Anyone can put an article on their website. But few people know how to stand out in the inboxes and social streams of your audience. If you’re just dipping your toes in the waters of content, where do you start? If you’re experienced in creating traditional content, how can you translate that to copywriting for the web? • How is writing for web different? • What type of writing tends to get clicked, opened and read? • How do you find the topics that will connect with an audience? • Which images will drive more clicks? During this presentation, Andy Crestodina will present the science of social and the art of content. After this session, you’ll have the topics and tactics you need to drive traffic and real results.

1. Writing for the Web
7 Tips for Getting Read and Shared
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina

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Weak
Contributor
Amazing
Contributor
Perceived Content Performance

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Weak
Contributor
Amazing
Contributor
Actual Content Performance

4. TOPICS

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Sources of topics
1. Keyword research
2. Q&A websites
3. Listening to your audience

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Google Suggest

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keywordtool.io

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Google Keyword Planner

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Answer the Public

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Answer the Public

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Google Analytics: Queries Report

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Google Analytics: Site Search Report

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quora.com

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Listening
1. Sales team
2. Customer service team
3. Customer stories

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Your outbox
is filled with
content

17. The 2 Power Topics

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source: Moz, BuzzSumo

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

20. ...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.

21. ...if you want to create content that achieves a high level of both
shares and links then you should concentrate on
strong opinions
original research

22. The Power of Research

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Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.
2. Aggregation: Combine data from existing sources
3. Survey: Mass outreach and analysis

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Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.
2. Aggregation: Combine data from existing sources
3. Survey: Mass outreach and analysis

25. @crestodina
Three ways to produce research
1. Observation: Pick a data set. Gather data.
2. Aggregation: Combine data from existing sources
3. Survey: Mass outreach and analysis

26. observation

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33. aggregation

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37. survey

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source: 2016 Blogger Survey, Orbit Media
@crestodina

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

42. Find the missing stat
It is frequently asserted, but rarely supported

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

44. The Power of Strong Opinion

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The power of strong opinion

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The power of strong opinion

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The power of strong opinion

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The power of strong opinion

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The power of strong opinion

57. What do you believe that most people
would disagree with?

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

59. What questions are people in your industry
afraid to answer?

60. HEADLINES

61. Explicit benefits

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The curiosity gap and sharing

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source: What makes online content go viral?
Emotions get shared

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source: OK Dork / Co-Schedule
Average EMV score for headlines based on shares

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User numbers
source: Conductor: 5 Data Insights Into the Headlines Readers Click

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Great headlines... 1. Make a promise
2. Trigger curiosity
3. Use numbers
4. Ask a question
5. Use power words
6. Sized to fit the purpose
7. Keyword first
source: How to Write a Headline That Won’t Get Ignored: 7-Point Checklist

75. Write many. Chose one!

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• Upworthy writes 25 headline variations
• CoSchedule writes 25-30 headline variations
• Buffer writes 25-30 headline variations
• Orbit writes 5 headline variations
Write many, choose one

77. FORMATTING

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

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

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

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Internal links
Use the “site:”
search operator

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

85. WORDS

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

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

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

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

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“This was perhaps the most significant finding of the study”
“This might be the biggest finding of the study”

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“This was perhaps the most significant finding of the study”
“This might be the biggest finding of the survey”

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

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

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Words that get
clicked in Google
1.How to
2.[List-related numbers]
3.Free
4.You
5.Tips
6.Blog post
7.Why
8.Best
9.Tricks
10.Great
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media

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Words that appear
in viral posts
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media
1.Smart
2.Surprising
3.Science
4.History
5.Hacks (hacking, hackers, etc.)
6.Huge / Big
7.Critical

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Negative words
that get shared
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media
1.Kill
2.Fear
3.Dark
4.Bleeding
5.War

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Top re-tweeted
words
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media
1. You
2. Twitter
3. Please
4. Retweet
5. Post
6. Blog
7. Social
8. Free
9. Media
10. Help

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Words that get
people to open
emails
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media
1. Urgent
2. Breaking
3. Important
4. Alert

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Words that trigger
buyer behavior
source: 131 Words, Orbit Media
1. You
2. Free
3. Because
4. Instantly
5. New

103. LENGTH

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

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Long content gets linked to more
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

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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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Long content generates more leads
source: Curata

109. IMAGES

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source: Twitter Media Blog, March 2014

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source: Social Bakers, March 2014

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

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122. Visual Cues

123. Eye Tracking Studies Show...

124. ...you look where they look!

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130. Use Multiple Images

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source: 2016 Blogger Survey
@crestodina

132. COLLABORATION

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Content should be
designed to attract visitors

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Optimized for search...

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Optimized for social...

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5 Ways to Collaborate
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

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Simple quote

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

148. Share and
mention

149. An ally in creation is an ally in promotion

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

152. @crestodina
YOUR SITE
OTHER SITES
WHERE to publish

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WHO does the writing
CREATED BY YOU
CO-CREATED WITH
INFLUENCERS

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Content = 2
Links = 0
Friends = 0
Content = 3
Links = 1
Friends = 2
Round One

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Content = 4
Links = 0
Friends = 0
Content = 6
Links = 2
Friends = 4
(better links + real connections)
Round Two

156. @crestodina
Nice blog, but… This is what great
content marketing looks like.
Round Four

157. What’s in it for me?

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

166. @crestodina
Andy Crestodina
Strategic Director | @crestodina
THANK YOU!