Had a VERY interesting online conversation the other day with a client, who wanted to know how it is that we could write about a business, when we are not in that business? The client, fortunately, loves to write, and could not justify the expense of having StudioHOF, or any writer, write their content, because no-one knew their business better than they did.
GREAT question!
So, how do we go about writing when it is a new business we have no knowledge of?
When I have to write content on a topic that is not my forte – its a set formula. Here’s my secret sauce… perhaps you can glean something useful from it in your own writing.
I pick a three geographic markets
For Tampa client’s I will usually pick
- LA
- Denver
- Miami
All three are ferocious competitive search markets, and demographically they are not dissimilar from the upper middle class and upper class of Tampa (researched through the census bureau))
I then do an incognito search for the topic and market – ie…
- “Breast Augmentation Surgery Denver”
- “Breast Augmentation Surgery Miami”
- “Breast Augmentation Los Angeles”
I look at those that come up first and second and don’t care about the rest. Now I have 6 pages to work with, the 6 best pages for that search term, in 3 search competitive markets, with similar demographics to our local market.
I then do a word count of each page, and get an average so that I know approximately how many words I will need to have equal strength all other things being equal.
Then I take pieces the content from the 6, put it together, take the most compelling that is also keyword rich, and combine them into one document.
Once that’s finished – I re-write it entirely in my own words.
It is very tedious, it is very formulaic, but it absolutely works.
While the process smells like plagiarism, but at least it is not detectable as duplicate content as it comes from 6 sources, and is totally rewritten in my own words once it is merged into a cohesive document.
Having client’s write their own content is FAR superior, as the flavor or the client’s individual business can get lost in this formulaic process. Having the client write, and then having us supplement is often a good strategy to make sure that your content not only reflects your business, but also holds up to the standards of search worthiness is a great path to follow as well.
However you come up with the content for your site be sure to. . .
- Stay Relevant
- Stay On-Topic
- Respect your Reader
The post Writing On Topics You Don’t Know appeared first on StudioHOF.