Paradoxically, the Golden Rule of writing in the digital age is “write for people, not algorithms.” Yes, if you’re creating crawlable prose, optimization is important, but it shouldn’t get in the way of a good story or argument.
And if you’re writing as a means to an end — whether that’s professional credibility, profit, or because your job requires you to — the product needs to be good.
Do these five things to get it there.
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Find Stories No One’s Telling
First things first: Figuring out what to write about.
You have experience, expertise, and opinions. These are all important to the finished product, but even the most knowledgeable writers struggle to gain traction because they don’t effectively engage with readers.
How do they differ from those who do? Often, it’s what they write about (or don’t). Find compelling, interesting, or unusual stories no one else is telling, and your readers will engage.
Like this website about people named Kris Duggan. If your first question is “why does anyone care,” you’re not alone, but you’re also off-base. According to the writer, “Duggan” is about the 3,000th most common last name in the United States, which means thousands of people have it. Every one of them wants to know how they got their name.
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“Leave Out the Parts People Tend to Skip”
This bit of wisdom is attributed to novelist Elmore Leonard, a prolific pulp writer who knew a thing or two about getting to the point.
What Leonard means here is, you owe it to yourself to be your own editor. (Chances are, if you’re writing for your personal blog or LinkedIn page, you don’t have an editor anyway.) Reread what you’ve written as you go and cut out the bits that don’t advance the narrative or argument. Your readers will thank you — and reward you with more engagement, shares, and dollars (if there’s a price tag on your work).
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Don’t Drag It Out
One very common “part people tend to skip” is the conclusion. Yes, in formal writing, you absolutely need a clear conclusion that sums up your argument and/or provides actionable takeaways for the reader.
But in the bite-size content you’re likely to be churning out on your LinkedIn page, personal blog, even your newsletter? You can get away without a 200-word conclusion. A quick summation and maybe a reader question will do fine.
Likewise, don’t draw out your arguments in the main body of the piece. If you’re writing for a general audience, you can’t assume your readers are familiar with the details of your subject, but you shouldn’t insult their intelligence by explaining every little thing. Nor should you use filler words or modifiers that dilute your arguments. You need to own your conclusions.
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Let Your Headlines Tell the Story
You’ve seen the stats about eight-second attention spans and fifth-grade reading levels and all the rest. Again, no need to insult your readers’ intelligence — only to recognize that many of your “readers” are skimmers, and to organize your writing accordingly.
That means using headlines (H2s and H3s) to lay out your main points and guide the reader. You want to convey as much information as possible to people who read only the headlines and maybe one or two sentences underneath. This is good for SEO, too.
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Use Graphics and Video When Appropriate
Another SEO pro tip: Google likes graphics and video. Yes, manipulating visual elements is not strictly writing; no, you don’t need a degree in graphic design to do it well enough to pass the laugh test. You can learn the basics in a single free online course, in your blog platform’s help section, and from free or low-cost tools like Canva.
Look for elements that advance your argument or add value in some other way. Remember, many (most?) readers skim, and often a single well-placed chart or infographic tells the story better than hundreds of words of text.
It’s Your Voice. Own It.
Writing is difficult, time-consuming work. And the kind of writing we’re talking about here — content meant to be viewed on a screen, not read off a page — is more complicated than a replacement-level Elmore Leonard novel. (No offense to one of the greats.)
Great writing circa 2023 requires a basic understanding of the mechanics of organic search, a willingness to grab attention through controversy and irreverence, and fluency with tables, graphic editors, and multimedia in general.
The payoff is worth it though — a bigger audience than all but the luckiest, most talented writers of yore could dream of.