How to Excel as an Online Content Writer (Step By Step)
Quality content is in high demand today and the race to the top of Google’s SERPs top 10 is continually intensifying.
Moreover, that is the most important reason why people visit the internet in the first place.
No one visits a web page from the search results to see how it is designed.
Thus, it is essential to deliver the best quality content consistently.
From statistics
, 5.6 billion searches hit google per day.
Now that’s a lot of information seeking.
Today, Content writers are in higher demand than ever, as businesses have discovered the importance of quality content.
While writing jobs may be rampant, you could find it hard to bag a deal without excellent content writing skills.
So if you are a content writer looking for excellent ways to improve your writing skills, then you just found the right article.
Here, we have outlined some of the significant steps you should take to be an excellent content writer.
Not wasting too much of your precious time, let us get down to these steps at once.
On This Page
Key Highlights
🎯 Content is the only reason why people visit websites in the first place.
🎯 It would be best if you were very direct and hit all crucial points as fast as possible.
🎯 As far as content creation is concerned, accuracy is vital.
🎯 There is a high demand for skilled content writers across the globe.
🎯 Back up the points, you provide in your article with authoritative sources.
🎯 The Google algorithm now focuses more on the richness of your content.
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Step 1. Provide Quick Summary in Bullet Points
Before stumbling on this page, I guess you might have searched for tips on becoming a better content creator on Google.
Now, imagine that you searched for these writing tips, and we ended up giving you lectures on the importance of content writing.
In that case, you would most definitely leave this page and probably never come back.
That is how bad missing out on direct points can be.
If we had prepared this whole article of over 1,000 words without actually hitting the right points, you wouldn’t even be reading this far.
As a content writer, you need to be very direct and hit all crucial points as fast as possible.
Before writing an article, you should consider using keyword tools to discover what people want.
While there are many paid Seo tools out there, you can also use free keyword tools like Keyword.io to know the questions people ask.
Alternatively, you could use the ‘People Also Ask’ feature on the Google search results page.
Step 2. Write Compelling Headlines and Intros
According to research, a person’s average time on a blog post is 37 seconds.
Surprising. Right?
Well. That only shows that your heading and intro should be as captivating as possible.
That determines if a reader would spend much time on your blog post or not.
An excellent blog post on the internet takes about 7 minutes to read thoroughly.
You should know that most readers skim through blog posts with that in mind.
Thus, you should get them glued at the start.
Step 3. Use The Right Content Outline
Even if you spend a whole week preparing an article, the search engines would not consider your efforts if you do it wrongly.
Thus, it is always important to structure your content the right way.
So how do you know if your content outline is right?
The moment you research and gather all that your audience expects to see when they search for a particular topic, creating an outline becomes easy.
To create a blog content outline, prepare all your research texts, and arrange your subtopics in their most natural order.
Today, there are outline generator tools out there.
One of these outline generators is the Surferseo blog content outline generator.
You can generate the best Seo-optimized outline for your blog posts with this tool.
It is even more interesting that you can do all this with just one tap.
Step 4: Build Trust In Your Content
Over 8 million blog posts are published per day worldwide.
That should tell you how much content is out there on the internet.
Even if you are in a less competitive niche, thousands of articles on the internet may be similar to yours.
So why should readers choose yours over that of others?
One of the best ways to do that is to make your content trustworthy.
As a content writer, your content must be trustworthy to build authority when posted online.
The moment people discover that your articles are well researched and filled with relevant references from other authoritative sites, you gain trust in no time.
Moreover, as far as content creation is concerned, accuracy is critical.
According to a 2020 article by Forbes, the google algorithm now focuses more on the richness of your content.
However, this is not an indication that backlinks are less important.
Backlinks have helped over 100 million blogs across the globe.
As a content writer, you have to back up the points you provide in your article with authoritative sources.
Authoritative backlinks build credibility as people begin to see you in the light of those websites.
Step 5. Write In A Unique Voice
To improve your skills as a content writer, you need to understand how to write in a unique voice.
It is essential to understand the personality and purpose of your company and the target audience that would read your article.
To maximize your article results, you have to align your writing tone to match your target audience to attract more readers and subscribers to your host company or website.
A unique writing voice could set your host company apart from its competitors, thereby bringing in more subscribers in the long run.
Step 6. Add Visuals To Your Articles
A picture they say is worth a thousand words.
According to a recent research article by OptinMonster, articles with images or videos often get 94% more views than those without any form of visuals.
Now, this should tell you the importance of visuals in blog posts.
As a content writer, one of the significant ways to give extra life to your content is by adding visuals.
Adding visuals not only improves the overall reading experience of your article but makes it even more fun to read.
With relevant images put in place, a content writer could lure more readers into spending more time in a post.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is it hard to become a content writer?
Content Writing is more than just putting some words on a page.
Even as we speak, anybody can write blog posts.
However, quality content is what differentiates a good content writer from a bad one.
To become a good content writer, you must have good research skills, good command of English, and a creative mind.
Overall, it is not difficult to become a content writer, as long as you have the zeal.
Moreover, there are many online courses on websites like Coursera and Udemy, where you can start content writing lessons for free.
Is it compulsory for a content writer to know about SEO?
A famous saying is that ‘content is king in blogging.
Well. If we were to rephrase that, it would be ‘SEO-Optimized Content is King’.
As far as content creation is concerned, search engine optimization is critical.
Even if you provide the most detailed article, your content may still perform less than expected if it is not optimized for search engines.
Thus, content writers need to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization for excellent delivery.
Final Thoughts
As the years pass, content writing is becoming even more critical than ever.
Thus, there is a high demand for skilled content writers across the globe.
If you are an aspiring or beginner content writer looking for ways to improve your skills, you can use the steps given in this article.
In all, we do wish you good luck as you apply these steps in your journey towards becoming an expert content writer.