Content is an important factor when it comes to creating a well-ranking website, engaging visitors, and generating traffic. You can have an amazing service, a product that EVERYONE needs, but without the correct content on the site, how is anyone to know?

Not only does content work to get you ranked by the search engines, but it is also necessary to explain who you are, help build a brand, and engage visitors while on your site. Content is used for placement, information, relevancy, and most of all…marketing!

Choose a Topic

Your first step is to select a topic. The topic should be relevant to your website and be a topic you feel passionately about before you start to write. If you are not great with words, find a writer who is, there is no shame in asking for help, but it is always a shame when sites fail because the webmaster was too proud to ask for help, especially with something as important as content.

Write an Engaging Title


With topics in mind, the first place to start is the title. A title needs to be engaging, while still offering the gist of what the article will provide. This part can become tricky, especially to those who are not ‘born writers’, but with the right amount of practice, and perseverance, anyone can learn to become a good writer.

Start a spreadsheet and insert a variety of titles for your various topics. Sort the titles by creating a topic column, and make notes in the far right column as to whether the title needs work, or needs to be written.

Inspiration for a great article often comes from a compelling title, and in the same sense, that compelling title is what the readers will see, and draw them into the article, and of course, your website.

Here are a few simple steps to help you create good titles:

  • Add a negative, so a ‘How To’ article, becomes a ‘How Not To’ for a fresh spin
  • Combine two ideas into one, for a more in-depth article
  • Make sure the keyword is mentioned
  • Read the article title out loud; make sure it tells the reader what they will be learning

Remember, even though 80% of your visitors actually read your headline, only about 20% will actually read the content, unless, of course, it is spectacular!

Bad Title: 9 Ways to Write Good Content

Good Title: Words are Weapons; Learn to Write Content that kills

Research Your Content

Before you start writing, take the time to research the Internet. Find out what has already been saying about your topic, and what articles seem to have the most interest by the readers. You do need to feel passionate about what your writing, but you also need to make sure others will feel passionate about your words as well.

If you have a vegan website, offering supplements, recipes, and dietary restrictions for a vegan lifestyle, you can assume there are millions of people who share your passion, but you should also assume that there are millions of others who do not. Take into consideration different topics that would work to entice EVERYONE, not just the vegan community. 

  • Hit on health advantages
  • Note dangers found in certain foods, not just meats, and animal by-products
  • Offer ideas for using herbs, oils, and other foods for beauty, as well as for medicinal purposes

Once you have a solid idea of what has already been written, and what topics seemed to get the most attention, you can check your spreadsheet for matching titles for what you want to write, or you can tweak the titles to accommodate your findings. 

Fundamentals for Structure and Style

The structure and style of your writing should be appropriate to your website, the topic, and what you need to say, and how. There is a lot of talk about article length, inserting building links, adding images, formatting style, and even font size. The most important part of content structure and style is that it fits on your page, looks good on your page and that it offers something interesting, compelling, and valuable to the reader.

You can use the toolbox.seositecheckup.com to check your website for unoriginal text, keyword usage, heading status, and even code-to-text ratio to give you a better idea of what Google and other search engines, media platforms, and even readers expect when visiting your site. 

Scanability is one thing you may have heard others talking about when referring to content. In most instances, according to the Nielsen Norman Group, only about 16% of people read an article word for word, and people generally only comprehend about 60% of what they read, according to the Speed Reading Test online at Reading Soft.

Readability means keeping your article easy to read according to your following. If the majority of your visitors are high-end medical professionals, then using specific terminology may be fine, but if you have a strong following of non-medical professionals, laymen’s terms are more effective.

Article Length is a battle between several SEO specialists. While most specialists agree that longer is better, that does not make them right in all instances. If you have something to say, and it is important to include certain details, instructions, or even descriptions, then yes, longer is better. If what you have to say is short, to the point, and answers every possible question for the reader about that topic, then short is fine. The main thing is to create content that is informative, and useful, so avoid the fillers trying to turn a 200-word article on how to bake chicken into a 1,400-word manual.

Social Media Writing requires far fewer characters in Twitter, so you must condense your article to a compelling title, and create the link to the article for those interested enough to click it. Even though Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms give you the space to include your entire article, it is often best to create a small teaser for those sites, so that the reader ultimately wants to know more, and will click to your site where the article originated from. 

Staying Original is a huge factor in gaining good rankings from search engines. If the information you provide is found elsewhere, by higher-ranking sites, chances are, yours will be buried deep in the search pages, never to be found. Keep your topics original, of course, keep all the writing original, and use a unique spin on your words, that only you can do…it does make a difference.

Making it Actionable is a great way to incorporate some traffic, leads, or even profits from your content. Having a call-to-action, such as links allowing the reader to click to order a product, a footer including a signup sheet for a newsletter, or even a comments section below the article, asking readers to input their opinion, are all considered actionable methods.

Using Images is a great way to break up content, as well as to give visual aids to the readers. Most people scan content, and if the images are clear, precise, and allow the reader to know how the article is sectioned up, the better chance the article has of actually being read.

Keyword Usage is still important, but not nearly as it was years ago. Today, people are looking for specific answers, so stuffing keywords in your content is a huge NO-NO, and another example of keyword stuffing, is forcing them where they simply do not fit, and the content suffers.

Start Writing

With everything you need to be loaded in your toolbox, and of course the toolbox offered on SEO, there is no reason you cannot write compelling, informative content for your readers. Take a moment to re-read any titles, organize your topics, and your overall plan for the article, and then find a quiet place to write. Make sure the content you are writing is answering a question, or possibly several questions that were formed in the title, and the headings. Generate your own personality in the article to make it unique, but stick to the facts, rather than opinions, unless your site focuses on opinions from readers, and they expect them for you as well.

Market Your Article

Once you have the perfect, well-written, original, formatted article, you have to market it for the attention it deserves. If you have a popular blog site, posting it there may be all the marketing you need. If you do not have a popular blog site established yet, you will need to find sites that would allow you to link your article to them. And, of course, social media opens the doors for marketing to specific cliques of people, and all with a simple click of the button. Share your content anywhere it feels like it fits, and always look for ways to make new connections. The more popular your site becomes, the more bloggers you will have come to you wanting you to link to them, so be careful, with all success, comes dangers, so read up on link building, and learn what to do, and what not to do before you get too big.