My dad once asked me, ” Daniel, who is a freelance website writer”?

”What does it take to become a website content writer”?

Here was my reply: ”Well, I don’t have any Idea to your questions, I’ll Google it”.

I guess that’s what most consumers do.

The first place consumers look to, for information online is Google. You’ll often hear ” I want to purchase a Laptop online but I don’t know how to go about it; I guess I’ll have to Google it”.

So, how do you get your website rank among Google’ search results?

Ranking in Google’s search result is not as hard as some people think. In fact, it’s as simple as A.B.C. but it’s real hard work.

All you have to do is to create quality and shareable content combined with ’’flair’’ of some SEO keywords, and you can get your website ranking in the search engine results.

In this article, I’ll be giving you some tips on how to create compelling contents that get ranked in the search engines. These tips are effective and I believe they’d work for your business if you apply them accordingly.

Web Content Writing basics

Be Consistent and Treat your Website like a REAL BUSINESS!

Don’t treat your business casually. Your website is your business–take it or leave it!

Don’t publish content once a month.  How can you call yourself a website owner and your website is only updated once a ”Blue moon”. It shows your incompetence and irresponsibility (sorry for the usage of words).

No matter how tight your schedule is, ensure you publish at least, 3 to 4 web contents per week. Also, ensure the frequency and quality of your content go together.

Take away tip: To position your blog on a good spot in the search engines, update your blog on a regular basis. If you’re not good at writing, or have a busy schedule at the office, hire a freelance website writer to handle the job.

Plan–Set an Editorial Calendar

I have an editorial calendar and I think you must establish one for your business. Be smart.

Set a designated time to write contents for your website.

Tell Stories–be a Story Teller

People love stories–tell them one! Don’t just give them ”jargons” or facts; mix some real life experiences to help bring your web content to life and entertain your website readers.

Be Relevant

Stay up to date with current trends or news in your niche. If something happened in your niche 5 or 24 hours ago, write about it. Blog about new trends regularly.

Pro tip: Visit other top blogs in your niche or news portals, to stay up to date with current trends in your niche.

Make your Blog Post Short but Unique

Well, I do not support the 500—600 ‘’kind of blog post’’. I prefer writing 1,000+ blog posts but that doesn’t mean you should also go that extra-length.

Most of the time, I counsel website content writers and clients, that they should make their blog post be at least, 700 to 800 words. Google loves good contents and it’s hard to deliver a really good content in just two paragraphs.

Don’t Be too Promotional–It Doesn’t Make any Sense

Your goal should be to educate, give lives a meaning, and help people; not to sell, sell, and sell. Sure, it’s good to sell you products or services but don’t do it often.

Don’t ”self serve” your blog content, if you do, you’d turn readers and potential customers off!

Chip In your Personality

I’m a funny, witty, person and I allow my funny attitude shine through my writing.

In fact, I can’t help being funny–that’s just the way I am.

Are you funny, proud (sorry, that won’t work), witty, nice?

If you portray any of the above attitudes, then let them shine through your writing.

If you’re funny, spark up jokes in your content; if you’re a story teller, tell stories in your content.

Pro tip: Personality makes you stick with your audience and gives you a voice that only your blogging crowd recognizes.

Give Away Quality Tips and Secrets

Give away valuable tips and secrets free.

Make your readers go, ” Gosh! This piece of information is worth over 20$, but I wonder why he’s not charging for it”?

Take for instance, Pay Flynn, Brian Clark, Bamidele Oni, and Carol Tice; they’re savvy internet entrepreneurs that give away quality tips worth thousands of dollars.

Take Away tip: Imitate their way of doing business and grow your business.

Pro tip: Be fair and transparent. Share trade secrets you know will be valuable to your audience and they’ll thank you for it.

Incorporate SEO in your Contents

As a website content writer, it’s not enough to create informative content, you have to include some flair of SEO keywords to rank your contents.

Know this:

It’s good to ignore Google when writing your content but how’d you get ranked if there are no specialized SEO keywords in your content. As an online business owner and website content writer, you shouldn’t ignore SEO because, it’s a great way to get your content optimized for better SEO rankings.

Here are 5 keyword practices (for website content writers and Website Owners)

Update your old web archives

Don’t forget your archives, it’s time to update it for better rankings.

‘’Wearing old contents new clothes’’ is a great way to optimize them for better SEO rankings.

Don’t keyword stuff your blog posts

I always advise website content writers and online business owners that ‘’keyword stuffing’’ contents is not the best way to rank contents. In fact, you don’t need a pack of 6 keywords to get ranked in Google; all you need is a well-written, informative, compelling and well optimized web content.

Pro tip: Use your keywords naturally; don’t make it sound unnatural. Use your keyword list as a guide of phrases and keywords to keep in mind as you write.

Include SEO keywords in your web content title, sub-heads and body. In fact, 3 to 5 SEO keywords is okay to be optimized!

Pro tip: Google has a keyword tool you can use to search for keywords your audience or customers are looking for.

Track your Progress…

Yes–track your progress to know if you’re making progress or not.

Use Google’s analytics tool to see the status of your keywords and traffic growth.

Pro tip: this will spur you to work more on your website.

How to make your web content go viral….

A sign of quality web content is one that’s shared across various social news site.

Here is an example of a viral content I wrote for Socialmediatoday:  It was viewed over 2,500 times within 24 hours and it resulted to over 300 additional visitors to my blog and an Alexa ranking of 725,000 within 3 days! Wow!

Here are some tips to make your Web Content go Viral and Shareable…

Use ”heart trigger” words

I love this. I mean, I love using trigger words in my contents and I think you should also if you want to make your content share-worthy. Use words like, Take action, Discount, et al.

Pro tip: These words spur the reader to take action.

Proof-Check or You’d Look like a CLOWN!

Proof check before hitting ”publish”.

Don’t turn people off with spelling mistakes. Though, not everyone is perfect but try to minimize your errors…

Pro tip: It doesn’t hurt to proof-read your content ten times before publishing.

Write Attention Grabbing and Eye ‘’CATCHY’’ Headlines

You just have 5 seconds to grab the attention of the prospective customer and your headline is the best tool to make him ”stay glued” on your blog.

Work on your headline. Make it count because, that’s the only tool you have to engage and win prospective clients.

Pro tip: If you’re not good at writing headlines, check out Copyblogger.

Use Professional Images and Visuals

Include professional visuals and images in your blog posts. It makes the reader connect with your content.

Don’t Over-Sell– Are you Dumb? (Sorry)

I’ve said this time countless times:  ”DON’T APPEAR TOO SALESY”.

Don’t be over- promotional. If you do, you’d turn people off.

Pro tip: Provide 80% value and 20% promotion.

Use Number Headlines

People love number headlines like, ” 10 ways to start a website content writing service, 40 ways to drive traffic as an website content writer, 9 ways to dazzle your audience, et al.

Use headlines like these. Numbers are very effective at capturing reader’s attention. It’s not too late to use one!

I’d have love to continue but I’m afraid I have to stop here—I’ll continue in the next post or next time!

BTW: Did you learn some things in this content? Were you inspired? Do let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

NOTE: the above stated tips are not only applicable to website content writers and website owners; they’re also applicable, relevant and useful to any kind of online business.

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Kindly share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. I love you guys!