Now that we have discussed the many reasons why your business needs a blog, you are most likely wondering how to publish engaging and educational content for your customers, and you are probably discovering that establishing a blog brimming with great content is easier said than done. Yes, blogging takes time and effort, but fortunately, the internet is brimming with useful tools that make the blog writing process a heck of a lot easier. Below, I share some of my personal favorite tools for SEO content writing. Want to write killer SEO content every time? Read on!
1. A distraction-free content writing zone
One of the biggest challenges for writers out there is finding a distraction-free zone to truly focus on the task at hand. Aside from the obvious methods, like finding a quiet and organized space and silencing outside distractions, there are several useful online spaces to help you write distraction free.
My personal favorite place to draft SEO content is in Google Docs. It closely mirrors Microsoft Word, with useful editing features like spell check and word count. It also automatically saves, avoiding the risk of losing all of that content I work so hard to create. The biggest advantage of Docs over Word is the ability to share with the team internally and really create a collaborative piece of content.
However, if you prefer a more minimal workspace to get your thoughts out you may want to consider tools like Calmly Writer or Ohm Writer from Google Chrome. These tools provide clean, minimalist workspaces that encourage writing; however, don’t let that fool you! They still include many useful tools and plugin options ranging from keystroke sounds to customizable backgrounds.
2. A state-of-the-art editing tool to catch those little mistakes that get us all
Once you have found an environment that encourages your writing flow, it is important to find an easy-to-use editing tool to catch your grammar errors, as even the best of us make mistakes!
My favorite editing tool is Grammarly. This convenient (and free) tool does the proofreading for you, screening for common grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and even plagiarism. The best part? You can download an extension in browsers like Chrome and Firefox as well as a plugin for Microsoft Office and Outlook so that this tool automatically screens your work across a variety of platforms.
Grammarly not your thing? Don’t worry, there are a plethora of other equally useful tools at your disposal. Looking for a basic grammar checker? A tool like GrammarCheck.org is straightforward with options so that you can copy and paste your content into for an instant review.
Want a tool that takes it a step further? Cliche Finder is useful for pointing out cliches and redundancy in your writing, and Word Counter helps ensure you are using a variety of word choices and not being repetitive in your writing.
3. Brainstorming tools to beat writer’s block
Before you can start writing, you have to have a brilliant idea (or not-so-brilliant can work too). This is where brainstorming comes in. Here at WESFED, we like to brainstorm by keeping a running list of ideas in Asana.
Other useful brainstorming tools for SEO content writing for those working solo or collaboratively include Stormboard, which lets your group share thoughts on a “real time sticky note whiteboard,” and Bubbl.us, which helps users create order out of their ideas, taking them from inception to creation.
4. A source for high-resolution photos and an user-friendly editing tool
Finally, no blog post is complete without images to break up the text and give visual to your ideas. However, finding good images that are labeled for reuse or modification can be tricky. My favorite space for finding high-quality images that are free for public use is Unsplash. If I can’t find the specific images that I need in Unsplash, I often turn to a basic Google Images search, which lets users specify the usage rights needed for their image search.
Quality images are an essential part of writing SEO content that doesn’t get drowned out in walls of text. However, these graphics also tend to slow down a page’s load time, so they should be optimized for better results. Resizing these images is the easiest way to obtain an optimal file size.
For basic resizing and cropping of photos, I like to use Resize Image. If I need to do a little more than the basics, Canva is useful for editing and enhancing images to feature in blog posts.
Whether you are just jumping into the blogosphere or are a seasoned writer, I hope that these online resources that I regularly use are useful to you. Do you have any other preferred tools for SEO content writing, not mentioned above? Please let us know in the comments section below!