Especially if you are a newbie freelance writer, these steps will immensely help you sail through.
Even if you have a knack for writing, creating website content for clients may sometimes feel like lifting a mountain. This is because there are fewer chances for you to deviate from the straight rope.
Newbie freelance content writers often get concerned about the possibility of failing to match the client’s expectations. As a result, the confidence fades away during the project, and the end product gets a pitiful aspect.
Only pursuing a masterful working system will throw away all the fear and confusion out of your mind and make your content writing a walk in the park. So let’s set the record straight and bring you some easy-to-follow (yet requires diligence) techniques that you can apply for almost all sorts of content.
Everybody Writes by Ann Handley is a book that covers almost all types of content with a handful of valuable suggestions on how to write them. Buy this book from amazon.
Step 1: Keyword Research
I am assuming your client has already given you a certain keyword along with some instructions. Now you have the keyword, and the next thing you need to do is to Google it.
Suppose the keyword is “How to Write Content,” and there are millions of search results. You’ll see a section below that says “people also ask,” and even below, you’ll see some questions. This is the segment where it demonstrates what the majority of the audience wants to know regarding the main topic.
A couple of free tools will make the keyword research part even easier. My favorites:
1. Whatsmyserp
2. Ubbersuggest
3. Keywords everywhere
4. SEOquake
These tools will help you see search volumes of relevant keywords and give you a clear idea about what queries you should cover in your content.
Copy and save all the queries and relevant keywords in one single Doc file.
Step 2: Competitor analysis
Read all the competitor blog posts that show up on the first page of your keyword search result. Read them over and over again. Examine the subheadings, other relevant semantics and keywords, and the potential keywords they haven’t. Save all of them in the doc file that you just made to hoard resources.
Your content will overall intend to serve two purposes:
- To surpass your competitors in the search result
- Generate traffic and attract them to stay on your page
Assess your competitor blogs by checking the word count, the keywords they have used, external links, heading tags, and all insights.
You can copy and paste all the links one by one on the SEO assessment tool Screaming frog SEO spider to have a deeper insight.
Step 3: Outline your content
Now it’s time to create an outline. Make sure the outline you create is not having anything irrelevant like subheadings that doesn’t match the main intention of the article. The more clearly you create your outline, the more precisely you can write your content.
1. Set a great relevant heading.
2. Introduction must contain the main keyword once(better if you can use it on the first line) and should be around a 100 words. Add snippet. It’s one of the factors that search engines seek nowadays.Make your introduction clear, catchy, concise. Add a slippery slides at the end of the introduction.
3. Write down the potential subheadings, the words length of each subheading, and the amount of semantics or relevant keywords to be used.
4. Use bullets (if needed)
5. The conclusion.
Step 4: Time to research
Google Scholar is a great tool for conducting research. Yet there are more websites that will provide you with a great amount of information and make your research easier. You can check out these below listed online sources and choose either according to your choice.
And for accurate statistical data, you can use Statista
However, random blog posts from your main keyword’s search results can provide you with an updated idea about your content. Take information from those blog posts that appear on the first page of your search result. Check out the credibility of the information they provide. Incorporate those information in your own words but make sure you are not copying and pasting anything on your content.
Research all the portions and segments of your competitor blogs profoundly. The more research you conduct, the more valuable content you generate.
Gather all the information you think can be added to your content and store them on the doc file.
Step 5: Write the first draft
It’s recommended to determine the tone of your content based on your competitor blogs.
Use phrases and words according to the subject of your content. If you are writing a food blog, try to avoid phrases and jargon used commonly on tech blogs or sports blogs. This will make your content sound more professional.
Let your headline be the most persuasive part of your blog. The online tool https://headlines.coschedule.com/ will help you assess and check the strength of your created headline.
As you get a micro amount of time to hook your audience, write the intro focusing on your audience’s struggles and pain areas and give them a glance of what you going to cover all through your content to ease their pain points. Use Copywriting formulas like AIDA or PAS to make your introduction part more enticing.
The body part should cover all the necessary information. Make sure you are not incorporating too much information, fillers, or flowery words. Fillers and irrelevant words will make your audience’s reading experience bland.
The paragraphs should be thinner so that the blog post remains reader-friendly.
Each paragraph should be a bridge for leading your audience to read further. So avoid unnecessary sentences and stick to the point.
Use bullets, and subheadings.
Set the heading tags.
Add relevant external and internal links.
Your conclusion part should summarize the whole context of the article in a few words. The conclusion should not be more than 3 small paragraphs.
Step 6: Rewrite, edit, proofread
It’s better to take a long break after finishing with your first draft. This would reset your mind and create space to look up at your written piece with fresh eyes. Assume you are a target reader of your written content. Read the entire piece multiple times. Mark the sentences that sound cliche or look unnecessary and rewrite, remove, and edit them later. Use tools like:
1. Grammarly (Editing, proofreading tool)
2. Hemmingway (Editing, proofreading tool)
3. Prowriting app (Editing, proofreading tool)
4. Quillbot (Paraphrasing tool)
5. Wordtune (Paraphrasing tool)
6. Copyscape (Plagiarism checker tool)
Okay, you are done writing your 2nd draft, and now it’s time to test the content in a bit different way.
Step 7: Run a text to speech tool
Text to speech tool will let you realize the tone of your written content clearly and help you point out the words that sound inappropriate. There are a number of free text to speech tools available online, and you can use them anytime you want.
Mark the point again that you think should be edited or rewritten. Use alternative words or synonyms that sound easy. Remember, the toughest job for a writer is to write stuff simply.
Step 8: Final check and deliver
Now you are done. Set the image(if required), check the external links (Don’t use any broken links), and check the Heading Tags. Read your content again. The more you read, the more perfect you make it. Take a break again, and read again before delivering it to your client.
Conclusion
There is no single formula to writing content perfectly. I have just tried to show you a process that can be applied to any content as they are all necessary steps.
A continued effort to stick to a single form of practice will make you professional within a short time. Here I am mentioning a list of 4 books about content writing that will help you further in arranging your articles in a good manner.
The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business (Buy from amazon)
Content Writing Step-By-Step: Learn How To Write Content That Converts And Become A Successful Entertainer Of Online Audiences (Buy from amazon)
One Hour Content Plan (Buy from amazon)
7 Steps to Better Writing (Buy from amazon)
[ This content contains affiliate links. If you buy any product through any of these links, I will get a commission.]
