How to Write Content That Will NOT Be Ignored in 2023 (Part 1)

Have you ever come across some piece of impressive blog article??

The one that really (like really) leaves you with actionable information, advice, or, at least, inspiration. ??

Most of the time, this is the case with famous blogs such as HubSpot or SEMrush (just to name some of my favorites).?

People browsing online are lazy and whenever they’re looking for new information, it must be easy to consume, interesting, catchy, educational…

We could go a long way with those adjectives.?

And, let’s admit, we also make part of those lazy Internet browsers. We love watching videos, listening to podcasts, and we rarely read. However, a great piece of content can help grasp the reader’s attention and walk them through your blog.?

The question is-how to achieve this?

If you Google the question “blog article writing tips”, 286,000,000 results will come up:?

While we can take out some big chunks of those pages, we’re still left with a huge list of sources that leave us confused.?

There are just too many guides to choose from.?

During the past few years, I’ve spent writing content, I’ve gathered a list of the fundamental tips you can implement. You’ll notice how simple they are. The difference is that it’s all in one place and explained in a friendlier language.?

However, to make it more consumable and organized, I’ve split them into three parts.

• First one covers the very very basics of content such as keywords and editing.
• The next one is about making the content more trendy and catchy for search engines as well.
• The last one covers all the additional attributes that will finalize your unique content.

Now, when I say unique, I don’t mean that your article will go through Grammarly and show 0% plagiarism.?

I mean that it’s written to not bore the reader even if they’re simply scanning (you may have guessed that we will make the headings catchy as well.)

So, let’s go over the fundamentals of any not-boring blog article.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Not-Boring Blog Article

I won’t be doing the dilly-dally, just will cover everything quickly.?

And, I plan to use friendlier language and lots of emojis!!!

So, let’s get to the first step.

Choose a catchy title

If you’re doing content writing for a certain company, you’ll have all the required topics given by the SEO specialist most of the time. In this case, you’ll need to come up with a title based on the given topics.?

For example, if you’re working for a graphic design agency and need to take care of the website content, here are some topic ideas:

• visual identity
• product design
• marketing design, etc.

Based on these, you’ll need to come up with a strategic and catchy title idea.

For example, if we go with the first topic (visual identity), here’s what your titles should look like:

• What’s Behind The Perfect Brand’s Visual Identity?
• Visual Identity Checklist For Beginner Designers
• Why Your Brand Needs A Strong Visual Identity And How to Achieve it?

You can brainstorm on these ideas of course.?

The trick here is to use those catchy words. Based on our examples, here are those words:?

• What’s Behind The Perfect Brand’s Visual Identity? (creates a sense of something secretive so the reader wants to learn more and continues reading)
• Visual Identity Checklist For Beginner Designers (complete list of what you should do when building a brand identity)
• Why Your Brand Needs A Strong Visual Identity And How to Achieve it? (there’s something everyone’s talking about and you still haven’t implemented it. But why should you care anyway?)

Your blog title is the first thing readers will see so it needs to be effective and influential enough. Most of the time, it’s about tackling emotions such as curiosity, urgency, etc.

Research keywords

Another widely-spoken topic in the world of SEO and Content Marketing is the usage of keywords.?

You’re probably familiar with tools like the Google Keyword Planner or the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer so I won’t give you a headache on those.?

If you’re not, you can start with some digging on YouTube or Google itself.?

However, note that watching tutorials or reading step-by-step guides is not enough. You will learn more by digging into the different features and sections you find regardless of the keyword research tool you’re using.?

For now, I’ll go over the metrics I focus on when looking at a huge list of keywords on Ahrefs. This time, let’s take the keyword “content writing.”

• Keyword Difficulty (KD) and Global Volume. If the KD is not too high (in this case it’s 52) and the search volume is pretty high, we can take the risk of adding that keyword to our list.

How to determine how “impossible” ranking would be?

• Look at the Position History below. Depending on your selected period for this keyword, you can check the domains that rank for the keyword “content writing.” In this stage, we can see how huge the competition is since we have Backlinko, HubSpot, and others. Are you ready for it? Then you should add this keyword as the focus one. If not, here’s what to do.

• Here are some more Keyword Ideas for a simpler ranking strategy. You can also explore questions about the chosen topic. From the Terms match section, let’s pick “content writing salary.”?

• It has less keyword difficulty so it would be easier to have it as your focus keyword when writing blog content.?

As you go deeper into the process, you can look up various relevant keywords, check their metrics, the domains that rank for that specific keyword, and whether you can outrank them. These are just some small things to watch out for when doing keyword research.?

Based on the keywords you’ve found, you can already get to the next step.

Create an outline

In the beginning, I’d just pick my topic and start writing (based on research of course.)?

It was obvious that something wasn’t quite right about the articles, but it took me some time to realize what it was: the absence of structure.?

So, I have prepared a template-outline you can use when writing regular articles of 1,000-1,500 words. Here’s how you can download it.?

Well, I’ve learned it the hard way, to be honest…

But let’s see where you should begin.?

Firstly, it’s important to determine the type of blog structure that suits your topic the best. For example, “How to” guides work best in the form of checklists (such as this one.) On the other hand, topics such as “A look at the future of X” will require more paragraphs and text rather than bullet points.?

Secondly, in the ideal version, your blog article should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. In its turn, the body will also contain different sections.?

But let’s not get everything twisted.

As a writer, you’re already familiar with what each one of the blog sections is about. What if we viewed it from the SEO’s point of view??

Nope, it’s not all about keywords. It’s also about proper headings.?

What should you have as part of your blog structure??

• H1-the main title of your article. For example: “How to Write Content That Will Not Be Ignored in 2023”
• H2-the main idea of your article. For example: “Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Not-Boring Blog Article”
• H3-the steps (in this case) of your guide. For example: “Choose a catchy title; Research keywords, etc.”
• H4-the conclusion.?

This is the heading structure I follow when writing my blog articles.

The third and the last thing to consider is the number of words each of your paragraphs will have. Well, it doesn’t need to be exactly the same but this step will help understand approximately how many words each should contain.?

Let’s do a quick wrap up over the structure!

So, when writing an outline you should:?

• choose the best type of structure?
• divide content into sections?
• note the number of words for each section

And there you have it! ??

Understand user intent

Honestly, I used to ignore this step for such a long time.?

I thought things like “Who does it?,” “Who cares? I’m just gonna create my content.” etc.?

But after posting on LinkedIn for some time, I came to the realization that user intent really IS important.?

And it can define how successful your content will be.?

Imagine you have clicked on my article and are willing to read it (because I could keep you hooked, right?)

You were most likely expecting some exact tips, steps, tricks, maybe even templates, and more. But what if I gave you some generic guidelines, something like:

• First, decide your content goals
• Find keywords
• Create an outline…

You’d be really really bored, right??

But I decided to be more precise, share what I do when I write an article, and keep my content a bit fun with the help of emojis and GIFs.?

So, what I did, I had researched AND kind of imagined my user intent and how they’d expect to interact with my content. ??

Understanding user intent means determining how your audience searches for stuff on Google. Here are the first steps to take:

• choose a title users are most likely to search. For example, if you’re writing a listicle of SEO tools, your audience may search it like this “best seo tools in 2023.” Therefore, your title should be something like this “The Best SEO Tools To Watch Out For In 2023.”
• write the content in an expected way. Again, if we go back to the same example, you should simply give a list of SEO tools, speak about what each one does, how much it costs, etc.?
• consider additional materials. Your audience might be looking for tutorial videos about how to use those tools as they’re reading the content. Do you agree that this would make things easier for them? If so, then you should add videos. In any case, it’s important to research and determine any additional resources you can provide for users.?

The last thing to do is simply searching for your topic in Google and checking the SERP results. Do product listicles come up? Does it mostly show videos? Are there any PDFs attached to existing blog articles??

Well, these are important elements to watch out for!

Edit, Edit, Edit…

Yep, I hate this too.

Going over your article again and again, finding those little mistakes, remembering you had to add that visual…

The work is endless when it comes to editing and finalizing your blog articles.

However, it’s worth it. Because, in the end, that’s what makes your content complete.?

So, when you’ve written it all and think you’re done, you’re not really done. Instead, it’s good to go over the content 2-3 times (that’s what I do) and see what you’ve been missing. This doesn’t mean that you have to read the same piece for the 1000th time, but it means that you have to have some tiny thing to check every time you edit.?

Here’s how I edit fully:

• reread the WHOLE article and fix any mistakes
• go over the headings separately and make them more fun
• check whether I have my keywords in place
• check for internal and external links
• add my favorite visuals (emojis and GIFs)
• take a look at the images and screenshots, if any
• read the introduction and conclusion parts once again

So, this means I edit for 7 times, right? But if you look at each time, it’s not too time consuming. In the end, I get the content I imagined in my head.?

You can also write down all the important elements for YOUR content, and go over each one separately when editing.

Another good thing would be to ask someone else to take a look at your content because that’s how many of our mistakes come up to the surface.?

Conclusion

That could be a wrap up for the first part, I think! ???? ??

And here are the key takeaways for writing a not-boring blog article:

• Begin with a catchy title by adding some “special” phrases?
• Find the right keywords by digging into YouTube and Google, Ahrefs, and other similar tools.?
• Build an outline for more structure?
• Learn about user intent through some digging and even interviews (we’ll talk about this later)
• Edit as much as possible by focusing on the elements of your content that make it unique.

Make sense??

If no, feel free to reach out to me if you have any further questions or any offer that will improve my article. ??