How to do Research for Content Writing

As a writer, one of the main challenges is keeping the readers engaged in their piece of writing. Failing to grab the reader’s attention would not go through the article even if it has a lot of exciting facts. Research for content writing is crucial to grab the user’s attention.

Recent research has confirmed that the average span of attention has been reduced to eight seconds. Thus, it becomes essential to hook the readers in the eight seconds for reading the entire piece. 

The secret to grabbing the readers’ attention is to research extensively to provide relevant facts, stories, and interesting points that keep them engaged in the first eight seconds of their read. Research before writing content is fundamental because it helps you gain expertise on the topic and helps you arrange your thoughts for proceeding ahead.

Technology today is helping many writers to elevate their content, find relevant sources, and research the content for their piece of writing. Unfortunately, many writers today cannot grasp the tactics of studying creative content for their work. 

How to Research for Content Writing

Not knowing where to start writing is a common problem that content writers face today. 

So, what to do? 

When faced with such a situation, following the following steps will help you understand how to research content writing.

Idea exploration

Once you have blog ideas and what your article will be about, explore and delve deeper into it. Understand and note what information you already have about the topic and what else you would like to know. This note-making would help you research better by giving you points to be searched.

Resource collection

 While searching the internet, it is essential to save the vital resources which would help you form your article. Once you have selected all the articles, shortlist them basis the critical idea of the article.

Competition analysis

Looking at the competition websites can help you understand and identify if there is an idea that has been missed and should be included for reaching a larger audience.

Create a Roadmap

Create a structure of how you want the article to be. It is a productive way to write the content. It is also a way of having an encouraging sight for the piece of writing. Having the headings and subheadings would guide the article and help smooth the transition between the paragraphs and other sections of the article. Decide the keyword using which you want to support the main idea. Once the headings are decided, write what you want to mention under each section using bullet points. Format the page accordingly for easy identification and encouragement to complete the article at the earliest time possible.

To create a content roadmap according to Google’s Helpful Content update, start by analyzing your current content’s performance and identifying gaps or areas of improvement, then use the update’s guidelines and best practices to plan and prioritize future content topics and formats that align with your audience’s needs and search intent.

Start with the main body if confused with the introduction

 If it is difficult finding the exact words for the opening, fill in the body part for a more precise picture of the article, which will help you in the introduction part. 

Check reputable sources

Be careful of the content available on the websites; check the source, check the content before selecting the link for the reference. Find out the relevant insights about the keywords and the topics to better understand the information and phrases that can be important for your article.

Understand the target audience

You should always understand the audience you want to target that should read your article and according to form the tone and voice of the article. Understanding what the target audience likes and shares on the topic would help you build content. Understanding the target audience could also help you select the call-to-action words for better reach and action. 

Proofread 

Once the article is complete, content proofreading it to ensure that the information to be given is easily understood. Check if authentic sources back the information provided by the research.

Best Tools for Content Writing Research

Researching the content online can be challenging as it can be intimidating to generate ideas, identify the competitors, and select the right keywords. However, thanks to technology, numerous tools can help you research and create good content.

BuzzSumo:

It is a cloud-based platform designed to help content writers find keywords, trending news, opportunities for content success, and engagement tactics. 

Ubersuggest

it is an SEO tool that helps content writers generate keywords for their work. It enables the writers to understand the usefulness and competitiveness of the selected keywords. 

Portent’s Content Idea Generator:

This tool helps in the title generation of the article or the blog. It helps create appropriate titles for the idea and appeals to grasp the audience’s attention.

LSI Graph:

This is a keyword generator; it helps find secondary keywords for the work based on the primary keyword. It is a free tool that finds keywords based on the similarities and differences between various concepts and terms.

WorldCat

It is a content library that provides access to various content writing services available globally for the basic search of information on a topic. It is a database of the entire collection of the world’s libraries which helps in saving time and energy for the content creator.

Survey Anyplace:

A software used by the content creators for data collection. This tool helps design appealing surveys that are likely to attract responses and serve their purpose. The content creators also use it to obtain feedback on their work from their target audience, which helps them create targeted content for meeting their content objective.

Answer the Public:

Idea generation tool that helps create the blog or article topics frequently searched by the people online. It enables the content writers to understand the subject they should write the blog or article.

Google Trends:

An SEO tool that helps identify the keyword search volume and trends in the keyword use. This tool allows the writers to avoid the popular keywords that are only temporary and are not long-term.  

Google Alerts

A content research tool that helps content writers obtain content ideas that are unique and not touched by other writers. It also helps understand the relevant keywords by predicting the trends. 

Wolfram Alpha

A content research tool that helps the content writers find the data and information about their topic. This tool saves a lot of time for the content writers as they see all the relevant details on the selected topic in one place with the help of this tool. 

Screaming Frog:

An SEO site auditing tool that helps identify and rectify common SEO issues for improving the SEO website.

Stay Focused

Getting distracted is a common thing experienced by content writers. This productivity enhancer tool by Google helps the writers become more productive and concentrate better on their work by blocking the site for the rest of the day once the allocated time for the sites has been used up. The websites become accessible the next day again.

Conclusion

A fast-paced and consistency is the need of the hour in the digital marketing world. Thus, a good research tactic quickly helps content writing agencies create engaging content. Do not be intimidated by the steps involved in writing good content, be patient, use the tools mentioned and follow the suggestive steps efforts for flawless content creation.