Nine Journalism Tactics That Work for SEO Content Writing: A new article on Search Engine Journal reports that while engagement is a top priority in journalism, the same can be said when writing with SEO in mind. You can use these nine proven journalism tactics to improve your content.
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The Warrior Forum author has worked as a journalist since 2001, first as a traditional reporter for a newspaper, then as a motorcycle journalist since 2008 and through today, and has been doing SEO since around 2010. They say many journalism tactics can help your SEO content writing today:
1. The Inverted Pyramid: The concept is simple. You communicate what's most important in the article's introductory paragraphs and structure the content from most essential to least important.
2. Answer the 5Ws + 1H: Regardless of what type of writing, from a 300 blog to a 5,000-word white paper, for serious engagement, you must always answer the 5Ws + 1H: who, what, when, where, why, and how. When using the inverted pyramid structure, answering the who, what, when, and where within the lede will increase engagement. Then, throughout the body, you can answer the why and how of your subject.
3. Engaging Headline: The best advice from the world of journalism in regards to headline writing? Fancy and cute words don't prompt action. Instead, use concrete and valuable words. For SEO, action translates to click-throughs and engagement, and both are direct ranking factors.
4. Engaging Lede: As more and more media is piled on our plates, the average attention span of a human is getting shorter. Microsoft Research says the average attention span is now about eight seconds, and it decreases online. This is especially true when content is unfulfilling or a website loads slowly.
5. The show, Don't Tell: The best journalists don't just tell you what to think. They show you what's going on, letting your mind create those mental images. A metal sign on the right corner of my stand-up desk says, "Show the Story." This reminder helps center my attention on showing over telling, something I embed into my second of multiple editing stages.
6. Active Voice: Active voice owns the page. Using the active voice in your writing can help slow the pace in areas you want readers to study.
7. Simple Language for Clarity: When I explain content audits to clients, I begin with a list of principal guidelines that all websites should employ: clarity, relevancy, valuable content, no "me, me, me" content, storytelling, and free of distractions such as pop-ups. When content is lacking in clarity, the messaging becomes clouded, and visitors quickly leave. This kills engagement and time-on-page, which kills not only your SEO but also any hope of conversion.
8. Hybrid Paragraphs That Control Pace: Studies show that online readers hate two things: A series of one-sentence paragraphs or longer paragraphs ("walls of text"). Longer paragraphs immediately cause fear in that a reader has to work through a text. A series of one-sentence sections also causes fear - fear of monotony.
9. Credibility: Any type of journalism loses credibility if sources are not properly attributed. The larger the publication - think New York Times, Esquire, or Forbes - the stricter the editorial process regarding proper attribution. Attribute everything that's not simple knowledge or your own opinion (or the authors, if you're editing/publishing).
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