Referral Traffic Tips: How to Write Contents that People Search for

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I like to preface this article by saying this, for ANY content we publish, we all ought to remember to:

Write for people first; then Google, or Bing, algorithm second.

Write for people first; then Google, or Bing, algorithm second.Click To Tweet

Note that the primary focus here in this article is about how to write content that people search for.

It is a given that the content you are writing should not suck, and must, therefore, be helpful and engaging to your readers.

I bet you do that part already, though.

However…..

… you want your content to get found, am I correct? Each business is unique and would have different objectives why we want our contents to get found: to get inbound traffic, to get sign-ups, etc.

You want inbound traffic from search, right?

Every business that takes part in Internet marketing has the potential to get found by more customers online. Click To Tweet

Inbound referral traffic via social media is relatively easy to do…

….but inbound traffic through search? How does that work?

Well in two ways: you SEO your content, and you pay for advertisement.

That’s how.

There is no point writing content that people do not look for. Otherwise, you are just adding to the ever-growing content glut.

The content we write should be essential.

How does it become essential? Only if people are looking for it.

Again…Only if people are looking for it.

You want that kind of content, right?

5 Tips to write content that people search for

TIP #1
Don’t do this: Headline is missing keywords.
Do that: Include keywords that people are searching for.

Write headlines that have keywords.

How do you do that? I have written an article about that.

Check the information here: keywords placement for SEO.

TIP #2
Don’t do this: Witty but an unclear title.
Do that: Sharp and clear title.

Sure, a witty title would catch attention, and could pique interest, but would the search engine understand what it is about?

Try putting yourself in the shoes of the internet searcher….

When you look for something online, is it not the title that catches your attention first? Is it not that you look for words you are searching for in the title; then you only look for other information from the search results afterward and see if it’s (very) close to your intent? In particular, you read the (meta) description, which is immediately below the title to see if it’s the one you are looking for.

Add wit to the title, if you must. But, remember that, you would want your title to give your audience an idea, right off the bat, what it is about.

No secret code.

No inside joke.

No bait and switch ploy.

Is it not that if the title does not match what you are looking for, you skip the article and go to the next one?

Your headline helps your readers decide whether to open your post. Therefore, it is in your favor if it relates to their need and easy to understand.

So you would want to craft a headline that will leave the reader no other option but click and read your article. And share it.

That’s what you want to happen, right?

Some tools can help you create attention-grabbing headlines. Examples are:

Attention-grabbing title generator by Hubspot.
The tool lets you type in 3 nouns, then it creates potential titles that you can use.
Article Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule

Here’s how it gave me details of the grade.

Here is the detail of one title that I tried.

What I like about the title analyzer is that it also:

analyzes the length of your title
shows you how it looks like on Google search
checks common, power and other words

I have used and seen other title generators, but I have never seen one that analyzes my title in such details as CoSchedule’s free tool. Yep, it’s free!

Don’t just get by with any headline. Make sure you have an attention-grabbing title!

TIP #3
Don’t do this: Only write about how great a company you are, or product you have.
Do that: Answer questions that your target audience is looking for.

You may be a great company, and you may have great products and services.

However, the truth of the matter is, people do not care. Sorry to burst your bubble there.

People search for answers to their questions; they do not look for “great companies.”

Questions that people ask suggest a pain point. Be the expert that you are by responding to that need with helpful info.

So….

…..where do you look for questions that people ask?

Here are some places:

Google search it.
Find answers of the question by looking at the search engine results page (SERP). Can you write something better than what you are seeing? If you can write away!
Check Quora.
What are questions there that are being asked there? Check the number of answers and the upvotes.
Ask your audience what they like to know.
If you have an active social media tribe, it will not hurt to ask them what they like to know. We occasionally go to our social media tribe and check what they like to know.
Social media groups, or other niche-focused membership groups.
If you belong to a couple of social media groups (paid or not), you would see questions that are posted by others in the group. See what is often asked about the topic that you intend to write.
Customer Services Representatives.
Keep your customer service reps in the loop. Ask them the most commonly asked questions that they field when they receive calls. They would know! Is it about your products? Is it about your service? Is it about a feature? All these are possible topics for contents.
Reddit and Forums.
Reddit and forums, like Quora, are chock full of questions that you can sift through when considering topics for content marketing.
Live events – IRL and Virtual.
It can be trade shows or networking events.Ever been thrown “quick” questions by people about what you are doing? That’s a potential topic to write about. How about Facebook “Live” Q&As and even Twitter chats.

All the above examples are potential content topic gold mines.

TIP #4
Don’t do this: Only write about how great a company you are, or product you have.
Do that: Answer questions that your target audience is looking for.

Evergreen contents are those would still be helpful to your audience no matter when they access your content. Aim to write that type of contents.

What I hate the most is writing a how-to about social media, then only to find out a few months later, that all the screenshots I took are entirely useless because the platform has dramatically changed.

Can you relate? I bet you can!

TIP #5
Don’t do this: Let your content sit after you publish it.
Do that: Share it regularly

Grease your social media gears and share it as often as you can prudently. Have the timing in mind about how often you would like to share it. There are social media scheduling tools that won’t let you share it a couple of times within the day. Create several versions of the same content to share.

Now that you already have an idea about contents that people look for, do you want to know the contents that people like to share?