Content Writing Guidelines

Writing for the web

  1. Most people scan rather reading the web content. Therefore, write interesting headings, sub heading, bullet points and more to grab the attention of reader.
  2. Focus more on presentation, while writing content for web.
  3. Before writing the web page content, make a tentative structure of the same. Know details related to the services offered, prices, terms and more from the website owner.
  4. While writing web content gain knowledge about the targeted keywords for each page from SEO perspective. Then write in accordance with the density of keywords required.
  5. Adopt inverted pyramid style of writing, featuring the most important information at top, followed by decreasingly significant information.
  6. Write brief paragraphs, each containing single idea and its outline.
  7. Construct passive sentences. Every first sentence in a paragraph or even a section needs to be headed by keywords.
  8. Understand the goal of web content and write content accordingly:a. to provide information or impart knowledge,
    b. increase the number of readers,
    c. to help visitors locate what they need or want,
    d. to help visitors understand what they locate on the website,
    e. to help visitors apply what they locate to satisfy their needs or wants
  9. Writing high-quality content ensures readers coming back to your website. So, write relevant content after research.
  10. Call for action: at the end of content, write about any channel of communication via which the reader can reach the website owner. For example: email address, contact number, twitter handle or more.
  11. Avoid blowing your own trumpet, instead opt for different stages of writing namely:a. Identifying problem in the beginning
    b. Discussing the solution
    c. Elaborating on how we can help.
  12. By blowing your own trumpet, it is suggested to avoid writing about how the company and services are the best. Readers are not interested in reading advertisements, they look for information beyond their logic and this is what you are supposed to write. Any known facts should not be repeated in the writing.

Classifieds

  1. Classified writing has 3 parts:
    a. Headline
    b. Body
    c. Call To Action
  1. A particular classified must have only one purpose.
  2. The ultimate aim of classified is to get clicked and make the reader land on the website.
  3. The headline must interest the reader to read further.
  4. To write an interesting headline follow the below mentioned tips:a. Begin with an action word
    b. Create curiosity
    c. Ask a question
    d. Make a startling statement
    e. Ask for the reader’s opinion
  1. The body of classified must inform the reader, what it has for them. Write about the features of the particular product or service, followed by its benefits. In short, set up a stage for getting clicked.
  2. Call to action generally involves getting the link at end clicked. Use an action word that includes the main benefit of the product you are promoting.
    For example: If I am promoting a product that helps people save time I might write “Save time today by visiting my site now!” instead of “Click here to save time”
    Both are good, but the first one is stronger.
  3. Read the classified to know its effectiveness at the end.

PPT Making

  1. Choose a simple design. You may opt for variation in the content presentation, use bulleted list, text & image, 2-column text and more.
  2. There must be consistency in the terms of font style, color and background.
  3. Write specific information for each slide. Only include the essential points and key phrases.
  4. Avoid writing words in capital letter and limit the use of punctuation to enhance readability.
  5. Use quality images that strengths your intended text. Keep in mind that the image maintains its resolution when projected on big screens.
  6. Strike a balance between text and graphical images. They must be in appropriate size and ratio.
  7. Research about the title and then prepare accordingly. Capture relevant information in the mentioned number of slides.
  8. Use standard font size for heading, background color, border and image size.
  9. Avoid writing long sentences and abbreviations.

SEO Article Writing

  1. SEO article must be useful to the reader. It must provide some valuable information related to their lives or businesses. The reader must visualize some benefit by reading the article.
  2. The 2 crucial components of SEO article are:a. Relevant and value adding content
    b.Supported by good website infrastructure
  3. SEO article content must be topically relevant and has to have a new angle, a good initial hook, and it must be important to the reader.
  4. SEO article must consist of certain keywords that are relevant to the topic. These keywords should appear seamlessly, without disturbing the flow of writing.
  5. To know the appropriate keywords for your SEO article writing, you must write down all the words and phrases that could possibly relate to the subject/business interest you are writing about.
  6. For example while writing an article for website in the business of superior tourist accommodation in the Scottish Borders – a bed and breakfast. The keywords and phrases to be used: “bed and breakfast”, “hotel”, “guest house”, “Scotland,” “Borders”, “tourism”, “accommodation”, “Scottish Tourist Industry”, etc.
  7. It is important to understand that the SEO article writing must have relevant content for the user and not the search engine.
  8. The most important aspect is not to over use the keywords in SEO article writing.
  9. Keyword density as per the word count of particular article must be followed while writing the article. We recommend 1-1.5% keyword density in the writing. For example, if you are writing a 300 words article, you can repeat the keyword, 3-4 times at max.

Guest Blog Writing

  1. Write original content that is new for the reader.
  2. Produce data that backs your writing including research, charts, quotes, expert comments and more.
  3. The blog must have a substantive discussion to build the interest of reader.
  4. Don’t write a guest blog that only talks about your opinion on a particular subject. It must consists facts and evidence to prove your argument.

Storify

  1. The content for storify should be in the form of story-telling and it should relate to the website you are writing for.
  2. Storify must have three part:a. Introduction (about the problem)
    b. Body (consequences of the problem)
    c. Conclusion (solution of the problem)

Tweet Writing

  1. It must not exceed 140 characters.
  2. Add interesting and relevant hashtags.
  3. Do not write in a manner which appears to be direct marketing.

Facebook Post

  1. Write interesting and informative post for Facebook. Crisp writing will be done to grab reader’s attention.
  2. Each post must have a clear purpose. Understand your audience and show them you’re not only an expert, but that you care for them.
  3. Write great headlines to make reader click and read further.
  4. Ensure quality content is written not exceeding the work count.
  5. At the end of each post, call for action by asking reader to share the particular post.

Press Release

  1. The purpose of writing press release is to inform people about the goods and services that a particular brand or company wish to promote.
  2. Press release writing involves knowledge about its structure and content.
  3. The structure of press release is that of story writing, i.e. inverted pyramid, starting with the most important information and ending with the least important information.
  4. Introduction must answer the 5 w’s and 1 H – who, what, where, why, when and how. The remaining part of press release expands on these by providing background information and quotes.
  5. Headline for the press release must be informative, crisp and catchy.
  6. The key to writing a good press release is to emphasize the people aspect of your story. Another crucial aspect is the ‘what’s in it for me’ factor. When writing a press release, emphasize how people will benefit from the product or service being promoted.

Blog Writing Guidelines

  1. Before writing the blog, do check the website and look for the blogs already posted. Your blog topic should not match the existing one.
  2. Specify the blog category for which you are writing the blog.
  3. Write crisp and well research content. Avoid using superfluous words and adjectives like best, easy, expert, experienced etc.
  4. Look for the country address on the website. We would be targeting the country mentioned there and hence you should write accordingly.
  5. Please make sure that the content written is relevant to the post title.

High Importance Websites

  1. Make sure that you write a blog post related to a service of the given website and not on the website. For example; http://www.revivedissertation.sg/ has a service named “assignment writing service”. So, you can write blog posts related to assignments like how to complete an assignment, how to study for an assignment, how to finish a long assignment, how to make your assignment interesting, etc. You are not supposed to write on what this website does.
  1. Through these blog posts, we intend to provide free information to research candidates (Both Master’s and PhD) and hence these posts should be written after a thorough research. Some typical examples of good blog posts will be:
    a. How to run regression tests in SPSS?
    b. A guide to meta-analysis and how to select articles for the same
    c. What is the difference between annotated bibliography and review of literature?
    d. Check list of 12 points to learn before undertaking a PhD research.
  1. Apart from the above type of blog posts, you can also consider writing posts on experience of going through PhD or Master’s Dissertation. This would be considered as you are posting a guest post on the blog of our website.

Medium Importance Websites

  1. These blog posts should be created on popular topics which people keep searching about. So, let’s say something related to “How food can cure ailments?” OR “What is the concept of group purchasing” (Choose a topic relevant to the website, however, being popular).
  2. The sole idea is that when people are searching for something specific (And that is common or popular), our blog post can appear in Google. With this, our website will get more traffic.
  3. Also, within the blog post, we recommend writers to use links of external websites if they are relevant. So, if you are writing something related to a recipe and you know about a similar recipe being there on www.cooks.ndtv.com, we do not mind you to link within the blog post.

Blogging Sites (Where only blogs are published)

  1. These websites are content powerhouses and we are trying to emulate www.wikihow.com wherein there is a huge repository of articles on which people search.
  2. These blog posts should be comprehensive and provide interesting information. This implies, the post should be written in such a manner that reader feels like sharing it on FB or other social media sites.
  3. Some good examples of posts for such sites are: How to loose 100gm fat by 30 mins exercise? Top five destinations for North Indians in South India

6 Comments:

  1. Quite comprehensive. Thanks a ton!

  2. Wow. Quite a blog. Easy to understand. Nice presentation too. Thanks.

  3. Everything is really very good, but I’d like to know more about storify.

  4. Hi! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog.

    Is it tough to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure
    things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to start.
    Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks

  5. How many times shall we fetch the given keywords in the blog having 500 words?

  6. i find it difficult to write a press release. thanks! to you for this blog, it helped me a lot in writing an effective press release.

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