5 Habits Solo Entrepreneurs Need To Break Right Away

You don’t have to be a professional to know what good content writing looks like. If you’ve ever searched for something on Google and found a page that’s actually been helpful — congratulations, you’ve experienced good content writing!

But here’s the thing: if you’re here, you’re not just looking to write good copy — you want to write great copy.

While great content writing certainly gets clicks (and keeps people on your page), it has the power to do so much more. Good copy answers someone’s question. Great copy answers their question — and a few they didn’t even know they had.

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Ultimately, the best content doesn’t just get people to click — it gets people to trust you. That trust inevitably leads to more shares, more backlinks, and more sales.

Why should entrepreneurs learn content writing?

Good content writing is your best employee — in fact, a Salesforce/Pardot survey found that consumers consider trust in a company's content to be 3x more important than trust in the brand's actual employees. 97% of the same survey respondents also said that bad content negatively affected their trust in a brand.

You don’t want hours of researching and writing content to go to waste. You want ROI. So bookmark this list of content writing tips and keep it handy any time you create content for the web.

23 Content Writing Tips

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1. Good content writing begins with keyword research.

Before you even start to write content, you need to know what you’re writing about — and you can kill two birds with one stone if you combine search engine optimization with your editorial calendar planning.

Keyword research tells you what topics Google (and your target audience) finds relevant.

It illuminates your competitors content strategy, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses in your own. And it allows you to optimize individual articles and your content strategy as a whole to bring in more traffic.

The ROI is unbeatable. TCF’s site generates over $400,000 worth of organic traffic each year (as in, we’d have to spend more than $400,000 dollars in AdWords to get the same number of site visits). And all it takes is a little extra research time, and occasional tweaks to update the content and keyword targeting.

2. Keyword stuffing is never okay

Keywords are a means to make your content valuable, readable and search-friendly. But when you start cramming in keywords, it does the exact opposite.

A web page stuffed with keywords looks dubious and untrustworthy — to both Google and human readers. Your conversion rate and SERPs rankings go down, along with your pageviews. Readers start to see it as a low quality page and bounce quickly, and over time search engines slap down your domain.

Search engines are smart these days. You don’t have to work in grammatically incorrect keyword phrase just because searchers use it. You don’t need to work in every conceivable variation of a search term for Google to understand what your page is about.

3. Drive toward powerful calls to action (CTAs)

What do you want readers to do with the content you create? If your only answer is, “Well, read it, I guess,” you need to go back to the drawing board. Before you even start writing a blog post, you need to know what your call to action will be, and you need to make it compelling enough that readers can’t help but click. That’s how you connect content writing to marketing goals and prove ROI.

Which calls to action should businesses use in their content?

Here are some examples of calls to action you can incorporate in just about any blog post or landing page:

• Desired user action: download resource. Download our free guide for more expert tips about [topic].
• Desired user action: subscribe to newsletter. Sign up for exclusive resources in your inbox each week.
• Desired user action: get a demo. Schedule a free demo of [software/ app name] to see how many hours you can save each day.
• Desired user action: share content on social media. Know somebody who could use these tips? Share this article and tag your colleague!
• Desired user action: make a purchase. Click here and use offer code 'CONTENT' to save 30% on the purchase of [product or service].

When writing calls to action, put yourself in the reader’s shoes: what would it take for a company you’ve never heard of to convince you to do something, even something as simple as sharing the article with a friend? Now, connect it to your goals: how can you craft a CTA and content specific to your company’s marketing and sales KPIs that actually persuades readers to take action?

4. Email vs. e-mail, Internet vs. internet and other style debates

Language always changes, and web writers need to be hip to the trends to appeal to modern audiences. For example, many organizations would never use the singular, gender-neutral “they” as recently as the early 2000s. Now, the only language authorities that make you write out “he or she” are middle school English teachers.

Similarly, “e-mail” was considered the correct term for a long time by major authorities like the AP and The New York Times, but one by one they gave in. The same goes with the lowercase “internet.” There are people that still treat it as a proper noun, but none of them work as editors in The Guardian, The Economist or the BBC.

The bottom line is, whatever your language pet peeves are, your online writing is for your audience, not for you.

Play it safe by following the conventions of the AP or another respected style guide, or creating your own house style guide that adheres to modern usage rules. Be consistent, and be modern.

5. Always hyperlink to your sources

When you reference another website’s content, make sure you hyperlink back to that site. It’s good internet etiquette, and you’d want the same courtesy. Always cite your sources, even if you’re afraid it’ll send your web traffic to another site — and you can always choose the “open link in another window” option if you’re that concerned about keeping your traffic.

Besides being the right thing to do, citations can also help you get backlinks.

Frequently, the sites you link to will see your effort and thank you for it with a reciprocal link or quote.

Read 14 Ways to Get Backlinks for more information on effective linking strategy.

6. Make the reader feel something.

There are a lot of factors that go into viral content. Promotion is a huge factor, and brand identity, timing and plain luck all play a role.

But almost all viral writing shares one thing in common: emotional impact.

In a recent article, Hubspot interviewed three different marketing experts on why content goes viral. Although each emphasized different factors, all three emphasized the importance of creating web content that evokes an emotional response in the reader. Megan Conley, Content Marketing Strategist at HubSpot, put it this way:

We all have opinions on what types of content go viral: a soundless social video, a sounds terrible. Click To Tweet

8. When writing for the web, chop it up.

If you’re writing the next Great American Novel, it’s okay to end paragraphs when pauses seem natural. Writing for the web, however, is a whole different world. Attention spans online are a LOT shorter than they are in Oprah’s Book Club, and your paragraphs need to reflect that.

Put simply: keep it short! A five-line paragraph is great, but a three-line paragraph is even better. Content kings like Derek Halpern even let single sentences fly solo.

Don’t worry if an idea doesn’t seem to be fully “complete” before hitting that enter key. Err on the side of short paragraphs and chop it up!

9. Update your links

Most website content writers know the importance of internal links. Linking to other pages on your site boosts SEO, gives readers useful info, and increases page views and time on site. However, it’s not enough.

You need to revisit older posts and pages to update them with new links. This boosts your search results, makes your pages more useful and relevant to users and helps your content stays fresh.

It’s just one part of revamping older, evergreen content to improve SEO. (More on that later!)

10. Invest in a good SEO suite

You can do SEO keyword analysis with nothing but a Google spreadsheet and some free tools,but there’s a lot of data to crunch. And digging through all the keywords and traffic data makes it easy to get lost in the analytics.

Not all SEO suites solve the problem. Some bombard you with too much data, without providing the tools you need to sort through it and tweak your content strategy. Other SEO tools break everything down into their own proprietary system, without giving you the enough data to draw your own conclusions. And when they get it wrong, you’ll have no way of knowing until your traffic starts to crash.

One SEO tool that gets the balance right is SEMrush — in fact, we’re such fans, we’ve even become an affiliate!

With SEMrush, you’re given a lot of data, but all of that data is easy to understand (and even easier to export, if you need to analyze it in another program).

Seriously, take a look at this screenshot:

All of the important analytics are displayed in front of you: what keywords you’re ranking for, how many backlinks you have, what your competition looks like, and the total ad value of your keywords.Even if you’re new to SEO content writing, it’s quick and easy to learn.

Likewise, when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of keyword research, SEMrush makes it easy to parse data: you can sort keywords by common metrics like CPC or search volume, find related keywords, compare competitors or narrow in on a specific subdomain of your site.

Whether you’re trying to build out a new blog for your brand, audit your whole site, or zero in on your competitors strategy, it’s an invaluable tool.

If you’re interested in trying SEMrush out, click here for a free 7-day trial of SEMrush Pro!

11. Don’t forget SEO best practices

Repeating your targeted keywords a couple times isn’t enough — you need to use your keyword (and related phrases) anywhere it fits: in the url, H2 headers, meta description and even in the alt tags of your images.

If you’re using WordPress, Yoast can help you nail the SEO.

Once you’re finished inputting your content, expand the Yoast box and check out the Content Analysis portion for some helpful hints about what you should improve before you publish.

Not only does Yoast nail big problems like missing keywords in the meta description, it can also help you zoom in on granular issues like low keyword density to gie your site an extra SEO boost:

12. Give your readers a reason to care from the first sentence

Good intros are hard. It can feel unnatural to skip right to the point. You want to provide some background, warm the reader up and then work your way to the main topic when you feel ready.

But by that point, your reader is long gone.

Your website isn’t literature. Site visitors aren’t there for your nuanced language or slow, measured flow. They’re there to get information or solve a problem (ideally by buying your product or service.)

And if you don’t give them a reason to care about your article, they’re going to get that information or solve that problem somewhere else.

5 Habits Solo Entrepreneurs Need To Break Right Away Quickly

Our intro is a good example. The first sentence is “your website represents your company.” In five words, we’ve told you why this article is important. The rest of the intro expands that, talking about how website content writing can help (or hurt) your company.

Finally, we remind you why you need us: you don’t want to waste time — “you want ROI.” So bookmark this article and reference it when you write.

Every piece of content you write should tell your readers why they should invest their time in hearing what you have to say. How will what you’re teaching them help them? What goal will they accomplish with your help? Why should they care?

13. Paint a picture

Give this paragraph a read:

“Is it just us, or do some people talk about gay dating like it’s an elaborate magic trick? Even unexperienced gay or queer persons may approach the idea of dating with the kind of abject fear one feels when opening the instructions for a new piece of IKEA furniture. ‘Am I doing this right?’ they may ask themselves, months, years and even decades into their dating careers.”

That’s the opening paragraph for blog post we wrote for our personal product client titled 8 Ways Gay Dating Is Just Like Straight Dating and it’s the perfect example to illustrate our point (pun intended).

That point is this — creating content writing is a lot different than writing a 7th grade book report.

Your audience isn’t an overworked and underpaid teacher with no choice but to read your reworded Cliffs Notes on Lord of the Flies. Your audience is choosing to read your content (or to head elsewhere on the web). Imagery is a great way to capture their attention.

Don’t think for a second that a boring or technical topic gets you off the hook either — IKEA assembly instructions have nothing to do with gay dating (usually) but we used a visual to help the reader make the connection. Push yourself to add a little creative fiction to your website content writing and see how much more fun it is to read (and write!)

14. “Do’s and Don’t’s” vs. “Dos and Don’ts” — which is correct?

The latter! Nothing drives us crazier than people putting apostrophes in pluralized words.

When in doubt about spelling, capitalization or grammar, Google it! Which brings us to…

15. If you’re not sure, look it up

There’s never been a better time to learn as you go. Double checking the words/grammar/spelling/etc. you don’t know about can help you catch mistakes and internalize the rules, so you can write correctly without looking it up next time.

If the finer points of grammar elude you, you can always download the Grammarly browser extension to catch issues in real time.

Don’t stop with language mechanics, either. Look up content marketing strategy, read industry blogs, study successful online social media marketing campaigns. The more time you spent thinking and picking up new information, the better you’ll get.

Soon, you’ll be writing your own blog posts about web content writing tips!

16. Dictionary.com is your friend — so visit the site often.

You’d be amazed at how many words people misuse on a regular basis. For instance, peruse probably doesn’t mean what you think it does (in fact, it’s probably the opposite). Never use words unless you’re absolutely certain of their meaning.

Bonus: follow Merriam-Webster on Twitter to level up your vocab and get the linguistic side of news.

Following a dictionary on Twitter might not seem all that exciting, but trust us: it’s a quality follow.

17. Don’t call a banana an elongated yellow fruit

Don’t use a $3 word when a 10 cent word will suffice, unless you’re going for the “most pretentious web content writer” award.

Overuse of meaningless buzzwords is a good way to show that you have an MBA, but a bad way to keep the interest of your readers (and it actually makes you look bad).

At the same time, you’ve got to write for your audience.

Industry terminology is often important for SEO, and in some cases it can make your content clearer and more authoritative for your audience.

So how can you tell when to use jargon? Look at it from your audience’s perspective. If you were the reader, would a certain technical term make your web writing more readable, or less? Would it clarify the article or read as meaningless ornamentation? Would plain language work just as well or better?

18. Revamp posts for maximum value

Good web content gains value over time. Social media accounts share it, blogs link to it, and Google boosts its ranking as the traffic comes in. At the same time, that content also ages. Information goes out of date, the market changes and user interests change.

That means there is no such thing as a “set it and forget it” content strategy (well, not if you’re good at what you do).

To get the most value out of your content, you need to watch how it performs, prioritize the blogs that do well, and revamp them to bring in new visitors.

In addition to constantly analyzing social shares, pingbacks and web traffic, you should monitor your web shares for the keywords it’s currently ranking for.

Often, you’ll get great results with the longer, more informative piece, but a shorter piece of content might surprise you and go viral, and start ranking for keywords you weren’t even targeting!

Revamp your most valuable posts with added content, updated info and a strengthened keyword strategy and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your page climbs in the search engine rankings.

Not sure where to start? Check out our complete step by step guide to revamping your old blog posts.

19. Web site vs. website vs. web site

Which one is it? For the love of all things awesome, it’s website (at least, so says the AP Stylebook which is sort of like a web content writer’s bible). Not Web site, not web site — and not any other variation you can think of.

Although “Web site” was once acceptable, it’s sort of like referring to your Blackberry as a “cellular phone” — it makes you look just as out of touch with technology.

20. Keep the reading level low

In general, the easier your article is to read, the better. Sophisticated content doesn’t Do you know the Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease score for your piece of content? There are plenty of free tools to help you find it. These tools crawl through your content, analyze your vocabulary level, and rate your readability by grade level.

Unless your topic is extremely niche and technical, you should aim for a middle school reading level or lower.

If your score is too high, it doesn’t mean you need to dumb things down for your readers — it just means you might need to make simpler word choices or cut down your complex sentences. This ensures that visitors of varying education levels can get value from your content, and that readers who may speak English as a second language will understand it too. It also just helps keep your tone clear and relatable which should always be a goal when you’re creating web content.

5 Habits Solo Entrepreneurs Need To Break Right Away Even

21. Provide added value

Your content writing should always offer value to the reader in terms of insightful ideas and actionable tips. But if you really want your content to earn repeat traffic and rise in search engine rankings, give your readers a parting gift.

It doesn’t have to cost you anything. It can be a link to a free webinar (like our webinar on earning free media coverage), a Google Drive Template, or even a worksheet. Give your readers a valuable takeaway and they won’t just view your site as a great resource — they’ll refer their friends too!

22. Never self edit your work (at least, not right away)

5 Habits Solo Entrepreneurs Need To Break Right Away Someone

Ideally, you’ll have somebody to edit your writing. If you’re responsible for writing and editing your web content, don’t do both in the same day. When the writing is still fresh, your mind will automatically make up the gaps in your copy and your editing will be subpar. Instead, put it away and come back to it another day — or at least several hours later.

That’s only if you, for whatever reason, don’t have another person to edit your work. Even with a great spell check, there will be things you miss. Make sure there’s somebody in your organization with great writing and editing chops who can give your work a second set of eyes. Remember that behind every good writer — whether it’s a best-selling author, a Washington Post journalist or a copywriter for a viral marketing campaign — is a great editor.

If Steven King needs an editor, so do we lowly mortals!

To understand how difficult and necessary editing can be, try taking The New York Times “Copy Edit This” quiz!

The quiz takes grammar and style errors that made it to print and challenges readers to identify the errors. It sounds much easier than it actually is. I’ll give you an answer I got right on the first try to show you how nuanced it gets — this is one of the easier questions, a simple dangling modifier issue.

23. Level up your skills with online content writing & SEO training

With enough discipline, solid web content writing skills are within anyone’s reach. Having excellent copy on your website is one of the easiest ways to grab the attention of new visitors (and keep them coming back for more — or better yet, sharing your links). Want more content creation tips and tricks? Shoot us an email with your questions and we’ll get back to you.

The Content Factory also offers online SEO and content writing training. If you want to go from novice to pro in just eight hours of self-paced digital learning, sign up for our comprehensive SEO course. You can check out our free webinar on common SEO mistakes to see what it’s like!

Does website content seem too complicated to tackle on your own? Outsource your content writing to us. Click here to get in touch with us today.