10 Content Writing Strategies to Boost Your Organic Traffic

The amount of organic traffic greatly depends on the quality of the content you publish.

The more value you provide to the reader, and the more precisely you follow Google’s best practices, the more users you attract to your website.

In fact, you don’t have to be a professional writer to create good content. You just need to understand who your target audience is and to use the following content written strategies.

Write for a “target reader”

Do you want to strengthen your message and drive organic traffic to your blog? Write to one person at a time.

Define your “target reader”, a certain person who is browsing the web trying to find answers to a specific question, and do your best to provide valuable, relevant information.

Before you start working on a new piece of content, ask yourself these questions:

Who is my “target reader”?
Where does my “target reader” live? What does he do for a living?
What issues/challenges is he currently experiencing?
What specific questions does he want to be answered?
What type of content does he expect to find online (for instance, a brief how-to guide, “what is” article)?

Set the right tone of voice

The tone of the writing is a particular way of choosing words/language.

It’s something that differentiates your texts from the texts created by other writers.

The tone can be friendly, formal, informal, joyful, serious, ironic, playful, humorous, optimistic, or pessimistic.

If you haven’t decided on what tone of voice to use, answer the following questions:

What is my personality?
How do I sound to others?
Is my writing style authentic?
What tone of voice does appeal to my target audience the most?

Keep it simple stupid (KISS principle)

U.S. Navy invented a KISS principle in 1960. Now, this principle is widely used by software developers, web designers, copywriters, and other professionals from all over the world.

The basic idea of the KISS principle is that most systems work best if they are simplified.

If you want to apply this principle to your writing, you should avoid unnecessary complexity and keep your texts simple:

Avoid rarely-used words, jargon, technical terms, and acronyms
Eliminate wordiness (for example, replace “in order to” with “to”)
Keep sentences short (under 20 words each)
Keep paragraphs short (under three sentences)
Stick to active voice
Avoid excessive use of adverbs

Create a clear structure

Trying to create valuable content, writers usually overlook one important thing – they forget that text must have a clear structure.

If you want to boost organic traffic, you need to make your piece of content structured and skimmable. Here is how you can do it:

Use H2s and H3s throughout the text every 60-200 words.
Add bulleted lists. Include up to ten bullets per list.
Keep the length of the bullet points in one list roughly the same.
Highlight only the most important details in bold or italic.

Come up with a catchy headline

The headline of the article is as important as the body of the article.

So make sure that the headline you are using is catchy and resonates with the target audience.

When brainstorming headline ideas, take into account the following:

You should avoid using uncommon words
Your headline should contain at least one powerful word
The length of the headline should be around 55 characters
The headline should include a keyword, preferable near the beginning

Leverage storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful tool.

Stories make any content captivating to read and easy to remember. Whether you write about bookkeeping software, beauty industry trends, or organic food, stories help you to connect with your target audience in a meaningful way and boost engagement.

How to use storytelling to increase organic traffic? Don’t focus on creating a plot, characters, theme, and setting. Think about using memory, dream, desire, value, or anything that holds meaning to your readers.

For writing a fascinating story, you should do the following:

Define your core message
Decide what kind of story you’re telling and what result you expect to get (for example, to raise brand awareness, to increase sales)
Come up with a relevant call to action. Define steps users should take after reading your blog post

Use “you” and “your” where possible

Another way to engage the audience is to use impersonal pronouns “you” and “yours”.

This simple trick helps to connect with the readers on a personal level and boost engagement.

Here is an example of how you can add impersonal pronouns to the text.

Today, we will talk about how one can become rich and famous in 30 days.
Today, we talk about how you can become rich and famous in 30 days.

These sentences are almost identical, and they deliver the same message. The only difference is that the second sentence includes the noun “you” and sounds more appealing to the target audience.

Promote a controversial idea

If your major goal is to make buzz online, consider using this content writing tactic.

Choose a controversial topic
Make a controversial statement
Back up your statement with statistics or other data
Encourage discussion in the comments

Here are a few examples of debatable topics: “Consumption of fruits is harmful”, “Alternative medicine is the only right choice”, “Self-driving cars endanger our future.”

Just keep in mind that to use this strategy, you should have vast knowledge in the field, or should be able to research the topic in-depth.

If you want to use this strategy, but don’t have enough time for researching, you can contact a thesis writing company and get professional assistance.

Create vivid descriptions

When writing a product description, or describing something in your blog post, you should be specific and pay attention to the wording.

You should use sensory words to help readers imagine how the product or specific object looks like and feels like in real life.

Here are a few examples of sensory words that you can use:

Sight: vibrant, dazzling, shiny, glossy, radiant,
Taste: creamy, juicy, savory, sugary, delectable, salty
Smell: whiff, malodorous, pungent, aromatic
Touch: silky soft, cuddly, fluffy, powdery

Add visuals

Set an atmosphere by adding a colorful image that is relevant to your topic.

While it is always better to come up with a unique picture, you may search for free stock photos. The trick here is to think of not-so-obvious keywords to find a good illustration and avoid being generic.

Here are some rules for using visual elements in your writing:

Break up the content every 300 words or so
Use infographics
Make screenshots
Use videos

Be consistent

When it comes to content writing, you shouldn’t expect to get an immediate result. You should focus on long-term goals.

To boost your organic traffic in the long-run, you should post new content on a regular basis:

Design a content marketing plan.
Decide how many posts you can afford to publish monthly and weekly.
Schedule your posts
Do your best to stick to the schedule
Monitor results and analyze your progress
Adjust your plan, if necessary

Wrapping it up

When developing a content marketing strategy, you should focus on content quality rather than quantity.

You should strive to meet the users’ expectations and make your content valuable.

If you do it right, both your target audience and Google will notice your efforts. Your website will get to the top of search results, and you will boost organic traffic.

Author’s bio. Daniela McVicker is a passionate digital marketer. Daniela is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with Essayguard where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their names in the online world.