Content writing, and blogging in particular, is a great way to get your company noticed by Google’s search bots and raise your brand awareness… but that’s assuming you don’t make any mistakes. In the pursuit of clicks, some writers have developed bad habits that will sabotage their content’s attractiveness and push away viewership. If your website’s metrics have dipped lately or if you are curious whether you’ve committed one of these content writing sins – this article is for you!
The flawed researcher
The purpose of content writing is to provide information to your readers, and to do this, you need to present facts and research to back up your arguments – otherwise, it would just be an opinion piece.
When you cite a source, the best sources stem from organisations or individuals with authority over the subject, such as government departments, universities, industry leaders and experts. If these are unavailable and you need to rely on lesser-known sources, use Harvard Library’s source evaluating guide to help you determine its trustworthiness:
1. Currency – is this the most updated post? Or is it possibly outdated?
2. Relevance – is the source relevant and appropriate to the question(s) you want answered?
3. Authority – are the author(s) or affiliated organisation experts on the subject?
4. Accuracy – is the post reliable or supported by peer-review evidence?
5. Purpose – is the information presented fact, opinion, propaganda or biased?
Although Harvard’s checklist is steered towards academic writing, where facts and evidence must absolutely adhere to all 5 points, content writing is a little less strict – you’re not always going to be able to find material from people or organisations that you’ve heard of, which is why you need to exercise writer’s discretion. If the source passes the majority of Harvard’s checklist (with point 1, 2 and 5 being the most important in our opinion), then it’s probably safe to cite.
The anecdotal overlord
Anecdotes are a great way to create a foundation for your content. If readers can associate their personal experiences with the writer’s experiences, it helps bridge empathy and emotional connection.
However, when readers have to read anecdote after anecdote, the narrative suddenly shifts from learning about the article’s topic to learning about the writer’s life – which might be suitable for a TED Talk, but definitely not for content writing.
Avoid this by staying focused on your customer’s problems. Instead of using yourself as an example, use your customers as the characters and illustrate the problems they may face – once audiences see themselves understood and under the spotlight, they’ll be more receptive to your proposals and solutions.
If you feel like your experience is crucial to your explanation, then open with your strongest anecdote – but ensure that it relates to the problem(s) shared by your audience and that it demonstrates that you understand their struggle.
For robot eyes only
In the past, you might have stumbled onto a website that seems like it was not written for people. Imagine reading an article with several paragraphs – then it suddenly devolves into a massive wall of keywords that even puts Craigslist to shame.
This kind of deviant content creation is known as keyword stuffing, which used to trick Google’s AI into ranking a website higher when someone searches for a keyword contained in the article. Google has since wised up to these antics and will punish websites accordingly by lowering their ranking instead.
You wouldn’t repeat the same keyword twenty times in a conversation, so why should you when writing? If you have a list of keywords that are essential to your article, just weave them into your writing naturally!
The overbearing salesperson
Some pages try too hard to sell their ideas or products onto you. Like a Mary Kay salesperson who refuses to take “no” for an answer, being too pushy in your writing disrespects your audience and only motivates them to leave.
Some common signs of being too pushy:
· There is more than one call-to-action per paragraph
· Overuse of FOMO tactics (don’t miss out, last chance, limited stock etc) – one or two per article is usually enough
· Overexplaining every little detail and treating your audience like dummies – explain technical details if your audience aren’t experts, but back-to-back explanations are tiring and possibly even condescending to read. Remember, people who are interested in what you are selling will naturally ask questions, so leave some of the nitty gritty details for later!
The formatting monster
Is being good at writing all it takes to be a content writer?
If you said yes, then you aren’t considering the importance of presentation.
Content writing needs to be quick and easy to absorb – readers can’t do that if they have to struggle to read your content!
Here are some easy page formatting fixes:
· Use headers and subheads to divide your content – a subhead per argument is a good rule of thumb, but a video or image with each subhead would be even better
· Avoid thick and blocky paragraphs – simple 3 to 4 sentence paragraphs are comfortable to read, whereas a single sentence is great for emphasising a point
· White space creates the illusion that your content is short and invites people to continue reading
· Use bullet points or lists when you need to describe multiple things
· Consider page layouts that are optimised for both desktop and mobile viewing
Great content writing brings people together, but the opposite effect is also true when you have bad content writing. Not only do you waste your article’s information and insights, you are also driving your audience away – one bad experience is all it takes for people to stop coming back! With first impressions and consistency being so important, you wouldn’t want to leave any avoidable mistakes to bad habits or chance, would you?