8 Tips For Creating Better Content

8 STEPS TO PRODUCE BETTER CONTENT THAT DRIVES TRAFFIC AND IMPROVE BUSINESS

Define your goal

It is always best to first figure out the why- and what-factor of your content. People conduct searches with a specific goal in mind, and what you want to do is to match with their intent.

So before you start going straight to creating your piece, think about the following questions

• Why are you producing this piece?
• What is it you are planning to achieve?
• Why should your audience trust your content?
• What actions do you wish your audience will take after reading your content?

Understand your audiences

The type of content and suggestions you will be giving is likely dictated by your audience group. Basically, who are you writing it for?

Say you are writing a listicle article about best laptops, what laptops you are going to suggest will depend on who is your target audience. Are you writing for business travelers? Gamers? College students? Filmmakers? Photographers?

Be specific

There are a lot of ways to approach content. For instance, should you be writing about a general topic or should you take a dive deep into specifics? This is something you might also want to consider when producing content.

Continuing with the laptop example, imagine a customer visiting your store asking for recommendations. You’ll probably be asking the customer, “what type of laptop are you looking for”, “what is your price range”, “what are you using it for”, “are you looking for specific requirements”, etc.

You are asking these questions to narrow down and provide the best and most relevant option. The same goes for creating web content, people are just typing their specific questions in the search bar rather than asking verbally.

Narrow down the focus of your content for more and deeper information and knowledge

Make sense in your content

Make sure you know what you are writing, this is your chance to showcase your knowledge and build up your credibility. Not everyone is clueless about what they are searching for, they might just be seeking confirmation of knowledge that they have.

It is not easy to gain credibility, it takes time and a lot of persuasions for people to start trusting your words and expertise. But to ruin it, it only takes one simple mistake.

You only have 15 seconds to capture their attention

Getting your content to the public is one thing, getting them interesting and willing to continue reading is another. There is no lack of content online, but there is just that much attention span a regular reader has. 

To put it in exact numbers, people on average only got 15 seconds of attention span.

If you drag your content, people are less likely to continue reading it. Not only you have failed to attract and potentially convert them into leads, but if people just hop in and out of your web page, these are bad signals that will affect your website’s search ranking.

Use simple language

There are two major reasons why you should always stick to simple terms and phrases.

• People have different literacy rates—the percentage of people of a certain population who can read and write
• Not everyone can understand industry-specific terms (the industry-lingo)

Don’t spect people to stick with your article and search for definitions if they don’t understand a specific word. Likely they will just go and search for another website so they can get their answer without going through the hassle.

Make sure your copy is scannable

You might not like this fact but the majority of general readers don’t actually “read” your content. Instead, they SCAN through the web page and only read things that they find interesting.

It is important for you to separate texts into small paragraphs and properly organize and structure your content. Make use of headings and sub-headings to divide your text, use bullet points or number lists if you can. The key here is to use a variety of ways to make it more comfortable for your readers. It is all about improving the user experience!

Add colors and interesting visual content

Another way to make your content more interesting is by adding colors and interesting images/graphics to your content. Not only can you capture the interest and attention of your readers, but these can also serve as visual breaks between paragraphs.

Reading online is different from reading a book, people can get bored easily and switch to other things with a simple click. Add pictures, infographics, short clips, simple illustrations/graphics throughout your content. Your goal is to keep your readers as engaged as possible.

Creating good content is not impossible, what is needed is time and experimentation. Do some research, plan your content, diversify your content type. Most importantly, keep creating content, and you will eventually find the type of content that works best for you.