8 Common Yet Nasty Mistakes You Must Avoid When Writing Content
Things become challenging when it comes to writing for the web users. Besides informative, your piece of writing should be engaging and according to the taste of your target audience.
But there are certain mistakes that make your content less appealing to the reader. And the irony is that you don’t even realize what your mistakes are. Here, we have outlined common yet ghastly mistakes that you must keep away from your content. Let’s see.
#1. Not Knowing Your Audience:
Having defined target audience in mind when writing really makes a big difference. After all, they are the people your content is aimed at. You can establish your target audience by slipping in their shoes. Thinking about their interests, hobbies, job and age will help you determine your reader’s needs to produce the valuable content for them.#2. Headlines are Not Attractive:
The very first thing that attracts a reader to your content is the headline. No matter if your article is good or bad, a user won’t read it if the headline itself is weak. Therefore, you must take your time to choose the headline for your blog post. Many writers produce quality and engaging content, but they choose the odd title that makes their good written article in vain. Not to mention that your headline is the glimpse of what you content is all about. These are the things you must do to make your headline appealing:• Keep Headlines Relevant To Your Readers
• Think as a Reader: What Headline Would You Want to Read?
• Be Creative and Conversational
• Use Call to Action Words
#3. Not Doing Research:
No matter how good you’re in writing, you can’t underwrite the role of research in your content. People are likely to be convinced by the use of statistics, data, evidence, and other information.But research work is not that hectic as you think. It’s a pure fun if you are interesting about the article you’re going to write.
#4. Not Using Images:
You can’t ignore the value of images or visuals in your content. Images easily catch the reader eye in a glance what the words don’t. According to Hubspot.com, visuals increase people’s interest to read an article by 80%. Yes, readers like to read the entire content but using images in between make it even compelling. Make sure you are using relevant and appealing images on your blog instead of using tons of worthless images.#5. Not Placing Text Accurately:
A web page is entirely different from your book page so is the text placement over it. Big paragraph chunk followed by the text will turn off most of the reader as it’s hard to read in one go (as they tend to scan it). Even your compelling way of writing is overlapped by the wrong formatting.While writing content, you should not forget that your readers are busy people and can’t go through that large heaps of paragraphs. Avoid them giving a “hard read” and break your text into easily by using these tricks.
• Headlines and subheadings
• Bullet points
• Short paragraphs (4 to 5 words).
• Bold the important words
In this way, your copy is easily readable and a reader can take much in a scan.
#6. Not Valuing the SEO:
Just because you’re writing for the human doesn’t mean you ignore SEO guidelines. As we all know that these days “A delicious content is ruling the Digital Marketing World”. It is essential for your blog visibility and wins over the target audience if done right. So before writing, consider the most searched and the relevant phrases/keywords in your copy. BUT STEER AWAY FROM KEYWORD STUFFING!!!#7. Not Having “Your OWN” Style of Writing:
Recreating the thoughts and ideas of other’s writers is nothing but a clever attempt of copying. It’s not original and lacks your voice, thereby making less appealing to the audience. Your way of expression during conversation is authentic and natural. Same goes with the tone of your content! It can be funny, familiar, sarcastic, or plain. In short, think about who you are while writing and imagine your relationship with the audience.#8. Not Promoting Your Content over Social Media:
Publishing the content on social media outlets increases visibility, improved SEO, and leads—all contribute to your blog traffic. And if you don’t do it, you’re still standing far away from those benefits. But publishing your content on social media outlets without any plan is not beneficial either. So, create a media promotional plan by listing all the platforms with a timeline. It will give you an idea what to post today or weeks later.These are the mistakes that can seriously affect the visibility and traffic of your blogs. So, while writing content for you next blog posts, bear all eight points in your mind to produce a quality and appealing content.
Bonus infographic:
Content Creation Checklist – 8 Strategic Steps to Consider
