When it comes to marketing, content writers are the key people for great performance. Professional SEO content writers are what every small or big business need in order to build brand awareness and an effective online presence. That’s why every professional SEO content writer must know how to do their job smoothly and with maximum success. One of the elements they need to cover is to maintain a certain style of writing.
A style guide is what every content writer needs to follow to create a powerful content marketing strategy. If you’re not certain you have a suitable style guide or you have no idea what it is, don’t despair. Let’s break it down together and see what it implies.
Here’s the ultimate style guide for SEO content writers.
Targeting
The first step you need to take when thinking about your style of writing is the people you’re writing for.
You need to conduct a detailed audience targeting to be able to write content which resonates with them and gets them to read it.
This is why audience targeting is crucial for developing a certain style of writing.
Define the target audience in terms of their:
- age
- sex
- level of education
- social status
- interests
- online behavior
Then, craft your style accordingly.
You can’t write in the same style for an audience of female teenagers, or women in their sixties. Make the adjustments keeping in mind who’s going to be reading your content.
Vocabulary
Style of writing can heavily depend on the vocabulary that we use.
Based on your target audience and the purpose of the content your writing, you need to choose appropriate vocabulary.
You need to think about options such as:
- formal vocabulary
- technical vocabulary
- everyday vocabulary
- jargon vocabulary
Once you make the choice you find most appropriate for the purpose of the content you’re writing, make sure that you stay consistent.
Use the same type of language in all your content efforts to create a sense of wholeness and coherence.
Tone & Voice
Content marketing is used to raise brand awareness and connect the people with the brand on a more personal level.
This means that your target audience will be reading your content and relating it directly to your brand.
Therefore, content defines the brand.
The tone and voice that you use to write content for a certain brand also need to be clearly defined and consistent.
Think about SEO content writers writing for:
-
- M&M’S. The tone and the voice of the content are fun, laid back, light, and entertaining.
- Mercedes. Content is written in a more formal, strict, and educational manner.
A content writer needs to respect the brand identity and develop a tone and a voice which support it. Otherwise, the readers will be confused and won’t be able to connect with the brand.
Make sure you maintain the tone and voice, while at the same time eliminating all the inaccuracies from your content. Use Studicus, Grammarly or Wow Grade in case you need some help with this.
Dependability
Your style of writing isn’t supposed to be mainly focused on how you formulate your ideas and how it sounds once it’s read. It should also focus on the quality of the content itself.
The content you write needs to give your audience something they’ll appreciate:
- valuable information
- reliable facts
- knowledge
- the solution of a problem
This type of content which is highly dependable is what your audience is going to appreciate.
Therefore, another major component of your style in SEO content writing is the dependability you provide.
To ensure you’re doing it the right way, use sources such as:
- credible magazine
- Google Scholar
- academic papers
“Always deliver when it comes to quality. There’s no room for settling for anything less if you want your audience to come back for more,” says Diana Pearson, an SEO specialist and a writer at Supreme Dissertations.
Accuracy
Imagine you have a problem you don’t know how to solve and you decide to look it up on Google. An interesting result pops up and you start reading.
All of a sudden, you see a spelling mistake. What do you do? You exit the page thinking how it was written by an amateur who has no idea what he’s talking about.
Everything you write needs to be proofread and analyzed. You have to pay attention to :
- spelling mistakes
- grammar mistakes
- improper structure
- word order
If you feel like you can’t handle this on your own, you just need to use online tools and service which can help you out.
Here’s a list of highly useful resources you can use to improve your style in terms of accuracy:
- Trust My Paper: A team of professionals is at your service, to analyze, proofread and even edit your entire piece of content.
- Hemingway: This free of charge app will analyze the text to paste into it, mark inaccuracies and mistakes and tell you what to do about them. All you have to do is click and your text will be proofread.
- Best Essay: When you’re struggling with shaping your ideas properly, you can use the help of this online service. Their writers will reformulate what you’ve written and made your content better.
- Readable: If you want to go a step further and analyze your content to the smallest detail, this tool is the way to go. You’ll learn about yourself and the weaknesses you need to work on.
- Grab My Essay: This online service will help you remove any issue from your content and ensure it’s 100% accurate.
Final Thoughts
The style of writing of an SEO content writer deeply depends on the purpose of the content, its target audience, and the brand identity. This means that each writer should be able to adjust their style according to the needs of the client.
Use the guide above to create a unique style for each new brand and client you might have. Make sure the content you write reaches the right people in the right way.