Writing for the Web with Andy Crestodina

@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
WRITING FOR THE WEB
7 Tips for getting read and shared
#eventname

@crestodina #Event
Weak
Contributor
Amazing
Contributor
Perceived Performance v. Actual Performance

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The two most powerful
formats for content

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source: Moz, BuzzSumo

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source: Moz, BuzzSumo
Most content gets no links and few shares

Steve Rayson
Co-founder, Buzzsumo
...if you want to create content that achieves a high level of both
shares and links then you should concentrate on
opinion forming, authoritative content...
or well researched and evidenced content.

Steve Rayson
Co-founder, Buzzsumo
...if you want to create content that achieves a high level of both
shares and links then you should concentrate on
strong opinion
original research

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The Power of
Original Research

Original Research Example One
“What’s the lifespan of a website?”

The average lifespan
of a marketing website is
2 years 7 months

Original Research Example Two
“What website features are standard?”

Original Research Example Three
“How long does it take to write a blog post?”

source: 2018 Blogger Survey, Orbit Media

“What do people in our industry
often say but rarely support?”

Find the missing stat

source: State of Original Research, Mantis
Have you published original
research in the last 12 months?
Only 47% of companies publish original research

High-growth firms are 3x as likely
to publish original research
as part of their content strategy
source: Hinge Marketing

Don’t take shortcuts;
they take too long.
Sonia Simone
CCO, Copyblogger Media

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The Power of
Strong Opinion

What do you believe that
most people would disagree with?

What do you think will happen in the future
that most people think is unlikely?

What questions are people in your industry
afraid to answer?

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Best Practices to Consider:
Changes That Might Improve Your Website
Fix Your Funnel:
15 Things To Remove From Your Site Immediately

Listening to your audience

“Would you mind answering this
question?”

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Email asking a question

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Invitation to contribute to a roundup

question?”
“Sure! Here are a few thoughts.
Is this helpful?”

question?”
“Sure! Here are a few thoughts.
Is this helpful?”
“Wow! This is amazing.
Thanks so much!”

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...exceed their expectations

Fast forward three years...

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68 questions answered from round ups
76 questions answered from email interviews
27 questions answered from clients and friends
171 total questions and answers
+

Topics flow from sales to marketing
Content flows from marketing to sales

Never waste a good conversation
by having it in private...

“My web designers are #@!&* and I’m
tired of this $#*?!”

“My web designers are #@!&* and I’m
tired of this $#*?!”
“Sounds bad. I’m listening
…and taking notes”

source: 27 Complaints About Web Design Companies, Orbit Media
Why people hate their web designers

What (and where) is a headline?

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source: How to Write Great Headlines
Every time you see a headline, you calculate cost / benefit

The data about headlines
and sharing

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Number of Headline Words and Average FB Shares
source: BuzzSumo

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The curiosity gap and sharing

Top Facebook Headline Trigram Average FB Engagements
Will make you 8961
This is why 4098
Can we guess 3199
Only x in 2398
The reason is 1609
Are freaking out 1559
X stunning photos 1425
Tears of joy 1387
Is what happens 1337
Will make you cry 1287
Source: Buzzsumo

Top Twitter Headline Trigrams Average Twitter Engagements
This is what 174
For the first time 133
Things to know 123
X percent of 115
Will make you 114
Is the new 87
As it happened 86
First time in 80
Of all time 78
What happens when 73
Source: Buzzsumo

Most Engaging Trigrams That Start Headlines
X reasons why These are the
X things you Here are the
This is what How to get
This is the X stunning photos
This is how X things that
X of the X things to
X ways to You can now
This is why The x most
The x best X things only
How to make Why you should
Source: Buzzsumo

Most Engaging Trigrams That End Headlines
In the world Around the world
In x years X years later
Need to know In X days
Of the year Melt your heart
On social media To see this
Of all time What he said
Talking about it Is going viral
For x years X years ago
The first time See all day
After x years Give you goosebumps
Source: Buzzsumo

“This is why these 10 stunning photos
will make you cry tears of joy!”

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Frontload the headline with impact / benefits

Write many.
Choose one!

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• CoSchedule writes 25-30 headline variations
• Buffer writes 25-30 headline variations
• Orbit writes 5 headline variations
Write many. Choose one!

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Search vs. Social

Works in Search Works in Social
Long-form text Compelling visuals
Answers questions Triggers emotion
Meets expectations A bit unexpected
Quotes from experts Quotes from social influencers

Let’s try a few…

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

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Web Design Standards: The 10 Best Practices
on the Top 50 Websites

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The Life Changing Magic of Deleting Old Content

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Future Proof Your Search Rankings:
5 Tips for Semantic SEO

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SEARCH & KEYWORDS

source: Backlinko
Clicks by search position
400k
300k
200k
100k
1 10 20 30 40 50
Position
Clicks

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The Big Trend

links from authoritative websites =
much more authority

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How much authority do I have?
How do I find out?

It’s the likelihood that
pages on your site will rank.
It’s the value of a link
from another site to your site.

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Estimating Competition
Do we have a shot at this?

Checking keyword difficulty
Source: MOZ Keyword Explorer

IF YOUR AUTHORITY IS GREATER
THAN THE KEYWORD DIFFICULTY...
YOU’VE GOT A CHANCE

1. Know your Domain Authority
2. Don’t expect to rank for a phrase if it’s way
outside of your league!
ACTION: Understand authority and competition
More here: How to increase your Domain Authority

MozBar
Source: The MozBar Chrome Extension

Don’t expect the highest authority
pages to rank the highest

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source: How Little to Users Read? NN Group
Users have time to read at
most 28% of the words
during an average visit
20% is more likely.
Readers don’t read

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source: 5 Easy Tips to Improve Every Blog Design
Format for scanners

Jason Fried
Basecamp
Short paragraphs get read.
Long paragraphs get skimmed.
Very long paragraphs get skipped.

You’re not done publishing a new post until
you have linked to it from an old post.

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1. Headers, subheads
2. Bullet lists, numbered lists
3. Bolding and Italics
4. Internal links
5. Multiple images
Types of formatting

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• More formal
• Longer (polysyllabic)
• Fancy, proper
Examples
acquire, transmit, construct, resist,
deposit, imitate, determined
Latinate words

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• Less formal
• Short (often monosyllabic)
• Forceful, direct
Examples
get, send, build, stop, put, mock, set
Anglo-Saxon words

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“This was perhaps the most significant finding of the study”

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“This was perhaps the biggest finding of the study”

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“This might be the biggest finding of the study”

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“This might be the biggest finding of the survey”

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source: NN Group, Lower-Literacy Users: Writing for a Broad Consumer Audience
Success rates after rewriting a health care site
for an 8th grade level readability…
Write for 8th graders. Write for everyone.

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source: LA Times
1 in 10 Americans think HTML is an STD

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source: BuzzSumo dataset: OrbitMedia.com
Long content gets shared more

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source: HubSpot Word Count vs Average Linking Domains
> 2500
2250 – 2500
2000 – 2249
1750 – 1999
1500 – 1749
1250 – 1499
1000 – 1249
750 – 999
500 – 749
250 – 499
0 - 249
Long content gets linked to more

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source: Moz, Buzzsumo
Article Length Avg Shares Avg Referring Links
< 1,000 2,823 3.47
1 - 2,000 3.456 6.92
2 – 3,000 4,254 8.81
3 – 10,000+ 5,883 11.07
n = 489,128 articles (over 85% had less than 1,000 words)
Long content gets more links and shares

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source: CoSchedule
Long content ranks higher

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source: Curata
Long content generates more leads

There is no such thing as attention span. There is only the
quality of what you are viewing... People have an infinite
attention span if you are entertaining them.
Jerry Seinfeld
Comedy Legend

Each piece of content should be
as long as necessary to cover the topic,
and not one word longer.

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source: Twitter Media Blog, March 2014

@crestodina #Event
source: Social Bakers, March 2014

If you can’t write a caption for it,
it’s a stock photo.

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Eye-tracking studies show…

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… you look where they look!

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How to make a thumbnail with high CTR
1. Simple…so it looks good small
2. Headline …so they know what it’s about
3. Face …so it can convey emotion

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One image is not enough

In a desert of text, images are water.
Give your readers a sip!

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COLLABORATION

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1. Mention them in your content
2. Ask for a contributor quote
3. Include them in an expert roundup
4. Invite them to guest post
5. Deep dive interview
5 Ways to Collaborate

How many people are waiting
for your article to go live?
Make sure it’s not zero.

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Share and mention

An ally in creation is
an ally in promotion.

If you’re not making friends,
you’re doing it wrong.

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Write for Everyone

Blogger Collaborative Content Marketer

More blog posts Links, better quality, more friends

Nice blog, buddy! This is what great
marketing looks like

Only 65% of bloggers write guest posts
source: 2018 Blogger Survey

1 in 3 of my articles is guest posts

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What’s in it for me?

Eugene Schwartz
Copywriting legend
Copy is never written.
Copy is assembled.

Make the best page
on the internet for your topic.

@crestodina
Andy Crestodina
THANK YOU!

Writing for the Web with Andy Crestodina

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