content is just information and whatever
you want to write about
chances are you're not the first demand
for content is surging
and with information accessible
literally at the tip of our fingers
there's an excess supply making it more
challenging to get noticed
and produce profitable results so in
order to do that
you need a system that will lead to
predictable results
so that your content can stand out from
the rest so if you're a blogger
freelance writer or do any type of
content writing
keep watching because i'm going to walk
you through a step-by-step framework
to engage your audience satisfy search
engines
and as a result drive consistent traffic
and hopefully revenue stay tuned
all right so first let's set the record
straight whether you're writing for your
own site
or for a client you should have two
objectives for your content
number one the content should drive
traffic to the site
and number two the content should engage
those people
so that they'll turn into customers or
be pushed further down the sales funnel
so with those two objectives in mind
let's go through a simple four-step
process
to achieve both of these goals the first
step is to write about topics
people are actually searching for most
people like to write about topics that
excite them and while that's all well
and good
these posts often have a short shelf
life for example
a few months ago we published an article
on how to start a link building campaign
fast we talk about systematizing
automating
scaling and all sorts of exciting things
at least for us and immediately after
publishing
we promoted the post to our social media
followers email list and spent a few
hundred dollars on ads to amplify the
content
as a result we had a huge spike in
traffic
with thousands of visits over the first
few days but soon after
the traffic faded fast and today
it gets next to no traffic compared to
our other posts
and while this post wasn't created with
search traffic in mind
we knew that it would create a textbook
spike of hope
and flat line of nope and that's what
happens when you create content that no
one's searching for
now when you create content around
topics that people are searching for
then you get the opposite effect free
passive and consistent traffic
that usually grows over time to find
topics worth creating content on
you'll need a keyword research tool to a
identify search demand
and b understand traffic potential of
the topic
which is the total amount of monthly
search traffic you could get
if you were to rank high for the query
so let's say we have a site on diy home
improvement tutorials
to find keywords to target i'll go to
hfs keywords explorer
and search for some keywords broadly
related to the topic like
home improvement kitchen and living room
next i'll go to the questions report and
as you can see there's quite a bit of
search demand around these topics
as you can see from their search volumes
and this topic on how to paint kitchen
cabinets seems like a promising topic
for our diy
home improvement site now to find the
traffic potential of the topic
hit the surf button and look at the
traffic column as you can see
the top ranking page gets over 37 000
monthly visits from google
every single month so this topic checks
both
boxes now it's important to note that
i've skipped a few steps here in the
topic selection process
the main one being assessing ranking
difficulty but this tutorial is on
content writing
so instead of expanding i'll add some
links to our keyword research tutorials
in the description
all right so at this point we have a
topic to tackle
but just because you have a topic it
doesn't mean you should write whatever
you want
remember our goal is to rank at the top
of google
so that you can get consistent traffic
and this leads us nicely into the second
step
which is to assess the type of content
google wants you to create
google's job is to deliver the most
relevant results
for any given query and they do a pretty
good job at this
so naturally if you want to rank for
your target topic
then you need to know the type of
content google will rank for that query
this is called search intent which tells
us about what searchers are looking for
when they key in a query the easiest way
to do this is to just search for the
query you want to rank for
and look at the top ranking results and
the three things you're looking for
are content type which can be blog posts
product pages category pages or landing
pages
content format which can be how-to
guides
step-by-step tutorials list posts
opinion editorials reviews
or comparisons and the last one is
content angle
which is basically the unique selling
point of the top ranking pages
so looking at the top 10 results for our
quarry how to paint kitchen cabinets
you'll see that all of the pages are
blog posts so that will be the content
type you
should use too as for format the top two
ranking pages are
how to's which will be step-by-step
tutorials
and for content angle there isn't really
a definitive one
from my experience matching content type
and format are
critical to rank at the top of google
but angle usually isn't as important
unless there's a clear theme among the
top ranking pages
alright the next step is to create a
data-driven outline
content is like a puzzle there are a lot
of different pieces
and it's tough to assemble without some
kind of framework
outlines are like the edge pieces of the
puzzle they help to form the base
and all you need to do is fill in the
missing pieces
they also help make sure you're
including all critical points worth
communicating on the topic
and from an seo perspective it can help
you satisfy the algorithm
and the audience the way google
determines a page's placement in the
search results is algorithmic
meaning you can't pay to rank at the top
of google and your friends that work
there
can't move your site to the top their
technology is able to understand words
and the context they're in
and the more context you give to search
engines the better your chances of
ranking high
the easiest way to find critical talking
points is to look at some of the top
ranking pages
and see if there are similar subtopics
for our topic on how to paint kitchen
cabinets
the top two pages both talk about
choosing the right paint
preparation priming the cabinets
painting the cabinets and so on so add
these commonalities to your outline as
subheadings
another thing you can do is use ahrefs
content gap tool to find
common keyword rankings between the top
ranking pages
this can help you find more subtopics as
well as jargon that might be relevant in
adding context to your post
just enter the top two or three relevant
ranking results in the top section
and then run the search as you can see
people are looking for the best paint
for cabinets
they want to know how to refinish them
some are specifically looking for white
cabinets
and so on don't worry about stuffing
these keywords in your post
but if you see something that could act
as a subheading it might be worth adding
to your outline
just focus on writing something that's
succinct and actionable
this will humanize the post and help you
to focus on what matters most
helping readers all right the next step
is to create a click-worthy headline
a headline is important because it's
what stands between you and a visitor
its main job is to convince people to
actually click on your result
then it's your content's job to keep
them reading now if you struggle with
writing good headlines
here are a few simple formulas you can
use take a screenshot before i start
filling in the blanks for our home decor
site how to professionally paint kitchen
cabinets in under an hour
seven proven ways to decorate your home
on a tiny budget
10 simple ways to renovate your home on
a shoestring budget
10 reasons you're unhappy with your home
decor
now it's important to note that while
clickbait headlines might produce more
clicks
keep in mind that if your content can't
deliver on the headlines promise
then it'll do more harm than good all
right the next step is to write a killer
intro
using the ada formula the introduction
is arguably the most
important part of your content its job
is to hook your reader
tell them they're in the right place and
convince them to keep reading
fortunately there's a tried and tested
formula you can use called
ada which stands for attention interest
desire and action let's write a sample
intro for our article
on how to paint kitchen cabinets the
first line should be dedicated to grab
your audience's attention
so something like you don't have to be a
professional to paint beautiful kitchen
cabinets
this breaks a common belief the reader
might have and thus
grabs their attention the next part is
to pique their interest
you can do this with stories interesting
facts or anything else that might help
connect with your audience in a personal
way so let's add to our intro
but the surprising thing is that 99 of
homeowners
still choose contractors which can cost
up to 20 times the price
of a diy solution this line adds an
interesting fact that also communicates
that a
they'll be unique by doing it themselves
and b they'll save a ton of money
all right next up is desire this part is
meant to show the reader how your
content can solve their problem
and one of the best ways to do that is
by showing them proof
so let's add on in fact we spent just
100
on materials and we now have our dream
kitchen
finally is action this can be done in
the form of a let's get started type of
line
or you can enhance the user's experience
using something like a table of contents
so if i were to add on to our intro i
might say let's walk through the simple
five-step process to get your kitchen
looking like a million bucks
all right let's move on to the next step
which is to make your content actionable
and easy to digest so your outline
should act as a nice skeleton for your
post
and to add meat to those bones you need
to do two things
number one you want to make it as
helpful as possible
meaning if someone searches for how to
paint kitchen cabinets
then they should be able to successfully
do that with the help of your content
this will all come down to your
knowledge and expertise on the subject
and number two you'll want to make it
easy to digest
and read and this comes down to your
communication and writing skills
the best tip to make your content
digestible is to keep your thoughts as
succinct as possible
for example if you're writing a step on
choosing the right paint for your
cabinets
you might say something like the color
you choose is up to you
however there are five things you need
to consider depending on the type of
cabinets you have
then add a list of five bullet points
compare that to something like
color is a powerful thing it can affect
your emotions so choosing the right
paint is a critical step
according to a 2018 study red is a very
emotionally intense color
think about fire and blood intense
this doesn't really help the user solve
their problem it just sounds like you're
trying to convince them to paint their
cabinets red
as for readability you can do things
like use headings and subheadings
avoid walls of text by writing in short
sentences
and short paragraphs add images if it
helps clarify or visualize a point
and use transitional sentences like as
you know
however and also which can help improve
flow
now after you've written your content i
highly recommend getting someone to
give you unfiltered feedback this is
something we do at ahrefs for every
single piece of content we publish
whether that be a blog post landing page
or video
it helps us to always put our best foot
forward and deliver no fluff content
that we hope will help our readers and
viewers
now the content aspect is a very
important part when it comes to seo
meaning
if you can't get your content right then
you probably aren't going to rank high
for any meaningful keywords
also there are times when you'll nail
your content but you still can't rank
this often comes down to the level of
competition which usually boils down to
quality backlinks
now i won't go into assessing the
ranking difficulty of a topic
or how to build backlinks to your pages
because we have quite a few tutorials
that go deep into these topics so i
highly recommend watching those
and if you enjoyed this tutorial then
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and if you have any questions
leave one in the comments below i'll see
you in the next tutorial