Writing for DiversityQ

Introduction

  • We want visitors to our sites to be engaged – and our analysts will be looking at metrics like: time on page, page views per session, bounce rates from organic search, etc., in order to measure this.
  • Our strategy also focuses on being well represented in organic search engine results. In particular, to have high visibility for search terms closely related to diversity and the various topics that revolve around that.
  • This brief guide is intended to help our contributors to help us achieve these broad aims, and thereby increase their own chances of getting more views and engagement for their own contributed content.
  • Below, we provide some quick tips for writing for the web.

Your Article Title

  • Titles should be clear, descriptive and eye-catching.
  • Titles are a very important element of a web page because they will be translated into what is called a <title> tag – and this tag is the most important keyword element on the page:
    – because it’s a strong ranking signal for search engines
    – because it’s used in the search engine results page, appearing as the most apparent text and therefore playing a big role in whether someone will click on a result or not.
    – because it shows prominently when your page is shared on social media
  • A good SEO title will be one that uses all the characters available and accurately summarises what will follow in the description.
  • We recommend up to 70 characters for main part of the title
  • More search ranking weight is applied to the keywords placed at the beginning.
  • Because your own website is 99% likely to be ranked #1 for your brand it’s better to target other search terms with your title.
  • As a rule, the more specific you can be the better.

Your first paragraph(s)

  • You do not have long to convince a reader that your article is one that they should read. You need to get across key information in summary form (with the detail coming later, in the body) and convey the import of the article to encourage further reading.
  • Where possible, make sure the main keyword or phrase from your title tag is repeated in first or second para.

Your Body Content

  • Length. At a minimum, we would expect 500 words. Better 800 or more. Don’t be shy about going slightly longer if you feel you still have compelling content to pack in!
  • Use Sub-headings where suitable. They help to break up otherwise forbidding walls of words, and importantly, they are used as ‘keyword pointers’ by search engines, so we recommend using any secondary keyword targets in them.
  • Don’t just repurpose content from your own website. Make it unique and tailored towards benefits and opportunities.
    QUART
    – Quality
    – Uniqueness
    – Authority
    – Relevance
    – Trust
  • Where possible use rich media like videos or images. If you can supply them to us in original format then they will look better when posted. Don’t be shy about using these elements – they really help to improve readability and usefulness.
  • Consider bullet-points if your content involves lists of any kind.
  • Links! Internal, external, doesn’t matter. As long as they are relevant and add value for the user. Share the link love.
  • Finally, make sure the keywords used in your title tag and any sub-headings are present in the content. If it’s an article about engineering opportunities for girls and the words engineering and girls is not found in the content, Google sees that as odd. You would be surprised how often we see that happen.

Last paragraph

  • Use your main keyword/keyphrase in the last paragraph.

Link back

  • From your own website – your link will help your article gain ‘authority’ with the search engines and help it rank
  • From your social channels. Tweet it, post on FB, etc.