Write, Edit, Publish, Repeat: Mastering Content Writing Best Practices

Content writing has become a ubiquitous skill in the digital age, with the surge in content marketing and SEO strategies. As businesses increasingly rely on online presence, the demand for content writers, digital marketing, and marketing team has grown exponentially. Whether it’s crafting compelling blog posts, optimizing website content for search engines, or producing high-quality academic materials, the need for proficient high-quality content writing skills is paramount.

In the realm of SEO content and content marketing, writing skills are the foundation upon which good content is built. Search engines are constantly evolving to identify and promote good content, making it essential for content writers to adapt to these changes and create content that not only satisfies algorithm format but also engages and informs readers effectively.

Blog posts, for instance, are pivotal in content marketing, serving as a primary vehicle for delivering valuable information to a target audience. In the digital world, a well-written blog post not only attracts readers but also boosts a website’s visibility in search engine rankings, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between writing skills, good content, and SEO.

So, as the digital landscape continues to evolve, content writers who stay updated with the latest SEO trends and continuously hone their writing skills will remain in high demand, ensuring they can produce good content that resonates with readers while satisfying the ever-evolving algorithms of search engines.

Freelance writing has also seen a surge in popularity, providing opportunities for content writers to explore a diverse range of writing jobs and assignments. The flexibility and autonomy of freelance writing can be appealing, allow a good content writer to choose projects that align with their interests and expertise.

To excel in the highly competitive field of content writing, continuous learning is paramount. To become a content writer, content writers must need to adapt to evolving SEO trends, refine their writing skills, and expand their knowledge of different types of content writing, such as technical writing, creative writing, and industry-specific content.

By honing their abilities, staying updated with the latest industry standards, and embracing the versatility of freelance writing, content writers can ensure they are not only equipped for the ever-evolving digital landscape but also well-positioned to secure rewarding content writing jobs, know how to strategize keywords research and create content that resonates with readers and search engines alike.

For copywriters, precision and persuasion are key. Crafting compelling, concise, and persuasive copy is crucial in engaging the audience and driving action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or taking any desired action.

When it comes to newsletters, the tone and style of writing can significantly impact the effectiveness of marketing purposes. Consistency, relevance, and value are paramount. Providing subscribers with a piece of content with valuable content, updates, and offers tailored to their interests is essential for nurturing relationships and achieving marketing goals.

Understanding the target audience and their needs is fundamental to quality content. It’s not just about the message but also about how it resonates with the reader. This audience-centric approach should be applied to all content, whether it’s blog posts, articles, or marketing copies.

If you want to know about those, you’re at the right place. In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of the main ones.

1. Always establish your audience and tailor your content accordingly
   

Let’s start off with one of the important writing practices.

The way your content is written – in terms of the tone it carries and how concisely it is written – is the main deciding factor of how likable it is. The same information can be successful and effective when written in a tone that resonates with your audience and unsuccessful when written in some other, unsuitable tenor whether it is for a blog post or for copywriting.

To ensure that your content falls in the former category, here are some steps that you can take to establish your audience and create content according to their liking.

1. Do some audience research to find out the following factors:
   
   1. The area your audience is largely based in
      
   2. The average age of your audience
      
   3. The time that your audience has, on average, to read your type of content
      

There are different ways and methods to conduct audience research, such as doing surveys, reaching out via social media posts, emailing, and so on.

2. Adjust the language and terminology in your content according to the region where your audience is typically from. For example, if they’re from the USA, you should use American English and also incorporate colloquial words where you can.
   
3. Similarly, adjust the language and terminology of your content according to the general age of your readers. The older your readers are, the more complex and advanced you can be with your vocabulary and vice versa.
   
4. You have to adjust the length of your content depending on the time that your readers have to read it. For example, if you are targeting working-class people who are mostly busy with their jobs, you can create small-form content that they can read while on the move, etc.
   

The guidelines that we’ve given above are general and common. The main thing that you should take away from all this is that whatever content you want to write, you should conduct research on your audience and then create it accordingly.

2. Keep your content readable, understandable, and helpful
   

Those are three important things that we’re mentioning together here: readability, understandability, and helpfulness.

To make sure that your content is readable and understandable, there are two main things that you have to focus on: that the content is properly arranged/formatted and that the words/sentences are easy to comprehend.

Here are some things that you can do for that:

1. Use easy words. Sounding complicated and complex is nothing to aspire for when you’re writing content. You should avoid using any words or phrases that are alien to normal conversation.
   
2. Keep your sentences short. Long and meandering sentences are the bane of readability. Make sure that you end your sentences before they get longer than 20 words.
   
3. Keep your paragraphs short. The same goes for paragraphs. When the content is broken down into multiple paragraphs, it is much easier to read.
   

These are some of the things that you can do to make your content readable.

But readability alone is not enough to make your content worth reading. You also have to make it helpful and valuable – full of information that is actually of assistance to the reader. Here is what you can do to make content fall into that category.

1. Give examples and illustrations. Your content can be more relatable and “applicable” to the situations of the readers when you explain everything with examples and illustrations.
   
2. Add visuals and images. We did use the word “illustrations” above, but we were referring to textual illustrations there. Other than those, you can also make your content helpful by adding images and visuals that show your arguments or points in action. You can add tables or charts to present your data in a more easily consumable way.
   
3. Make your content actionable. If you are writing something like a guide or a tutorial (like we’re doing right now), make sure your content is actionable. A lot of people can make the mistake of making such content descriptive and explanatory rather than actionable. You should mention things that your readers can do and steps that they can take rather than just talking about their benefits and importance, etc.
   

All of these practices can collectively make your content more readable and helpful. This is a good practice that you can adopt when writing content in 2023.

3. Always stay on top of grammar and spelling errors
   

This is something that relates more to the post-writing phase i.e., editing.

Grammar and spelling errors are some things that every writer has to be on the lookout for, regardless of how skilled and experienced they may be. You have to actively be careful about not making them when writing the first draft, and then you have to run the necessary checks/scans once you’re done.

To bring these different steps together, here is how we can enumerate them in a list:

1. Take your time when writing content. Being hasty hardly pays off when you’re writing content. One of the consequences of writing too quickly is that you can end up making a lot of errors without realizing them.
   
2. When writing the first draft (and this is something that is our own personal practice), stop after writing a couple of paragraphs and read them. This is technically proofreading, except that you do it in smaller installments while writing the content rather than doing it collectively afterward. The benefit of this is that the smaller sessions of proofreading aren’t that arduous, but they can help you weed out errors while you’re going along.
   
3. However, this does not mean that you should skip the once-over at the end. After you are done with the draft and everything, you should read it over again to see if there are any errors left. Ideally, this is best done after some time has passed i.e., between the completion of the writing process and the proofreading.
   

Other than these steps, you can also try using an online grammar checker. Using a grammar-checking tool is more of a precautionary measure in that you shouldn’t totally rely on it alone but at the same time, you shouldn’t leave it out.

1. Ensure content uniqueness by finding and eliminating plagiarism
   

Finding and eliminating plagiarism from your content is yet another important step that you shouldn’t skip during the content creation process. If your content is not unique – even if it is due to accidental plagiarism – it becomes pretty much impotent. Of course, this statement does not take into account small and excusable amounts of plagiarism. 

We’re talking about situations where one-third or one-half of the content comes back as plagiarized.

Although it’s not very common for accidental plagiarism to be in this amount, it’s not wise to take chances. You have to deal with plagiarism in your content before you publish it.

When we say “deal” with plagiarism, we basically refer to doing these two acts:

1. Finding out if there is any plagiarism in the content using an online plagiarism checker.
   
2. Taking the necessary steps required (if present) to eliminate said plagiarism
   

The first step is pretty much straightforward. You just have to pick a good plagiarism checker and use it on your content. There are different factors and aspects that define a “good” plagiarism checker, but mostly, you’ll make the right choice if you stick to a popular and well-known one.

The other step, on the other hand, is much more…multivalent. There are different things that you can and should do in order to eliminate plagiarism.

• You can just reverse-find the original source (by checking the results provided by the plagiarism checker) and cite it. Plagiarism happens when there is no citation. Once you take care of the latter, it’s not plagiarism anymore.
  
• You can also just specify the parts in the content and then remove them. This isn’t that simple when the parts in question contribute to the meaning and integrity of the overall content.
  
• Another remedy to accidental plagiarism is to just put those specific parts in quotes. It sounds comical, but what you can do here is: lead into that particular part, lightly mention the source, and then add the content as you would, except with “” at the ends.
  
• Paraphrasing is also a good way to get rid of plagiarism. Paraphrasing means to phrase something differently. You can phrase the plagiarized parts differently than what they are in the original source, and that way they’ll become unique again.
  

Expounding on that last point a bit, just as there are tools to check for plagiarism in the content, there are also tools for paraphrasing content.

If you want to paraphrase your content to make it unique, using a paraphrasing tool can be a better alternative to doing it manually since you can save a lot of time.

Final Thoughts

These are some of the writing best practices that you should adopt – if you haven’t already.

Establishing your audience helps you set the tone and style for your content – which can vastly affect how successful it is.

Maintaining readability, on the other hand, is important since it makes your content easier (and, in some cases, possible) to understand. This also decides how successful your content is.

Grammatical perfection and uniqueness are what define the integrity and quality of your writing. Content that is free from both of these defects gives off an image of authoritativeness.

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