If you are reading this article, you probably want to start content writing. But what is content? Millions of years ago, people who were living in caves painted various shapes on the cave wall to convey concepts to others. These forms, in turn, are considered content because they convey a message and interact with others.
Going a little further, the texts published in the first newspaper can also be called content. At the moment, the text on the cover of the biscuit, the water and electricity bill, the receipt we receive from the restaurant, and even the gestures that deaf people use to convey concepts can be considered as content.
In general, content is something through which a message is conveyed to others and the others can easily understand it.
But what is content writing? How to start it? Why is textual content important? What are its advantages and disadvantages of textual content?
Read the following article to get the answers and learn to professionally start content writing.
What is Content Writing?
Textual content refers to all information, including words and phrases, sentences and paragraphs, and so on. Through this information, we convey meanings to the reader, and thus the connection between the writer and the reader is formed.
The Importance of Producing Textual Content
Textual content is still more accessible to many people than other types of content. Quoting text is stronger than quoting a letter or point in an audio or video file.
We are accustomed to reading the writings of elders, scientific studies, and research papers in text form. The largest human encyclopedias (from specialized types to general models such as Wikipedia) are text-based, and all of this has led to a kind of positive bias towards text in our minds.
Skimming is another advantage that should not be overlooked in today’s fast-paced world
-Suppose you find a 30-minute audio file or video on the web. How do you know if the content of this video or audio file fits your needs? It even takes a few minutes to see and hear the file fragmentarily. This is while a text of several thousand words can be moved up and down in a few seconds and its structure and content are informed and then it is decided whether to read it or not.
In addition, the ability to be indexed and the ability to search is a point that should not be overlooked. Search engines are not yet strong enough to index and archive all the text of movies and audio files based on the words in them; Something that is easily done with texts. For this reason, if you are looking for SEO and search engine optimization, you have no choice but to publish the text of your audio and video files and submit them to search engines.
In today’s busy world where everyone is producing content, finding a competitive advantage is very important, and the text format provides you with that advantage in its best and most complete form.
All of this has led to the widespread production of textual content, in addition to the widespread use of audio and video content, and many people doing it as a job. There are many people who have chosen the job of content production and are currently writing text for social networking sites and accounts.
How to Produce Quality Textual Content?
If you want to produce quality textual content you must consider these strategies and principles:
1. Don’t Copy
Duplicate content is one of the biggest weaknesses of content. You may think that no one cares about duplicate content, or by reading and combining content from several other sources, no one will notice that your text is a copy.
But both search engines and audiences have become more sensitive to copy than ever before. Search engines simply remove your content from search results or give it a poor ranking. The audience will not count on your other demands if they come to the conclusion that your article is a copy.
If you have to quote some of someone else’s content, be sure to cite the source.
2. Prepare the Text Structure for Skimming Long Texts
Not all audiences are supposed to read all parts of your text. Divide the text with large captions, different colors, bold fonts, and any other tools at your disposal.
Even if you write captions in a social media like Instagram and are deprived of professional text editing tools, use emojis and icons and space between lines and paragraphs to segment the content.
3. Don’t Forget to Write Short Sentences
The digital world is the world of impatient and hurried people. Our suggestion is to make a rule for yourself and stay true to it. For example, “Every sentence that begins anywhere in the text must end at most two lines.” In other words, “no sentence should be longer than two lines.”
Always review the produced text after you have finished writing the article and divide the long sentences into shorter ones, and make sure that the audience does not get bored when reading your sentences because your content is unreadable.
To improve your content readability, we highly recommend you to read this article: Improve Your Content Readability; 5 Ways to Keep Your Readers Interested
4. After a While Read and Rewrite Your Content
We suggest that you read and re-write your producted texts after a few weeks or months.
Three key things happen in rereading and rewriting:
- Of course your writing power increases over time. So you may be able to write parts of the old text in simpler language and more eloquent expression.
- During this time, if you have produced other relevant content to your topic, point to them and do internal linking.
- If your audience and readers commented on your articles before, you may be able to supplement or modify the text based on them.
How to Start Writing Content?
Writing is not an easy task. This is confirmed by many who have experienced writing. There is no shortcut or fast way to achieve the power of writing.
So the most realistic advice that can be given in this regard is to practice a lot.
To start practicing you have to do some exercises. The first exercise to strengthen writing is reading. You are unlikely to become a good writer without reading other people’s work. For this step, you can start from reading some books that suit your taste.
Our second suggested exercise is transcription. It may seem hard, but it is worth a try and we think you will not regret it.
As a third suggested exercise, free writing for others is another option that can help improve your writing skills.
From this point on, you can write more purposefully. For example, think about the questions your audience has and try to answer them in the form of a text. A set of writing challenge lessons can help you become better.
Textual Content Advantages
- Selected as a reference site
- High audience attraction
- Attract potential customers
- Improve site ranking in search engines
- High sharing on other social networks
- Increase branding
- Business growth and development
Textual Content Disadvantages
As discussed above about the benefits of producing textual content, here are some of its disadvantages:
- It’s a little expensive
- It takes a lot of time
- There is little expertise in specialized fields
- There is very little content production expert who is also active in the field of SEO
- If it is not written according to the needs of the audience, it will cause the loss of many audiences.
We hope this article could help you have a better understanding of Content writing. We’d love for you to share your thoughts on the importance of writing textual content with us, and even share various techniques in this area. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
