Conversations with a Content Writer | Part 1: How to Research


Crowdfunding, Ecommerce

Whether you’re writing a blog, guide or case study, this guide will help you turn your knowledge into post-worthy content that can be understood by both users and search engines.

Researching for Your Ecommerce Brand

Successful content marketing starts with high-quality, valuable content that’s well-written, clearly structured, and rich with keywords. The steps below will help you develop content that’s not only competitive in the marketplace but also clearly understood by your target audience. Feel free to apply these research techniques when writing any web content such as blogs, Amazon listings, crowdfunding campaign, and more.

 

Competitive Research

When writing content or determining keywords, the first place to seek out additional information and guidance is your competition. For blog content, aim to write better than the “other guy” in your niche. This method is typically known as the skyscraper method—where your content is drastically better, thus towering over the competition. “Bettering” the content can mean writing more details, organizing the information in a helpful way like an infographic, or updating the information so its with current examples.

 

Keyword Research

Keyword research involves identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines. So while you, as a writer, have a particular way of saying an idea, keyword research helps you explore the other varied ways people use language to express (and then search on Google) the same idea.

Keyword research also gives marketers a better understanding of how high the demand is for certain keywords and how hard it would be to compete for those terms in the organic search results. A great keyword to rank for would have high demand and low competition.

Short-Tail vs. Long-tail

Short-tail keywords or “head” terms are popular, one to two-word ideas. Long-tail keywords or “keyphrases” contain three or more words. Be sure to use a variety of short-tail keywords (ex. crowdfunding) and long-tail keywords (ex. How to start a crowdfunding campaign). While short-tail keywords provide a higher search demand, long-tail keywords typically have less competition.

Where to Find Keywords

Before you begin writing, you should have a list of keywords relevant to your content. Then, use a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to find variations of words and phrases that are related to your topic. Google’s related searches are another great way to expand your initial keyword into a keyword list.

 

Integrating Keywords into Your Writing

Make sure to include the main keyword in the title of your piece, as well as a few times throughout the post such as in the headings, subheadings, title tags, meta descriptions, and, even, the image metadata. When incorporating keywords in the body of your article, make sure they flow naturally and do not read as clunky or spammy. Writing keyword-stuffed content is a quick way to diminish the organization’s credibility.

Semantic Search

It’s ideal if most of your “keyword usage” throughout the content becomes more contextual than exact. This means you use synonyms and descriptions to help better define your content so Google matches it with the correct search intent. A simpler way to think about this is to recognize that Google knows the difference between a blog post about cars you drive and a blog post about Cars in the movie.

 

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