Content & copywriting tips for blogging

Google’s search algorithm updates have put emphasis on creating original, and unique content for our websites in order to:

• Index with search engines;
• Increase organic traffic;
• Earn authoritative backlinks;
• and gain brand awareness for our businesses.

This is one of the reasons why the advice of blogging regularly is floated around so often.

“Simply write about topics that pertain to your products and services, use keywords, and do it all in a unique way that allows you stand out from the rest.” Easy, right?

Not quite. Because not only are we not all writers, but we aren’t all experienced in the multiverse of SEO and algorithm updates.

So let’s clear up some of the confusion and get back to the basics of content and copywriting tips for blogging!

Blog Content Tips

In this very informative piece from Kick Point, Jessie Low explains more about information gain and how it’s your secret weapon against all the repetitive AI-generated content out there.

What is information gain?

Bernard Huang, co-founder of Clearscope, says they define information gain SEO as content that covers concepts and entities on the fringe of Google’s Knowledge.

Wait. What is “Google’s Knowledge” you ask? Google’s Knowledge Graph is a sort of encyclopedia of data about people, places, and things. If you use Google to ask a factual question, they pull from this data to supply an answer.

Essentially, information gain is about providing new information on existing topics, or using a fresh perspective with first-hand experience.

“A lack of originality, insight, or information gain can reduce your SEO performance because of the advent of AI-generated answers in organic search results and Google’s AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience, or SGE).” – Bernard Huang, Clearscope

Bernard touches on an important reality when discussing AI-generated content and LLMs: that they are here to stay, much to some dismay.

But here’s the thing, LLMs aren’t generating uncommon content, in fact they are regurgitating the same information in abundance. It’s repetitive, unhelpful, and boring which thankfully shows us what NOT to do anymore.

Thinking outside the box

As a blogger this means thinking outside the box when it comes to your content strategy and prioritizing Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. 

This means considering what you talk about and how you talk about it: 

• What personal experiences can you share? 
• Do you have real-life scenarios to draw on? 
• Can you discuss an alternative aspect on the topic that isn’t as widely written about?

Once you know what you’re writing about you can focus on finessing your words and optimization.

Blog Copywriting Tips

Once you’ve solidified your content strategy, it’s time to start copywriting and publishing your blog posts. Here is a list of what to remain aware of while you blog:

1. Language and reading level
2. Voice
3. Formatting
4. Internal links
5. Image captions and Alt text
6. Length

Language and Reading Level

You’ll want to write at the reading level your audience maintains, so that you aren’t losing readers along the way. The same can be said about using industry lingo.

If I open an article about architecture or law, made for architects and lawyers, I will get lost very quickly simply because I’m not used to the terminology used in regular conversation. In an article about the same topics written for a more general audience, very different language would be used.

Learn more about readability scoring from a variety of websites, including Hemingway Editor, Grammarly, or check if your software application or SEO plugin already utilizes a built-in tool such as the Flesch-Kincaid grade level or Automated Readability Index.

Voice

While this isn’t necessarily an official ranking factor, I feel like having an inconsistent voice throughout your website can have adverse effects.

As a freelancer and sole-proprietor of BE3Designs, I write all of my web copy using “I/Me”, not “We/Us”. I believe this naturally lends to my SEO efforts by showing a personal perspective in my writing.

On the flip side, if you write and publish as an agency, and your website mentions being a team of people, continue using “We/Us” to ensure a coherent voice.

Consistency is key. If you’re providing authenticity, a unique perspective, or anecdotal stories you’ll need to keep that up throughout your posts so they continue feeling personable.

Formatting

Easily one of the most made mistakes in DIY web design and development is incorrectly formatting web page copy.

If you don’t know that formatting code directly relates to accessibility and optimization, it’s easy to overlook in favor of getting your typography looking the way you’d like.

The truth is, your headlines must be in a sequential descending order so that screen readers can distribute your content properly. This means that you must first declare an H2 tag on the page before an H3 is presented, so on and so forth.

By not correctly formatting your text your website may fail some accessibility checks.

💡 Tip: If you absolutely must, use CSS classes to emulate header styles. For example, if you need to use an H3 for hierarchy but want the text to display more like an H2, you can style the H3 by applying a class to it instead of turning the text into an H2 tag just for the styling properties.

If you had a brand package curated for your business, you likely have a section devoted to typography, fonts, and how they are meant to be used in your marketing, print, and website assets.

The rules for headlines in print differ from the rules for headlines on the web.

If I were to translate the order of headlines from my brand strategy example directly to my website, my page wouldn’t pass accessibility and optimization tests due to the order of headline tags.

A tertiary heading at the top visually looks better, but an H3 tag cannot appear before an H1 or H2 tag has been presented on a web page without raising the sequential order flag.

So, receiving the above example as a web developer, I would implement a custom class to style the tertiary heading that displays before primary and secondary headings, rather than using an H3 tag.

Internal Links

You may have heard advice to keep a call-to-action (CTA) available on your web page above the fold, or on-screen during any given scroll.

The reason for this is because CTAs are the guides we create for our audience to take the action(s) we want them to. CTAs typically lead to contact forms, phone calls, product purchases, or lead generation tools like newsletters.

When writing longer form content internal links can provide a similar action by guiding the reader to another area of your site that may be of importance to their current search queries. This means that instead of only staying on the page they initially navigated to, they may click through to read more content and stay on your site for longer.

By having higher time on site data, this tells search engines that not only are users finding the content they’re searching for initially, but staying on your site and navigating through denotes perceived signs of expertise and authenticity.

Image Captions and Alt Text

Supplying alternative text for images on the web is a hill I will gladly camp on. If you upload an image to your website or social media, providing an Alt tag should be part of the mandatory process.

What is Alt text?

When applied to an image file alternative text describes the content of the image within the context of its usage. Screen readers read this text aloud to describe the images to those that are blind or have visual impairments. 

Not supplying Alt text will also fail accessibility and optimization tests. You can learn more about Alt text in my article about common accessibility mistakes.

Length

Look, there is a lot of advice about word count for blogging and I don’t agree with all of it.

If we spend all this time researching and learning about what kind of unique content to prepare, why would we let word count limit or guide us? 

My answer: the length of your blog post should be as long as it needs to be to reflect your goals and ensure your perspective comes across fully.

Is there such a thing as too little content?

Yes, it is possible to have a post not indexed by search engines due to lack of content. However, you can still perform well with fewer words.

Many SEO plugins will give your content length a score, which reinforces the idea that all of our content must be lengthy. To be honest, I personally only worry about content length if a post hasn’t performed or improved over time.

For example, my tutorial for mass deleting Facebook posts does not get a “high score” for word count, yet it is the most popular post in my blog. In spite of a lower word count, it does:

• Provide plenty of screenshots to follow along with each step;
• Walk through each step of the process in a clear and concise way;
• Show both desktop and mobile user steps.

By creating helpful content that continues to gain traffic, earning a lot of organic backlinks, it doesn’t matter that it lacks thousands of characters in the copy because it’s still reaching the goal I set: to provide a solution for the audience’s problem.

Typically, a concept, context, and solution of any one topic is not going to be that in-depth at a total of 600 words. Think about the type of post you’re writing and what you want your reader to get out of it. You’ll need enough words to do just that!

Is there such a thing as too much content?

Yes, it is possible to have too much content on a post if it’s not optimized and following the main blog copywriting tips.

Even if your post is indexed by search engines, it doesn’t mean it will bring in traffic. You have to ask yourself questions like:

• Have I edited my copy down so that everything remaining is crucial to my post?
• Can my post be separated into two or more topics instead?
• Do I have accompanying assets to add to the post to help break up text?
• Are there appropriate call-to-actions and internal linking throughout so that the user can navigate around as needed?

Super lengthy posts aren’t typically viewed as often because of the nature of the internet and when or why our audience is online. People scan headlines and move around quickly, while others only commit to reading an article in full if they feel they’re getting something out of it that benefits them.

This is why we don’t let word count affect our decision making before we even get started. If you need a few more sentences to tell your story, do it. If you recognize that your second to last paragraph is just a reiteration of the one before, drop it.

Content & copywriting tips for blogging: Next steps

I’ve covered how important it is to find a unique way of presenting a topic online and how to optimize your blogging efforts, but I didn’t give you the most important tip:

Just start writing.

I’ve pulled a dozen different topics out of one session of draft writing that I didn’t even know were circling around my mind. I’m completely guilty of not doing the thing because I’m second guessing the hows, whys, and what have yous.

The beauty of this scenario is that SEO is always changing and we are always going to be editing our content to stay relevant. If your post isn’t perfect on the first try, the data you accumulate will help guide your next steps.

We often just need to hear our thoughts out loud or collaborate with a colleague for out-of-the-box ideas.