-worthy to the audience. Back-links, length of the content and everything else doesn’t matter if you make it catchy for the audience. The content should also be unique and yours especially. Copying somebody’s ideas will never reward anyone. It is difficult to write something entirely unique but it is possible, everyone has a different view to see things and you have to make it the key while writing.
Diversity is better but not when a writer is publishing content online, it will confuse search engines and there will be negative effects.
∎ Research better
Research is the key to any content writer. Even if a writer knows everything about a certain topic, then also they will need to do research to find the keywords related to the topic. Always, run a depth analysis of the keywords you want to target before starting to write the content. If the keywords are diversified from each other, that might not go your way, so it is necessary to assess the keywords before writing not after.
A writer’s research provides them with the expertise they need to write about anything. Research can make any topic flawless if the writer knows all the facts and figures related to the topic. It will help a writer to make their every point pretty clear to the audience.
∎ Proof-reading
Proof-reading is something most readers don't care about but what they forget is that one simple mistake can ruin your whole content. Mistakes are not so hard to come by, one or two typing mistakes or spelling mistakes might turn in poor performance of your content. You can try using online applications to check for grammatical errors.
So a writer should always do proofreading of the content before posting their work anywhere.
Don’ts
∎ Plagiarised content
The most basic and intense pitfall that can really do some harm to your search engine ranking is plagiarism. We have already discussed plagiarism in our previous blog, so please give it a read to understand more about it. Doing research on various blogs and websites to get an idea is fine but stealing their lines and content is not right. It will never result well for any content writer.
∎ Biased or offensive content
A writer’s viewpoint is always important but writing something biased to one side of the argument is not favourable. It will often hurt the sentiments of your audience and the results will be catastrophic. A writer should always respect the diversity of the audience, your target audience might find it amazing but other audiences searching for the same thing might not entertain your point of view.
So, a writer should keep in mind to not write something biased or offensive to any audience. At least, one should try to not make it offensive knowingly.
∎ Complicated content
In the essence of making everything amazing, writers tend to forget the importance of simplicity. Many writers make their work so complicated that the audience finds it difficult to understand. A difficult word or sentence will always act as a roadblock to any reader, it will disrupt their flow and the next thing they will do is move on.
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
So, don’t try to forcibly make things complicated for the audience. Simple content performs much better than a complicated one.
∎ Write too many pages
Writers often do it, they find these topics and write small contents on it and publish 10 articles on the same thing. Their idea might be it will keep the audience engaged but it might also work in the wrong way. It can also harm the number of your audience. The audience will be fed up to not get all the information.
It is often told that quality is better than quantity so write a 1500 words article than writing 10 articles of 200 words each.
∎ Dull/boring content
It is quite a popular misunderstanding in the world of content writing that the longer the content, the better its chances to target keywords. One thing writers forget is that it is not about targeting keywords. It is about attracting the audience and maybe they will reach you once but if they find you boring, they are never returning. It is not entirely wrong that longer content works better but it will only work if the content is awesome and binding to the audience.
Sometimes writers try to sound simple and in the process, they write very dull things which no audience will appreciate. If you are a writer and something is looking a little bit boring to you, then it will be 100 times more to the audience.
Closure: These do’s and don’ts can guide any content writer to success and make them more productive than before. The road to success is difficult but by following the rules, it will always help to reach faster. If you think you are good at writing content then try reading our other blogs on the same. It will definitely help you.
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