Issue #30- Backing Up Your Claims + Bylines
Trevann Hamilton
Your Writing Bestie- I help busy service providers create email campaigns that nurture their email lists and drive sales.
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Hey Bestie,
I hope you're doing well!
Summer is winding down, and for that, I'm grateful.
I have been hanging out with friends, painting, and experimenting with different coffee flavours. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I decided to start making iced coffee for some reason. I realized I like a subtle coconut flavour and oat milk with my coffee. I'm not sure how long I'll be on this totally random coffee kick, but let's see.
Business-wise, I've been spending time on projects I've been neglecting, like creating a proper customer and leads database and batching content, and I'm happy to say I'm getting somewhere.
Notion has been a lifesaver, and I wish I weren't so intimidated by it at first.
Anyway, enough of my rambling; here are your writing and SEO tips for the month!
Writing Tip ??
Let's talk about backing up claims in your writing.
As the editor and manager of a company's blog, I received a lot of guest posts. Unfortunately, most of them went unpublished. In some cases, I'd take the time to heavily edit them, and something I spent a lot of time doing was backing up claims. I'd try to find the research that backs up what they say; if I couldn't, I'd remove it.
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My advice is to please remember to link back to original research in your blog posts to support your claims.
If you're having problems finding original research, here's what you can do:
- Use Google Scholar. This was so important when I was writing science articles for a client.
- Check the reference section for a Wikipedia article on the topic. You may find some credible sources.
- Interview experts. Getting expert insights on the topic you're working on can help you create more valuable articles. I usually quote them and link back to their website.
- Do your own original research. This requires more resources and time, but if you can do your own research, you're much more likely to get backlinks to your article, which is great for SEO.
SEO Tip ??
Let's talk about the "who" behind your blog posts.
It's good practice to have a byline and an author bio to demonstrate expertise and inspire trust in your content.
When I was writing science articles, I had a byline, and the articles included information about my STEM degree and my experience in the field in my author bio.
The people writing your content should either have experience with the topic or have the article reviewed by an expert, especially if you're operating a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) blog.
Another way to inspire trust is to cite sources and talk to other experts.
If you're wondering why it's important in an SEO context, keep reading.
Google highlights E-E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. By showing the expert who writes your articles or reviews them and contact information, you can inspire trust from your audience and satisfy the E-E-A-T guidelines.
Here is what Google Search Central has to say about the E-E-A-T guidelines: "As a reminder, these guidelines are used by our search raters to help evaluate the performance of our various search ranking systems, and they don't directly influence ranking. They can also be useful to creators seeking to understand how to self-assess their own content to be successful in Google Search."
Resources ??
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- Follow my Your Writing Bestie on LinkedIn for content marketing tips.
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- Sign up for my other newsletter for freelance writers.
- If you have an email list and want to grow your subscribers, join the waitlist for the Creator Network by ConvertKit.
- Wondering where to sell your digital products? Join me and sell your digital products on Payhip.
See you next month.