Quick Tips For Content Creation

The value of your site is dependent on the quality of your content and how much you have of it. It’s just that simple. If you don’t have any interesting content that people are looking for, there’s no reason for them to go to your site. Also, if you have great content but not enough, the traffic that does go your way won’t be enough to sustain your business.

That’s why content creation is key, but the process of creating content can be a daunting one, especially if you’re the only one churning it out for your site. If you can afford it, I would advise you to outsource some or all of your content creation, but if you can’t afford it or just don’t want to yet, here are a few tips to help get the inspiration flowing.

Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool
If you’re looking for keywords to write about, one of the best keyword research tools you can use is Google’s own Keyword Tool through AdWords. The search frequency information is derived from Google searches and allows you to fine tune the data to help you better identify keywords you can be writing about. According to Arnie Kuenn of ContentMarketingInstitute.com:

The Google AdWords tool can tell you which keywords are searched more (or less) than others based on broad, exact, or phrase-match volumes, contingent on the settings you set. Also, you can choose to see either local (U.S.) or global data, which is crucial for geo-specific businesses.

Keep It About Your Readers, Not You
As you get used to creating content, you will start to have that tendency to write about what you think is interesting. You might think that you have a good grasp on what your readers want to read, but finding out from them directly or indirectly is a much better approach than just assuming you know what they want. Taylor Hawes of Hostgator.com says:

If you’re ever at a loss as to how to answer these questions, do some research. You can do this in a number of ways, including:

• Asking your readers what they’d like to see more of
• Signing up for Google Trends to see what people are buzzing about
• Visiting Q&A websites like Yahoo Answers to see what people are talking about in particular categories
• Visiting relevant online forums to see what topics are most popular
• Performing a keyword search with a tool like SEMrush to see what related keywords are most popular

Start Making List Posts
A great way to get started on content creation with little need for inspiration is to compile a list post. These actually require very little original content, although if it’s based on original content then all the better. All you have to do is compile the ideas into a list and write short blurbs for each list item. You don’t even have to worry that much about structuring the post that much.

Make How-to Posts
How-to posts are among the most helpful and searched for posts. They are meant to solve a problem and typically do so in step-by-step fashion. Anum Hussain of Hubspot.com says:

If you know how to do something your readers would appreciate knowing how to do, it should be pretty easy to transfer your knowledge to paper… or your computer screen. Remember — blogs are conversational by nature. Just write it out like you’d speak it if you were telling a lead, customer, or colleague.

Not only do you help your readers with these posts, but you can also establish yourself as an expert in your niche through them. If you’re having trouble deciding what to write a how-to about, you can just ask your readers what they want help with.