Maisie Lloyd
I'm passionate about recording the world, but most of all driven by creativity and collaborative environments. My experience revolves around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Producing copy for a blog can be quite straightforward once the process is in place. In this article, we’ll break down the key stages of writing copy and provide some tips to ensure that the content you release is of the highest quality.
Research
Research is fundamental in the step towards producing a blog/article. Research allows for information to be compiled, it deepens our understanding of topics and often enhances the quality of the work with the inclusion of relevant knowledge.
Research can help you identify the key points in your discussion, allowing you to break down each section or topic. Once you can identify the sections of your discussion, you can undertake research it the more niche subject matters of your discussion. When writing content, it’s essential to break it down into digestible, concise sections. This will ensure that the readers can follow along with ease and select the relevant sections to their inquiry.
Research is super important; you need to have a great understanding of the topics you are discussing. Google and respective search engines will trawl the information you have given and provide the ranking based on the quality, usefulness and how SEO friendly it is.
Starting to write
When starting to write your copy it’s important to identify the structure of the content, outlining a title and sub-headings is a great way to gauge the layout, the number of words per section and how to tie each section together.
When developing a title for your work, consider two things: the first is to convey the overarching topic or themes of discussion. The second is to make it enticing, consider how to frame the title. Can you phrase it to make it sound useful for the reader? Consider framing it as a question, that way when searchers are inquiring through Google, your content is identified as addressing that query.
An alternative to framing the title as a question is to grab the attention of the user. Using highly descriptive language, allows the user to understand the topic whilst keeping it short and simple. A great example of this would be when you see an article about a celebrity, and it reads ‘So and so stuns on the BAFTA red carpet’. Keeping it short and snappy will typically create curiosity within the reader, encouraging them to read.
Subheadings should signpost the different points of discussion. This allows the audience to navigate your article much more easily. Aim to keep the sub-headings super simple, them being easy to find and quick to read will enhance the quality and ease of the reader’s experience.
Keywords
Keywords are a huge part of SEO (search engine optimisation) so it’s super important to outline what words you will need to incorporate into the copy. This will ensure the language used is relevant to the topic, as you will need to make sure the word you use is flagged when people search for your topic or other relevant queries.
Keywords can be found using analytical tools such as Google Search Console, SEMrush and SE Ranking.
Long-tail keywords are search terms with 3 words or more, it is the whole query rather than a single word.
Short-tail keywords are short search terms, typically one or two words at most.
Review & Edit
Once you have written your first or second draft, review the content and make the necessary adjustments. Then the final draft can be written, the final draft should tidy up any sections which need re-structuring, and rephrasing and spelling checks should also be undertaken.
Proofread your copy, not just once or twice, but aim to check roughly three to four times before uploading it. This may be a little bit tedious to do but ultimately it will ensure professionalism and quality are at the highest it can be.
Ensure any facts, data or case studies are checked, identified, and accredited in your article as this will be flagged as problematic to Google if not identified.
Publishing
When publishing your content ensure everything is in the right place, read through one last time to make sure everything is looking and reading as correct. When saving the work, check that it is labelled in a way that is clear and easy to locate.
Here at Intelligency, we label as follows:
Year/month/date – Name of client – Title of work – Any additional title or information.
Make sure your name and the date of publication are on there, this shows the reader who you are and when the copy was published. This provides them with two pieces of important information, the first being who you are, they can then go on to find more of your work. Accrediting your work can only be done when your work is clearly labelled as yours, this will also help prevent others from plagiarising.
The last check that should be done is once the article or blog has been launched, checking to see how it looks on the website. This will help you flag any major issues with displays or the content itself. This will ultimately prevent your audience from seeing any errors, which will help maintain your professionalism and the way the content is initially perceived.
If you think this article was useful, please let us know, and, if you have any questions or other ‘how to’ articles you’d benefit from. We are keen to support you in your endeavour to create a copy!
