CONTENT WRITING 4 - How to Write Articles or Content
HOW TO WRITE ARTICLES/CONTENT?
STEP ONE – IDENTIFYING WHAT IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE SEARCHING FOR?
Get the keyword which you have been given to generate content. Let’s say it is …. Cholesterol and fiber.
Go to google external keyword analyser - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
a. Enter you keyword there and
b. Tick “Only show ideas closely related to my search terms”
Then look at the related keywords that come up. Look for those that have more than 1,000 entries. Example for our keyword ‘cholesterol and fiber’ is below
Look at the keywords to find out if there are related/similar terms that you can:
a. Either incorporate into the article, or
b. Create new page (if there’s enough information on that topic and the topic can stand alone ie not part of the page you are writing. Example if you are writing about cholesterol foods, you will find that there are terms for high cholesterol foods and low cholesterol foods. Then in such an example you will need to write 3 pages:
- One on “cholesterol foods” then on “high cholesterol foods” and finally on “low cholesterol foods”.
Let’s get back to our term “cholesterol fiber”. You will notice that there are similar terms that people are looking for, especially:
- Dietary fiber and cholesterol
- Fiber lower cholesterol
- Soluble fiber cholesterol
- Does fiber reduce cholesterol
- Insoluble fiber cholesterol
What do we gather by looking at these keywords that people are searching over the net?
First is that there are 2 types of fibers, soluble and insoluble.
Second, some people look for dietary fiber and cholesterol rather than fiber only.
Thirdly, people search to find out whether fiber lowers cholesterol.
Based on this research then you conclude that you only need to write one article, since the terms are closely related and you cannot really create great content for the separate keywords.
You also conclude that based on the search terms entered by people at google, you article must include separate sections on:
- whether fiber lowers cholesterol,
- Soluble & Insoluble fiber (their distinction)
- Maybe include some more details on ‘dietary fiber’ (at this stage we may not be sure as to what is ‘dietary fiber’
VERY IMPORTANT – When you have determined this content outline, you must ensure that each of the keywords you found in google, is included in the article at least once or twice. Recommended it is 3 to 5 times, provided the article reading is still natural. This is for purposes of search engine listing, which will list your article in top 10 listing for the keywords you selected. In our case keywords to include are (apart from the main keyword ‘cholesterol fiber’:
- Dietary fiber and cholesterol
- Soluble fiber cholesterol
- Does fiber reduce cholesterol
- Insoluble fiber cholesterol
STEP 2 – IDENTIFYING WHAT COMPETITOR’S WRITE ON THEIR WEBSITES.
This step is simple. Just enter your keyword in google and copy and paste the top 3 listings. In our example, for cholesterol fiber, below are the first 3 results.
1. Top 3 Listings
Simply copy and paste from google and it will import together with hyperlinks.
NOTE. This is the listing for natural/organic search, NOT including sponsored ads that sometimes are listed before the organic listings results.
· Discovery Health "How Dietary Fiber Lowers Cholesterol"
health.howstuffworks.com › ... › Cardiovascular Conditions › Cholesterol - Cached
Increasing dietary fiber is a great way to lower cholesterol. Learn the types and sources of dietary fiber, and common foods that are rich in fiber.
· Cholesterol: Top five foods to lower your numbers - MayoClinic.com
www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol/CL00002 - Cached
Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. Five to 10 grams or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your total and LDL ...
· Soluble Fiber - How Soluble Fiber Can Lower Cholesterol
cholesterol.about.com/od/cholesterolnutrition101/a/fiber2.htm - Cached
When it comes to lowering cholesterol, soluble fiber has been shown to be the most effective in keeping lipids low.
2. Summary of top 3 Results
Read the summary and quickly write down what you see that competitors are providing as information.
More or less all of them say that fiber lowers cholesterol. But the first focuses on sources of dietary fiber and foods that are rich in fiber, the second gives a measurement of how much fiber is needed per day and the last specifically states that soluble fiber is most effective to lower cholesterol.
Based on this you extended the potential contents of your article into the following:
- Does fiber lower cholesterol?
- There are 2 types of fiber, soluble & insoluble.
- Soluble fiber is best to lower cholesterol?
- How much fiber you need per day to lower cholesterol?
- Dietary fiber lowers cholesterol (by now we gather that dietary fiber is the fiber consumed thru diet)
3. Full review of the top 3 results & Wikipedia search
Quickly review each of the top 3 articles i.e. click and read each of them.
IMPORTANT – CLICK ‘CACHED’ SINCE THIS WILL HIGHLIGHT THE KEYWORDS.
When you read them pick other points that you have not already covered into your potential content outline. On the right you have a box to enter your comments as to what the article may be lacking or what can be done better.
First listing:
· Discovery Health "How Dietary Fiber Lowers Cholesterol"
health.howstuffworks.com › ... › Cardiovascular Conditions › Cholesterol - Cached
Increasing dietary fiber is a great way to lower cholesterol. Learn the types and sources of dietary fiber, and common foods that are rich in fiber.
Describes what is dietary fiber.
Sources of fiber e.g. Fruits, vegetables, whole-grain breads and cereals, nuts,
and legumes (such as dried beans, lentils, and peas).
Explains what soluble and insoluble fiber does (we already identified this).
Research shows that increasing fiber consumption lowers cholesterol
The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) suggests to consume 5
to 10 grams of fiber daily.
The National Academy of Sciences recommends that men and women get
even more fiber: up to age 50, men should get 38 g and women 25 g of
total fiber.
Caution of switching from a low fiber to a high fiber diet due to diarrhea.
Continue doing the same for each of top 3 listings.
NOTE. Sometimes you’ll find that a page will have only a small part of its content relevant to your keyword. That’s fine – just include the info found there in your article template. For example in our case we find out that the no.2 listings simply enumerates 5 foods to lower cholesterol and fiber is just mentioned in one paragraph.
Finally go to www.wikipedia.org – enter you keyword there – the keyword to enter here is the general keyword. For fiber and cholesterol you want to enter fiber. However you’ll find results are not what you expect since it gives fiber regarding clothes or synthetic fiber. When you enter ‘dietary fiber’ you get the right definition. So you got to test your keyword in different ways.
2 things to do at Wikipedia
First read/scan quickly the information about the topic there. Jot down some notes if something different comes up that did not come at the top 3 results in google.
Second, & more importantly. This is where you can find authority references. For any important note you jot down from Wikipedia, save the hyperlink reference. There will be a number at many sentences and when you click at the number you are sent at the bottom, and the reference will by highlighted. Simply ‘right click’ and then click on ‘Copy Hyperlink’. You’ll include this hyperlink at the article template provided.
MOST IMPORTANT. Your article MUST provide something new that the top 3 listing are not providing. Maybe you don’t know this as yet, but during your further research as outlined below or based on your own knowledge, you may find something that is not provided by others. That’s why being a good researcher proves so essential.
For example, in the http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html, we did not know that normal triglyceride levels were high. Not until we found the study that showed the risk of even normal triglyceride levels. (If you have not read the article yet, read it now, since it clearly shows this).
STEP 3 – CRAFTING YOUR DISTINGUISHING NICHE
Now that you know what your target audience is looking for and what competitors are providing, is time to distinguish our article. How? Simply by drafting a better article.
What makes a better article:
1. Provide tips eg 7 Ways to lower cholesterol with Fiber? Or 5 Foods high in Fiber that lower cholesterol? 9 Tips for eating Fiber to Lower cholesterol!
2. Be Controversial e.g. Does Fiber Really Lower Cholesterol? Or The fiber content as recommended by The National Cholesterol Education Program is too low. Research shows you need to consume triple that amount to lower cholesterol. (you need to cite the research however. For an example of this see http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html where we state controversially:
Normal triglyceride levels of 150 to 200 mg/dl, (as advocated by American Heart Association), are high, not normal. It leads to heart disease & stroke. Find out why?
You will see that at the bottom there’s a link to the study that recommended this.
3. Be more specific: Which Fiber really lowers cholesterol? Which foods with fiber lower cholesterol?
4. Provide How to’s e.g. How to Lower cholesterol with Fiber?
So by now you have a good idea of what your article should look like.
STEP 4 – DOING MORE RESEARCH TO PROVIDE NEW INFORMATION & SUPPORT YOUR CONTENT WITH POTENTIAL REFERENCES
This step is part art, part science. Depending on your skills this is where the boys from men (or girls from women) are distinguished.
You need to search and find out new information that is not covered by the other articles out there. It’s not easy, but it’s doable. Below follow some guidelines.
You already went thru Wikipedia. If you need, go back to it again and read now to find out more details. Importance of Wiki is that it provides reliable references.
Second step is to search thru authority sites. A partial list of those sites is provided in appendix A. let’s explain a bit more about authority sites and citations/quotes/references.
You need to understand that you don’t quote just for the sake of quoting. If you have personal knowledge of something or that something is general knowledge you don’t need to quote anything. An article may be written without any reference. Or it may have 2 or 3 references. Never more than 4 or 5 (in rare cases).
You only quote from authority sites. We want our website to be an authority in its niche and it is. So you only quote from higher authority sites. What sites are authority sites?
Let’s start by saying what sites are not – not necessarily those that come in the top results in google.
NOT Wikipedia – why? Simply because almost each entry in Wikipedia has a reference to something else. While it is a good place to start research and understand the topic, always go to the bottom of the page and see where the paragraph you want to use comes from. Then simply go to the original source.
As a general rule authority sites are normally those sites with .gov, .org, .edu extension. Information that goes into this websites is supposedly more ‘vetoed’ rather than .com or .net websites, since to get .gov, .org or .edu website, you must be somebody i.e. either a government body, an established organization or an educational institution.
As a specific rule however authority sites are those where somebody/someone or many people provide independent opinions not found elsewhere. So when you cite a research paper that research provides the opinion of the researchers based on the results of his research e.g. they studied 100 people doing ….(whatever).
Another authority can be a doctor who provides an opinion based on his personal experience with his patients (and this is not found in other websites or no other doctors provide such opinion).
Another authority is the author of a book published in Amazon or other reputable publishers.
All in all the bottom line when it comes to research is to go to the original source of something.
IMPORTANT EXAMPLE
An authoritative site on health National Institute of Health - http://www.nih.gov/. But within that site you’ll find US National Library of medicine http://www.nlm.nih.gov/. And within it you will find that http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ National Center for Biotechnology Information is more specific. It just happens that these sites are as subdomains of NIH.
So quoting from any of these resources is considered as quoting from authority sites. But and a big but, if the resource you are quoting is taken from another place, then you need to quote from the original source. Back to our example of
http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html
You will find that our reference on number (2) can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21531743 (screenshot below)
While this is fine to quote as a reference, you see on the top left, that this is a study appearing in European Heart Journal – Eur Heart J, including the year and dates. Then on the top right you will notice that it says:
When clicking in that, you will be sent to the original source: http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/32/11/1345.long - and that’s what y01pt;line-height: normal">But the difference is that 2 articles that say fat is bad for cholesterol cite 3 studies (linking directly to those studies) and the other 10 articles that say animal fat is good for cholesterol, but no links to any article, then the 2 articles will have more authority.
So the question to answer every time is: How can I support my opinion?
If you can really support it with substantial evidence, people will like it, search engines will like it. If it is just your opinion and you don’t have any authority to back up your opinion, then not many people will like what you say. So basically the user will think it’s rubbish and the search engine will follow ie it will conclude that it is rubbish and there will be no listing on top 10 results.
In the Appendix A, there’s a list of websites that can be used for reference in the field of health.
STEP 5 – WRITING THE ARTICLE PROPER?
Based on the sections and research you have done, it’s time to put your article in place. The article must follow this format:
1. Get Attention
This is usually the headline/title of the article. Again use the tips given in Step 3. Example: keyword is
Fiber cholesterol or fiber and cholesterol.
Does Fiber Really Lower Cholesterol? Or
Discover Which Type of Fiber Really Lowers Cholesterol?
How does Fiber and Cholesterol Lowering Work?
7 Tips to Fiber and Lowering Cholesterol!
Then write the first paragraph providing some information that will get the attention of the reader eg for our page at http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html we state controversially:
Normal triglyceride levels of 150 to 200 mg/dl, (as advocated by American Heart Association), are high, not normal. It leads to heart disease & stroke. Find out why? Recent studies show that values considered normal for triglyceride levels (150 to 200) may not be safe (1)
2. Evoke Curiousity by selling the reader the benefits of reading the article.
This paragraph tells what the article is all about, but does not reveal any actual data or information. Eg
Again at
http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html
we write:
In this article you will find out about what are these supposedly normal levels and the study that shows otherwise.
Plus how you can lower your triglycerides levels and finally I reveal how I lowered my triglycerides by 33% in 2 months (now they are 88 mg/dl).
- We don’t say what are the triglyceride levels (the numbers) they should have for optimal health (You’ve got to read the article to find out);
- We say ‘how to lower triglycerides’ but don’t say exactly the methods. You’ve got to read the article to find out
- We say “how I lowered my cholesterol ….” but don’t reveal how. You’ve got to read the article to find out
So you simply tell people what they are going to discover/find out, without telling them how. They got to read the article to find out – and this is the ‘acid test’.
If after reading your curiosity paragraphs the reader need to read the article to find out then you’ve aroused curiousity. If the reader finds the info right there without having to read the article then you have not aroused curiousity, you have simply satisfied it which is wrong. You satisfy the curiousity during the article, not at the beginning.
MOST OF THE TIME if not all the time, point 1 & 2 is written at the end after you have already written the whole article. WHY?
Simple, when you have written the whole article you have a good idea of what the article is all about, what it covers and its benefits. Based on this you are much more prepared to write a headline, attention getting paragraph and Curiosity(summary) paragraph.
3. Start writing each of your sections.
Here you simply put the whole research you’ve done into the proper sequence.
4. Call to Action
This is the last part where you invite readers to take the next step. This can be many things:
a. Get them to visit another related page with a hyperlink to that page (this is also done throughout the article by providing 1 link at least for each section)
b. Invite the reader to download a Free Report
c. Invite the reader to check out a product that is going to provide comprehensive solution to the problem outlined in the article.
5. Introduce Hyperlinks within the article.
Now that you have finished writing the article, you will go back to it and insert hyperlinks to other pages within the website. To do this you must know 2 things:
- Your subject matter that you are writing about (if not, you will not be writing the article, would you!?)
- Contents/Article within the website.
Here are the rules to follow:
a. In the first to third paragraph there must be 1 link, never more than 2. Let’s explain the purpose.
90% of internet users leave a website without scrolling down. They only read what’s on the screen and then click the back button going to the search engine and searching for another website. That’s why point 1 & 2 are to get attention and arouse curiousity, so that you get people to scroll down and read the article.
However, you can’t predict how a user will find your article. Many times you have written the article based on a certain keyword but users find it thru other keywords (that’s what search engines do, they decide what keywords your article is for). So when the user finds your article for a keyword that you really did not intend to write the article for, he/she will not read further. But by including 1 or 2 hyperlinks ‘above the fold’, then you give a chance to the reader/visitor to click and find the information he was looking for.
Example:
In the page we’ve been using as an example here ie http://www.all-about-lowering-cholesterol.com/normal-high-triglyceride-levels.html, you will notice that there’s a hyperlink right at the 3rd paragraph, as follows: “lower your triglycerides levels”
This hyperlink is introduced there by understanding:
- what the user may be looking for AND
- what the user needs to know/would want to know. For this latter one think like Steve Jobs. He did not ask people whether they wanted an iPod, iPhone, or iPad. He simply worked on the principle that people would want this, that it will be a solution to a problem people did not know yet they have, or maybe they know but are not yet looking for a solution or not looking actively for a solution. In Steve Jobs case, iPod solution was that it was simple and easy to use, of course hip/hop/cool, and you could store thousands of songs. Plus you could get those songs from Apple iStore.
In our case, when a user is searching for ‘normal or high triglyceride levels’ (these are the keywords the article is written for), we don’t ask people if they want to know about lowering triglycerides. We want them to know about lowering triglycerides, because if they are searching for high triglycerides levels, they would probably have high levels, and if they have high levels, the solution to their high triglycerides is to lower them. So that’s why we include a hyperlink.
As for “what the user may be looking”, some people may find this page by using some of these keywords:
o lowering high triglycerides levels
o keeping normal triglyceride levels (and so on).
Now if visitors are looking for such information, the article we have written, provides a bit of information at the end of it about this, but we have a completely separate article that outlines different ways to lower triglycerides. If there’s no hyperlink however, people would find that the article simply states the normal triglyceride levels, and will not continue reading. But if they glance thru it and find that there’s a hyperlink that will give them the information they want, then they would most likely click at that link.
b. During the body of the article, see what are the places where you can insert hyperlinks. The rule of thumb is 1 hyperlink for every 100 words, at most 2. Of course they don’t have to be split that way, you may have 3 links from 150 to 250 words and no links from 250 to 350 words, and then start again with links. This is only the average.
c. Closing paragraph must have at least 1 link at most 2 links, which will be the Call to Action as explained previously.
d. After all is done, there will be the hyperlinks to the T2 page and homepage.
IMPORTANT. Sometimes you’ll find it difficult to put hyperlinks since there’s not many other related articles that we have on our website to that specific article you have written. That’s the time when you would have to re-write certain words so that they re-direct to other pages. Example
The original sentence is:
APPENDIX A - Authority Sites on Health
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Website |
Name |
Description |
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http://www.heart.org/ |
American Heart Association |
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Caduet |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Crestor |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Lipitor |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Pravachol |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Vytorin |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Zocor |
Cholesterol lowering drug |
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Drug Evaluation and Research |
Offers valuable information and evaluations of drug product, including those used to lower cholesterol levels |
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Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) |
CDC cholesterol page gives you what this agency is famous for - facts, statistics, and prevention strategies |
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and of course, the latest news and press releases. Neat |
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Medicine |
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Medline Plus |
Medline Plus is a service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Helath. |
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National Cholesterol Education Program |
The first Web site listed takes u directly to NCEP. The second provides access directly to the latest cholesterol guidelines |
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National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute |
To find out more trials currently in progress, run your mouse over to the left side of the page to the headline Clinical |
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Trials then go down one line, and click NHLBI Studies Conducted at NIH in Bethesda |
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Online Medical Dictionary |
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American Cancer Society |
1 ) about cholesterol's effect on your body and your risk of various kind s of cancer |
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2 ) Food and diet regimens - not to mention some drugs, such as those used to lower cholesterol - may effect your risk of |
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certain types of cancer, the ACS Web site offers solid reporting on this area of nutritional research |
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American Council on Science and Health & |
1 )Consumer-friendly organizations whose Web sites provide news releases, position papers and high reliable information |
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Center for Science in the Public Interest |
about nutrition issues and your health |
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2 ) American Council on Science and Health ( ACSH ) and the Center for Science in the Public Interest ( CSPI ) |
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are usually on opposite sides of any nutritional issue. |
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American Dietetic Association |
Is jam-packed with food and diet tips, guidelines, research, policies and stats |
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American Heart Association |
( AHA ) site is a must-see on any cholesterol tour of the Web. |
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Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network |
Is a nonprofit, membership organization - food allergies, as well as support and coping strategies for people who are |
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allergic to specific food |
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Food and Drug Administration |
Offer information about medicines for people and pets, poisons and their side effect, medical devices and FDA field operation |
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( rules and regulations enforcement ) |
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Food And Nutrition Information Center |
1 )The food and Nutrition Information Center ( FNIC ) houses one of several nutrition-related |
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data collections in the US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library |
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2 ) Chock-full of facts |
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US Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database |
1 ) The US Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database is the ultimate nutrion chart. Cholesterol, calaroies, |
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vitamins - you name it, and this site measures it. |
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How to find the food you looking for |
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1 ) Type its name into the empty search box and then press ENTER |
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Example : Apple |
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2 ) Ignore the fancy stuff. Scroll down and click something basic |
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In this case, clicking " Apples, raw with skin " brings up a new screen listing various forms of raw apples such as |
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" 100 grmas edible portion " or " 1 cup, quatered or chopped " or " 1 large ( 3 1/4 diameter ) ( approx 2 per pound ) |
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3 ) Click the box in front of the serving you prefer and click the summit button |
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there you are - calories and nutrients for one large apple, including cholesterol, dietary fiber, and the different kinds |
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of fats |
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Weight Control Information Network |
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