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How to write the perfect article

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18th August 2017

No matter how big or small your company may be, you will have a blog/news section on your website. If you don’t, it is time to think about adding one as they are critical to precious traffic on the website.

There are many reasons why you need a blog which include:

  • Boosts SEO – A blog/news tells Google you are constantly improving your website, if updated regularly.
  • Connects people with your brand – Keeping your target audience updated about latest company news, events & industry information.
  • Competitive advantage – You will rank better than your competitors who don’t have a blog/news.

77% of Internet users read blogs.

Interested? Read on for our top tips for write the perfect article that will generate interest and increase your website’s ranking!

Structure content

It’s surprising how many articles are written in paragraphs and paragraphs of text. This will most likely bore the user, and if anything, create an increased bounce rate to your website which is something you don’t want.

Add headings, bullet points and paragraphs to your content. This will make it easier to read and form a clear structure so the reader can pick up the main points of your article.

B2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those that do not.

Imagery & videos

Create a featured image that will sit above your article and draw the reader in. Once the reader is hooked you can even add imagery or videos within your article content. This can include useful infographics or videos to support your content. Note: Don’t forget to use royalty free images or document where you have sourced the image from.

Not a designer? That’s not a problem! There are useful tools out there which enable you to create useful article imagery such as Canva. All you have to do is choose one of their templates and add your own information and/or image, download and add it to your article. It’s a simple as that!

Top tip – it’s essential that each and every image on your website has an ALT Attribute (ALT Text). This tells the user and search engines what the image is meant to be if, for some reason it cannot be loaded.

Optimise

Once you have wrote content, structured it and added imagery/videos, it’s time to make sure your article fully optimised. In most website CMS’s (content management system) there should be a section on every page that allows you to edit the Metadata.

What is Metadata? Metadata is the title and description of your pages content that helps search engines understand what your page is about. For optimal effect, a title tag should be between 50 and 60 characters long and the Meta description should be between 150 and 160 characters.

On WordPress websites, the ‘Yoast SEO’ plugin allows you to add Metadata for your article (Title Tag & Meta Description), this is essential to update in order to keep ahead of the competition not just for your articles but for each page of the website.

Don’t forget…

Write articles that appeal to your target audience, answer all the questions that they may ask and make your website the first place they will check for industry updates! If you put the time and effort into each post it will pay off.

Promote & share

Once your latest article is live you need to promote it on social media. For optimal social engagement check social media insights/analytics to determine what times of day your target audience is online, then post at these times.

Create a list of relevant industry hashtags that your target audience will search for. Add these to each post across all social channels to widen the scope of readers. If used correctly, hashtags can be an essential powerful targeting tool.

Are you convinced that your website needs a blog/news section yet? All you need to do is put a little time into creating a useful hub of information at least once a month and you’ll soon see the benefits. Keeping your blog/news updated regularly brings a huge benefit to a website’s presence (probably more than you realise). If you don’t have enough time to keep your website up to date then why not hire an online professional? It’s guaranteed to generate more leads.

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