Here’s one theory: both professions involve examining facts and figuring out a narrative. “When I was a medical student, we were taught to ask open-ended questions,” author Jamie Weisman commented on Lit Hub. “Those open-ended questions are the same ones that start out an essay.”

Physician-writer Terrence Holt has a particularly eloquent take. “We drop into the middle of patients’ stories and try to change the plot for the better,” he told NPR about medicine. “[The patient starts] telling a story, and you try to figure what it means.”

The link between writing and medicine is our not-so-subtle segue to this month’s Writer Spotlight. Meet health writer extraordinaire, Leigh, who works on our platform as Hope Burris. I’m fairly certain if Leigh had pursued her initial plans to go to med school, she’d be listed in the doctor-author category too. Let’s pop into her story and find out more.

Leigh currently calls New Mexico home, but is originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania, near Scranton. Yes, that Scranton. “The town from The Office,” Leigh laughs. “[It’s] the only reason anyone knows where it is!”

She’s been writing for 16 years, but once had a different career in mind. “I originally planned to become a doctor, so I worked in the critical care department of a research hospital when I was a freshman in college,” Leigh explains. “Spent a lot of time copying medical journals in the library.” Though she changed her major to business, her passion for health care remained.

“I never lost my love for medicine, so I have incorporated a lot of health and medical writing into my freelance career,” she says. Her credentials are solid: she was managing editor of Northeast Nursing News, where she wrote profiles of local nursing professionals and features on advances in medical technology. She also had a stint as managing editor of the science and medicine channels at Bright Hub.

She credits another writer for referring her to Crowd Content. “We’ve never met, but I’ve known her for almost 10 years through a FB writing group,” she says.

If you ever spend time in our writer’s forum, you know we have quite a few fiction writers in our midst, but Leigh leans firmly the other way. “I love to write nonfiction and educational content that more creative writers might consider boring,” she explains. “I can be a little more casual for product descriptions or blog posts when needed, but I really enjoy writing content for professional services firms — law firms, medical offices, dental practices — and educational websites.”

Since coming to our platform, Leigh’s immersed herself in various health projects. Her favorites include Testing.com and Help.org. “I also love the Caring.com projects,” she adds. “Medical and health writing is my absolute favorite.”

When she’s not writing, she enjoys the performing arts. “I love to go to live performances — stand-up comedy, Broadway-style shows, the local symphony,” she reveals. “2020 was not my year!”

Knowing Leigh’s love of the arts, it’s no surprise to learn where she likes to go to dine out. It sounds like a theatrical performance in itself.

“Vernon’s Speakeasy [is] a local restaurant that is set up like a speakeasy from the Prohibition era. When you make a reservation, they give you a password to use when you arrive. The restaurant is hidden away,” she enthuses. “You’d never know it was there if you weren’t looking for it, so you have to walk up to the door, knock, and give the password before you can get in. Very dark inside, live piano player, etc. Just a cool place overall.”

Leigh also dabbles a little in music. “I played the clarinet in high school and recently decided to pick it back up again. I’m not as good as I used to be, but I am working on it,” she says.

I’m tempted to ask Leigh for a concert because we miss live performances too, but we’ve got lots more ground to cover. Let’s pick up the pace!

What’s your favorite TV show or movie? “The Sopranos, The Office, Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, United States of Tara, and any type of business show, such as Shark Tank, Billion Dollar Buyer, The Profit.”

Who is your favorite author? What’s your favorite book? “I love all kinds of mysteries and thrillers. Favorite authors in these genres: Steve Cavanagh, Linwood Barclay, Kevin O’Brien, J.T. Ellison, Lisa Regan, Angela Marsons. I also like to read nonfiction books that go behind the scenes of TV shows/networks. I’m looking forward to Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office and Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos, coming out this fall.”

Have you been published by any notable sites or organizations? “My first print piece was published in Abilities magazine. I once had the #1 ranking slot on Google for a competitive mortgage keyword.”

Where do you write? “I have a home office with a desktop computer. When I can’t sit in the office chair anymore, I write from my laptop elsewhere in the house.”

What do you find most challenging about writing content? “Coming up with different ways to word content on similar topics.”

If you could change one thing about our platform, what would it be? “Sometimes you claim an order Friday night or Saturday morning…but then you come across a problem. So you don’t know if you should just write it the best you can…or try to wait for a response from the PM. If we had a pause button, we could pause the timer until we got clarification…or alert someone at CC that more info is needed to complete the assignment. Many PMs do respond to things on weekends, but I don’t expect them to be glued to their computers…they should be free to relax!”

What do you think sets Crowd Content apart from other content platforms? “The pay, the professionalism of the editors and project managers, and the ability to get help when needed.”

Do you have any advice for new writers? “When you get on the platform, think long-term. It can be tempting to rush through your first few orders because you want to make money and you’re eager to take on more work. But if you rush, you risk making mistakes. It’s better to go slow and steady and focus on quality so that you get good ratings and can move up over time.”

Sounds like a true prescription for success from one of our most experienced writers! Thank you, Leigh, for sharing your story. We’ll let you get back to the writing queues and take a rain check on that clarinet performance.

There are so many more of you who make Crowd Content such a great place to be. Who will we learn about next? Maybe it’ll be you!

The post Writer Spotlight: Hope Burris — A Prescription for Success appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Getting Started

It takes more than a keyboard and the ability to type to be a commercial writer. If you want to succeed in the online content creation industry, you must:

• Understand the basics of writing, including sentence structure and composition
• Have a better-than-average grasp of basic grammar, spelling and punctuation (or take the time to learn it before you start – Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips is a great resource for newbies)
• Be able to follow instructions to the letter and ask questions when there’s something you don’t understand

In the digital content world, things move rapidly. Successful writers and editors are able to absorb information quickly, communicate professionally and, above all, hit their deadlines. It’s as simple as that.

Types of Content Companies

Some companies work with freelancers they find on job boards, while others have full-time writers on staff. Most medium and large businesses, however, outsource at least some (if not all) of their content to companies like Crowd Content.

There are many types of content creation companies, but they all fall into one of three basic models:

• Marketplace: In a content marketplace, you work directly with clients and communicate with them as questions arise. Most clients edit or review the work you deliver, but sometimes there’s a freelance editor in the mix.

• Enterprise: With an enterprise model, you deal with an in-house Content Manager or Project Manager rather than directly with the client. Project managers assemble teams, create instructions and place orders; they also review submissions and manage deadlines. Freelance editors are always involved in these types of orders, and some companies use a third layer of review called QA.

• Agency: Content agencies often offer clients services that go above and beyond content creation (SEO, strategy, etc.). Those that hire freelancers usually require a higher level of expertise, though they typically pay a bit more. 

Why is this important? If you’re new to this industry, there’s a lot for you to learn. If you have some basic skills or expertise, you’re much more likely to get the mentoring you need from an Enterprise operation, where Project Managers are tasked with creating and training teams of workers. Marketplace clients expect writers and editors to already be “experts” before they pick up orders.

Crowd Content is one of the few content creation companies that successfully run both a Marketplace and an Enterprise operation. When you’re accepted as a writer or editor on our platform, you can apply to work for either (or both) sides of the business. 

What You’ll Need

Most content creation companies have proprietary platforms where you write and submit your work, and they’ll usually require a PC or Mac laptop or desktop computer. If you have a tablet, you may be able to make it work, but that’s dependent on the platform you’ll be working on.

You’ll also need:

• Internet access

• An internet browser

• Word processing software (optional)

• A valid PayPal account

Internet Browser

There are a lot of browsers to choose from, but Chrome seems to be the one that most writing platforms get along with best. You do have the option of trying out others, including Firefox, Opera and Edge, but don’t be surprised if you run into compatibility issues here and there.

Word Processing Software

You don’t absolutely need a word processor to get going, but it can help. The platforms among different companies vary wildly in their capabilities – some don’t even have built-in spellcheckers – so you may find it helpful to write in a word processor and then copy/ paste your work into the platform’s text editor. If you don’t have access to word processing software, you can download something like Focus Writer for free or pay a minimal monthly fee for a subscription to Microsoft Word and the rest of the Microsoft

Office programs. Using Google docs is another option.

PayPal

You’ll want to get paid for the work you do, and you’ll find that most content companies pay via PayPal. Once the funds are in your PayPal account, you can transfer them directly to your bank, or you can request a PayPal debit card, which works exactly like your bank debit card.

How It All Works

Let’s walk through what you’ll experience when writing commercially for Crowd Content. Note that most other writing platforms are similar but have their own rulesets and ways of doing things.

• After you create an account, complete an application for one or more of the various Marketplace or Managed (Enterprise) teams. Once approved, you’ll be given a quality rating based on the work you did on your application. At Crowd Content, there are four tiers: one, two, three and four stars.
• When you log into the platform, you’ll have a personal dashboard that shows any work that’s available to you on the Marketplace or Managed Content sides of the platform. What you see here depends on your application approvals and the quality rating you were given. You see all open work at your star rating and below as well as any work for teams that you’ve been placed on or any direct order work.
• A four-star writer sees all open orders, for example, while a two-star writer only sees open orders placed at one- and two-star orders.
• When you view an order on Crowd Content, you’ll see a title or topic, instructions on how to write the piece, when the order is due, how much it pays and any other information the project manager or client included.
• You can choose to pick up orders based on all this information. You’re a freelancer, so you always have a choice about whether to accept work or not. That’s even true if you get direct orders (orders placed solely to you) that you don’t want to write for any reason. You can pass on those orders and even let the client know why via the system chat — for example, you might want to let them know you’ll be out of town and can’t complete orders next week but would be happy to write content for them when you get back.
• After you’ve completed the order, submit it — and this is where things differ depending on whether your order was in the Marketplace or Managed Content.
  • Marketplace: The client may have added editing to the order. If they have, the order will be picked up by an editor before going to the client. But the client is still responsible for ultimately approving or rejecting the order. The client or the editor may send it back to you with notes to make revisions. Once the client has accepted the order, you’ll be paid for it on the next payday. In our Marketplace, it can take anywhere from a couple days to a few weeks for the client to review and approve orders.
  • Managed Content: Once you submit a written order, an editor will review the piece. The order may be edited and submitted, sent back to you for revisions or rejected if it significantly fails to meet the minimum requirements for the task. Once the editor submits the order, it goes to QA. That’s where a member of our team reviews the order to be sure it meets the client requirements. QA will either accept, reject or send it back for revisions. Once QA has accepted the order, you’ll get paid. When working on Managed Content, completed work is typically reviewed within a few days.

• Even if your order is accepted by the client, editor or QA, they may opt to leave you notes. It’s important to go back and read these notes and view the changes made to your order using the tracked changes tab. In the world of commercial writing feedback is gold. Learn to accept feedback and put it into practice, and you’ll do well.

How Much Does It Pay?

Private clients, like those found on job boards and places like Upwork, often pay by the hour or by the piece, but most content companies pay writers and editors a set per-word rate. The rate of pay varies widely among different companies. At Crowd Content, pay rates for writers range from a few cents up to 10 cents per word and sometimes even more. Editors are paid between 1.5 and 3 cents per word.

The per-word pay doesn’t always give an accurate picture of how profitable a writing job might be. The figure you should look at is how much money you can make per hour. Short product descriptions that require minimal research but only pay four or five cents per word might work out to be more profitable on a per-hour basis than a 2,000-word feature article that requires heavy research and multiple rounds of revisions — even if that feature article pays more per word.

When Do I Get Paid?

Some content companies pay once or twice per month, but others pay more frequently. Crowd Content pays its writers twice per week — Tuesday and Friday — for all work that’s been accepted by the client or Project Manager by the evening prior.

Next Steps

Ready to start? Here’s what you need to do next:

• Read this guide in its entirety
• Brush up on your grammar and punctuation skills
• Open a worker account with us
• Apply for work

Keep in mind that other companies may have different requirements. You may be asked to complete an English grammar test before you’re able to apply for work, or you may have to create a portfolio. Before you do any of this, make sure that the company’s pay rates are within the range of what you’re looking to make.

Want more information? Grab our free ebook, Intro to Commercial Content Writing here.

Best Practices: General

No matter what companies you choose to write for, Enterprise or Managed Content projects tend to have lots of information around them, including style guides, project briefs and in-task instructions. When working in a Marketplace environment like ours, the amount and type of information you get from clients will be all over the map. When in doubt and unless the client states otherwise, follow these simple rules: 

Style 

• Defer to AP style. 
• Use American English spelling. 
• Use title case for all titles, headers and subheads. 
• Format titles, headers and subheads appropriately using H1, H2 and H3 tags or via the formatting functions of the platform in question. 
• For blog posts and marketing copy (product descriptions, etc.), use second person (you). For landing pages and other website copy, use first and third person. 
• Vary your sentence structure. Use some simple and some compound sentences. 
• Avoid rhetorical questions. If you do use them, limit to one per article.
• Avoid exclamation marks. They do have their place, but they should be used only rarely.
• Avoid cliches and overused jargon (with ease, is a snap, is a breeze, etc.). 
• If you cite a fact, study or statistic, link to it. Always try to link to the primary source — not a site talking about the source — and avoid using data that’s more than a few years old. The exception here is that something like Census data is perfectly fine to use, as it’s only updated once every ten years.
• Never use Wikipedia or random blogs as sources unless a particular blogger is an influencer in the industry you’re writing about. 
• Stay evergreen — unless you’re writing something that’s absolutely seasonal or a client has asked for content about current events or news. 
• Avoid negativity at all times, particularly in marketing copy. Better to say, “This cleaner keeps your floors looking like new” than “This cleaner gets rid of all the icky goo off your dirty floors.” 
• Use common contractions (it’s, you’e, etc.). 
• Defer to Merriam-Webster for spelling and hyphenation. 
• Watch out for repetition in words and phrases. Don’t start back-to-back sentences or paragraphs with the same word. 
• Stay concise and avoid fluff and filler. 

Structure 

• Use bulleted and numbered lists and subheads to break up the text. 
• For blog posts and general articles, start with an intro paragraph and end with a conclusion. 

SEO 

• Before you start writing, Google the primary keyword to be sure you understand the intent of the search – what information the reader is really looking for. 
• Unless the client tells you not to change keywords in any way, always correct them for grammar, spelling and punctuation. 
• Use the primary keyword in the title, first 100 words of the intro, one subhead and at least once or twice in the text, depending on how long the piece is. When you’re writing something like a 50-word product description, you might only use the primary keyword once, for example. 
• Try to use all secondary keywords at least once. 
• Cover the topic comprehensively, and work in as many semantic keywords as possible. If you haven’t been given any semantic keywords, you can generate some for free using LSIGraph.com. Don’t, however, shove in a semantic keyword that’s clearly not related to the search intent of the primary keyword or the topic at hand. 
• Do not ever keyword stuff. 
• Remember that readability always trumps the keywords.

Best Practices: Metadata 

The most common types of metadata you’ll be asked to create are meta titles and meta descriptions. These are the pieces of information someone will see on a search engine results page (SERP) when they make a search query. You can see an example below.

Meta Titles 

You may be tempted to use an article’s title as your meta title, but that could be a mistake. Google will only display up to around 70 characters (including spaces) of your meta title in the SERPs. How much of the title is displayed depends on a variety of factors, including what type of device the searcher is using. If your title gets cut off, the reader may not know what to expect. 

Many companies also want to get their company or website name in the meta title, and they usually do it like this: 

• Title | Company Name 

Note that the pipe symbol and company name should also be counted as part of that 50- to 60-character allotment, and you should work your primary keyword in the title if possible. 

Meta Descriptions 

The purpose of meta descriptions is to get readers to take an action — in this case, to click a link to go to a page listed in the search results. Meta descriptions should:

• Be engaging and enticing 
• Contain the primary keyword 
• Be up to 160 characters in length, including spaces 
• Start with an action verb, if possible

Best Practices: Blog Posts

Companies use blogs for many reasons. These articles can inform or educate an audience or help position a company as a thought leader in an industry. Behind it all, though, search engine ranking is always a high priority, which makes blog posts one of the most asked-for types of content. 

When writing blog posts, follow the style, structure and SEO guidelines set forth earlier in this document — unless the client’s instructions differ. Before you begin writing, determine the purpose of the content (to inform, educate, convert, etc.) and who the target audience is. How you broach the subject of buying a Bluetooth speaker would probably be very different if you’re writing for Boomers instead of Millennials, for example. 

Also note that depending on the purpose of the blog post, it may (or may not) require a call to action — typically called a CTA. If that’s the case, you’ll want to encourage the reader to take action: call, click, schedule service, etc. Unless told otherwise, you should always hyperlink to the page on the client’s website where the reader can take that step.

Blog Post Lengths 

Most of the blog posts that we produce at Crowd Content are somewhere in the 500- to 750-word range. Clients who are after backlinks or creating pillar pages will often create long-form blog posts of 1,000 to 2,500 words or more.

Keep in mind that to really get any decent SEO value out of a blog post, the lowest word count should be roughly 300 to 350 words.

Types of Blog Posts 

You may think of blog posts as just being articles, but there’s a science behind them and there are many variations you can use to drive the information home in different ways. Here are some of the more popular types of blog posts: 

• Listicles: 10 Places for Fun Summer Travel, 3 Recipes for Date Night 
• How-To and Tutorials: Learn Spanish in 3 Easy Steps, How to Host a Holiday Party 
• Link and Resource Lists: 10 Best Instagram Stories, SEO Tools the Pros Use 
• Checklists: Things to Pack When Traveling with Kids, Off to College Checklist
• Reviews: ASUS vs Dell Laptops, Why SEO Pros Choose SEMRush 

For examples, and more content types, download the ebook here.

ALSO – How to Find and Succeed With Freelance Copywriting Jobs

The post How to Become a Content Writer – The Complete Guide appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

However, some circumstances may require content in far larger batches, ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of words per day. Think of eCommerce stores that need to rewrite an entire store’s worth of product descriptions, a service business that needs to write content for hundreds of location pages, or an agency that needs to create monthly blog posts for dozens of clients. 

Creating quality content in bulk presents some unique challenges. 

If you have a bulk content writing project on the horizon, this is what you need to know about ensuring your project goes off without a hitch.

What Constitutes a Bulk Project?

A bulk project refers to any content writing demand that requires a large amount of content in a short period of time. It follows that it often refers to projects that involve large numbers of content writers.

What constitutes bulk can vary from one company or project or another but generally, the requirements include:

• A large amount of content on a short turnaround time
• Content that requires a team of writers rather than a single content writer
• Consistency in tone and voice between pieces
• Consistent quality between pieces
• Affordable pricing to accommodate large-scale orders
• A way to store and publish large amounts of content
• Usually done with SEO in mind

Types of Bulk Content

Bulk content can come in a number of forms but generally involves similar content that needs to be reproduced across a variety of items with fresh, unique content specific to each item. It also usually has to fit into a defined template. 

We typically see bulk projects from companies that are seeking to revamp their product descriptions, provide reviews on services that encompass many geographical areas, or who require landing or summary pages on a large array of topics. 

ALSO – Want Success With Local Landing Pages? Learn How to Avoid These Pitfalls

A retirement community review site that covers the whole country, for example, will likely require a large amount of content in a short time span to cover thousands of communities – that can’t be accommodated by a single writer completing a few pieces a week. Other companies may require city pages, content to build a glossary of terms or an index of resources, or blog posts for agency clients. 

The most common categories of bulk content include:

• Blog posts
• City or location-specific pages
• Category page descriptions
• Product descriptions
• App descriptions
• Review pages
• Social media posts

Bulk content may also be ordered by agencies with diverse needs, like companies that build simple websites and have a large number of clients.

6 Key Tips For Creating a Bulk Content Game Plan

So you know you need bulk content and you have an idea of what you want – but how you get there takes time and planning. These six key tips can help you nail even the largest bulk content writing projects.

Determine the Size and Scale of Projects

As the word bulk isn’t exactly quantifiable, it’s important to determine what exactly you need. No two bulk projects will be exactly the same, so knowing you need a lot of content is not the same as putting together a game plan you can use to guide your process. This can include:

• A rough estimate of word count
• The number of writers needed to accommodate your expectations
• A map of deadlines, like how many words you need completed each week or when the project needs to be completed
• A plan to hire writers if in-house teams cannot meet the demands of an expansive project
• An average quota of articles per writer in order to determine the appropriate team size

ALSO – Outsourcing Content Writing: Tips for Finding and Working With Writers for Excellent Content Marketing Results

Define Quality Expectations

Quality is an important element of any kind of content creation. Google has been explicit about its expectations for quality content that it will rank well, so failing to adhere to best practices can be a dangerous game. Before you get started on your project, you need to have a basic idea of what caliber you are looking for with your work. If your pages or product descriptions are basic or simple, the best of the best may not be necessary. However, complex or technical information may mean searching for experts to ensure your needs are met.

Quality can be a sizable challenge, as Ron Stefanski, the owner and founder of PrisonInsight.com, knows well. He states, “the biggest challenge we have [in creating bulk content] is maintaining quality content standards. We’ve done our best to put a team in place that includes high-quality writers and an editor to approve everything, but there is always room for improvement.”

At the end of the day, quality requires a process. You need to know the level of quality you want to achieve and how you’re going to get there, from the guidelines you put in place to the writers you recruit, right through to who is going to edit the work and ultimately publish it.

Put Together a Style Guide

No two writers are exactly the same. From JK Rowling to Dostoevsky, all writers have a unique voice. However, in a bulk project, this isn’t always a good thing. In general, a bulk content project should read more like a unified presentation than a mishmash of different styles and preferences.

A style guide can help ensure all writers understand expectations, preferences, keyword use, formatting, word count, and virtually anything else necessary to the success of a project. A good style guide also provides context about the purpose of content and the target audience.

Andrew Barrett, Director of Content at Seniorly, explains the detailed information he makes available to the content team supporting his ongoing projects: “We provide important keywords, an outline for the content, important industry knowledge and facts that would inform their writing, and appropriate links to sources.” Ultimately, the more information is available, the better-prepared writers will be to meet expectations.

Assemble the Right Team

The team of writers you choose can make or break your project, so it’s important to choose wisely. Writers should be flexible, skilled, adaptable, and able to meet deadlines, regardless of the caliber of projects.

Writers can be hired on full-time, outsourced through freelance marketplaces, or onboarded through writing-specific platforms, like Crowd Content. Companies can manage teams themselves or go through a third party to oversee projects and handle editing, taking the burden off of a small marketing department. Regardless of methodology, choosing the right team is critically important to turning around quality work on tight deadlines.

Says Ron Stefanski, “if you want to be successful, you need a team to help. Don’t try to do all of this yourself for a long time. While I encourage people to start by doing this themselves so they understand exactly what’s needed and how difficult it is, outsourcing is crucial to scaling and having success.”

Keep in mind that a good team goes beyond writers. For those who don’t have in-house resources to serve in a support function, editors and QA pros are also highly valuable. Editors can make sure content meets style guides and best practices, while QAs can oversee formatting and publishing to ensure a perfect outcome.

ALSO – Challenges of Managing Freelance Writers Directly and How to Overcome Them

Process, Process, Process

You’ve probably picked up on this based on the tips preceding this highlighting that you need multiple different types of team members, but making sure you develop a controlled content creation process is critical to the success of any bulk content writing project.

At Crowd Content, we often define several steps that every piece of content must go through before it’s delivered to a client and published:

1. Research
2. SEO research
3. Writing
4. Editing
5. Quality Assurance
6. Delivery
7. Publishing

This varies a bit from project to project, but the key here is that you have focused team members responsible for each step. This helps ensure you get a consistent result and that your project delivers the results you expect. 

Provide Consistent and Timely Feedback

Every team is only as good as its weakest link. When working with writers, clear, coherent feedback and regular communication are musts. This is particularly true in the early days of a project: as writers are getting used to your preferences and the tone and style of a project, they’ll need guidance to get as comfortable as possible with your expectations.

This means providing writing samples, offering editing to highlight where writers are succeeding and where they’re going wrong, and consistently providing refresher training to keep everyone on the same page. As metrics become available, it’s also helpful to provide samples of pieces that ranked well versus less effective content. By setting up Slack rooms or forums, it’s possible to stay in constant connection with writers, field questions, provide context, and offer updates in a timely manner.

Communication goes both ways, too. “As writers asked us follow up questions, we revised the creative briefs and informed the team of writers to review the revisions,” says Andrew Barrett about his team’s process of creating guidelines that got writers up and running.

Coordinating bulk writing projects isn’t easy, but the right strategy can go a long way. With these six key tips to ensure increased output, consistent quality, and ongoing improvement opportunities, you can prepare for even your biggest content writing aspirations.

The post Have Bulk Content Writing Projects? 6 Key Things You Need To Know appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Creating original, engaging content is not easy (though a good content writing service can certainly help). Yet, it is the least that’s expected of you as a content marketer today. The real content marketing challenge of 2020 is getting your content in front of the right audience. As Ross Simmonds often preaches, “distribution rules everything around me.”

As more businesses realize the importance of content marketing, the competition for content promotion is getting tougher. So, how do you rise to the top of your space? Keep reading to learn about the top content distribution tips for 2020.

1. Find Your Target Audience

Who is interested in what you have to say? Ideally, this question should be answered before your content is created.

Identifying your niche audience is one of the key steps in creating and distributing content. Sadly, it is also one of the most overlooked! Too often an article, a video or a blog post are created without well-defined audiences in mind. So, here is your chance to stand out.

Creating targeted content also means identifying and using keywords and key phrases that your potential customers are using in their search engine queries.

Many keyword research tools are available to make the task easier for content marketers. The most widely used are Google’s Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Moz Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest and Answer The Public.

By understanding how your audience describes the topics you want to cover, and understanding the intent behind their searches, you can tailor content that speaks directly to them.

ALSO – Qualitative Keyword Research: How to Invest 10 Minutes into Your Content Marketing Process & See Your Content Rise to the Top of Google

2. Create and Promote Blog Posts

Everyone seems to run a blog these days – so, is it still worth it? The answer is definitely “yes” – if you do it right. A recent study by Content Marketing Institute confirmed what many of us have intuitively known for ages – that 7 out of 10 customers prefer promotion through articles rather than ads.

So, what makes an effective blog? You need to:

• Publish original content that is genuinely useful, insightful and/or entertaining
• Maintain high standards – create comprehensive, best-in-industry content
• Post regularly
• Stay true to the topic and purpose of your blog
• Engage with your audience and build community
• Keep the information up to date
• Promote widely – there’s no point in publishing great content if nobody sees it!

Well researched and written blog posts help establish and support your brand’s reputation and expertise – building trust, making your audience more receptive to your messages, and creating lasting customer relationships.

When your blog post is combined with a logical, well-defined call to action, it is also invaluable in building highly targeted email lists. For example, if readers of your blog find your content useful, they will be more inclined to provide their active email address to access a comprehensive guide on the topic – and to stay subscribed to receive further messages from you.

The blog format allows for a more informal, personal tone than your main company site. That makes blog posts great for sharing on social networks, and for using such opportunities for cross-promotion as guest posting.

ALSO – 13 Types of Blog Posts to Fire Up Your Readers (And Your Editorial Calendar)

Guest Posting Might Be Harder to Get – But It Still Works

Guest posts remain a great way to get more exposure for your content.

Marketers today may be more wary of allowing guest posts on their site because the practice has been abused by spammers. Still, the collaboration between bloggers can be very effective – if done right. If you can enrich each other’s content, you instantly increase exposure and provide more value for your audience.

For example, BackLinko’s Brian Dean has recently teamed up with PitchBox, an outreach and content marketing platform, for an impressive study on the effectiveness of outreach emails. Backlinko benefited by acquiring some cutting-edge data-driven content, while PitchBox got significant exposure for their product.

Guest posting can also be a great way to promote your existing content. Including links to other relevant topics in your blog ensures that your evergreen or updated content keeps being discovered by new audiences.

3. Keep Search Engines Happy – Never Neglect Your SEO

On-page SEO remains as important as ever. The tedious bit – optimizing your posts for their target keywords using the latest SEO best practices – should never be skipped.

One well-targeted, informative blog post that makes it to the first page of Google results for a given keyword can drive substantial organic traffic for years. So, the time and effort invested in SEO are well worth it when considered against the long-term gains.

As the competition among content creators heats up, it is particularly important to understand search intent – the reason why users look for information – behind queries that are likely to bring traffic to your site. Your primary keywords should always be chosen with search intent in mind.

When you have decided on your primary keyword, make sure to use it:

• in the page title
• in the H1 heading
• early in the body of your content

Every post should have a custom meta description that includes your keywords and accurately summarizes your content. If your description matches your audience’s search intent closely, it will drive up the organic CTR (click-through rate) on your listing in Google search results.

The quality of your content is the most important ranking factor with Google now. That means it needs to read well, offer valuable information, satisfy search intent, and perhaps most importantly – it needs to be comprehensive. Additionally, you’ll want to spend time ensuring your content is surrounded by good design so that it’s more appealing to visitors.

All of this impacts how visitors interact with your site. If your site has a low bounce rate – meaning that your visitors spend time on your site consuming your content – it will help your content rank even higher as a result of Google’s RankBrain, which looks at behavioral metrics like this, bringing in more visitors from search engines.

Sharing your content widely and building backlinks from authority sites in your niche are also solid off-page SEO techniques that you should use.

ALSO – 7 Tips for How to Write SEO Content

4. Know Your Content Distribution Channels

What channels can you use to distribute your content in 2020? All content distribution and sharing channels can be grouped into the following categories:

1. Channels that are under your complete control (often referred to as “owned” distribution channels). These include:

• Your website
• Your blog
• Your email newsletter
• Your brand profiles on social media
• eBooks, PDF guides, infographics, etc. (downloadable from your site or emailed by you)
• Video content (posted on your YouTube channel or your blog, included in your emails, etc.)
• Audio content (your own podcasts, audiobooks, guides, etc.)

2. Channels that you have limited control over (“earned” or “shared” content distribution channels):

• Strong organic search engine rankings
• Social shares and mentions
• Reposts on other social networks
• Citations on other websites and blogs
• Reviews that link back to your site

3. Channels for paid distribution:

• Paid advertising – Display Ads and Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
• Sponsored content on social networks (like LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, promoted posts on Facebook or Pinterest’s Promoted Pins)
• Native advertising and content discovery platforms (like Taboola and Outbrain)
• Paid influencer campaigns
• Social media advertisements

Your budget, as well as your overall brand strategy, will determine which owned and paid distribution channels you use the most.

Earned channels have the potential to provide the biggest return on your investment in content. At the same time, content sharing carries some risks, as the spin that can be put on shared content is largely out of your hands.

The effectiveness of earned channels has been steadily declining over the last few years. On Facebook, for example, the decline in organic traffic has been particularly noticeable since the 2018 algorithm update, which changed the way content appears on users’ timelines to prioritize, in Mark Zuckerberg’s words, “friends, family, and groups” over “businesses, brands, and media.”

As a result, the competition for earned channels in 2020 is set to be tougher than ever. In this situation, your paid distribution efforts should be used to try and increase your earned reach.

For example, promoting a post on Facebook or LinkedIn can help generate some organic shares. You can also invite the people who like your promoted posts to follow you, increasing the audience for your future content. Having a network of people that will like and share your post also ensures that it gets picked up and promoted by social network algorithms.

ALSO – Content Advertising: How to Leverage Paid Ads in Your Content Marketing

5. Pick the Right Content Distribution Channels for Your Target Audience

Once you know your channels, it’s just a matter of matching them with your potential audiences. If you’ve done your homework researching your niche audience, then the task of finding the right channel for distributing your content becomes easier.

Are you trying to reach busy professionals that are likely to use LinkedIn daily? The fashion-conscious crowd on Instagram and Pinterest? Is your audience more likely to use Facebook – or Twitter? If you know your target audience, the above questions should not be hard to answer.

Then you need to put a sound content distribution strategy in place. Alexander Porter, Head of Copy at  Search It Local, explains:

“Successful content marketing heading into 2020 must exist within an integrated framework. You can’t release it in a handful of channels and expect to keep up with your competition if they are casting a wider net. At Search It Local, we build the foundations of our results like we were building a pyramid.”

For example, if your goal is to create brand awareness and build trust by running a business blog, then your content distribution strategy for new posts could include:

• Publishing an SEO-optimized blog post on your company site.
• Posting the key quotes from your post to Twitter.
• Emailing the summary of your blog post with a link to the full post to your mailing list subscribers.
• Posting summary/infographics/video promoting the post to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
• Sharing the post through Facebook and LinkedIn Groups.
• Using sponsored listings on social media feeds to promote the post.
• Contacting influencers that might be interested in sharing your post.
• Using remarketing to promote the post to the audiences that have shown interest in similar content or have recently visited your site.
• Using Google Ads to drive paid traffic directly to your blog post.

Finding the right channels to connect with your audience will initially require some experimentation. Once you are confident that you are reaching your crowd, you can play with the formats and topics of your posts, fine-tuning your messages so that they are tailored to your chosen channels and platforms.

6. Maximize Your Social Shares

Each content sharing platform has strengths that should be used to maximum advantage. For example, short video content is perfect for sharing on Facebook and Instagram, while some eye-catching infographics can be created for ease of share on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Always look for usage patterns of the content sharing platforms – then, look for ways to stand out.

Jason Thibault, the owner of the content marketing agency Massive Kontent, shares some insights on the optimal use of LinkedIn:

“LinkedIn now has just over 300 million active monthly users, 40% of which visit the site daily. Only 3 million of those users share content every week – so creating and sharing content on the platform automatically puts you in the “one percent”. This year I started including short PDFs with my LinkedIn posts. Just 6-7 pagers that summarize my main points. The posts with PDFs generate anywhere from 250% to 600% more views (4,000-12,000 views) in the LinkedIn newsfeed.”

It is crucial to create your content with the distribution platform in mind. For example, the optimal length of a Facebook post for ease of sharing is between 40 and 80 characters, while the ideal content length on Twitter is often reported to be 70 – 100 characters. At the same time, some brands have discovered that much longer Facebook posts work for them, while others swear by multi-tweet messages on Twitter. Ultimately, you are the best judge of what works best in your space – and figuring that out does take quite a bit of experimentation!

ALSO – Social Media: How Does it Impact Your SEO?

Paid promotion may be a good tactic to use to start things off. The initial traction that your post gets from paid placements start leading to organic shares.  

Samantha Milner, the food blogger at RecipeThis.com, has been able to grow her blog to 8 million pageviews a year using the following strategy:

“When a new recipe is published, we will share it first to our Facebook page and Twitter account. It will also have every image featured in it shared to a relevant Pinterest board. It is then distributed across Pinterest with Tailwind until it has gone through all relevant Pinterest groups, shared with relevant Tailwind Tribes, and then shared throughout social bookmarking channels – as well as to recipe sharing sites and link parties. Then each Friday it will be shared with our newsletter subscribers.”

So, to maximize social shares:

• Consistently share quality content on the platforms that your target audience uses
• Use the best formats for sharing on your chosen platforms
• Use paid promotion to initiate organic shares of your top content
• Always study the competition – then look for ways to stand out!

7. Email Is Still HUGE

It has been around forever, but, year after year, numerous studies agree that email remains a powerful content distribution and marketing channel – even for younger generations. As many as 68% of millennials report that promotional emails have influenced their purchasing decisions.

Build a quality email list

Building targeted email lists is more important than ever. One successful tactic is to offer some actionable, in-demand content – like an eBook or an instructional video – for free in exchange for mailing list subscriptions. The pieces of content that you offer as subscription incentives should:

1. Add immediate value to your audience – teach them a strategy, show them a technique, etc.
2. Be as targeted as possible.
3. Promise to deliver more – soon. (Make sure you deliver on that promise!)

If you provide immediate value, your readers are more likely to stay subscribed. They will also be more motivated to open your subsequent emails and be receptive to your messages.

Keep your email formatting clean and simple

While it is tempting to experiment with formats of your email messages, it is important to remember about the overwhelming number of emails your readers open daily.

People are becoming tired of the visually bulky “traditional” newsletter formats.

Simple, brief, to the point, letter-style emails are easier to skim through and are more likely to get attention and initiate immediate action.

In fact, emails sent by some of the most prominent content marketers of today are concise to the point of using an almost bullet-point format.

Your email promotion success also greatly depends on your attention to detail and persistence. To get better response rates, personalize the subject and body of your messages as much as possible, and be prepared to send multiple emails to the same contacts.

ALSO – Email Copywriting: Tips for Mastering a Profitable Niche

8. Share in Social Network Groups (and Create Your Own!)

Your top content deserves extra distribution effort. Both Facebook and LinkedIn have the Groups feature that is great for reaching out to people that are actively looking for information on very specific topics.

Oksana Chyketa, a B2B marketer at Albacross.com, has the following tips on distributing content via Facebook Groups:

“A great way to promote your content on Facebook is through Facebook Groups. In this case, you have two options: 1) You can join Facebook groups and boost your reach by sharing your content once you’re a member. Or 2) You can create your own Facebook Group and invite users to join and promote your brand. Both options are excellent in an organic increase of page ‘likes.’ It’s important to mention that only high-quality, problem-solving and engaging content will attract and retain your prospects.”

As a content marketer, it is important to make sure that you are present on all major social platforms that your audience frequents. Be it Quora, Reddit, YouTube, or smaller niche forums – before you start promoting your content in any way, you need to learn the rules of the group, and add value by answering questions and genuinely contributing to discussions. Do not post any content that can be perceived as spammy. Reddit, in particular, has zero spam tolerance and can be more valuable as an audience research platform than a content distribution one.

9. Always Look for Emerging Channels (and for New Opportunities to Use Existing Ones!)

Who heard of TikTok two years ago? Very few people would’ve predicted its amazing rise. The same could’ve been said about YouTube just a few years earlier.

The new channels for publishing your content emerge every day, and, as overwhelming as it all might feel – it’s crucial to keep up with them.

At the same time, new uses of established platforms should never be overlooked.

YouTube Community Feature Can Be Used for Content Sharing

If you have access to a YouTube channel that has over 1,000 subscribers, you can use the Community feature to share your content.

When a piece of content is shared with the community, the post will appear to all of your subscribers.

“We tripled our referral traffic from YouTube since we started posting to our community,” says Antti Alatalo, Marketing Director at CashCow.

Use Audio to Establish a Deeper Connection with Your Audience

Audio is another traditional content distribution channel that appears evergreen.

Simon Elkjær of Nutimo believes that the audio format has given him a deeper connection to his audience:

“I have been doing blogging, YouTube, book launches, events and public speaking amongst other things. But through my podcast, I feel the listeners are getting a deeper connection. When I meet people who are podcast-subscribers, they feel like they know me, they listen to me on evening walks, while commuting, going to the gym or just in a quiet place, in a nice chair. In this way audio is unique. It requires nothing of you, and no screen time to consume. It’s a way of disconnecting from a stressful smartphone or tv screen, and just listening.”

According to Simon, with audio, it is best to go in-depth:

“We changed our format from 15 minutes to about an hour and our listeners loved it. Our format is 20% on topic, and 80% anecdotes, stories, and small talk. Those who listen now really care, and listen because of us, not because of the information.”

Look for New Ways to Use Your Channels

Always be on the lookout for new features of your main distribution channels. Identify and follow the experts in the field. And don’t forget to always experiment yourself – it’s little, subtle touches and tweaks that often help you stay ahead of the content distribution game.

10. Use Paid Promotion Channels for Retargeting

Paid channel targeting is becoming more sophisticated every day. One of the most valuable tactics is retargeting – keeping your brand and content in front of the customers that have already visited your site, or showing ads based on the history of their interaction with some of your content. Content marketers need to make full use of this trend in their social media marketing efforts.

You can build your retargeting lists based on the type of content that your target audiences have already interacted with. Then, you can use these audiences to promote your new content. For example, when promoting a new instructional video, you would target people that have already watched some of your videos.

Once you have a good understanding of your main audience, you can start to experiment with the Lookalike Audiences feature (offered by both Facebook and LinkedIn), targeting audiences with similar characteristics and expanding your reach.

Here is how some content marketers do it.

Oksana Chyketa of Albacross shares some of her Facebook ads strategy insights:

“…One more way to boost your content is by using Facebook ads. The tip here is that you don’t need to target the unknown people, but those who have already been to your site, let’s say during the last 60 days. In this way, you’ll manage to drive only quality leads to your blog and the bonus is that your CPC will be much cheaper.”

Jason Thibault of Massive Kontent has been successful in distributing content on Twitter and Quora:

“Currently, I’m finding that the Twitter ads platform and Quora for Business are offering the best return on ad spend. With Twitter, I upload custom-tailored audiences and continuously build a second ‘website visitors’ audience via the Twitter conversion pixel. If I’ve set everything up correctly I can send 2-400 visitors to a new piece of content for 20-40 cents per click (sometimes less).”

11. Influencer Marketing Tip: Don’t Overlook Micro-Influencers!

According to a recent study by MediaKix, 80% of marketers find that influencer marketing is effective. The good news is that your influencer marketing campaign does not have to come with a hefty price tag. Emerging influencers and micro-influencers often have more genuine engagement with their followers than established ones. While marketers can find themselves working harder initially to identify and contact micro-influencers, it is usually worth the time and effort if you want to reach your niche audiences.

Micro-influencers are also more likely to be interested in collaborations that involve distributing content for free in exchange for the exposure they get.

One great practice is to contact micro-influencers with relevant expertise and ask them to contribute to your pieces of content. “They’ll be your content marketing advocates,” Alexander Porter of Search It Local explains. “Show them the finished content and thank them for their contribution. Avoid overtly asking them to share it, by developing authentic relationships you’ll find these micro-influencers naturally share your content which increases its reach and exposure.”

12. 80/20 Rule: Your Main Focus Should Not Be on Creating Content

Gone are the days when content marketers could just distribute quality content blindly and expect results.

The 80/20 rule of content marketing for 2020 is that only 20% of your time should be spent creating content, while 80% should be devoted to content strategy, distribution and promotion.

Spend More Time Sharing

Outsourcing your content creation to experts with content writing services such as Crowd Content allows you to direct your main efforts to where they matter most – developing an effective strategy and putting your content in front of the right eyes.

The post 12 Content Distribution Tips to Ensure Maximum Exposure in 2020 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Here’s what you need to know about Google’s June 2019 Core update.

What Is a Core Update?

Core updates are an overall optimization of Google’s algorithm based on broad principles instead of a targeted update on any one particular element or ranking factor. They’re not “maintenance” work meant to fix a specific, identified problem.

Updates such as Panda or Penguin were targeted — specifically meant to target issues such as the quality of backlinks or content. The June core update may include some changes related to quality, but it wasn’t specifically geared toward that.

When releasing core updates Google always advises there isn’t anything you need to “fix” to recover lost rankings. Moreover, you just need to do all the essential SEO things well including writing great SEO content, providing great user experience, being mobile friendly, having fast page speeds, building healthy backlinks, and updating your site often.

Takeaways and Talking Points for Google’s June 2019 Core Update

Let’s start by looking over some of the expert talking points of this broad core algorithm update and what they mean for brands and content marketers.

1. Google Announced the Update

Google announced the update via Twitter a day ahead of time to give the SEO community a heads up. This is the first time news about an update was broken by Google and ahead of the game.

The benefit of the announcement is that brands could monitor their SEO performance and traffic immediately to understand how they were impacted instead of second guessing after traffic changed.

The takeaway is that, whether or not Google continues to notify the community of updates in the future, it’s important for content marketers to follow industry leaders and keep up with trends and news.

2. The Core Update Overlapped With the Diversity Update

The core update rolled out from June 3 through June 8. The diversity update(which aimed to show links from different domains in search results instead of showing many links from one domain) rolled out from June 4 through June 6.

The takeaway for brands is that paying attention to when traffic changes began is critical to understand which update might be impacting you. That lets you know what types of changes may be needed in the future.

3. The June Update Reverted Some of the March Update

Some of the March core updates seem to have been reverted with the June update, based on losers in March becoming winners in June.

The takeaway is that you can’t ride or die based on Google updates that occur a few times per year. You have to find what works for your audience and concentrate on delivering high-quality content that serves consumer needs.

4. Video Carousels Get More Action

The June 2019 update did more than shake up search traffic. It also caused some changes to the SERPs themselves, with more video carousels appearing on desktop following the update.

The takeaway here isn’t very specific. This does point to Google signaling the continued value increase for video, which is something all content marketers should consider in the image-and-media-based market today.

Winners and Losers From June’s Update

SEO data companies, including Search Engine Land, are able to provide specific lists of winners and losers of the Google June 2019 core update. But the consensus seems to be that:

• E-A-T content is still important to success in the SERPs
• Google continues to look for authority and authorship, especially in YMYL (your money, your life) arenas
• The June update did seem to target news sites with low-quality content or low-quality topics

ALSO – How Creating Content With E-A-T In Mind Can Help Future-Proof Your Site Against Algorithm Changes

Some Advice From the SEO Community in the Wake of June’s Core Update

1. Concentrate on E-A-T Content

Arren Wilkinson, the SEO Manager at 52fridays says, “It’s clear to me that the June 2019 update heavily penalized sites that are lacking in E-A-T. Of most of our client sites that seemed to suffer the most, all were lacking in expertise in their editorial content. These sites also suffered during the Medic update of 2019.”

In the wake of these broad core updates, Wilkinson says, “My best piece of advice would be to work solely on improving your E-A-T; get experts to contribute to your editorial content, get cited from experts in your niche, and be transparent with your users (explain how your site makes money, its business model, etc.).”

Marissa Ryan, a Managing Partner at VisualFizz, goes even further, stating that author bios for your blog posts should read like resumes. She notes that bios should prove “the writer’s expertise in your industry by linking to other projects, other writings and other brands.”

Ryan also says companies should avoid using one author for all content. “You should have multiple writers on your blog.”

This advice about authority and E-A-T content is important for all companies, but it’s especially critical for YMYL brands as Google is paying increasing attention to the quality and authority of that content.

2. Remember That Search Algorithms Constantly Evolve

Audrey Strasenburgh, SEO Strategist at FreeLogoServices, points out that brands gain and lose traffic based on different algorithm tweaks. Strasenburgh says, “The general consensus is that websites that were severely impacted during the March algorithm update saw marked increases in site visibility after the June update. FreeLogoServices, in particular, saw an increase in SERPs after the June update where we did not fare as well in March.”

The takeaway for online brands and marketers is that lost rankings can be found again, and sometimes it’s about consistently churning good content while the dust settles in the SERPs.

ALSO – Crash Course: How to Become an SEO Content Writer

3. Update Content to Reflect Search Intent and User Need

Victor Pan, the Principle Technical SEO at HubSpot, agrees that Google algorithm changes come and go and there’s no magic fix for companies that lose ranking when the search engine tweaks its processes.

“There’s no magic bullet for dealing with these core algorithm updates,” says Pan, “but what everyone can do is look at their content that lost visibility and traffic, look at the SERPS of those pages, empathize with the user’s need, based on device time, location, time of day or need state, what search features are showing up… and then update the content to address those gaps. Time and time again, the best content wins. One-and-done evergreen content is dead. Periodically updated evergreen content is the new norm.”

Ryan agrees, saying, “if your website hasn’t had any updates in a while (more than 6 months), you may have noticed a steep decline in organic traffic. Update your static pages, and make sure to contribute to your site at least once a week.”

The take-aways here are:

• Web pages can’t be left on the shelf to rot; you have to take them down and dust them off periodically
• Google is about serving the intent and need of the user, and it’s going to continue placing pages that meet those demands in the top ranks
• You can’t avoid analyzing the performance of your pages; if you don’t know which of your pages are performing well and which aren’t, you’re missing out on valuable knowledge that can help you create higher-ranking content going forward

4. Differentiate Your Pages

According to Ryan, pages on your site with similar content won’t all stand on Google.

“Brands, especially eCommerce brands, found that many of their product pages became unindexed from Google.” says Ryan. “This is because of Google’s canonical push, which means that if Google determined several pages on your website were too similar, they would only index one of those pages and consider it the canonical version of all the other pages that were very similar. If this happened to you, update your individual product/service pages to be completely unique and give lots of info about the product/service. Then, push to the Google search console for a recrawl.”

5. Ensure Your Site Supports Strong User Experience for Desktop and Mobile

Michael Zima, Co-Founder of Zima Media, LLC, wraps it all up by returning to the need to support the user.

“We have to remember that Google’s mission is to make the information of the world available in one click,” says Zima. “Now more than ever, your website content has to solve the searcher’s intent, visiting your website has to be a pleasure with a modern experience and everything has to be blazing fast since the mass rollout of the Google mobile-first indexing. We know Google is prioritizing the mobile version of your website for both searchers coming from either mobile devices or desktop computers as implied by the mobile-first name.”

Zima likens well-performing sites to Swiss army knives, unfolding with many utilities for the user. To accomplish that, he says, “We see more and more success by creating a reliable pillar webpage to bring more qualified clicks from Google by creating a meaningful piece of content instead of sprinting and creating several weaker and shorter pages.”

The post Google’s June 2019 Core Update: What You Need to Know appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

That’s what happened in March 2019 when Google released its March Core Algorithm update. While SEOs are still debating exactly what changes that update made (which is tough to identify, as Google describes the changes as not targeting specific tactics), evidence is showing that sites following E-A-T guidelines benefited most.

E-A-T content was definitely important to the Medic Update that happened in late 2018 (named the Medic Update since it hit online health brands the hardest). Out of the ashes of that update, Google offered advice about creating great content (E-A-T content) that might fare better against future updates.

What Is E-A-T Content?

E-A-T content is something Google talked about in a white paper that supports their comments on the Medic Update. It explains how Google measures the quality of each page — and we know that quality is a critical factor in ranking.

According to Google, three factors play a major role in quality determinations:

• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

Expertise refers to whether the site owner (or the author) is knowledgeable about the subject at hand. There’s a difference, for example, between a licensed RN with 15 years in the business and a high-quality LinkedIn page writing health content and a random author without any credentials doing so.

Authoritativeness refers to the credibility of the website. Is it long-standing? Do other credible sites link to or reference it?

Trustworthiness refers to whether the website inspires trust. Is it known for high-quality, accurate content? Again, do others reference or link to it?

How Do You Create E-A-T-friendly Content?

Consistently producing high-quality, relevant SEO content that’s accurate goes a long way toward having content that keeps the principles of E-A-T in mind, but marketers can take it a step further with a few of the tips below:

• Make use of bio and about pages. If you have the expertise, don’t let it go unsaid. Create bio pages and bylines for blog posts and articles your staff or freelancers write, and include specifics that position the authors as experts or influencers in the niche. Do the same on your about pages for the company as a whole and its leadership. Consider your entire team; if you have experts on staff, talk about them online.
• Regularly audit content performance. A blog post you published last year that hasn’t gained any views or traction may be dragging your entire site down when it comes to E-A-T. Don’t be afraid to purge some of your poorest-performing content to right the ship.
• Up the ante on your backlinking game. Sure, link building and old school black hat SEO tactics don’t push you up the search engine pages anymore, but links are still important. They help establish your credibility and authority. Study new linking tactics to score some support for your pages.
• Work with writers who can deliver authoritative content. You don’t have to write all your own content to stay authoritative in the niche, but do vet your freelancers and writing teams to ensure you’re working with people who understand your industry and can write high-quality content.

ALSO– How You Can Find a Great Content Writer Who Has Niche Expertise

Long-Term Benefits of E-A-T-friendly Content

Creating content with E-A-T in mind does seem to help pages rank better on their own, but it also has a variety of knock-on effects that can strengthen your content now and in the future. Here are three ways E-A-T content can be good for traffic, page performance and search engine rankings:

1. Boost Behavior Metrics

The type of content that passes muster under Google’s E-A-T requirements is also the type of content visitors are likely to spend time engaging with. When users trust the content you provide and perceive that it’s high quality and authoritative, they’re more likely to read the entire article or follow internal linking to other pages on your site.

That improves behavioral metrics, such as increased time on page and decreased bounce rates. Those in turn drive up your RankBrain score, which is a factor in search engine ranking.

2. Increased Links and Social Shares

True E-A-T content is more likely to impress and resonate with readers, and that leads to more social shares and links. This is fantastic news in its own right, because that means more people are likely to connect with your brand online. But it’s also good news for search engine rankings, because links enforce credibility.

3. Inclusions in Featured Snippets

Finally, E-A-T content that impresses Google is more likely to be included in featured snippets. These are concise answers to specific queries that Google pulls from various pages; the site with the featured snippet gets prime placement on top of the organic search results — and often on top of paid, map or local pack results.

Check out the image below for an example of a featured snippet. The query was about types of screwdrivers, and Google pulled a short answer from Primer Magazine. You’ll notice that the site answers the question in a few short sentences and even includes an image.

It’s also important that you consider what type of featured snippet Google would show for the keywords you’re targeting, and you should structure your content to match.

In the case above, that means posing a question and an image (and alt-image attribute) or subhead and then answering the question in around 25 to 50 words. You can also provide a structured list to answer the question. Adding schema markup to your page may also help you get placed into the snippet section.

You don’t have to limit your own page content to those 25 to 50 words; in fact, it would be disastrous to do so. Continue on providing E-A-T-quality content for the rest of the page, addressing other elements of the topic or expounding on the information in the short answer. After all, longer content also performs well in the search engines.

Our Crash Course on Becoming an SEO Content Writer dives into why you should care about featured snippets.

The Final World on E-A-T

This is nothing ground-breaking. Search marketers have known for a long time now that quality is a critical component of success in the search engines. But Google’s provided us with a more detailed breakdown of what it considers quality, and by sculpting your pages to match E-A-T requirements, you can help safeguard them against future algorithm updates.

The post How Creating Content With E-A-T In Mind Can Help Future-Proof Your Site Against Algorithm Changes appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today I’d like to share a few ideas and suggestions to hire freelance content writers who specialize in your industry. You can try navigating the hunt on your own or take advantage of these ideas and suggestions, as well as Crowd Content tools that help simplify the process.

Tip 1: Reach Out to Writers Whose Work You Admire

When you read great blogs posts in your industry, see which great content writer is behind all that pithy prose. You’re already seeing the author’s talent at work, making it easier to see how they approach your niche.

Their voice might also be in line with your vision.

Often a content writer’s byline will also connect to their website, portfolio or an author page for that specific publication. Take a moment to sift through their catalog for insight into their body of work.

This approach allows you to skip the “Do you have any samples?” back-and-forth that typically goes with the interview process. But you may find that published writers have an exclusivity clause or are not interested in freelancing.

Tip 2: Create Job Postings

Job postings are a great way to let you specify the exact knowledge and experience you need your writers to have. Many companies post these directly on their own sites, and you can also choose to post job ads on sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter. 

Other places you can post on include various writing service sites, industry job boards and on social media (linking back to a posting on your site).

Creating a digital “help wanted” ad can help you find candidates who should have the niche expertise you want (if they pay attention to your requirements before applying).

Doing this often results in many, many applications, and the sheer volume of applicants may make it a bit overwhelming to sift through and qualify.

There’s a good chance you can find a great writer with the niche expertise you want among all those applications, but it can prove very time consuming to review large numbers of them. Remember, you’ll also have to review samples, check references and generally vet all applicants before working with them.

Tip 3: Casting Calls

Casting calls are a special Crowd Content feature that let you audition a large number of vetted writers as quickly and painlessly as possible. With casting calls, qualified writers come to you.

Your casting call lists important project information and may share other details such as pay rate and scope. You’ll specify questions that all applicants need to answer in their submission, and you can also ask for a project-specific sample to help whittle down your choices.

Casting calls are a lot like job posts, except you’re shrinking the applicant pool significantly. Rather than broadcasting your opening to the entire world, you’re targeting Crowd Content’s cache of qualified writers. And, you can even restrict your casting call further to only make it available to writers of certain ranks and qualifications.

This system gets you responses and samples tailored to your business, so there’s no guessing as to whether a writer’s past work is a good example of their ability. You also won’t have to imagine how they’d interpret your niche.

The only downside here is you’ll still have to do a bit of digging. Most casting calls get a lot of applications you’ll still have to review, but you can rest easy knowing that Crowd Content has already qualified these writers for you.

Plus, you can also review each applicant’s profile on the site to learn more about them, see how other clients have rated their work, and see more samples.

And that leads me to the next tip…

Tip 4: Writer Search/Profile Reviews

Curious who’s a search engine optimization wunderkind and who rocks at writing website content? Crowd Content clients have an option to search and view writer profiles, sharing insights into everything from a writer’s areas of expertise to their performance stats.

Each profile includes all of the following:

• A short bio created by the writers themselves, detailing their education, experience and key writing skills
• A quality star level determined by Crowd Content’s performance-based rating algorithm
• Category badges denoting whether a writer is among the top 10 in a specific category
• Testimonials and client ratings/reviews
• Performance stats by category
• General writer statistics such as average words written per hour and how many orders a writer currently has in progress
• Samples of the writer’s work

These are metrics you wouldn’t normally have access to, even if you had a contract with a marketing agency or had your own in-house writers. After all, who has the time to track so many moving parts?

Ahem…. Crowd Content’s awesome algorithm

Tip 5: Networking in Industry Groups

Word of mouth is powerful in any industry, but it’s especially valuable in content marketing. Consider asking for writer recommendations from colleagues. You’ll quickly learn which writers are known for great content, who delivers on-time, who nails ideation and whose copy has increased conversion rates by 300 percent.

You may even meet writers themselves, and you’ll be able to zero in on a few high-quality candidates without opening yourself up to a barrage of hopeful contractors who are also total strangers.

You probably already know some great industry groups locally, but consider checking out professional groups on LinkedIn, Reddit and Slack communities for some online recommendations.

This approach might not be as scalable as others, but it can help you find really authoritative writers in your niche.

One caveat for this approach — while industry experience is great, it doesn’t always mean that the writer’s writing is strong enough for you. Be sure to still check out samples of their writing before starting any projects.

Not All Roads to Niche Expertise Are Equal

There’s no inherently wrong way to to find a freelance writer who knows your niche, but some paths may be more difficult. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide which approach makes the most sense for your business.

But, the benefits of finding a great niche writer with solid writing chops are huge.

Regardless of your niche, save yourself time and energy by connecting with writers who are proven performers.

If you’d like a hand finding the perfect writer for your business, sign up for Crowd Content services today or call our team at 1-888-983-3103 to talk about our talent.

The post How Can You Find a Great Content Writer Who Has Niche Expertise? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The path to incredible content is best traveled with care, and selecting a writer is just the beginning. What you really want — what you really need — is a writer who can create blog posts that drive traffic. Why? Because traffic is the lifeblood of any marketing campaign.

Bring the people, and they might buy. Write a compelling headline, and they will come. Start sharing great blog posts, and those people might even stick around. Pair all those features with high-quality copy from homepage to post-purchase thank-you emails, all peppered with irresistible calls to action, and you just might see sales soar.

But I digress.

Long before you get the satisfaction of nudging your mouse across your screen, hitting publish on your blog and watching your writer-for-hire‘s words dance across the internet, you have a job to do. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to give your writer everything they need to understand how to write blog posts you and your audience will love.

Recruit Writers with Proven Experience in Your Niche

If you’re a baseball player dealing with a possibly career-ending knee injury, are you going to book an appointment with a general practitioner or call a board-certified orthopedist with stellar references and a jaw-droppingly impressive track record? The answer is obvious. You wouldn’t trust your livelihood, your passion or your future to just anyone.

Good writers aren’t that hard to find. Great writers who specialize in the type of content you need are far more difficult to source. Did you know there are three main categories of writers? And each of those categories explodes into a plethora of subcategories.

Writers may specialize by topic, such as hospitality or personal finance, or they may narrow their focus to email marketing or landing pages. Some writers are riveted on a teeny tiny slice of the pie, tailoring their offerings by both topic and content type.

What kind of writer are you looking for? Decide before you jump headfirst into your search. It’ll help you stay on target — no shiny object syndrome when you spot a writer who looks great but is completely wrong for the task at hand — and expedite the hunt.

How do you gauge a writer’s experience?

• Check their samples. Most writers have some kind of portfolio, though these days ghostwriting and NDAs may make it more difficult for even the most experienced writers to share their best work. That’s why it’s a good idea to…
• Let the writing speak for itself. Whittle your list down to two or three writers and hire each of them to create a post. This way, you’re getting a true sense of what they can do given your parameters, your topic, and your brand’s style guide.

To further streamline the process, use Crowd Content’s platform to search and review writer profiles or set up a casting call and let the talent come to you.

Provide Examples of Good Posts

Most people have an idealized version of the things they like, and everything that comes after is compared to that paragon. When you order a piping-hot slice of pizza or listen to an up-and-coming rock band’s new song, you’re automatically (if unconsciously) comparing it to the best pepperoni pie you’ve ever had and hearing the Rolling Stones in your head. Blog posts are no different.

It’s human to gravitate toward a writing style or certain blog post ideas that makes you feel something. If you want your writer to evoke those same emotions, give your freelancer a solid starting point. A couple links or a short list of names accompanied by a few notes sets the bar, letting writers know exactly how high they’re expected to jump.

Include a Detailed Creative Brief and Style/Brand Guide

One of the most common mistakes in content marketing is skipping the creative brief. It takes time and energy, and it requires you to focus on mapping out a project from start to finish before you hand it off to your team. That’s daunting.

Putting your ideas on paper is a big hairy deal because it’s a gigantic part of conveying your vision to the people tasked with bringing it to life.

You’ll need to include:

• A brand statement
• An introduction to the project objectives
• Central messaging
• Pain points you intend to address
• Who the audience is
• Where the content is going to go

It’s essentially a blueprint on how to write blog posts that will resonate with your readers, advance your branding and capture reader attention in a lasting way.

Style guides are similar in that they serve as a road map to how you want your content to look, read and feel. They’re crucial for one gargantuan reason: cohesion. If you’re working with multiple writers or really any team members other than yourself, a style guide ensures everyone stays on the same page. From logos to color schemes, font preferences, tone and so much more, your brand or style guide spells out your identity, so customers learn to recognize you even when your name isn’t front and center.

Share Persona Info

No matter how many times you give your freelancer tips to write a blog that rocks, if they have no clue who they’re writing for, you’re just wasting your time. In content marketing, the audience is everything. In fact, 63 percent of smart marketers create content around a specific buyer persona, and they do it because they know buyer personas fuel dynamic content.

Learning how to develop a buyer persona is a specialized skill in of itself. Simply closing your eyes and guessing who your ideal customer is won’t cut it. It’s funny how often the reality of who follows your brand differs from who you think is loyal to your company. Gather information gleaned from user surveys, sales insights, email capture forms, subscriptions, app opt-ins and general industry/market segment profiles and identify some common denominators.

Telling your writer they’re speaking to Paul, a 33-year-old software engineer from Indiana with two kids, a mortgage and a serious Fortnite habit is beneficial beyond words. This is the same info you’ll later use to target Facebook ads and perfect your sales funnel, so make your research count.

Give Detailed, Ongoing Feedback

Copywriters may be many things — creators, strategists, SEO experts, social media gurus, spelling and grammar purists — but they’re not mind readers. They can’t correct something if they don’t know it’s wrong. On the other hand, creative types often become attached to their work, and wondering whether it’s being appreciated can feel stifling.

Clients jump at the chance to offer feedback after the initial sample or at the start of a new project, but that’s frequently the end of the road. The rest of the partnership goes by without comment until one of three things happens:

• The writer starts to feel like a nameless, faceless cog in the wheel and their creativity stagnates
• The writer makes a mistake and, after a long period of silence, gets negative feedback out of the blue
• You become so accustomed to the status quo you skim the intro to each blog post and barely read the rest, gradually becoming disconnected from the heart and soul of your content strategy

Making feedback part of your process from the very beginning helps prevent critiques from feeling personal. If your writer feels attacked they won’t perform as well, but freelancers do want to hear how they’re doing.

Editing and performance reviews are par for the course in this industry, and anyone who is unwilling to accept they have room to improve won’t last very long—but that doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to rip apart every draft.

When giving feedback:

• Be specific. Saying “it just doesn’t feel right” isn’t useful. Saying “the tone doesn’t match our brand voice” or “I prefer shorter paragraphs” is.
• Be respectful. This is your brand’s reputation at stake, so you deserve to get the content you asked for. That said, belittling a writer won’t get anywhere.
• Be constructive. You’re not trying to show how much you know, you’re trying to empower your writer to think bigger and be more proactive.

Above all, remember you hired this writer for a reason. Ask questions if you’re doubtful about sentence structure or word choice, but also trust you were savvy enough to partner with someone who’s an expert in their field.

Share Performance Data

No one performs well in a vacuum. Imagine being a dedicated long-distance runner but never knowing how fast your competition runs or whether you’ve improved your own time since your last outing. It’s frustrating.

Content writing and digital marketing are ever-changing works in progress. Your writer wants to get better, they want to improve conversion rates and create even more compelling content, but they can’t do that without some knowledge of where they’re starting from and how they’re doing along the way.

When you contract a new freelancer, be up front with your current state of affairs. Have you been disappointed in your social media engagement? Are you getting blog hits but no sales? Do your landing pages fall short? All of this should be part of the initial instructions or you’re not giving your writer everything they need to succeed.

Once you’ve established and shared your starting point, deliver regular updates. If a blog performs particularly well, send your writer a message. If you’re seeing a steady rise in conversions, mention that too. When numbers are going in the opposite direction, that’s important information as well — though recognize that the writing may not be the only factor contributing to your burgeoning success or stuttering traffic.

Bringing It All Together

Remember, the writer-client relationship is a partnership, and communication is imperative. Your writer is going on a trip and you’re not going to be in the passenger’s seat the whole time, so give them what they need to reach the correct destination in one piece. The whos, the whats, the whys, the hows — it all matters. Your writer knows good blogging, but you’re a stranger until you step up, introduce yourself and make it clear what you need.

Your brand is one-of-a-kind. Help your writer help you shine.

For more help kicking off the writing process, contact the Crowd Content team or reach out to your customer success manager today.

The post A Proven Process To Show Writers How To Write Blog Posts That Drive Results appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

While the days of stuffing the meta keywords field full of search terms you’d love to rank for are long gone, metadata still impacts your rankings in a few key ways.

Title tags have always been an important ranking factor on their own, and including your primary keyword naturally in the title is an important aspect of optimization.

While meta descriptions have not been a direct ranking factor since Google launched RankBrain in 2015, behavioral metrics such as bounce rate, dwell time and organic clickthrough rate (OCTR) are key. Google pulls the page title and meta description to display in its search results, so both of them are now playing an active role in how RankBrain evaluates your site.

Metadata influences these behavioral metrics in a few ways:

1. OCTR – If you achieve a great OCTR, RankBrain will see that searchers find your metadata compelling enough to click on and might reward you with higher search rankings.
2. Bounce rate – If your bounce rate is too high, RankBrain might interpret it as searchers are not finding the content they expect based on your metadata, leading to lower placements in the search results.
3. Dwell time – This is the inverse of bounce rate. If searchers spend a lot of time on your site after clicking a link, that indicates to RankBrain that they find your content a good match for what they searched for.

These are the three primary factors that influence RankBrain’s “Relevance Score.” If your metadata does well with these factors, RankBrain should reward you with better search results.

While good metadata helps you rank, it’s also intrinsically important in encouraging searchers to click on your links and drive traffic. It acts as a guide to search engine crawlers and your audience, letting them know exactly what the pages are all about.

Think of your title and meta description as ad copy — it needs to entice a click and communicate what your page is all about.

But what does good metadata look like?

Let’s take a look at that.

A Quick Recap of Metadata Elements

There are two primary metadata elements that impact your SEO — title and description. These are the elements you should optimize for when trying to improve your SEO through metadata.

ALSO: The Do’s and Don’ts Of Metadata

If you’d like a more technical, in-depth look at these elements, be sure to check out the w3school page on the Meta Tag.

Title Tag

The title tag specifies your web page’s title. Potential visitors see this in a few places, including search engine result pages and when your content is shared in social media (if you’re not using Open Graph tags).

Note: try to keep titles to under 60 characters, as Google only shows about that many in the search results.

As mentioned, the title tag is the only metadata element that’s a direct ranking factor, and as such, it should be optimized for the primary keyword. Typically, this means you’ll include the keyword in the title in a natural way, including using stop words and punctuation to ensure it flows well.

The title also needs to be written in an engaging way that compels people to click on it.

In the Google search result below, Impact Branding does a good job compelling searchers to click with their title. They’ve also integrated the keyword “social media conversations” into their title. Though that’s not the only reason it’s helped them rank on the first page of Google results for that keyword, it’s certainly important.

What makes a strong title? Focus on the following:

1. Keep it succinct – less than 60 characters ideally
2. Use words that are action focused and elicit emotional responses
3. Follow a title convention that readers are familiar with such as lists, reviews, how-to and questions
4. Make sure the title connects well to your content

Meta Description

Your meta description is a short summary of the page. Similar to titles, descriptions get used in search results and social media previews. Google shows roughly 160 characters of a meta description in its results, so most marketers focus on keeping theirs under that count.

While not a direct ranking factor, the description lets you really sell your content to encourage clicks and boost OCTR, helping you with RankBrain. When displayed in the search results, Google even highlights any matching search terms in your meta description, increasing the likelihood of you capturing a click. If possible, include your target keyword (and secondary keywords) in your meta descriptions to give your OCTR a boost.

Here’s an example of Google doing that for the search term “social media conversation.”

The same advice we discussed for titles also applies to meta descriptions, but consider these as well:

1. Make sure you succinctly describe what your page is about, while piquing readers’ interest
2. Include a call to action encouraging searchers to click on the link
3. Include keywords you expert to rank for to help searchers know your content is a match for that term
4. Use a variety of keywords you expect to rank for and not just your primary keyword

Tesla delivers a strong meta description that tells us exactly what the brand’s website is all about in just a few words and compels searchers to click:

What happens if your meta description isn’t succinct and doesn’t accurately reflect what your page is about? Google might ignore your description and generate its own based on the content on your page.

That’s not an ideal outcome, so make sure you put lots of care into your descriptions.

As you come to terms with how important your SEO metadata is in terms of ranking, know you don’t have to go it alone. The internet is brimming with tools to help you test, analyze and audit to keep you on the right track.

Tools to Help You Optimize Metadata SEO

SEO metadata optimization ultimately comes down to working on your meta title and descriptions, and there are a number of great tools that help you do that. We’ve chosen six of the top choices that we just couldn’t do without.

1. ClickFlow

ClickFlow is an awesome tool that lets you test the effectiveness of your metadata so you can make minor adjustments for huge rewards.

Essentially, it lets you test metadata variations and see which one delivers the highest OCTR. All you need to do is connect your Google Search Console to the tool, and you’ll be able to start optimizing. ClickFlow organizes and manages all your metadata experiments, which is a huge benefit, as metadata experiments can be a pretty manual exercise otherwise.

The dashboard lets you organize all your experiments and get some high-level performance metrics. It’s pretty easy to prove your efforts are successful if you can show increased clicks, OCTR and revenue increases.

The beauty of this is that you get to grow your organic traffic without having to keep building lots of links or producing lots more content, as simply increasing your OCTR helps you with RankBrain. Subsequently, you can boost your rankings.

Besides — what marketer ever said no to more clicks?

2. Google Analytics/Google Search Console

This might be an obvious one, but these are two important tools for metadata optimization.

Google Analytics is a totally free web analytics service that lets you analyze a website’s traffic. It’s pretty encompassing, and when used in conjunction with Google Search Console (also free), it can help you monitor your organic clickthrough rate.

While not as structured as ClickFlow,  you can use it to work out how effective your titles and descriptions are by tracking a page’s OCTR.

To access this, navigate to Aquisition > Search Console > Landing Pages.

Here you’ll see how your pages are performing in Google’s organic search. By making changes to your page’s metadata and tracking changes to your OCTR, you can create your own metadata tests manually that are similar to ClickFlow’s.

Plus, Analytics will let you see which pages have the highest number of organic impressions. Finding a page with a large number of impressions can yield the best results if you successfully boost your OCTR.

While clickthrough rate alone can help you gauge how effective or ineffective your metadata is, Google Search Console also comes with an HTML Improvements section that flags potential problems with your title tags and meta descriptions. This includes missing titles or descriptions or duplicate titles and descriptions. I’ve focused on how you can improve existing metadata so far, but missing or duplicate metadata is a bigger issue and extremely low-hanging fruit.

3. Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are necessary to keep organized if you’re manually experimenting with metadata.

Make sure you create a spreadsheet that tracks:

1. Current metadata
2. Test metadata
3. Current Impressions
4. Current Clicks
5. Current OCTR
6. Test Impressions
7. Test Clicks
8. Test OCTR
9. Current search rankings
10. Test search rankings

All of this data comes from Analytics and Search Console, but keeping it organized lets you track the results of your experiments. It also lets you track titles and descriptions in case you need to switch back to them.

Any spreadsheet tool will work for this — Excel, Google Sheets, Open Office, Libra, etc.

4. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer is a great  tool to experiment with your meta title tags. A title tag works a lot like a headline, and it’s your chance to grab the attention of searchers in the SERPs. A title tag must be compelling and direct, and it needs to succinctly and powerfully explain what the content is all about.

As this is not always easy, it’s a good idea to use a testing tool that lets you analyze your data and results.

Headline Analyzer evaluates your headlines and gives you a score from between 1 to 100, with 100 being a perfect score. (Not sure if anyone has ever achieved that though!).

It evaluates your word choice, title length, keywords included and more. In general, if you can earn a good score with Headline Analyzer, your title should perform well.

Note: This tool suggests you have a minimum of 55 characters in your headlines; just make sure you don’t go too far above that or Google may truncate your title in search results.

This tool is free to use. If you want to use CoSchedule’s broader set of tools that let you organize your marketing and social media, packages start out at only $80 per month.

5. SEMrush

SEMrush is a premium search engine marketing suite that’s designed to boost your marketing efforts. Whether you’re running PPC campaigns, social media campaigns, or want to increase traffic organically, it’s pretty handy to have by your side.

There are many ways it can benefit your metadata SEO game, but one of my favorite features is the SEO audit. The tool scans all your web pages and identifies any that are lacking metadata or have duplicate content.

Many online marketers either sometimes forget to add meta descriptions to new pages or have inherited sites with missing metadata. In either case, adding metadata to a page that doesn’t have it is a big opportunity.

Here’s a resource on how to perform an SEO audit with SEMrush and nail your metadata.

SEMrush is a paid service, but if you’re looking for a tool that will audit your site’s metadata in a similar fashion, check out Screaming Frog, which offers a free plan that lets you audit up to 500 pages.

6. Crowd Content

Writing meta descriptions and title tags isn’t easy, especially when you have a large number of pages and want to run experiments.

Crafting compelling, persuasive bite-sized pieces of content that convince searchers to click on your web page at scale is tricky.

ALSO – Getting Metadata With Your Orders

This is where a service such as Crowd Content proves useful. Home to versatile, professional metadata writers, it lets you connect with a writer who knows what makes internet users tick. They’ll acquaint themselves with your business and your content, and then deliver compelling metadata that hits the mark with your target audience.

Wrapping It Up

Title tags and meta descriptions remain the most important metadata elements in 2019, and they should continue to form a key part of your SEO strategy moving forward. The overall role of metadata SEO has changed over the years, but it’s key that you continue to nail these two.

With RankBrain using behavioral metrics such as organic clickthrough rates to determine how useful and relevant a piece of content is to the end user, you need to leverage the power of title tags and meta description to persuade Google and the searcher that you’ve got the best piece of content.

The tools I’ve mentioned here should help you get organized and focused on improving your metadata’s SEO.

Have any other tools you think I should have covered? Please let me know in the comments below.

The post Is SEO for Metadata Important to You? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Now, how’s your image SEO for the post?

After putting in the work of crafting a killer post, you need to make sure that your visual game matches up. What does that mean?

Kissmetrics tells us that quality content isn’t enough. To maintain a solid ranking, you need to include rich media, such as images and videos, and they should reflect the same quality and voice as your post to help communicate its point. These graphics can include charts, graphs, screenshots, GIFs and photos. They’re are a big part of the overall perceived quality of your post, so it’s important that you get this right.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”Rx0S0″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Combine quality content with optimized images to achieve and maintain solid rankings. [/ctt]

How Can Image SEO Help Your Site?

There’s no question about it — images that aren’t optimized can hurt your website. Photos that take a long time to load, for example, can send your rankings plummeting and your bounce rate skyrocketing. On the flip side, properly optimized images provide a better user experience, which might improve time on site, and they can broaden your site’s ranking opportunities via the SERPs and Google Images.

Google and other search engines have a large list of factors that determine search rankings (check out Search Engine Land’s table of ranking factors), and it’s important to understand what they are and which ones are relevant to the media on your site.

File Name

Include your targeted keyword in the media’s file name, but in a human, readable way. Readers and spiders should be able to get a good sense of what the subject of the image is based on the file name.

Alt Text

Adding relevant, descriptive alt text to each image ensures that readers who are using screen readers or have images disabled are able to understand what the image represents. Bonus points for including your target keyword, as this is a ranking factor and will impact both the post’s ranking as well as the image’s visibility within Image Search. According to Moz, industry best practice is to keep your alt text to 140 characters or less.

Image File Size

High-resolution images are necessary to give your site a professional look, but bloated file sizes can impact load times and your overall ranking. Use tools such as Optimizilla, TinyPNG or Kraken to compress your images to reduce their overall footprint.

Responsive Design

Google is placing a greater emphasis on the mobile experience and are even making moves toward using a mobile-first index in the near future. If you want to rank well, you’ll need to make sure your site delivers a good mobile experience. A critical part of that is ensuring your graphics respond to mobile devices to show an appropriately scaled image. This isn’t just good for SEO; it also enhances the user experience.

Image Captions

Entice your readers to stick around and read more by giving your images “deep captions.” Image captions are one of the most-read elements on a web page after headlines, so make yours count. Deep captions are typically two to three sentences long, which is usually enough to engage readers so they stay on the page.

Link Bait

Creating graphics that engage users, offer some unique value or are just entertaining ups your chances that readers either link to the images in their own content or share them on social media. This can be a valuable source of backlinks for your post. If you’ve optimized the images as described above, it tells Google that your post is relevant for the keywords and topics you’re targeting.

You can get creative when using images, but high-quality photos, charts, graphics, GIFs, infographics and visual quotes all work well. If you do choose to use these types of images, make sure to include share buttons and/or embed code so you don’t miss out on getting some easy links.

Related: 3 Things You Have to Get Right for Successful Infographics

Getting the Most Out Of Google Image Search

Roughly 22 percent of all searches in the U.S. are Google Image searches, giving properly optimized images a much broader reach. Google Images also frequently appear as featured snippets in many text search results where they can steal clicks away from text results. That’s a substantial amount of traffic that you can capitalize on if you put the time and effort into the images on your site.

The good news is — if you follow proper image SEO and take the time and effort to optimize, your pages will most likely rank well in image searches for the graphics already in your posts. Still, there are a few more things you can do to get even more out of image search:

• Use Google’s Search Console to see what images are ranking for in Image Search. To do this, visit Search Console > Search Traffic > Search Analytics, and then change Search Type to Image. You can then view the Clicks, Impressions, CTR and the Average Positions your images are ranking for. Keeping an eye on this can give you a good sense of whether your images are ranking for the terms you want them to. It will even help you identify high-value opportunities where you might want to try to get better rankings for your images.

•  
• Benchmark against the competition. Once you’re able to see which search terms your images are ranking for, you might want to start comparing your on-site graphics (and possibly metadata) against your competitors. Look at things such as image quality, legibility, whether they’re offering unique info and whether they’re engaging. Try to improve your image SEO so image searchers would rather click on your image than competitor images.
• Brand it. Add your logo, web address or some text that will encourage someone viewing the image to visit the page the image lives on.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”nVN2J” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Don’t forget to optimize images when giving your posts that last-minute #SEO pass. [/ctt]

And now, for your reading pleasure, a well-placed graphic with full-blown image SEO:

Share This Infographic On Your Site

The post How’s Your Image SEO Game? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The gimmick (and by gimmick, we mean “brilliant concept”) is the use of an actual white board. Here’s a look at why Moz’s Whiteboard Friday is so effective and what other sites and brands can learn from it.

Each Whiteboard Friday Answers a Specific Need or Question

Each Friday post hones in on a single question, concern or problem that’s impacting the audience (digital marketers, site owners and SEO professionals). The videos aren’t long — they seem to fall right around the 10 minute mark on average — but they pack in a lot of information.

Posts usually answer the big what, why and how questions relevant to the topic. Moz doesn’t just define and make the topic relevant, though: Whiteboard Fridays almost always deliver very specific, actionable advice.

Takeaways:

• Good content creation is directly related to the audience’s need
• People are busy, so provide value in under 10 minutes (that’s about 1,000 to 1,500 words of well-organized text, max)
• Make content actionable whenever you can

[ctt template=”4″ link=”Y889p” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]#ContentMarketers can learn valuable lessons from Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays. [/ctt]

Moz’s Content Creation Uses a Recognizable Image Concept

One of my favorite things about Whiteboard Friday is the genius reuse of time and content. First, someone writes up the main points on a whiteboard. The same content (which only cost a few minutes’ time and an investment in colored dry erase markers) is repurposed multiple times.

1. The whiteboard content becomes a visual for the video
2. A high-res image is offered, turning the whiteboard image into an instant infographic
3. Moz breaks the image up into smaller pieces to illustrate the post

Takeaway:

Apply the three Rs to your content:

• Reduce: Is there waste in your content creation process that can be removed for lower costs, great efficiency and better performance (Are you using too many words? Does the process include unnecessary back and forth between creators, editors and publishers? Are you posting too much?)
• Reuse: Can the content be used again as is? Moz’s Whiteboard image is a great example.
• Recycle: Can the content be dismantled and formed into something else? (A series of blog posts becomes an eBook; an article becomes an infographic.)

Related: Is Your Content Helping or Hurting Your Sales Funnel?

Whiteboard Friday Provides Users with Multiple Ways to Get Information

Moz does a great job of catering to various types of learners with the Friday posts. Auditory learners can listen to the video content, visual learners have the images and video and those who learn by reading have the video transcript. As someone who personally has a terrible internet connection, I love that I can read the information instead of relying on a video.

Takeway:

Always present your content in multiple formats and channels to engage more users. You don’t have to re-create the content every time, though you do have to test your processes. Moz simply has someone transcribe the videos, and they post that as an article under the media.

Not everyone can get away with this: Rand Fishkin is so good at content creation, he naturally speaks in a format that makes a great blog post (plus, there’s probably some prep work going on there). Remember: never just copy the experts; instead, find what works for you and your audience.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”1OdMv” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Use Moz’s Whiteboard Fridays as a lesson in reducing, reusing and recycling. #ContentMarketing[/ctt]

Rand and Co. Are Active in the Comments Section

Finally, Rand and the Moz team are active in the comments section on their posts. People can make observations and ask questions with actual hope that someone will answer, which leads to regular robust engagement.

Takeaway:

Don’t set it and forget it. Content creation is an active process, and you have to play to get paid. In other words: Stay active on your profiles, forums and comments sections.

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The post Why Moz’s Whiteboard Friday Is Such Effective Content Creation appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Typically, it doesn’t take new freelance writers long to realize that writing great articles is as much about resources as it is about spelling, grammar and punctuation skills.

Unless you were one of the lucky few, your early days as a writer didn’t rake in a lot of dough, so those writer resources had to be cheap… or better yet, free.

ALSO – Access Thousands of Freelance Writing Jobs

If you are a successful writer who understands the importance of short and longtail keywords, high page rank linking, and SEO optimized content, you likely have some of your favorite tools installed on your browser or bookmarked for easy access.

Here’s mine.

1. SEOQuake

The SEOQuake toolbar and plug-in is an excellent free resource for a number of SEO practices.

From finding high-quality links to include in your optimized content to analyzing the keyword density of the competition, the SEOQuake toolbar delivers instant access to a wealth of information as you browse the web.

Once it is installed, you will immediately be rewarded with new information regarding your keywords and whom you should be linking to, such as page rank and the age of the website.

For the more advanced SEO user, you can also explore Google SERPs, perform a website SEO analysis, obtain a website’s whois information and much more.

You can also filter your results each and every time you search for information, thanks to the SEOQuake toolbar that will remain in the upper left corner to eliminate the links you have no intention to use.

2.  Small SEO Tools Plagiarism Checker

With so much information available on the Internet about your topic, there’s a good chance that some of your word choices may have already been used by other writers. With the plagiarism checker at SmallSeoTools.com, you can paste your article into the blank field and allow this free tool to score your article for originality.

The image below shows an excerpt scoring 100 percent in originality. However, if there had been any commonly used phrases or duplicate content found by the free plagiarism checker, the line would have been highlighted with red rather than green. By clicking on the plagiarized content, you will be taken to the original source.

3. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

If you aren’t familiar with some of the great things happening over at CoSchedule, then you may not have heard of their free Headline Analyzer tool. As you probably already know, your article or blog post title is one of the most important aspects of the entire post. This is because your headline may be the only impression that you get to make on your perspective audience.

“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.”

Brian Clark, CopyBlogger

The CoSchedule Headline Analyzer scores your title based on a number of factors, such as unique and emotional word usage, length, search engine optimization and sentiment.

With its unique scoring system, you can ensure that your title stands out from the crowd and is designed to generate interest and promote clicks.

#4 – Hubspot Topic Generator

Hubspot’s Topic Generator is another great free tool when you have keywords but lack a clear topic and title. This topic generator allows you to enter up to 3 keywords (nouns) from which it generates numerous blog post titles.

This is a great tool for writers because you can use a title exactly as suggested or use it for inspiration in creating your own topic and title.

The three keywords chosen for the results below were: freelance writers, content creation and free writing tools. With the right results, you will have enough titles for an entire week.

#5 – Google Keyword Planner

Determining the best keywords for a website or even just a blog post can be a serious undertaking. In order to help things along, the Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a great free tool that cal tell you the search volume for a particular keyword, related keywords and the CPC (cost-per-click) of the keywork in question.

It is a great way to determine what the most competitive keywords are, find long-tail keywords that are easy to rank for and hone your keyword strategy.

These are five go-to writing tools used by professional writers who not only appreciate ongoing collaboration, but also want their clients to see positive results with the content provided.

There are still many other free writer resources that deserve to be mentioned, providing aid to freelance writers on every facet of content creation from idea planning to sharing.

Which free tools can you add to this list? Please share in the comments section below.

The post Amazing Content: 5 Free Tools You Need for Your Writer’s Playbook appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Here’s how you can up your content game and leverage the best of digital marketing.

1. Invest in Content

Not all companies have multi-million dollar marketing budgets, but the good news is that you don’t necessarily need a large budget to do content marketing right. I always recommend that my clients invest in quality writing.

Why?

Because great content is worth every dollar you spend.

With relevant content comes rewards such as increased engagement, increased website traffic, and ideally, increased leads. Content is an investment that has the potential for high reward.

2. Develop a Rhythm

We’ve all seen it. Companies that either spam you each day with their nonstop social media posts or companies we check out and see the last time they posted was July 2013.

Don’t be either of these.

From my experience, business owners are already at their max. Asking them to commit to posting regularly on social media seems like the most daunting task. That’s why I recommend utilizing the power of scheduling programs.

Programs such as HootSuite and Sprout Social can change your life. Crowd Content even has a handy Hootsuite integration, so you can schedule posts that were created by your writing team.

Set aside some time each week to schedule your social content. Mix this in with daily monitoring and responses and you’re set.

Learn More: Social Influencer Marketing: A Must-Have Or a Waste of Time

Twitter Facts

According to Twitter, there are over 330 million monthly active users, averaging 500 million tweets per day. If you’re only tweeting once per day, the chances of your target audience seeing your content is minimal.

The social experts at Buffer recommend posting three times a day on Twitter. After three, tweets, you may see a decrease in audience engagement.

3. Always Review and Make Changes

The most amazing thing about digital media is that everything is in real-time. Traditional advertising left you stuck with an ad that was under-performing with a high price tag.

Digital media lets you see exactly how people are responding to your content as soon as you post it. Not liking the way your latest Facebook ad is performing? Pull it and start over.

The majority of clients that I have worked with say that switching from traditional print advertising to digital has not only increased business leads, it’s actually saved them money in the long run.

According to CMO Council, 28 percent of marketers have actually reduced their advertising budgets in 2015 all thanks to digital marketing.

Goodbye pricey print ads!

Keep Reading: Three Brands That Are Killing It On Social Media, and What You Can Learn From Their Success

4. Be Patient

Content marketing is the best investment you can make in your digital marketing strategy, but engagement and growth does not necessarily happen overnight.

Stick with it. Consistency is key in your strategy.

The post A Social Media Consultant’s Take on Digital Marketing appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

That is fine if you own a business that somehow only needs the services of a freelance writer once ever, but that is rarely true.

The average business will need the services of a freelance writer a few times a year, a few times a month, or evenly on a weekly basis.

For that type of business, it is much better for the relationship between business and writer to be more similar to a couple that is going steady. And much like a true relationship, the secret to keeping your relationship with a writer strong is proper communication.

Be Available

The biggest complaint I here from our 2,200+ freelance writer network is that clients aren’t available to answer questions about instructions.

The first and foremost rule to communicating well with a freelance writer is to be available to the writer. If the writer has questions about your instructions or goals, and you aren’t available to answer those questions, the writer simply has to guess what you want.

Often this results in unnecessary revisions or content that doesn’t meet your expectations. The best writers will not only ask questions, but will also give you suggestions on how to make the content better meet your goals.

Hint: if you’re using Crowd Content to connect with freelance writers, utilize the instant chat.

Make Instructions Easy to Read

Note the line breaks and sub headers in this article. They exist to make it easier for you to read the article and process the meaning of it.

Your instructions to freelance writers should be similarly formatted.

When instructions arrive as a huge block of text that is written in a stream of consciousness format, your writer will find them difficult to follow.

Most likely either you’ll be forced to reiterate most of the instructions in conversation or the writer will unintentionally ignore parts of the instructions.

If You Don’t Know Want You Want, Your Writer Won’t Either

All too often, clients provide instructions for freelance writers like this:

“Write something that will interest car lovers.”

That is ridiculously vague. Many car lovers will probably love an article about a new synthetic oil that only needs to be changed every three years.

However, if that oil only works in cars made after 2010 and your business sells cars made before 1980, that article didn’t really help your business

Try to be specific when making requests, or, if you’re like me and want to give the writer more leeway, at least explain the value of the content to your business so the writer has a better sense of the goal of the content.

Remember, writers are hired to write. Not to read your mind.

Offer Feedback

After you receive content from a freelance writer, provide meaningful feedback. Saying “Thanks” or “Great work” isn’t the most useful feedback.

Detailing what the writer did particularly well helps ensure the writer continues to provide excellent writing in the future.

Similarly, if you aren’t fully satisfied with the writing, explain why.

Good freelance writers will accept your criticism professionally and make adjustments next time.

A little feedback can help prevent a potential breakup.

Why it All Matters

When all is said and done, you want freelance writers that make better content. Unfortunately, the best freelance writers are those that are most in demand.

Because they are in demand, they can afford to refuse assignments.

If you aren’t providing clear and helpful instructions, available to answer questions, and providing feedback, those writers will simply refuse to work with you, which means you’ll be forced to use less skilled writers for your projects.

The post How to Communicate and Foster a Relationship with Your Freelance Writer(s) appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The coming of 2016 is the perfect time to spruce up your site, and your product descriptions can be a great place to start.

The Value in Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are a very important part of your content strategy.

While you know all there is to know about the products you’re selling, most visitors to your site do not. Product descriptions are a way to introduce the benefits in what you have to offer in a way that stands out, urging customers to buy from you instead of your competitors.

Rather than providing the bare basics, effective product descriptions are personal, creative, and detailed, creating an image for readers that prompts them to buy.

Identify Your Shortcomings

The best way to overhaul your product descriptions is to identify what isn’t working. Do you have a list of features rather than high-quality content detailing benefits? Are you telling your customer what a product is rather than creating a mental image of what your product has to offer?

Imagine yourself as a neutral third party, visiting your site for the first time. If your descriptions aren’t creating the experience you want, it’s time to create a plan for stepping up your ecommerce game.

Improve Search Engine Optimization

If your original product descriptions are stale or you’ve been using the manufacturer’s stock text, you may be missing out on valuable SEO benefits. Effective product descriptions can step up your SEO, making it much easier for web users to find your site when searching for what you have to offer.

By crafting content that utilizes product SKU longtail keywords, incorporates category descriptions, and features the right combination of key phrases and words, you can boost sales while increasing web visibility.

Embrace the Power of Outsourcing

If you don’t have time to re-write thousands of product descriptions, outsourcing your content can be an excellent solution. Effective content geared at ecommerce growth is too important to rush through, making a team of freelancers a valuable option for businesses looking for big results.

Crowd Content writers make product descriptions easy, giving clients the ability to create teams of writers, place high-volume orders, and work with specialists to create powerful content that works.

Most New Year’s resolutions are of a personal nature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t resolve to step up your content game as the ball drops on 2015.

Improving your product descriptions can be a very valuable development in your ecommerce strategy, growing your business and making 2016 the best year yet for your company.

The post Why the New Year Calls for New Product Descriptions appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Start Small But Exciting

Fans of the original “Star Wars” trilogy understand this concept. The first conflict in the original movie was the capture of Princess Leia. Her rescue mission was rather easy to accomplish, but incredibly engaging. It was only due to the completion of that mission that greater conflicts were revealed.

Social media content marketing should work the same way. Social media is designed to express compact ideas, between the 140 character limit of Twitter to the way Facebook only shows the first few lines of long posts. If you try to sidestep these limitations, you are using social media the wrong way. Embrace the format for what it is when posting to social media.

Sharp, witty, exciting, and engaging posts on social media attract attention. And if the posts are amusing, exciting, or powerful enough, your audience will share them with others. By starting with small ideas that attract attention, you help build an audience that will be receptive to larger posts in the future.

Diversify

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when creating a social media plan is focusing on only a single social media platform. While Facebook continues to hold the lead in social media network usage, that lead is shrinking. Networks like Twitter, Google+, and Instagram all also have hundreds of millions of active users.

More important than statistics, though, is the fact that social media users tend to be aggressively attached to their networks. If you don’t support a social media network, you are likely alienating potential customers or clients.

Make Employees Part of Your Plan

Customers and clients love interacting with employees on social media, because it makes them feel like they better understand your business. Not only should you permit employee generated content on social media, but you should encourage and reward it.

If employees are engaging in a running dialogue with your social media audience, that audience is more likely to return in the future.

Keep Up the Pace

Once you have managed to build momentum, it is just as critical that you maintain it. If your social media presence doesn’t keep up with the level of interest that you have created, that interest will begin to fade.

Maintaining momentum means dedicating resources to your social media plan that streamline your social media content. If you don’t streamline, the value gained from your social media plan will be counteracted by the increased costs of maintaining that plan.

The post How to Create a Social Media Plan That Builds Momentum appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you’re reading this, you undoubtedly grasp the importance of writing a blog that readers can consistently relate to.

Because reach and reader engagement are two very important factors in gaining awareness, we thought we’d reveal 10 of the content creation tools often used by viral blog writers.

1. Site Explorers

Whenever you’re curious to know what your competitors are up to, give the Moz Open Site Explorer tool a try. Subscribe to browse through back links to check their content for similarities to yours. Use Top Pages to see if any authoritative sites you were hoping to draw to your website have been linking back to them. Learn from their successes and mistakes.

2. Search Engine Aggregators

Use Soolve, Ubbersuggest or other free tools to research trending words across various platforms, and to display the ideal keyword suggestions for your particular requirements. Some can save your searches for future comparison, they can be geo-specific, and they may allow you to check if a certain keyword phrase reached the Internet keyword top list that day.

3. Schedulers

Various content management systems enable blog post scheduling. Buzzsumo claims the optimum time to publish is Tuesday, Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella claims it’s Friday, and the Zimmerman Agency suggests 9 a.m. and lunch time are best. But what it all boils down to is research and getting to know your own readers, regardless of others’ opinions.

4. Visuals

There’s no shortage of royalty-free stock photos out there, and some virtual photo vaults even offer freebies. Enjoy templates, icons and full-size, high-resolution images, some of which are free, courtesy of Canva and PicMonkey. The latter even offers an editing tool on the spot and a free trial.

5. Quizzes and Surveys

Interactive features are nothing to snigger at, especially as some are free. QuizzRevolution, Quizworks and PollDaddy are some fine examples of content creation tools on a budget, with some limited features offered free of charge.

6. Social Media Monitors

Know what to expect in terms of competition and how readers will receive your blog post when you use the Keyhole tool to check a specific URL, a hashtag or a keyword for its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook trending patterns. This is a paid service, and while it may be a bit pricey, there are others out there to explore.

7. Toolbar Plugins

The SEOQuake toolbar plugin and extension turns everything into SEO content for you. Control query results, find specific content and turn your desktop into an SEO dashboard with this simple extension for Chrome, Opera and Safari browsers.

The post 7 Content Creation Tools for a Catchy Post appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Creating a high quality blog isn’t difficult, but it does require that you obey certain guidelines.

If you are looking to build a better blog for your online property, make sure to always follow these 8 guidelines:

1. Pick Your Topic Carefully

A blog post is only useful if it is about something that interests your target audience. Obviously, this means your blog posts should relate to your product or property, but that isn’t all you should consider when choosing a topic.

You also need to consider the demographic of your target audience and whether your content can add new value to topic.

Useful ways to determine what your interests your audience is to analyze page views from previous blogs and to create digital surveys for your audience using a program like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.

2. Create an Attention Grabbing Headline

There is a reason that newspapers and magazines have a person on staff whose entire job is literally just to create headlines. A powerful title is critical to getting your audience to read your blog.

A useful tool for building great headlines is the Coschedule Headline Analyzer.

3. Use Strong Formatting

Effectively formatting a blog is a rather in-depth topic. Whole books have been written on the topic. The short version, though, is the internet is a visual medium.

This means you want the formatting of your blog to be visually appealing. Variety in formatting, like bold lettering, italics, and bullet points is one way to create a visually appealing aesthetic.

The other way is to break up the writing into smaller sections, using subheaders and short paragraphs, much like in these guidelines.

4. Include Interesting Images

As just mentioned, the internet is a visual medium. No matter how creatively you format, a plain screen filled with text simply isn’t that appealing.

Add visual appeal to your blog with high quality, interesting images that support your content. Whether you use custom images or stock images, always make sure to follow best practices for image use, including citing your sources.

5. Include Valuable Links

Creating good internal links is both a science and an art. The science has to do with search engines. Your content is more likely to be top rated on a search engine if links are directly relevant to your content.

The art has to do with creating value for you and your audience. Your audience gains value when the links are fresh or interesting.

You gain value when the links support your brand, either by linking to older (but freshly relevant) content you have previously written or when you link to websites that have good authority within your field.

6. Include Strong Metadata

It takes a long time to understand metadata and how it affects the reach of your website, and even longer to master the concept.

Moz has some great resources to help you better understand metadata, or an experienced Crowd Content writer can provide that know-how and create strong metadata for your blog.

7. Include a Call to Action

While it is fine to occasionally write a blog post that exists purely to entertain and engage your audience, the majority of your posts should include a call to action.

That call may be subtle, but it should direct your audience to take action on products or services that you provide.

8. Double Check Your Voice

The voice of your blog is the voice of your entire online presence (and potentially your business). Before you publish anything, confirm that the voice of a blog post is consistent with the overall voice of your business.

If even a single blog post is too light, too firm, too dry, or otherwise doesn’t engage your audience, it can have a negative domino effect on your business.

The post 8 Simple Guidelines for Building a Powerful Blog appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today Scott explains how you can order content in multiple languages.

We’ve had a lot of companies come to us recently requesting original content in multiple languages. This video shows how you can get just that.

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Content in Multiple Languages appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It is common for a company to upload style guides and any other relevant information that will help the writer.

As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your account manager. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Add Attachments to Your Order appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We want you to be able to leverage the power of images with your content marketing. That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to download high quality Bigstock images from directly within your Crowd Content account.

This video explains how you can easily retrieve photos that you have previously downloaded.

If, at anytime, you need a high quality photo to compliment your content marketing, you can choose from millions available directly in your account.

The post Feature Friday: How to Get Your Bigstock Images appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It can be a pain to come up with titles and descriptions that meet the proper character count for meta descriptions and titles.

That’s why we’ve made it easy for you to get metadata for your content. Our writers have you covered!

Having properly formatted meta titles and meta descriptions are essential to looking good on the SERP.

Check out this video for more information on how our writers will take care of your metadata for you.

If you would like more information, do not hesitate to contact us!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Unique Meta Descriptions and Titles appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We want to make sure you have all the tools you need to get involved.

Here’s the quick facts about our referral program:

1. We’ve seen clients make over $700 from referring their network to our network of writers.
2. Once your referral spends $30 on content, we put $30 in your account for you to spend on content or high quality, Bigstock images.
3. You can keep track of your referrals progress from within your account.
4. You can use your custom link to post on your social media page(s), embed on your website, or email to your friends.

For more information on how to get the most out of the Crowd Content referral program, please check out the video or contact your account manager.

The post Feature Friday: The Benefits of the Crowd Content Referral Program appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Enter the Crowd Content Resource Center. Here, you can read up on the latest SEO, social media, and content marketing trends.

Questions about how to navigate your Crowd Content account? No problem. You will find a library of explainer videos that will help answer frequently asked questions.

If you would prefer to have a conversation about any of the above topics, feel free to contact your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Navigate the Resource Center appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Easy billing is a great feature for anyone who is ordering content regularly, or has a content campaign scheduled in advance.

You can customize your automated settings. For example, every time your account balance gets below $50, you can set it to automatically add $100 to your account. 

This quick video will give you all the information you need to get set up.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Use Easy Billing appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This feature is really handy if you have lots of content being processed through your account. You can easily see the status of your content the, and when a writer has sent you a message about your content. You can even reply to messages from within your notification center. 

Because I manage a ton of content, this feature is my go-to. I can easily stay in touch and up-to-date with my team of writers.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact your account manager at any time.

Happy Friday!

The post Feature Friday: How to Check Your Notifications appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

These fields are hepling us streamline how we match your order to the most qualified writers.

If you have any questions about this, or any other feature, contact your account manager today!

The post Feature Friday: How to Get the Best Writer for Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Campaigns is an excellent tool for the savvy online marketer. It allows you to schedule your blog posts, tweets, facebook posts, and really any content, all at once in one place.

Contact your account manager if you would like to have the feature enabled in your Crowd Content account, or check out this detailed guide about how a campaign works.

The post Feature Friday: How to Start Your Content Campaign appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Why does this help you?

Do you have questions about how something works within your Crowd Content account? Our Youtubbe channel is where you will find the answer.

Don’t feel like watching a quick tutorial video? No worries. You can reach out to your account manager at any time via email of phone.

The post Feature Friday: How to Find Crowd Content Tutorials appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Our writers have been busy creating high quality content for you for a while now. Over this time, they have gained some serious knowledge in all sorts of different industries.  

Now, you can easily find a writer who specializes in your business by simply typing in keywords that pertain to your business.

For example, say I’m a marketer and I need a writer who specializes in marketing and SEO. I can simply type in “marketing” and “SEO” then all the writers who can write about marketing and SEO will appear.

From there, you can check out their profiles and decide if they’re a good fit for your content.

Check out the video for more info!

The post Feature Friday: How to Find Yourself the Perfect Writer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This week’s feature showcases how you can easily delete and rename your content folders. Additionally, Curtis demonstrates how you can drag content from one folder into another. 

This is a great feature for content marketers with high volume of content, and for e-tailers who like to keep their product descriptions organized.

If you have any questions about this feature, do not hesitate to contact your account manager.

The post Feature Friday: How to Manage Your Content Folders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once your writer has completed your content, you have a ton of options for exporting. Today, we’re focusing on full HTML export.

If you have any questions about this feature, do not hesitate to contact your account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: How to Export Content in HTML appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This feature enables you to make an offer for a lower price to your writer. It is typically used when you have worked with a writer in the past and would like to place another, very large, order with them.

Once you make an offer, it is up to your writer to decide if they accept or decline your offer.

Check out the video for more details!

Our writers work hard to provide you with the high quality, unique content.  Log in or sign up and get started with yours today!

The post Feature Friday: How to Make an Offer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

From within your Crowd Content account, you can easily have your writers create Facebook and Twitter posts for your company.

Once the social media content is completed by your writer, you can distribute across any social media platform you have in your Hootsuite account.

Insider tip: if you feel that your tweets can also serve as Facebook, Linkedin, and other social media updates, you can schedule it all at once.

The post Feature Friday: How to Streamline Your Social Media Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you have changed your address, you can easily update your account information under the Edit Account Info tab.

Are you one of those people who likes to change their passwords every couple of months? If so, it is easy to do in the Change Password tab.

Should you wish to attach a picture to your profile, you can do so under the Change Picture tab. Here, you can upload your headshot, company logo, or use an avatar we provide for you.

Finally, we have a Low Funds Notification option where you can set a customized threshold for when you would like a reminder to add funds to your account. This feature is handy if you are running content campaigns and have content scheduled to place months in advance. This feature will ensure you are notified when your account hits a certain balance so that you have enough credit for your scheduled orders to place.

For more information on features available within your Crowd Content account, check out the Feature Friday library!

The post Feature Friday: How to Change Your Account Settings appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If you are new to Crowd Content, you can cruise through writer profiles and choose a writer who looks like a good match for your brand’s voice. Writer profiles include real time client ratings, topics where the writers excel, and many other stats what come in handy when you are vetting writers.

If you have placed previous content orders, you can easily go back and choose any of the writers who have written for you previously.

Writer teams make it easy for you to organize which writers you want on specific projects. If you would like a hand setting up a team of writers, don’t hesitate to contact your client account manager at any time!

The post Feature Friday: How to Create and Manage Writer Teams appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once your content has been written and is completed by your writer(s), the next step is to export and publish your content to your site.

At that point, your content is published. If you custom exported the content, you can mark it as published. If you used the Crowd Content WordPress connector, it will automatically be marked as published.

All completed and published content will appear in the published folder. If, at any time, you would like to unpublish your content, you can do so by clicking ‘mark as unpublished’.

Feel free to leave any questions below, or, contact your account manager for more details.

The post Feature Friday: Mark Your Content as Published appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The first step is to click on the order your writer is working on.

In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, you will see a box that says ‘Message Your Writer’, click on that.

You are now in the chat window with your writer. Both you and your writer have the ability to send a message.

If your writer is not online, they will get an email with your message.

This is a handy feature for your writer if they are looking for more information or specification on your order.

Most of our high volume users like to use the chat feature to open up the lines of communication and build a relationship with their writers.

The post Feature Friday: How to Message Your Writer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once you are in the app directory in your Crowd Content account, scroll down to WordPress and click Install App.

From there, you will be prompted to fill in your WordPress information. Once you have filled out this information, click Add WordPress.

You're now ready to export you fresh blog post to your WordPress account!

Simply open the blog post (in your Crowd Content account) that you would like to export to WordPress, click Tools and Apps at the top of the screen.

From there, scroll down to WordPress and click Publish to WordPress.

Now, if you go into your WordPress account, you will see the blog post ready to be published.

That's how to use the Crowd Content WordPress integration!

Happy Friday.

The post Feature Friday: How to Connect Your WordPress to Your Crowd Content Account appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today, Matt demonstrates how to order SEO metadata with your content.

We’ve made it easy for you and your writer to work together to get the metadata you need for your SEO strategy.

From within the advanced order option area in the content order form, you will want to click ‘yes’ when it asks you if you would like metadata.

You can specify keywords, or leave it up to the writer to decide.

When your writer picks up your order, they will be presented with 3 fields.

Metadata Title- This section defaults to the h1 title of your order. It can also be customized based on your strategy.

Metadata Description- A best practice for metadata descriptions is anywhere between 150 and 160 characters. We’ve set the character limit to 156 to ensure there is no overage.

Metadata Keywords- As previously mentioned, you can decide whether you’d like to provide these for your writer, or, you can leave it up to the writer to decide what best fits.

Once the writer has returned the SEO metadata and content back to you, you can export the content in HTML or as a CSV file.

If you have questions about this feature, feel free to leave a question in the comment box on this post, or contact your client account manager at any time.

The post Feature Friday: Getting SEO Metadata with Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Whether you’re an accounting guru or a business owner keeping your financial records, we’ve made it easy for you to retrieve your transaction history.

You have the ability to sort by debits (orders), credits (deposits), or by date range.

If you’ll be printing off your transaction history, you have the ability to download as a PDF.

See you next week. Have a great weekend!

The post Feature Friday: How to Retrieve Your Transaction History appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Curtis from Crowd Content explains what you can do with orders that are placed, but not being written yet. Learn how to Edit, Pause, Copy, or Delete a placed order. You can also view the History of a placed order to know exactly when it was placed and if it has previously been claimed by a writer who may have dropped it.

The post Feature Friday: Options Available for Placed Orders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today Scott explains how amazing instructions for your content writer can result in amazing content.

When you order content for your blog, web copy, or wheatever it may be, it’s important to remember that writers do not double as mind readers.

We have created an advanced order options area where you have the ability to provide detailed instructions to your content writer. These will get you on the road to having high quality content for your site!

Here’s a list of your options:

1. Keywords- SEO savvy? Here’s where you enter the list of keywords you want your writer to incorporate in the final product.
2. Target Audience- Providing your writer with the target audience allows them to adjust the tone of the content to cater to a specific niche.
3. Language- What language do you want your content written in?
4. Processing Time- Our algorithm is intuitive in that it auto calculates a processing time based on your word count. However, you can customize turn around time based on your deadlines.
5. Writer Point of View- You can choose from first person, second person, third person, or, let the writer decide.
6. Voice Tone- Do you want your content to be fun, informative, light-hearted, professional, serious, witty, or informative? The choice is yours!
7. Purpose of Content- Is the purpose of your content to entertain, promote, inform, or sell?
8. Call to Action- Do you want a call to action? You can choose from buy, sign up, or, find out more.
9. List of Main Benefits- If you want to put an emphasis on main benefits, here’s where you let your writer know.
10. Things to Avoid- Is there something in particular that should not be mentioned? It is common to ask writers to avoid using long paragraphs in this section.
11. Attachment- If you have more information in an attachment, feel free to upload it here.

These advanced options are just that- options! If you want to leave it up to your writer, don’t worry about using these options.

See you next week!

The post Feature Friday: Advanced Order Options appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You have the ability to filter by content type, content quality, writer, or, by rating. It is also easy to search by date range. 

For example, if you want to place an order for product descriptions but you can’t remember who your go-to writer were, you can filter by product description orders, and add a sub filter for content you rated as ‘exceeded expectations’ in the product description category.

Using this filter, you will see all the details from your previous product description orders that exceeded expectations.

These are great tools to have if you are a high volume customer and need to find a certain piece of content or a writer who you worked with in the past.

Check out the video for a quick overview of how to make the most out of your content tab!

The post Feature Friday: Managing Your Content Tab appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We call this feature the bulk CSV upload tool. It allows you to uploaded huge quantities of SKUs that you received from the product manufacturer, or elsewhere.

You have the ability to pick and choose which product descriptions you would like to have rewritten, or you can select all of them.

Once you have decided which descriptions are getting fresh content, you can provide instructions to your writer.

Once the order is placed, your writer takes care of it.

Just sit back, relax, and expect your descriptions to be returned to you within the deadline you chose.

Bigcommerce  user? We are partnered with both so you can quickly and easily order fresh description from within your account.

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Product Descriptions in Bulk Quantities appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Our qualified writers can create creative and engaging Facebook posts that are unique to your business and industry.

You have the ability to provide basic or detailed instructions for yiour writer. Additionally, to give your writer an idea of what you like, you can show example pages of businesses who have done a killer job on their Facebook posts.

Once your writer has finished your order, you have the ability to upload the posts directly into your Hootsuite account using our Hootsuite integration.

Check out the video for more details!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Facebook Posts appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today, Scott demonstrates how to use the Crowd Content Shopify app.

It’s super easy to use! To install the Shopify app, all you need to do is go to the app directory from within your Crowd Content account.

From there, click ‘install’ on the Shopify app. To connect your store to Crowd Content, simply enter the URL of your Shopify store.

If you have go to create an order for product descriptions now, all of your existing products will appear.

You have the ability to pick and choose which products you would like to include in your content order; you can do choose 1 or 100, the choice it yours.

Furthermore, you can choose to the descriptions written fresh, or re-written.

Finally, you have the ability to choose from either professional writers or standard writers, depending on your budget.

If you have any questions about how the Shopify app or how to get the most out of your product descriptions, do not hesitate to contact your client account manager at any time!

The post Feature Friday: Product Descriptions For Your Shopify Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Today on Feature Friday, Curtis explains how easy it is to export large quantities of content from your Crowd Content account.

Last week on Feature Friday, we showcased the apps and tools you can use to export your freshly written content.

This week is a bit different. Curtis focuses on how you can export large quantities of content all at once via csv or zip files.

These options are especially handy if you want to store your content on your desktop, or, if you are hosting your e-commerce store on a platform outside of Shopify or Bigcommerce.

Shopify or Bigcommerce store owner? We have you covered too!

Check out this how-to guide for importing and exporting content directly to and from your Shopify or Bigcommerce store.

The post Feature Friday: Different Ways to Export Your Content | Part 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You have a number of different options to choose from.

1. Copy HTML – Content formatted in HTML. This is a great tool if you are placing your content on your website.
2. Copy Text – This tool put your content into notepad to be placed wherever you need it.
3. Download Documents – Use this tool to download your content as a word document.
4. Constant Contact – Enables you to export your content directly into an email in your Constant Contact account.
5. Mail Chimp – Similar to constant contact, you can export your content directly into an email campaign or create a new one.
6. Bigcommerce – Product descriptions? No problem. Use our Bigcommerce integration to export descriptions directly to your store.
7. WordPress – Any content you have created that needs to be uploaded into WordPress can be done directly from. 

Next week on Feature Friday, we will demonstrate how you can export major batches of content as zip and CSV files.

The post Feature Friday: Different Ways to Export Your Content | Part 1 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We have created amazing profiles for each and every one of our writers. These profiles showcase their areas of expertise and keep their performance stats updated in real time.

Helpful information you now have access to:

1. Mini Bio- These were created custom by each writer. This area outlines their education, experience, and unique value to Crowd Content clients.
2. Quality Star Level– You can see whether the writer is 1,2,3, or 4 star quality level. This is determined by our rating algorithm that uses real time performance.
3. Category Badges– If the writer has badges at the top of their profile, it means they are among the top 10 writers in that specific category.
4. Testimonials and Recent Ratings– A real time ticker provides all recent ratings and reviews by clients.
5. Category Performance– This shows how many orders the writer has completed in a specific category. It also shows their average client rating (out of 5) for that category.
6. Writer Statistics- This area displays the number of words and orders the writer has written on the Crowd Content platform. It also shows how many orders the writer currently has in progress and their average words per hour (WPH). 
7. Writing Samples- Part of the writer application process is providing us with a sample of their writing capabilities from a predetermined category. The writer sample shown in the profiles is from the application process.

It’s a win-win. Clients are now able to search through our ‘crowd’ of content writers and pick the one(s) whose qualifications best suit their content requirements. Writers now have their great work on display for potential clients to view.

We hope you enjoy this feature! Stay tuned for cool new features being released over the coming months!

The post Feature Friday: How to Search and View Writer Profiles appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The first step is to integrate your Bigcommerce store with Crowd Content. Now, anytime you place an order for product descriptions, the order form will automatically load the inventory from your Bigcommerce store.

You can easily pick and choose which product descriptions you would like to have freshly written, or, simply, a re-write of what you are using.

It’s common for e-tailers to receive inventory from the manufacturer with only a title attached to the product. In this case, you will order a fresh product description. You can choose your word count and provide any additional instructions to your writer.

If you have product descriptions from your manufacturer, you will want to create a product description re-write order. This is an SEO best practice every savvy e-tailer is conscious of.

Once your writers have completed your ordes, the descriptions can be uploaded directly into your Bigcommerce store.

The best part? No copying and pasting!

Check out the video for step by step instructions!

The post Feature Friday: Product Descriptions For Your Bigcommerce Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once you are in the referral tab, you will have access to a unique link. You can share this link on your social media, website, or via email with your friends. 

You can track your referrals in the My Referrals tab from within your account. 

Check out the video for more details!

The post Feature Friday: Crowd Content Referral Program appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

When you are at your dashboard in your Bigcommerce account, there is an apps icon in the top left corner.

After clicking on that icon, a list of apps will appear. Once you find the crowd content app, click install.

You’re good to go! Your Bigcommerce store is now synced with Crowd Content.

In a few weeks, we will demonstrate how to create and manage amazing content from within your Bigcommerce account. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Connect Your Bigcommerce Store appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Once a writer completes your content, they submit it to you for review. After reading it over, you have couple of options.

If you are happy with your content, you can rate and accept it right away.

After reviewing it, if you decide that you would like changes made, you can request unlimited revisions for up to 3 days.

We use gamification to constantly rank our writers. If they are recieving good ratings, their quality level will reflect this in real time. 

Fresh, relevant content is so important for search engine ranking, telling your brand story, and building a loyal customer base. We are commited to getting you the content you are looking for!

The post Feature Friday: How to Review and Rate Your Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Open orders allow you to send your content order out to all qualified writers. For example, if you placed an open order for three star quality content, your order can be picked up by any three or four star writer on the Crowd Content platform.

Once you have established a relationship with a few writers who have successfully completed your content orders, you can add them to a team, and place team orders.

For example, if you have four writers who have created amazing blog posts for you in the past, you can create a “Blogging” team. Once you place an order with this team, only writers on the team will be able to pick up your order.

If you are particularly impressed with one of your writers, you can send a direct order to them. This is a great feature if you want to keep a uniform voice across your website, blog, or social media content.

It is common to use a mix of open, team, and direct orders. Give it a try!

The post Feature Friday: How to Use Team and Direct Orders appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Hootsuite is a leading social media dashboard that allows you to quickly and easily upload, distribute, and manage you social media content. 

The Crowd Content integration with Hootsuite allows you to rate your content, add funds, and create orders from within your Hootsuite account. 

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Tweets | Part 2 of 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This week on Feature Friday, I demonstrate how easy it is to order a batch of tweets in your Crowd Content account.

To start, simply enter the hashtags you would like your writer to use, an example handle where your writer can visit for reference, and you’re on your way!

You’re busy running your business, so why not let our talented pool of writers craft some creative and share-worthy tweets for your twitter profile?

Next week on Feature Friday, we will show you how easy it is to load these tweets into your Hootsuite account using our Hootsuite integration. Stay tuned!

The post Feature Friday: How to Order Tweets | Part 1 of 2 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It’s a really intuitive feature. As a customer, you can choose the keywords you want used throughout your content, and add them to your order. 

Once your writer starts creating your content, there is a real time count on their dashboard of how many times they have used your chosen keywords.

Kewords are a a great way to optimize your content for search engines, such as Google. So why not start incorporating them in to your content?

The post Feature Friday: How to Incorporate Keywords Into Your Content Creation appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Every week we will be doing a short Feature Friday video outlining cool features that you can find in your Crowd Content account. 

This week, founder and CEO, Clayton Lainsbury, shows us how to download Bigstock images directly into your Crowd Content account.

In just a few clicks, you will own the rights to high quality, royalty free photos, that you can incorporate into your content marketing.

Google is on the look out for fresh and unique content. Why not compliment it with an eye catching image? Check it out!

The post Feature Friday: How to Download Bigstock Images in Your Crowd Content Account appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.