Excellent content writing drives search engine results, increases traffic to your website and gets you to start ranking on the first page of Google in no time. So, what exactly is content writing? In today’s blog post, I’m sharing fifteen content writing tips for beginners that you can begin implementing right away.
What is Content Writing?
Content writing is the process of creating content for the digital space, mostly for marketing purposes. These days content writing is an important professional skill you can add to your resume as a registered dietitian nutritionist. When you have the ability to write excellent content, you are essentially providing an answer to someone’s question or a simple solution to their big problem. While there is no magic formula, there are some simple, tried-and-true content writing tips for beginners that can help to improve your writing skills.
Effective Content Writing Tips for Beginners
There’s no doubt that blogging is the most popular type of content writing, but there are many other types of content writing you should be familiar with to help expand your skillset. The 15 content writing tips for beginners that I’ll be covering in this blog will apply to the majority of these content formats below.
- Blog Posts
- Social Media Posts
- Newsletters/emails
- Infographics
- E-books
- User Guides and How-To Guides
- Video Content
- Web page copy
- Landing page content
- YouTube video description
- E-commerce product description
- Reviews (books, product, or service)
This is by no means an all-inclusive list. The sky is the limit when it comes to content writing opportunities for dietitians in the digital space.
SEO in Content Writing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in content writing is the art of writing content that stays in good graces with the Google gods. The end goal is always to have your content rank on the first page of Google.
However, how we go about doing this is not so black and white. There are best practices on how to get your blog post to rank, but these are all educated guesses.
When it comes to SEO, there are some important factors including, conducting keyword research, learning how to properly structure your blog article, consistently using your keywords or phrases throughout your copy, and providing valuable content to your readers. We’ll be covering many of these “educated guesses” below.
15 Content Writing Tips for Beginners
1. Start with Keyword Research
It’s critical to do your keyword research on your topic before you begin writing. Find out what people are searching for when it comes to this specific topic. Be sure to include the target keyword or phrase in multiple parts of your article including the title, the first sentence, the subheadings (H2, H3, H4s), and the meta description.
2. Create an Outline with H2, H3, and H4’s
Allow yourself to really think about the big picture. This is a great first step to the writing process because it allows you to identify the broader topic and then narrow down into more specific areas. It also helps to streamline your thoughts and organize them into a proper, strategic flow that makes it easy for the user to read and follow along.
3. Create Eye-Catching Headlines
Your headline will determine whether or not the user will click on your article. Spend some time after your write your article to really drill down on what it’s all about. You want to make sure the title is captivating enough to grab the reader’s attention. It should also include your target keyword or phrase, stay between 55-70 characters, and ideally contain about 6-7 words. Headlines that are in the form of a listicle, how-to guide, or question tend to rank the highest.
4. Include Internal Hyperlinks
Whenever possible, include internal links within your blog article so you can keep users on your website longer while also providing them added value for content they are looking for. Google likes when internal links are used because it shows that your site is credible. Ultimately, your online community will appreciate the additional internal links to content that will help offer them solutions to their problems or answers to their questions which helps build trust and expertise.
5. Tell Compelling Stories
Storytelling is a great way to help strike an emotion with your audience. Once you have identified who your ideal client is, then you are better able to create content that truly resonates with them through stories and similar experiences. In turn, this makes it shareable content with their audiences.
6. Make Your Content Easy to Read
Most people are skimming through content these days. In an effort to make it as visually appealing and digestible as possible, make sure you keep sentences short and succinct with about 20 words or less, paragraphs should be no more than 50-75 words or 2-3 sentences. Aim for a grade 8 reading level to ensure your content can be read about 80% of Americans, according to the Readable.com. Use subheadings, bulleted lists and other formatting like bold, italics, capital letters, and more to help break up the text.
7. Use Relevant Visuals
Visual like photos, charts, and infographics help bring your content to life and tell a visual story for readers who may not want to read through the entire text. Since most people won’t read an article top to bottom, it’s important to incorporate images throughout to help break up the text and make the article more easily consumable for the reader.
8. Stick with Value Added Content
First and foremost, it’s important to provide value to your reader. Provide a simple solution to a big problem they are facing. By keeping your ideal client in mind, you are able to help them with their challenges, struggles, and obstacles. Know your ideal client better than they know themselves. This will ensure that you provide them added value in the content you are delivering to them.
9. Always Stick an Active Voice in Content Writing
Write with an active voice to communicate with your readers directly. This is the simplest way to present your message to your ideal client. It’s clear, direct, and straightforward by saying “who is doing what.” In a passive voice, the subject comes at the end of the sentence, while the object and action come first. This can cause confusion to your reader at times.
10. Word Count Matters
Creating long form content is one of the ranking factors that Google takes into account with its algorithm. However, I would argue that providing a mix of word count lengths in your content is the best-case scenario. Aim to write a minimum of 1000 words for each blog post, but then create some blog articles that can be upwards of 1500-2000, and maybe 3-4 a year write articles that are 2000+ words. By creating long-form content, the search engine views that as a positive ranking factor because it shows in-depth, comprehensive content with more clarity and detailed explanation on your points.
11. Write Often
The only way to improve on your writing skills is to write. And just when you think you’ve written enough, write some more. Try to make it a daily routine to write something every day. Spend 10-15 minutes with a journal or a blank page in Microsoft Word and just write whatever comes to your mind. Don’t edit, don’t proofread; just write. Aim to write about 300-500 words a day.
12. Read Often
Good writers are typically good readers; and vice versa. When you read, you learn. And the more you learn, the more you can write for your readers. Go to your local library, download an e-book on Kindle, or snuggle up with a good book and cup of coffee. While it’s important to read books within your niche, I’d encourage you to pick up some books outside of your niche as well to expose you to new ideas and best practices in other industries that are transferrable into your world.
13. Edit Your Content
I cannot stress this point enough. It’s so important to edit your work before hitting publish. Be sure that your content has a proper flow, the sentence structure is clear, and punctuation usage is accurate. The first draft will always need to be reviewed for things like grammar, spelling, punctuation usage, proper word usage, and consistency in flow, tone and voice. When editing your work, there may be some partial rewrites to improve the overall sentence or paragraph. Copy editing improves the overall quality of the writing. It involves looking at the document as a whole, while also checking for more detailed edits.
14. Proofread Your Work
Proofreading is the last stage in the editorial process before you hit publish. This provides more of a surface-level review of the content when it’s in the final draft to ensure it is near perfection. This is one of the most significant content writing tips for beginners. Click here to receive my free resources on “7 Effective Proofreading Strategies for Dietitians.” Do not skip this step of proofreading. Proofreading your work will show your readers you are a true professional.
15. Hire Out, When Necessary
If you have implemented editing and proofreading techniques in your work, but you are still not 100% confident about the accuracy of your writing, it may benefit you to hire a professional. For some dietitians, proofreading may not be on the top of their to-do list, or they simply don’t have the time to proofread with all the other projects they have going on in their business. In these cases, hiring a professional to review your work would probably be the best use of your resources –aka your time and money.
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