How I write to rank articles quickly?

1. I begin with a Google auto-suggest check of all topics relevant to the keyword. I add these topics to a content brief. Google auto-suggest is a goldmine of topics!
   
   
2. Use ‘Keywords everywhere’(free chrome extension) to find and add topics I might have missed during the Google auto-suggest check
   
   
3. Use the ‘related searches’ field at the end of every Google search result page to identify other relevant topics to write about.
   
   
4. Look at the ‘People also ask’ section and add the questions as ‘FAQs’ towards the end of the content brief. These questions and the answers written for them will be marked up using FAQ schema. Along with solving for user intent, this is a way to future-proof the article as structured data might be a ranking factor Google starts using next.
   
   
5. Look for relevant ZSV(Zero Search Volume) KWs. These are actually not zero-volume KWs. It’s just that KW research tools are attributing zero search volume to them. And so there’s very little competition and a wonderful opportunity to rank quickly. ZSV topic research is a manual process and tools don’t generally cut it.
   
   
6. Take a look at Ahrefs/Semrush to see the top results for the target keyword and the featured snippet every single result is ranking for. I add these topics to the content brief and mark those topics as ‘featured snippet opportunity’. You can also take a look at the other relevant keywords.
   
   
7. Start sorting the content brief to ensure that the topics are arranged in the decreasing order of search volume(there are going to be a lot of exceptions here as we’ll also need to structure the article to give it a logical flow)
   
   
8. The writing begins - And as always, content is king!
   
   
9. Whenever there’s a featured snippet opportunity, I take a look at the already existing featured snippet and use a strategy of my own to write a better answer target.
   
   
10. Take a look at the other SERP features and use them to solve better for the user intent. If there’s a video or an image pack on the Google search results, I make a mention of it in the content brief(Youtube/Wistia Embeds, copyright-free images can be added to solve for this user intent). This also helps increase ‘time on page’, which is a crucial ranking factor.
    
    
11. I then optimize using Frase. I generally look for a score of 50+
    
    
12. Run it through Copyscape, Grammarly, and make the necessary changes.
    
    
13. Voila! We have an article that’s super-optimized for both search engines and readers.
    

• The user intent is totally solved for
• Covered all topics that Google maps as relevant to this KW
• Added unique content using ZSV topics(contributes to Unique Information Gain Score)
• Thorough on-page optimization
• Featured Snippet targeting
• Structured data markup has been done

sarvan said:

And I’m looking for a suggestion from the community(towards the end of the post)!

This method just works.

1. I begin with a Google auto-suggest check of all topics relevant to the keyword. I add these topics to a content brief. Google auto-suggest is a goldmine of topics!
   
   
2. Use ‘Keywords everywhere’(free chrome extension) to find and add topics I might have missed during the Google auto-suggest check
   
   
3. Use the ‘related searches’ field at the end of every Google search result page to identify other relevant topics to write about.
   
   
4. Look at the ‘People also ask’ section and add the questions as ‘FAQs’ towards the end of the content brief. These questions and the answers written for them will be marked up using FAQ schema. Along with solving for user intent, this is a way to future-proof the article as structured data might be a ranking factor Google starts using next.
   
   
5. Look for relevant ZSV(Zero Search Volume) KWs. These are actually not zero-volume KWs. It’s just that KW research tools are attributing zero search volume to them. And so there’s very little competition and a wonderful opportunity to rank quickly. ZSV topic research is a manual process and tools don’t generally cut it.
   
   
6. Take a look at Ahrefs/Semrush to see the top results for the target keyword and the featured snippet every single result is ranking for. I add these topics to the content brief and mark those topics as ‘featured snippet opportunity’. You can also take a look at the other relevant keywords.
   
   
7. Start sorting the content brief to ensure that the topics are arranged in the decreasing order of search volume(there are going to be a lot of exceptions here as we’ll also need to structure the article to give it a logical flow)
   
   
8. The writing begins - And as always, content is king!
   
   
9. Whenever there’s a featured snippet opportunity, I take a look at the already existing featured snippet and use a strategy of my own to write a better answer target.
   
   
10. Take a look at the other SERP features and use them to solve better for the user intent. If there’s a video or an image pack on the Google search results, I make a mention of it in the content brief(Youtube/Wistia Embeds, copyright-free images can be added to solve for this user intent). This also helps increase ‘time on page’, which is a crucial ranking factor.
    
    
11. I then optimize using Frase. I generally look for a score of 50+
    
    
12. Run it through Copyscape, Grammarly, and make the necessary changes.
    
    
13. Voila! We have an article that’s super-optimized for both search engines and readers.

What have we done through this process?

• The user intent is totally solved for
• Covered all topics that Google maps as relevant to this KW
• Added unique content using ZSV topics(contributes to Unique Information Gain Score)
• Thorough on-page optimization
• Featured Snippet targeting
• Structured data markup has been done

And here’s a suggestion I’m looking for from the community!

So far, I have only written for a few clients and my personal blog. I was looking for a few more clients to write content for. A prospect approached me a few days back and I told them my rate of $65/1000 words. But the client wants me to lower it down to $50/1000 words. I did tell them about the process involved but they just want me to bring the rate down. Quite confused about what I should be doing. What can I do to convince them?

Click to expand...

sarvan said:

And I’m looking for a suggestion from the community(towards the end of the post)!

This method just works.

1. I begin with a Google auto-suggest check of all topics relevant to the keyword. I add these topics to a content brief. Google auto-suggest is a goldmine of topics!
   
   
2. Use ‘Keywords everywhere’(free chrome extension) to find and add topics I might have missed during the Google auto-suggest check
   
   
3. Use the ‘related searches’ field at the end of every Google search result page to identify other relevant topics to write about.
   
   
4. Look at the ‘People also ask’ section and add the questions as ‘FAQs’ towards the end of the content brief. These questions and the answers written for them will be marked up using FAQ schema. Along with solving for user intent, this is a way to future-proof the article as structured data might be a ranking factor Google starts using next.
   
   
5. Look for relevant ZSV(Zero Search Volume) KWs. These are actually not zero-volume KWs. It’s just that KW research tools are attributing zero search volume to them. And so there’s very little competition and a wonderful opportunity to rank quickly. ZSV topic research is a manual process and tools don’t generally cut it.
   
   
6. Take a look at Ahrefs/Semrush to see the top results for the target keyword and the featured snippet every single result is ranking for. I add these topics to the content brief and mark those topics as ‘featured snippet opportunity’. You can also take a look at the other relevant keywords.
   
   
7. Start sorting the content brief to ensure that the topics are arranged in the decreasing order of search volume(there are going to be a lot of exceptions here as we’ll also need to structure the article to give it a logical flow)
   
   
8. The writing begins - And as always, content is king!
   
   
9. Whenever there’s a featured snippet opportunity, I take a look at the already existing featured snippet and use a strategy of my own to write a better answer target.
   
   
10. Take a look at the other SERP features and use them to solve better for the user intent. If there’s a video or an image pack on the Google search results, I make a mention of it in the content brief(Youtube/Wistia Embeds, copyright-free images can be added to solve for this user intent). This also helps increase ‘time on page’, which is a crucial ranking factor.
    
    
11. I then optimize using Frase. I generally look for a score of 50+
    
    
12. Run it through Copyscape, Grammarly, and make the necessary changes.
    
    
13. Voila! We have an article that’s super-optimized for both search engines and readers.

What have we done through this process?

• The user intent is totally solved for
• Covered all topics that Google maps as relevant to this KW
• Added unique content using ZSV topics(contributes to Unique Information Gain Score)
• Thorough on-page optimization
• Featured Snippet targeting
• Structured data markup has been done

And here’s a suggestion I’m looking for from the community!

So far, I have only written for a few clients and my personal blog. I was looking for a few more clients to write content for. A prospect approached me a few days back and I told them my rate of $65/1000 words. But the client wants me to lower it down to $50/1000 words. I did tell them about the process involved but they just want me to bring the rate down. Quite confused about what I should be doing. What can I do to convince them?

Click to expand...

Johny Smith said:

@sarvan I really like the details you go through in creating an article. Speaking from experience, not a lot of writers goes through these steps. If someone is not willing to pay for such quality work then one thing for sure they themselves don't understand the importance of it.

A client of mine is looking for a content writer. If you are interested, contact me at [email protected] and we will take it from there.

Click to expand...