SEO

How To Plan A Blog Post In 6 Easy Steps

Published

4 months ago

November 10, 2022

With more than a billion websites across the World Wide Web, it’s not hard to understand that it’s tough to stand out among them.

That’s why the best content on the web has to be well-written, well-researched, and downright compelling to read, regardless of the subject matter being covered.

And that’s not always – or rarely is – an easy task. But breaking this daunting task into more straightforward steps makes the job much more manageable.

Creating content – not just blogs – should always start with planning. And that’s often the difference between mediocre content and excellent content.

To outline that plan, use these six steps for content-creation success and ensure what you and your brand is publishing is being found easily and digested by the right people at the right time.

Readers won’t just respect this content and the brand behind it but will seek out this content and hold the brand in high regard.

Offering something valuable (high-quality content) to the people who matter most to your business (customers) is a no-brainer and a long-term-winning strategy that pays extreme dividends.

Doing so is also the natural way to build authority through your entity (a brand, person, etc.) for readers and search engines like Google.

1. Know The Brand You’re Representing

There can never be enough emphasis on this.

Too many times, when writing on behalf of a brand or business, writers forget (or never consider) said brand’s overall voice and tone.

This is a critical component for success regarding consistency, styling, and messaging.

You want to ensure all of this is in line with general brand guidelines and its overall brand image.

Larger, well-established brands typically have guidelines that should include brand voice and tone.

But even if official brand guidelines aren’t available, there are still many ways you can better understand a brand, its voice and tone, and its general messaging with goals in mind.

Read Old Blogs By The Brand

A good starting point would be to look back and read older blog content published by the brand.

Depending on how long the brand has been creating well-developed, quality content, you could deeply understand the general style and brand voice used.

Work to recreate that with your insightful spin.

Run A Content Audit (Or A Shorter, Modified Version Of One)

When in a position to run the overarching content strategy or consistently write content for the same brand, it would likely be worth a writer or content strategist’s time to run a micro content audit.

This will help you get the best idea of not just the overall style and voice of the content but also the brand’s goals and identify what works well in terms of traffic, engagement, and performance (and what does not).

This will also help develop ideas for blog topics and identify content gaps.

Look At Competitors

Another way to better understand the brand a writer represents – and what not to be – is to look at some of the brand’s main competitors.

Competitors will likely publish their quality content, but the content produced on behalf of a competing brand like the one you represent should be unique to that brand.

That is one of the main ways brands can stand out and are supposed to. Use it to your advantage.

This is also a no-brainer when moving into a content role within a business or industry with which one may not be too familiar.

You want to understand the brand you represent and its messaging.

But it will also help to understand the brand’s main competitors, how they work to separate themselves from their competition, and ways you can surpass them in educating and enlightening potential customers.

2. Understand Your Audience

Understanding the audience you’re writing for goes hand-in-hand with knowing the brand you represent.

You can’t understand your audience without knowing the brand you’re writing for.

You can’t publish quality content without fully understanding those critical variables.

The means mentioned above to better understand both will help a brand’s overall content strategy and execution.

Remember to use topics that interest your audience and vocabulary that makes sense to your audience.

3. Finding Topics To Write About

For many, this may be one of the most challenging steps of the planning process. But it shouldn’t be.

As a writer representing a brand – a brand that is an authority on specific topics and industries – there will always be valuable insight to offer current and potential customers.

Think about Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on many websites; they are built from topics/questions commonly asked repeatedly over time by those interested in the brand and its business. Those answers are sought out through search engines thousands of times per day.

Offering people (the right) answers to their questions will always build trust in a brand and the writers representing it.

Competitive Analysis

Aside from the Frequently-Asked-Questions exercise to explore content ideas, writers should also lean on competitive analysis to develop more good topics to write about.

Some brands will do a decent job of covering many different topics within their industry. In contrast, other brands will do a better job covering only specific areas within that industry they may specialize in or have more experience in.

Use all this research to build out quality blog topics based on the abundance or lack of quality content on specific issues.

Identify competitors’ content gaps as areas to focus on, gain market share from the competition, and stand out in the areas that other brands lack.

An analysis of your brand similarly will help you identify where your brand is lacking as well.

Keyword Research

Conducting keyword research around topics and ideas helps writers develop keyword targets but also helps shape blog posts in terms of:

Topics covered.
Questions to be answered.
The essential elements of more in-depth issues have various layers and subtopics.

Over the last 10 to 15 years, many keyword-research tools have hit the market to help content strategists with topic discovery.

In addition to traditional tools like Google Keyword Planner (formerly known as the Keyword Tool), Ubersuggest, Google Analytics, and traditional Google Autocomplete, new-and-improved platforms like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, and MarketMuse, to name a few, have also made quite the impact on the world of content.

Other proprietary tools that are higher in terms of cost but are ever-so-powerful, like Conductor and BrightEdge, offer even more content ideas and high-value keyword targets to help shape strategy, among other content marketing tools.

Make Sure It’s Interesting

Most of all – and it may sound simple, but it is all too often ignored – make sure the content you’re planning is interesting to the audience for which it is being written.

If you’re well-versed in a brand and industry and don’t personally find a blog topic interesting, helpful, or educational, chances are the audience won’t think it is.

Write about interesting topics while offering expert opinions, feedback, and insights.

The audience will reward it by trusting the brand, its content, and its messaging.

4. Do Your Research

Thorough research from credible sources is the main pillar of quality content.

Readers will look for expert opinions and analyses based on research done.

That allows writers and brands to stand out – real-life experience and a deeper explanation of sometimes complex situations.

But that research is paramount to building authoritative content that will have a long-standing impact.

As with all published content, check and double-check all facts and properly source proprietary knowledge to its original publisher.

This can be done using outbound links, in line with SEO best practices.

5. Create A Strong, Enticing Headline

Headline writing is an art, even more so in the internet age.

Now, more than ever, humans are consuming vast amounts of information from everywhere.

Headlines must be great to stand out.

Otherwise, the content will likely never be seen.

There are a variety of different approaches to take when developing a crafty and attractive headline that will grab readers’ attention.

All headlines must:

Relate directly back to the content they represent.
Be well-written.
Not be too long.

Some successful ways to create good headlines include using formulas and headline-generating tools and other innovative ways to ensure readers are enticed by the content meant for them.

6. Consider Visual Content

Rich media will always help a blog post in terms of click-through rate and the general likelihood that someone would be more enticed to click on it and learn more.

This also helps if headline writing isn’t your craft; a good visual typically attracts readers, and it’s easier for the eyes to understand and retain visuals than written words.

Know what works best for your content and your audience.

Next Steps After The Blog Post Is Prepared

Now is when the real work begins! The following are steps you will need to take to transform your idea into a successful piece of content!

Write it!
Optimize it all.
Copyedit it, then copyedit it again.
Then have someone else copyedit it for you.
Publish it.
Ensure the post has visible share buttons for social media and valid rich media previews.
QA the live blog post yourself.
Have a colleague QA the blog post.

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Featured Image: puhhha/Shutterstock

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Should Congress Investigate Big Tech Platforms?

Published

6 hours ago

March 22, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

Should Congress Investigate Big Tech Platforms?

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a full committee hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Chew to discuss how the platform handles users’ data, its effect on kids, and its relationship with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.

This hearing is part of an ongoing investigation to determine whether TikTok should be banned in the United States or forced to split from ByteDance.

A ban on TikTok would affect over 150 million Americans who use TikTok for education, entertainment, and income generation.

It would also affect the five million U.S. businesses using TikTok to reach customers.

Is TikTok The Only Risk To National Security?

According to a memo released by the Tech Oversight Project, TikTok is not the only tech platform that poses risks to national security, mental health, and children.

As Congress scrutinizes TikTok, the Tech Oversight Project also strongly urges an investigation of risks posed by tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google.

These platforms have a documented history of serving content harmful to younger audiences and adversarial to U.S. interests. They have also failed on many occasions to protect users’ private data.

Many Big Tech companies have seen TikTok’s success and tried to emulate some of its features to encourage users to spend as much time within their platforms’ ecosystems as possible. Academics, activists, non-governmental organizations, and others have long raised concerns about these platforms’ risks.

To truly reduce Big Rech’s risks to our society, Congress must look beyond TikTok and hold other companies accountable for the same dangers they pose to national security, mental health, and private data.

Risks Posed By Big Tech Companies

The following are examples of the risks Big Tech companies pose to U.S. users.

Amazon

Amazon has made several controversial moves, including a partnership with a state propaganda agency to launch a China books portal and offering AWS services to Chinese companies, including a banned surveillance firm with ties to the military.

Apple

Independent research found that Apple collects detailed information about its users, even when users choose not to allow tracking by apps from the App Store. Over half of the top 200 suppliers for Apple operate factories in China.

Google

The FTC fined Google and YouTube $170 million for collecting children’s data without parental consent. YouTube also changed its algorithm to make it more addictive, increasing users’ time watching videos and consuming ads.

TikTok

TikTok employees confirmed that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is involved in decision-making and has access to TikTok’s user data. While testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Vanessa Pappas, TikTok COO, would not confirm whether ByteDance would give TikTok user data to the Chinese government.

Conclusion

While the dangers posed by TikTok are undeniable, it’s clear that Congress should also address the risks posed throughout the tech industry. By holding all major offenders accountable, we can create a safe, secure, and responsible digital landscape for everyone.

Featured Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock

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SEO

The 29 Best WordPress Plugins (Organized by Category)

Published

7 hours ago

March 22, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

WordPress plugins make your life easier by allowing you to add features to your website without learning to code or hire a developer.

However, over 60,000 WordPress plugins are available, and more are released every day. Plus, installing too many plugins can cause slow website loading speeds, so you want to avoid adding too many of these plugins.

To help you limit your installed plugins to only the most worthy, I’ve compiled this list of the 29 best WordPress plugins categorized by what they’re good for.

This list comes from my more than 12 years of experience building WordPress websites and working closely with my WordPress developer.

First up, we have some plugins to help you design and add specific functionalities to your WordPress website.

Elementor

Cost: Free ($59/year for premium)

Useful for:

Building a website theme with drag-and-drop editing
Easily creating custom landing pages

Elementor is awesome for anyone who wants a custom-looking website without learning how to code or being limited to a pre-built theme. But it also has pre-built themes you can customize to streamline the process.

Be aware that using any kind of drag-and-drop editor like this will slow down your site.

WooCommerce

Cost: Free

Useful for: Turning your WordPress website into an e-commerce store

WooCommerce is the best plugin to start an e-commerce business on your WordPress website. It allows you to easily create product pages and collections.

You can combine it with WooCommerce Payments to easily collect customer payment information.

Advanced Custom Fields Pro

Cost: $49/year for a single site

Useful for: Creating custom widgets to use anywhere on your site

If you know how to code, Advanced Custom Fields Pro allows you to take full control over your WordPress edit screens and custom field data.

WPCode

Cost: Free ($49–$399/year for premium)

Useful for: Inserting code into your headers and footers

Formerly called Insert Headers and Footers, WPCode is the easiest way for non-developers to add code snippets anywhere on their website.

For example, you may have to add a code snippet to your website’s header to connect it with Google Analytics or to add the Facebook Remarketing Pixel.

WPForms

Cost: $49.50/year

Useful for:

Creating forms for contact pages, newsletter sign-ups, and more
Building surveys for your site visitors

WPForms is a drag-and-drop WordPress form editor. It’s super intuitive and easy to use.

TranslatePress

Cost: €89/year (~USD 95)

Useful for: Translating your website into other languages

TranslatePress makes it easy to create translated versions of your website in other languages. It also automatically adds the hreflang tags for each language, so it’s also good for SEO.

Formilla

Cost: Free (varying premium plans starting at $19.99/month)

Useful for: Adding a live chat feature to your site

Formilla is a live chat plugin for WordPress. You can offer live chat support or use it to answer visitors’ questions automatically using a bot—although that may annoy them.

Next up, we’ve got a whole suite of plugins that help you make your website more secure and easier to manage. WordPress sites are often vulnerable to hacking, so these are important.

Wordfence

Cost: Free ($119/year for premium)

Useful for: Keeping your website safe from hackers and malware

Wordfence adds a robust firewall and malware scanner to protect your site from hackers and malicious software. You can also use it to add two-factor login authentication, have rate limiting, and run security diagnostics on your site—to name a few of the features.

UpdraftPlus

Cost: Free ($119/year for premium)

Useful for: Backing up your WordPress website

It’s important to back up your website every so often to avoid losing your content in the event of a plugin clash, hack, or even accidental deletion. UpdraftPlus makes this easy for you.

Wordable

PublishPress role capabilities dashboard

Membership site built using MemberPress WordPress plugin

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SEO

TikTok Updated Community Guidelines To Include AI Content

Published

13 hours ago

March 22, 2023

EntirewebNewsBot

TikTok Updated Community Guidelines To Include AI Content

TikTok has updated its Community Guidelines, which will go into effect on April 21, 2023.

The updated guidelines introduce TikTok’s Community Principles, which guide content moderation to uphold human rights and international legal frameworks.

TikTok worked with over 100 organizations globally to strengthen its rules to address new threats and reduce potential user harm.

Key changes to Community Guidelines apply to synthetic media, tribes, and civic and election integrity.

AI-Generated Content

TikTok defines “synthetic media” as content created or modified by AI. While AI and related technologies allow creators to express themselves in many new ways, they can also blur the line between fact and fiction for viewers.

Creators must label synthetic or altered media as such to mitigate the potential risks of spreading misinformation.

To reduce potential harm, synthetic media featuring real private individuals is prohibited. Private individuals include anyone under 18 and adults who are not public figures. The use of public figures over 18 – government officials, politicians, business leaders, and celebrities – is permitted, but with restrictions.

Creators must not use synthetic media to violate policies against hate speech, sexual exploitation, and severe harassment. They must also clearly disclose synthetic media and manipulated content that depict realistic scenes with fake people, places, or events.

Public figures cannot be used in synthetic audio or video for political or commercial endorsements to mislead users about financial or political issues.

You can, however, use synthetic media in artistic and educational content.

Protection Of Tribes

TikTok policies already include rules meant to protect people and groups with specific attributes from hateful behavior, hate speech, and hateful ideologies.

With new guidelines, the platform added Tribes to the list of protected attributes, including ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

While TikTok allows critical content on public figures, as defined above, it prohibits language that harasses, humiliates, threatens, or doxxes everyone.

Users can consult resources and tools provided by TikTok to identify bullying behavior and configure their settings to prevent it from affecting them further.

Civil And Election Integrity

Noting that elections are essential to community dialogue and upholding societal values, TikTok recently emphasized its alleged efforts to encourage topical discussions while maintaining unity.

To achieve this goal, paid political promotion, advertising, and fundraising by politicians or parties are prohibited. This policy applies to traditional ads and compensated creator content.

TikTok claims to support informed civic idea exchanges to promote constructive conversations without allowing misinformation about voting processes and election outcomes. Content that includes unverified claims about election results will not be eligible to appear in the For You Feed.

Before these changes go into effect next month, moderators will receive additional training on enforcing them effectively.

Will Recent Changes Prevent More TikTok Bans?

TikTok’s refreshed Community Guidelines and explanation of Community Principles appear to attempt greater transparency and foster a safe, inclusive, and authentic environment for all users.

TikTok plans to continue investing in safety measures to encourage creativity and connection within its global community of one billion users globally.

TikTok’s latest changes to improve transparency, reduce harm, and provide higher-quality content for users may be part of efforts to prevent the app from being banned in the U.S.

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a full committee hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Chew on how congress can protect the data privacy of U.S. users and children from online harm.

Organizations like the Tech Oversight Project have also expressed concerns about risks that big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta pose.

Featured Image: BigTunaOnline/Shutterstock

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