We at takeoff are always ordering new books about content writing for SEO. Sometimes we even read them. “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley is one such book. It is not aimed at gifted writers, but (as the title suggests) at everyone. Because we all write every day, even if we are sometimes not so aware of it.
I have summarized the most valuable advice from this Wall Street Journal bestseller for you here.
1.”Writing is a habit, not an art.” tweet quote
Writing is not an art, but a matter of practice. To get better, you just have to write every day.
2. Write the most important thing at the beginning of a sentence.
Let’s take the following sentence:
“According to a recent study by the Nuremberg market research institute GfK from 2014, around 40 percent of German households have a specific interest in networking their own homes.”
“Around 40 percent of German households have a specific interest in networking their own homes, according to a recent study by the Nuremberg market research institute GfK from 2014.”
It’s about the households, not the study.
3. Don’t steal anyone’s time.
Only write what is really relevant to the reader. You don’t need to tell me about diesel engines if I’m looking for an electric car. And if I’m a vegetarian (I’m not), you don’t have to feed me the best steak recipes.
4. Explain to yourself why you are writing something.
Keep asking yourself like a child, “And why?”
I’m writing a blog post about tips for copywriters. -Why?
Because I read a book about it and found the information valuable. -Why?
Because I think readers can benefit from these tips. – But why?
Because I’m a dear person. -Why? (You can continue this as long as you like).
The “Why?” question will help you find out if a text makes any sense at all.
5.”The More Think, the Easier Ink.” tweet quote
The more you have thought about and researched beforehand, the easier it will be for you to write. So don’t just start writing, create a rough framework and find out where you still need information.
6.”The first draft can be shit.” tweet quote
As long as you revise it, your first draft can be bad. We often think that everything always has to be perfect. No there has to be something there first. Only then can you make it perfect.
7. Leave out the unnecessary.
Once you have your first draft, you can delete the first few paragraphs. For real. These are mostly irrelevant to the reader and only helped you to get into writing.
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is to cross out the wrong words” – tweet Mark Twain quote
Once that’s done, you can use the special tool: Which words can you safely leave out without changing the content?
8. “Show Don’t Tell”
Don’t write about your great products and services. Rather tell me what advantage I have from it! What challenges and problems does your product solve in my everyday life?
9. Assume your reader doesn’t know anything, but don’t assume they’re stupid! quote
10. Find someone to proofread your writing.
Four eyes see well than two. Always.
11. Make sure it is legible.
- Short paragraphs
- Short sentences
- Bullet Points (Like this listing)
- headlines
- white spacing
- photos
12. Set yourself a word limit. And a deadline.
Nobody benefits from your beautiful newsletter if it goes out weeks late. We use the Trello editing tool for our deadlines.
13. Use simple, natural language.
Write in a way that your mother would understand. Or even better: your grandmother. After all, they don’t sell to companies, they sell to people.
14. Use active instead of passive sentences.
This will bring your text to life.
“Our website was visited by 10,000 users in November.”
“10,000 users visited our website in November.”
15. Replace weak and commonly used adjectives and verbs.
Great Success –> Great Success
Raise Leads to 70 –> Catapult Leads to 70
16. Don’t get too attached to rules.
In school we learned not to start sentences with “And” or “Because”. And why? Because teacher Denk said so. (Look, I just broke the rules twice.) The content hasn’t lost its importance because of that. On the contrary.
17. Don’t be too preachy!
In this post, I am the best example. Do this, leave that! In general, one (I) should try to avoid such instructions. What is good, on the other hand, is admitting mistakes to yourself (like me).
18. Write good stories!
A good story should:
- true,
- human,
- original,
- serve the reader
- And be part of a larger story (business strategy).
19. Publish under your personal name
Content with a face is always better than company names. Write under your name when you send out newsletters or publish a blog post.
20. Pay attention to the ideal length of postings on various channels
The well -known social media management platform Hootsuite has created an overview for you to use as a guide. Here is a summary of the overview:
- Facebook: Organic max 80 characters, paid 5 to 18 words
- LinkedIn: Max. 25 words
- Twitter: 71 to 100 characters
21. Words have meanings
Not only sentences, but also words have meanings. It makes a difference whether I say, “It doesn’t matter what you…” or “It doesn’t matter what you…” write. That’s why you don’t write: “This man is not an ass.” Because then “ass” stays in the room, even if we don’t mean it that way.
22. Unnecessary perspective descriptions
Why do many authors still write: “In the distance he saw the birds in the sky? He heard a loud clap of thunder…” It would be better: “In the distance the birds were flapping in the sky. A thunder tore the silence.” Why do you have to squeeze everything that happened from just one person’s perspective?
23. Write linearly or circularly
There are stories that start with A and end with Z (linear). And other stories come back to A afterwards (circulative). And then there are bad lyrics that start with C and end somewhere.
24. Learning and being criticized
The most important point for good content writing for SEO texts.
25. The good text is full of sensory impressions and people
We are only interested in what comes from other people and what we can also imagine. That’s why journalists like to tell about people and what happened to them and less about general facts.
26. Teach but entertain
If we absolutely must impose knowledge on people, then at least it should entertain them well. Otherwise, it is just very instructive.
27. Write pictorially
Good texts create images in the mind of the reader. Therefore, texts must be written in such a way that they are not abstract but can also produce images.
28. Only pick up what will also be used later
Anyone who starts a topic and doesn’t pick it up again later will annoy the reader. It’s like a tennis player who takes the ball, goes to the net and then doesn’t serve.
29. Irony is difficult to spot, so avoid
Irony is rarely understood, see only the Postilion’s articles. Most often, irony in written text leads to misunderstandings.
30. Variation in the sentence melody
One should read sentences like lyrics and be aware that they also “sound”. Variant sentences therefore also sound better than uniform sentence constructs.
Also Read: Email and B2B Content Marketing in 2022
