Writing crisp content that is valuable and high-quality is important when trying to make your target audience happy.
In this episode, Erica Schneider does a live copy review and shares tips on how to write crisp copy that delights your audience.
She covers a range of topics, including SEO writing techniques, the role of takeaways and captions, the use of FAQs, copy editing checklist, style guide adherence, and writing introductions and conclusions.
✍🏾Name: Erica Schneider
✍🏾What Erica Does: Head of Content at Grizzle
✍🏾 Company: Grizzle
✍🏾Noteworthy: She helps businesses, entrepreneurs, content writers, and content creators produce impactful content that provokes thought, educates, and drives conversions.
💡Structure and Word Count.
Erica highlights the structure of the article, including headings (H2s) and visuals, which are essential for breaking up the text and improving readability.
She also notes that the article’s word count is around 1500 words, suggesting potential opportunities for expansion to provide more comprehensive coverage.
💡Developing the Meat of the Article
Erica points out that the section on how to skyrocket SEO strategy should be the most substantial part of the article.
She recommends adding more content, examples, and practical advice to deliver on the promise of helping readers enhance their SEO strategies.
💡The importance of using topics and semantic entities in writing for SEO.
Erica mentions that she noticed the absence of topics or semantic entities in the article discussed. She explains that incorporating relevant semantic cases and topics can help improve the content’s relevance to search bots and improve ranking.
She emphasizes the need to consider both writing for users and search bots, suggesting that integrating topics and semantic entities can still be done naturally and organically in the content.
Using captions and takeaways in content.
Erica clarifies the distinction between captions and takeaways in content. Captions explain what’s in an image, while takeaways are part of the logical flow and argument.
She advises including takeaways in the body of the content to ensure readers fully understand the argument, while captions serve a different purpose of describing the image.
Erica suggests using both captions and takeaways to effectively convey information and rank well in search results.
💡FAQs and their placement in content
Erica discusses the use of FAQs in content and their potential impact on ranking. She suggests answering questions within the content body as best as possible, while also including secondary keyword FAQs at the bottom of the article to provide a summary and potentially appear as Rich Snippets.
Erica advises aiming for a comprehensive approach by answering questions in the content body and including secondary keyword FAQs if the goal is to achieve a rich snippet and cater to different user preferences.
Copy editing checklist and following an organization’s style guide
Erica shares that she has more of a list of questions rather than a checklist for copy editing. She offers to provide this list to help editors get ahead of common questions.
Erica mentions that style guide adherence can be challenging when switching between clients with different style guides. She suggests creating a cheat sheet with essential key information from each client’s style guide, such as preferences regarding the Oxford comma.
Erica recommends reading and editing the content while keeping the style guide in mind and making sure the edits align with the desired style.
Tips for writing better introductions and conclusions
Erica provides tips for writing introductions based on the type of blog being written. For SEO-focused articles, she suggests using the S C QA framework (Situation, Challenge, Question, Answer) and presenting the information in a simple, logical manner.
When writing thought leadership pieces, Erica encourages using storytelling in the introduction to engage readers and create intrigue.
Regarding conclusions, she advises against summarizing and instead emphasizes synthesizing the main points and leaving the readers with a fresh perspective or action to take.
Logical flow in writing
Erica defines logical flow as the connection between sentences, where information from one sentence is carried over to the next.
She exemplifies logical flow by demonstrating how the topic of the sky being blue can be logically connected between sentences.
Erica emphasizes that logical flow helps maintain a coherent argument and ensures that ideas are connected and flow smoothly throughout the content.
Capturing Featured Snippets.
Erica mentions the potential to capture a Featured Snippet by expanding the definition of search intent in the introduction.
By providing a more comprehensive explanation, the article could have a better chance of being selected as a Featured Snippet by Google.
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF).
Erica suggests using the BLUF approach, which means providing the main information upfront, especially when introducing a concept or term. This helps avoid confusion and ensures clarity from the beginning.
Evolution of SEO.
Erica discusses the historical changes in SEO and how Google’s algorithm has evolved over the years. She highlights the shift from keyword-based ranking to context-based ranking and the importance of meeting search intent.
She points out the need to eliminate keyword stuffing practices and mentions Google’s algorithm updates aimed at improving search results using quality content.
Connect with Erica
Common questions editors ask (+ how to get ahead of them)
The SCQA framework in writing Introductions
Chima Mmeje 0:04
All right, Erica, you’re good to go. kick us off.
Erica Schneider 0:08
Nice. Oh, are people here? Or is this just Yeah,
Chima Mmeje 0:10
yeah. People are here. Okay. In the comment section that okay, let me see. Everyone. If you have questions for Erica, please use the q&a.
Erica Schneider 0:29
Yes. Alright. Perfect. Yeah. All right, cool. So, um, you sent me a draft, I think the easiest thing is, I’m not gonna ramble about, like, how to be a good writer. I think a lot of people here probably follow me on social media. So you’ve seen my advice.
So I don’t want to repeat myself, I think the best thing is to just look at the draft that you sent over and go through it line by line. And I can explain what changes I would make and why I really just think the best the best way to learn. So that’s what I’m gonna do. Yes, definitely. Cool.
I’ve made notes for myself on the draft, but I intention I intentionally didn’t make like any changes in the draft. So I want everyone to be able to easily see the difference between the old one and the new one. So that’s why everything’s in comments here. Can you see my screen? Yes, yes. Nice. All right. Cool.
First of all, okay, so do you. Do you have any idea that you sent this to me a couple of months ago? Yeah. hard. It’s hard as an editor without a brief, so I wasn’t sure who the target audience was. So I guess it was beginners.
Chima Mmeje 1:39
Yeah, this is like beginner SEO content. I still like learning about search, and internet and all that stuff. This is like SEO one on one kind of contents.
Erica Schneider 1:49
Perfect. Okay, that’s what I assumed. And I also assume because it’s about search intent, that it’s a piece that needs to be optimised for search. So it’s not like a thought leadership piece as well. So those are the assumptions I made. Yes. That’s good. Yes, yes. Yes. Perfect. Okay.
So in that case, right, let’s start with the introduction. And then I’ll kind of do a scan of the piece. So so here it reads, When you type in any search query in Google, such as what is search intent? What kind of results do you expect? Would you like to see the websites of SEO agencies or in depth content about what search intent actually means? Okay.
So this is this is what I imagined as trying to be a bit clever. So, here, so Okay, first of all, with my comments, like, this is how I comment. It’s a little bit, it’s a little bit harsh and shorthanded. But then I always send loom videos like this. This is this is me doing doing me in both ways.
So okay, so So here, not sure who the target audience would like, let’s pretend this beginners. This is confusing was my comment. So it assumes the reader is in on this joke, which alienates people that might not get it. So right off the bat, you’re speaking to someone as if they they totally understand that they they want to see in depth content about what search intent actually means.
And not just some random website of SEO agencies. That’s an assumption that you’re making about the reader. But this is beginner SEO, right? We’re saying if we’re saying everything you need to know about search intent in 2022, you’re going to want to start this article with what is search intent, even though you have the next h2 But what is search intent?
The introduction needs to speak directly to that you have to speak to the situation at hand instead of trying to make a clever quip at the top. So here, and then the next sentence, the answer is pretty simple. And you know it already. But but you don’t, right? You don’t know it already.
Who are you speaking to? You can’t forget that. So this is like you’re talking to a friend, right? You’re not talking to a friend here. So I’m here the next sentence. This is why search intent is critical. It helps the Google of algorithm and understanding the why behind your search query so that you get the most relevant results. That’s cool.
Like this is this sentence is fine. But again, we haven’t like this is why we haven’t we haven’t set the context of properly have a sentence that says this is why so we have to do that first. Okay, so here’s how I would rewrite this. So search intent is the purpose or goal behind the search, like just just lay it out to find it.
When people type queries into do a little bit of a live edit here into a search engine. They’re hoping to receive relevant results. For that to happen, you need to optimise your content. So Google understands how to categorise and serve it and people deem it relevant and click worthy. Here are the latest SEO trends.
So now we’ve changed it to here’s the definition of what it is. Here’s what they’re hoping to receive right this word relevant to super important because that’s going to come up throughout and then we’re talking about the title is skyrocket your SEO strategy so something about how you’re going to optimise needs to play into this just to go back to the title.
So if the idea if the audience is someone that If that needs to optimise their draft, so that they can skyrocket their SEO strategy, you have to tell them that they’re going to learn something, as opposed to just kind of right now it sort of says, this whole introduction as this sort of makes me feel like I’m gonna learn a history of search, and I’m not gonna learn how to do anything.
So putting that like intent and outcome behind it. So you talk to as your content so Google understands how to categorise it, and serve it. Honestly, I don’t know if that I did this quickly. Yesterday, I could probably just change this to use a Google understands how to serve it. And people deem it relevant and click worthy.
That’s probably a bit snappier. So you want to speak to both Google and people you want Google to understand what it is that it can serve, serve it back, based on the question that you put in, and you want people to deem it relevant and click worthy, like we’re speaking to both everything is about Google and people, not just about Google, and then hear the latest SEO trends or whatever this sentence was.
So that’s how I rewrite this and then here sometimes become a major aspects that it uh, I would probably just remove this from the introduction, it doesn’t usually help to have like a history of a thing and the introduction, unless the draft is literally the history of.
So I would cut this because, you know, if you scroll down, we have a whole section down here literally called Why search intent matters, the history, right? So we’re gonna get into it. The history of a thing is not what’s exciting.
It’s, what it is and what I’m going to learn in this article to do a better we’ll get to the history. So that’s my introduction. schpeel. Does anyone have any questions? Before I continue on?
Chima Mmeje 6:46
live questions for the end? So okay, cool. Addition said everyone has questions after you done.
Erica Schneider 6:51
Nice. Okay, cool. Okay, so I’m sorry, I didn’t know what I just press there to the comments. Okay. Um, okay. So if you follow me on social, you also have seen that I talked about developmental editing, versus copy editing versus proofreading.
So I sort of want to explain that a bit here, because that’s important as well, when you’re self editing. So I personally always start with the introduction. Because that’s really important. And then I scan the piece. So let’s do like a high level scan of the piece first.
So first of all, if you do the word count, it’s about 1500. Words. So that’s a pretty medium sized article. But the title is everything you need to know, right. Um, so I found a lot of opportunities. When I went through this to expand, if I was writing an ultimate guide on SEO, I’d probably have something like 2500 words, I think we could probably add 1000 words to this article.
So I’m just going to sort of scan through it and show you what the h2 czar real quick. So that’s the introduction. And then we start with what is searcher intent, which is good, you want to explain and to find something right away, we go through the different types of search intent.
In terms of visually, the paragraphs are good sized. There’s visuals, which is nice. There’s like little h threes, which are good, you want to break up the text like that. So this looks pretty good, from like a scanning point of view. Cool. And then why search intent matters. That’s great.
So pieces like this with the what and the why those are usually two really good ways to start. You know, we get into a bit of the history, the importance of it today, versus now that’s a nice comparison, more visuals, nice.
I noticed there’s a good amount of like reference material and data, which is also nice, that’s good. It makes it more credible. More visuals, and then here, this is like the what I would consider the meat of the article, right? So how to rank for the keyword of your choice.
So again, going back to the title, we’re telling the person that’s reading this, you’re not just going to learn what search intent is, you’re going to learn how to skyrocket your SEO strategy. And so I got here and I was excited.
I was like, Okay, I’m gonna learn. And if you scroll through, that’s it. Like this is the shortest bit of the article right here. So let’s grab this word count 369 words on how on how to skyrocket your SEO strategy.
So immediately when I’m doing my developmental edit before I do any copy editing, I’m like, oh, okay, we need to add 1000 words here. Okay. So you have to remember who you’re talking to. You can’t you can’t title something. I’m going to help you skyrocket your strategy and then give someone like a couple paragraphs on it.
That’s That’s not cool. Right? I would get here and I’d see how to do it. This was an eye I would go search for it elsewhere. So that’s like the first thing from a developmental editing standpoint is I would I would wrap this in a comment. And I would say add an ad 1000 words.
I want to see examples. I want to hear more about SEO strategy in general. Yeah, I want to see how other companies have used this advice that you’re telling me to do I want, I want to see keyword tools to see how I can do this. You know, advice, advice, essentially.
Chima Mmeje 10:28
So basically make the meets though, the longest part of the article, not the Chatez. Part of the
Erica Schneider 10:34
Yes, please. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so developmental editing wise, like from a big, big picture point of view. Everything looks good. Except for this, like everything is in the right order. I wouldn’t change the order of the HTS around.
It’s in the right order. It’s just not meaty enough. And then the conclusion, could use a bit of love as well. But that’s can do that at the end. All right, cool. So knowing that then is the editor, I would go back to the top and start doing a copy of it.
So we can do that together now. Okay, what is search intent? Okay, the first five words, it’s like we’ve said already. So we haven’t said much already. We said an introduction, right? Remember where you are in your draft.
First of all, I don’t, I don’t ever personally leave. It’s like we’ve said already, or as we mentioned, or as previously discussed above, I always just cut that. People skim articles. So if they are skimming it and reading it, they understand what you’re saying.
And if they haven’t, they’re not going to know what you’ve said already. And you’ve immediately confused them. So just remove it just don’t bother. It’s what I call filler, just remove it. So yeah, here just said this in the intro unnecessary. So I would cut this. And we can do this live, if you want.
And I would just say search intent is the why behind each search query. Like that’s cool. We don’t need to go into a crazy definition. Again, if we were trying to capture a Featured Snippet, we could expand the definition even more here.
So up here, we said search intent is the purpose or goal behind the search. When people type cars like we could say the same thing differently. Again, here to capture the Featured Snippet. It’s not, like pretty but it is important with these articles to try to like put the definition right up front.
So maybe we could expand. Also known as audience intent, or user intent search intent helps the Google algorithm I flagged this in understanding. So this is one of those just things where it’s not necessary to have the this, this ing is called the gerund of the verb. So understanding is the whole verb.
But then to make it into a different tense, you would make it understand and in doing this, you can remove the word in. So this is one of those like, things where it’s just smoother. If you just write understand, so you’re helping Google understand, instead of in understanding, it means the exact same thing, and it just sounds a bit smoother.
So the intention or purpose behind the users query, that’s a great sentence. This way, Google can generate the most relevant webpages to meet exactly what a user is looking for. This is a fantastic paragraph, it’s really, really good.
You are explaining what search intent is right away. It’s not wordy. The only change I would make is that so good opener. When a user enters a search query into Google, there are four main types of intent motivating this action. Pretty good.
optimising your content based on your target audiences search intent is the key to ranking on Google. So I might flip these two sentences around. So we’re saying is audience intent, right. And then this way, Google can generate the most relevant web pages to meet exactly what the user is looking for.
So then, it’s kind of nice. If it flows right into optimising your content based on your target audiences intent is key. And then when a user enters a search query into Google, there are four main types of intents.
These are probably just change this to these are, right so they do you see how that flows a bit smoother. So this is what I would call logical flow. So you want every sentence to carry something from the previous one into the existing one.
So here we’re talking about, you want to meet exactly what the user is looking for. And then you want to optimise it, so that it’s meeting them based on their search intent. Then next we’re starting like a new idea. There’s four types of things here they are so it’s like boom, boom, boom, boom. It like run smoothly, like Go like a waterfall. You know? What, what
Chima Mmeje 15:02
happens if you will cut out that part? Because honestly, I’m not even seeing it. I’m not even seeing it because it’s already like stated in the first sentence. I say such intense help Google, I’d go with him. Baba blah, blah. So personally, I would even cut it out. Totally.
Erica Schneider 15:17
You could even cut this out. Yeah, this part right here, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, it’s not even necessary. I agree with you. So now it says you want to meet them where they are in here? It is totally. I agree with you.
So they’re like, it’s like, it’s like you just said there are a bunch of different ways to say the same thing. If you end up repeating yourself. That’s what we call redundancy. It’s not necessary, the best thing to do is, if you’re not sure, cut it, read it again. And if the meaning hasn’t changed, you don’t need it.
So that’s a good, that’s a good trick. Okay, cool. So now we get into the four types of intents. So the name gives it away. Again, like this isn’t one of those things that’s necessary. We haven’t explained it. It says informational.
But when you say the name gives it away, like, Sure, maybe some people will understand what that means. But Will everybody understand what that means? This is one of those just be clear, don’t try to be clever edits. So I would just kill that and just start the sentence like this.
So this is the type of intent that is motivated by a need for information that’s good. When you search, what is SEO on Google, you’re looking for specific answers to your query, you do not want to be sold an SEO agency service, nor are you interested in purchasing a course.
So I wrote this makes way more sense here. Because if you go back to the intro, this basically what you were trying to do in the intro, not you whoever wrote this. So that makes perfect sense here, like this is where you can set the context, where am I? behind something like this? Right?
This makes no sense in the intro unless you have a chance to explain it more. So also, if you had left it in the intro, and then said it again, it would be redundant, right? So that they’d be like, Didn’t I already read this somewhere? So that’s another case of like, you don’t want to repeat yourself?
Chima Mmeje 17:17
All right, Erica. Sorry. I’m just gonna jump in and ask a question before I forget what you’re okay to repeat yourself when writing the long form content, like you said something before? Is it Why Why is it okay to like, read? I’m not gonna save you, right. But maybe we stayed the same point again.
Erica Schneider 17:36
Oh, totally. Yeah. So there are times where you want to do that. But you want to like you want to connect it. So you want to call back to the fact that you said it already. And you’re bringing it back on purpose to make to make another point or like to drive the point deeper.
So you never want to just say like in the introduction, hey, like, you don’t want to do this. And then later on, like, reuse the same thing. If we were to say it worked in the introduction, and we were to keep it there.
And then we brought it up again, here. We’d say something like going back to our example of you know, searching for this, you know, person, a type of person and then like you, you totally expand on the example like that is that is more than fine. But you have to connect them. Cool. Okay, so here.
So now we’ve started a, an example here. So hypothetical example. So you’re looking for answers. You don’t want to be sold in SEO agency services, nor are you interested in purchasing a course. This is a great image here. Because it shows exactly what you mean. So definitely do this in your writing you.
You’re illustrating what you mean, like that’s lovely, it’s really helpful for the reader to see exactly what you mean. What I would add is, so you say, Alright, you’re putting in a negative here, so you don’t want to be sold and SEO agency services. And then here, you’re not sold that.
But we don’t explain like what’s in the image. So as lovely as this image is worth saying you do you want to see specific answers, but you don’t want to be sold to agency. And then we’re not showing an agency, we’re showing the correct thing.
So I would introduce this image a bit better. So I would say something like, okay, you don’t want to be sold an SEO agency services, nor are you interested in purchasing a course. Here hear that says something like Google understands that the intent behind this query is informational.
So rather than serving an agency’s page, it answers the literal question. The user is asking Something like that. This isn’t great. Like don’t, don’t copy this text. I’m just typing fast. But like, you want to introduce like, okay, so you want to see what is SEO, you don’t want to see an agency.
So then here like, maybe like here, we see that Google understands the intent behind this query is informational, actually. And I would just have that, right. So we’re making the point that you don’t want to see, you do want to see this, you don’t want to see this. Here’s an example of what you do want to see. Boom, here’s the example.
Now it makes sense. It’s not just some like floating image, you don’t want to make the reader ever guess. What does this mean? Like, Why is this here, like spell it out for them. And of course, like, the way you spell it out, depends on your audience.
If it’s an advanced audience, the image and the information introducing the image should have like less beginner language and more advanced language, but it doesn’t change the fact that you still need to introduce it.
Um, so yeah. So here, we see that Google understands the intent behind this query. The intent behind this query is informational. So that’s, I’m happy I just typed that out on live because this is I talk about self editing all the time.
Like, even people that have been writing for years like me, like my first sentence is never great. Like, just you need to just get your ideas out, take a second away from it, and then edit it like, yeah, don’t ever just like type something in and assume that that’s the final thing. Oh, sorry, my dog is knocking at the door. Let me just
okay, I’m going down. So search queries made with an informational intent, need content that informs the user through how tos comprehensive guides, infographics, blog posts, and videos. So this is one of those extra nuggets of information that is nice. But unless you explain a bit more about like, why and what this means, it could confuse the reader.
So we’ve just made this lovely point like this is what informational intent is, here’s how Google serves it. And then they need content that informs users through how to use comprehensive guides, infographics, blog, personal videos, I would phrase this more as informational intent generally involves like, formats, such as how to use comprehensive guides, infographics, blog posts, and videos.
And I would make this like a bulleted list, so it’s easier to digest. Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so here. And then I would explain why. Like, why are these how tos guides infographics, blog posts, and videos like generally considered informational intent, intent?
And yes, it’s obvious, but maybe just one or two sentences on why the information is in those is considered informational, I think would help, like bolster out this sentence a bit more, instead of just ending on a bunch of information, because we haven’t explained like, all we’ve said so far, is that this type of intent is motivated by a need for information.
But surely, you know, blog posts vary in terms of their the information that they provide. So the other types are commercial intent, transactional intent, navigational intent? So, um, you know, do any of these types go beyond just informational? Surely videos can be commercial or transactional in nature as well. So you just want to make sure like, you don’t want to you just want to make sure you get ahead of any objections is what I’m trying to say.
Make sure that you’re explaining how these formats are informational. And why that might be a bit a bit in depth, but I usually just try to get ahead of every single objection if I can, especially in the first draft, and then you can refine it as yourself at it. But I’m craving to know a bit more here about why. Okay, cool. commercial intent.
So another important use of Google is researching for purchase decisions. So I made a note here that we can cut this because if you read the next paragraph, we basically say the same thing.
So a search query made with the intention of comparing products or services, finding alternatives searching for reviews, or looking at the best options would have a commercial intent. This is because the user is showing interest in a possible purchase. Right? So this is great.
This explains it right up front. This now becomes redundant. So we have to options, we can either leave this and say and rephrase it so that it says commercial intent is when a user shows interest in the possible purchases weighing their options. And then have that be the first sentence and cut this or we can just cut this and leave this.
Chima Mmeje 25:18
Cut it. Katya, it’s
Erica Schneider 25:20
this one. There we go. So this is like redundancy. 101. You don’t want to say the same thing and then say it again. There’s no need. Okay, cool. So, um, bottom of funnel content is an excellent way to target users who have commercial intent, hang on, beginner audience what is bottom of funnel content, you’re missing a key opportunity here to explain something you’re assuming the reader understands this is a beginner audience.
I would say something really simple like their bottom of funnel content, like parentheses, content that serves at the end of a purchase journey, something anything, right, like anything that explains what the heck this term is that we just introduced for the first time. You need that every time.
Every every first time is an excellent way to target users of commercial intent. An example of commercial intent would be someone who searches for Shopify alternatives on Google. Perfect, see how this introduces the image.
And now we don’t have to guess what’s in the image? Like that’s the right way to do it sounds very good. Oh, but then it just dramatically ends. Right. So it tells me that this is like, a good transactional intent. But then, where’s the takeaway?
So I have a rule where if you introduce an image, and it’s meant to be part of an example, never ever end, without giving a takeaway, why what why is what I’m seeing here, good, like here.
So commercial intent would be when somebody searches for Shopify alternatives, so the takeaway could be something like, this person has likely spam spent time researching, gonna make tonnes of typos likely spent time researching, you know, called ecommerce tools and is ready to, you know, compare contrast and spend money, I don’t know, whatever it is, like, why why is this purchase intent?
Like, why is this example something that the user needs to care about, you have to tie it up in a bow. Cool, transactional intent, this intent takes commercial intent up a notch. I don’t know what that means. That’s another example of being clever.
You have to, if you if you want to use a word like up a notch, you have to explain what that means to the reader. Like you can’t assume everyone’s going to be in on your on your language on your joke. If you were speaking to an audience where like, the phrase up a notch was like part of what what they say all the time, that’s fine, but I don’t know who this audience is.
So my gut feeling is to just remove it and just get straight to the information like this is a bit a bit filler, you could have something like this later on after you define what it is. So instead of considering a purchase, the user is very clear that they want to buy already, this is where transactional intent gets its name from users searching with the intent of making a transaction.
So I think by up a notch, you mean, they’re going from thinking about buying to buying? So I would define that in marketing terms, right? So they’ve gone from, you know, it’s still bottom of funnel but they’ve gone from whatever that stage of awareness is like solution aware to product wear, whatever it is, like make it make it marketing, right.
Like we’re talking about marketing use marketing language here, up a notch is subjective. I don’t know what that means. What do you mean by that? Get specific. Cool. So when a user is searching with transactional intent, expect to see webpages and ads from shopping websites. One example of a keyword with transactional intent would be wireless headphones.
This is why when you search for this keyword on Google, you get ads on websites selling wireless headphones, you could probably combine these two sentences. So I don’t know if users expect to see ads, but they certainly expect to see web pages.
Like I don’t know if everyone’s assess necessarily like going to Google like, oh, I can’t wait to see the ad that’s about to be served to me, right? Like, that’s not necessarily for the user. That’s for people to make money.
So like, I think the intent is that they’re looking to see web pages from shop The websites and ads are just a result of that. Right? So I would rephrase that because I don’t know it makes it sound like people are excited to see ads. And I don’t. I mean, I’m not excited to ever really see an ad so.
And then, so here, right wireless headphones. I would just combine these, we just said that they’re going to see webpages and ads. And one example, public YouTube transactional 10, would be wireless headphones. Here, like, we can see that Google serves, like ads and websites in response to this. Worry.
And then if you rephrase it like that, you’re not saying the word wireless headphones twice in a row, which is slightly redundant and repetitive. So just changing up the phrasing. Cool. Oh, okay. Where’s my takeaway? Takeaway.
So why, like, why, like, what’s the end result of this? So I think something like, now, it’s easy to scan your options on page, and, you know, click to learn more, whatever, you know, data, like, what’s the takeaway? Like, what am I why is what I’m seeing here aligned with the point that you just made?
All right, navigational intent? Suppose you want to purchase something from Amazon? What’s the first thing? So I think you either mind you will do or you’re looking for. So that was just one of those like brain things. So just change it. Look for Amazon websites on Google. So if you would purchase it from Amazon was the first thing you’ll do. Look for Amazon. websites on Google?
Is it I mean, what do you just go to Amazon? Um, a little bit confused. So this is a bit confusing.
Chima Mmeje 32:10
Because you want to purchase something from Amazon, what is the first thing you do look for Amazon? I think this this is this is wrong.
Because if I want to buy some from Amazon, I’m going to check directly on Amazon. I’m not going to Google to check to buy something on Amazon. So this entire phrase, the attack the next needs to go, it’s very,
Erica Schneider 32:27
it’s very confusing. I totally agree. And my comment I left to myself, is that we want to move this up anyway, because you want to what we’ve done so far, good job of is to bluff, which is bottom line up front.
So especially in these like, what is each threes, you want to explain what the thing is, before you get into anything else. So keywords in the intention of navigating to a particular destination or website have navigational intent, like that should be the first line so that we understand what it is set the context.
This does not just include keywords for specific websites such as Amazon. Yeah, so if let me cut this now, this is confusing. We need to give more context on this. What do we mean by particular destination or website have a navigational intent? I don’t. Yeah, I don’t even know if it’s necessary. Just users.
Chima Mmeje 33:24
Let me read this out. He was navigating to a particular destination or websites. You This is this is only passive, this is a very passive statements. So I would prefer if this will be written in an active tone, just off the top of my head.
And it’s still confusing, again, because navigational intents basically means that the person who is searching for this is searching for a specific brand or something like that. So this doesn’t even tell me that it’s kind of just wordy, and yeah, it’s just very wordy. It’s just very wordy.
Yeah. Navigation militares when someone is searching for a specific website or brand. Now when you say this does not include websites. That’s not true. Because if I tap amazonglobal, I want to go direct to Amazon. I don’t want to go to Amazon fallacy or anything like that. I want to go to Amazon. So yes, this statements after that is wrong.
Erica Schneider 34:24
Yeah. This makes more sense to me now. Yeah, they’re looking for a specific website. Yeah. Yeah. example This, like boom. Like, it’s like we tried to give too much upfront without you know, and then you’ve tripped up the reader.
You’ve ended up not making much sense. So this is a really good exercise that we just did together. Because a lot of the times when you’re trying to say something, you end up muddying it up and you get confused. Something that I do when I when I do live edits with my writers. gristle is I just say what are you trying to say?
And then we have this exact exchange that we just had, where you say, Well, I’m trying to say navigational intent just when a person is searching for a specific website, and then I always go write that. Just write that, you know, don’t write like these, these confusing paragraphs, just just right where you’re trying to say, Yeah,
Chima Mmeje 35:21
I would also add that if you’re in the first line, after a subheading, where you’re trying to introduce a concept should be definitional. Like, this is this or this is this because there’s always an opportunity to go for feature see particular you don’t realise it.
So always start with that definition. Like, just go straight and hit the nail on the head with that definition, navigation and intense is, and then just define is something I see a lot of people keep missing.
Erica Schneider 35:49
Totally, yeah. And that’s called blocks. They’re like the name for that is, is bottom line up front. Get the name, just get the information upfront, just just get it out, and then explain what you mean. Okay, so we got there in the end.
So now we know that that this is when people are going to type something like HubSpot in but then the it ends, right. So we need to explain more about like, Why in the world, do people do this? Like why would you go to HubSpot sign up instead of just going to hubspot.com?
So like, we need to take away something like you know people often do this or? I mean, you would say this better, like when they aren’t sure of the website, a specific website. Page and want a shortcut to reach it? I don’t know. Whatever.
Chima Mmeje 36:50
That’s correct. Yeah. Totally spot on.
Erica Schneider 36:54
Is that correct?
Chima Mmeje 36:56
That’s, it’s that’s, that’s why that’s why anybody would type pop squad sign up because they don’t want to go to hospital starts trying to find pay. So they just use Google to find much more questions.
Erica Schneider 37:07
Yeah, exactly. So like, you have to explain like, why, like, it’s nice to know what it is. But then if you introduce an example, like don’t leave the reader trying to guess themselves, like, Why in the world? Would anyone ever do this? Like tell them? You know, tell them, okay.
Okay, so now we get to the world’s shortest section about why why it matters. Oh, wait, sorry. That’s the next one, this section is actually quite good. I would cut this, you don’t need an h3 directly underneath an h2. Just get just get into it. And then this is fine down here. So I just made a note here make this specific. So until a few years ago, like right now it’s 2022.
If someone reads this again, and it’s still online in 2024, they’re gonna assume you mean like 2021 really mean 2016. So like, just say that say the name, it makes it more evergreen, right? So until 2016, or whatever the year is, SEO is only about keywords. Or whatever other identifier, makes the person understand what timezone that that time period that actually is.
When users search for keyword, the algorithm would pull up any web pages where the particular keyword showed up repeatedly, while this made ranking on Google. Never use the word very, ever. Just full stop. Just don’t use it. It’s unnecessary, just kind of kind of kind of kind of credit. Everybody write that down. Don’t use the word very.
It’s just totally unnecessary. So while this made ranking on Google easy, it also came at the cost of content quality, great websites used to shoot up the Google SERPs overnight. I would probably make that more specific, like website websites used to be able to rank in the top positions on Google SERPs.
Like what is shut up with Google SERPs mean, just get specific there. by spamming keywords in their content, it did not have to make sense and often it didn’t. So and then if you read the second half, the quality utility of your content did not matter the keyword density did.
So this is an example of a sentence where you said you made your point and then you made it again differently. So this is redundant. So you just can say the quality or utility of your website content didn’t matter. The keyword density did. And the reason why I decided to send my colon or an M dash is because this is now a new new sentence.
So this is what we call a comma splice I believe where it’s cutting a sentence in half. We’re really it’s like two different sentences grammar thing. But now this makes more sense. So websites used to rank in the top positions in Google. Google SERPs overnight by spamming keywords.
The quality or utility did not matter what the keyword density did. Over the years, Google has updated its algorithm repeatedly to eliminate this blackpack specific blackhat seo practice known as keyword stuffing.
This is where search intent came in, and then this update happened and blah, blah, that’s a very good like, this is all very good. It’s very good like this, this flows very logically, it’s not too much, just a couple of little redundancy things here and there. But otherwise, it’s a very good paragraph.
So here, the algorithm update was the start of improving Google search results using quality, I would just cut this, like we’ve made this point already, we don’t need to make it again, the focus shifted from matching keywords to meeting the context like beautiful. This is just unnecessary.
We don’t need to make this point we’ve made this point. Move on. So overall, pretty good paragraph. Okay, so here today, search intent is more important than ever, to get your content optimization strategy on point. I don’t know what I don’t know what that means more important than ever.
So it’s subjective. And there’s two subjective statements here. First, more important than ever, I don’t know what that means to you. And then get your content optimization strategy onpoint. Again, what does that mean?
So I would change that to something like, since then search intent has grown in importance with each algorithm update. I would just keep saying that, because as we as we go, like we talked about 2016.
Now we’re saying since then, you know, search intent continues to become more important. And then here is where we say, now it’s more important than ever. So it’s kind of missing that transition sentence between like what happens between 2016 and 2022, it’s continued to grow in importance.
So I think that’s just an easier way to sort of transition instead of like, you’re kind of getting ahead of the May 2022 update by saying today, it’s more important before you even like right here. And now you’re saying they announced it.
So the idea here is to just sort of transition like fill in those five years with saying like It progressively got important. And then in 2022, it was like holy shit. Now it’s like the most important thing ever. Okay, cool. With this core algorithm, SEO updates all over the roads have noted several changes in the algorithms patterns.
Again, this is one of those unnecessary adverbs at the end of a sentence, just remove it. Then we talked about Mark lend where this is very good, it introduces what’s going to be in the image and it explains the image that’s great.
Apart from video content, taking a lead a hallmark feature of this update is the increasing importance of search intent Great. In the true spirit of Google’s mission, the need for being useful and actionable is taking priority. So here I said, this is the need for being useful and actionable as taking priority.
So if you read this, it’s a bit passive. So you can change this to Active Voice useful and actionable information takes priority when it comes to ranking, like switch it around. Just try to avoid passive voice at all, at all times.
Here, so this means that generalist websites such as news publications have taken a hard hit about 4%. I don’t know what you mean by a hard hit. So if you open this up, like you see specifically that it means that they’ve lost an average of 4% in their Google rankings.
So be specific about what you mean. Don’t say hard hit. I don’t know what that means. So we can rewrite that to generalist websites, such as news publications have lost an average of 4% of their rankings, while e commerce and travel sites have grown by 5%.
It’s just more specific. I don’t know what taken a hard hit means. Just be very specific in your language, especially when you’re quoting something. Cool, um, encyclopaedia style websites that are packed with extensive yet generic information about sustained heavy losses. Great.
Lastly, websites with the relevant information that don’t answer queries, well have also lost rankings. Cool. Yeah, I don’t think we need overall, I always cut little, just little words like that. Google’s latest algorithm update has made one thing very clear search intent is becoming an integral part.
So here, this is super confusing. Like we just spent the entire section saying that it’s been like, at least since 2016, this has been super important. And now we’re seeing in 2022. It’s becoming integral like what doesn’t make sense. Like we just spent an entire section saying that it’s been like the most important thing.
So I would just rephrase this to Google’s latest algorithm update reinforces, so like, we’re reinforcing all this stuff from 2016. The fact that relevant, specific and helpful content will outrank the rest. If you want your content to rank search rank search intent must be an integral part of your SEO strategy. Like that’s a nice takeaway.
Instead of it’s becoming like this is this is very confusing. It’s not becoming it’s been right so just be careful. Like remember what what you’ve said before what you’re saying now. Cool. Okay, now this is The section that just needs like, way more. Um, so the first step of learning how to optimise your content for search intent was understanding it’s important.
It’s it’s important, especially in today’s context. Yeah, I don’t know that. We’ve just again, like we’ve just spent all this time like setting up this amazing background. And now we’re trying to like summarise it in this like opening sentence. This is totally unnecessary, in my opinion. It quotes. Yeah, exactly. Like, we don’t need to read to reset.
Like, we have just spent 1000 words, setting the context like Don’t, don’t reset yourself, if you need to reset yourself when you’re writing. So you know where you are, that’s fine, like get out of your system, but in the self edit, cut it like it’s not necessary here at all.
So again, like once you know what search intent truly means, leveraging leveraging it in your content again, like I don’t know, I would totally rewrite this entire this entire introduction. So just just make it very simple, you know. So, search intent is a key part of your SEO strategy, therefore, like you need to optimise for it.
Here’s how to do that. I don’t know something like so simple. You just need like, we want to get into the into the meat of it now, like the introduction, does not need to be some summary of what we just talked about. Or you could introduce like SEO strategies in general.
And then I’m thinking I’m we’re running out of time, but something here that’s just like, a lot more simple than this. But But I also want to make sure I talk about this so isn’t difficult at all. I mean, people pay 1000s of dollars, for strategists to try to get their content to rank, I would be very careful making a confident statement. Like it’s not hard.
What if like that this person reads that they go do all your advice, and they’re still not ranking? Like, who are they going to remember telling them? It wasn’t hard? And who are they going to blame? Try to keep it more neutral. Like I never made competent statements like it’s not difficult.
I say, if you do this, you’ll likely be able to do that. Or, you know, this should help you do this. I would avoid 100%. This will if you do that statements, just to protect yourself and the brands that you’re writing for.
So okay, instead of planning your content strategy based on what you want to put out, what does that mean, what you want to put out. So I think you mean, instead of planning your content strategy based on keywords you think you have a chance to rank for, I think that that’s what you mean, or based on content that you feel excited about writing about whatever it is, define what you want to put out. Because at the moment as the reader, I’m guessing.
And we also haven’t spent any time explaining like basics of strategy, basics of like, where you would even start, right, so we’re assuming that the reader is ahead of where we kind of have met them. So now we’re saying shift the focus to understand to what your target audience is searching for.
Understand the context and intention behind your users search queries, and choose your keywords accordingly. So my comment here is that entire articles can be written on this one sentence. So we need to give more information. How do you understand the context and intention?
So you know, I would add things like, speak to them, you know, look at your audience like demographics, what they normally search for, figure out like, what people are excited for with your product, like all the general stuff when it comes to keyword research, and then maybe a couple of steps on how to find those keywords, keyword tools, you know, basic strategy, stuff, like you don’t have to get intense, but you can probably add like another one to 200 words here about how you map search intent.
Same thing here use the SERPs to extract data. So here we’re talking about, the best way to understand search intent by the keyword would be to look at the search results it produces. For example, when you google how to optimise images for SEO, all the search results will be how to use and guides.
On the other hand, if you search for website design, all the results will be landing pages. So I think you’re missing like a key connection. So we’ve been talking about target audience the whole time. And we should definitely bring it back to what the audience intent is and what Google considers relevant.
So I think the heart of the matter deserves more airtime here. Again, like analyse competitor content. We have here we get into a bit of how I answer the public. But I think we could sort of go on I’m just rushing through this because we’re running out of time and then covering all your bases.
Again, if you’re gonna make a statement, like cover all your bases, it’s probably better to be specific Like optimise for every part of on page SEO, instead of just cover all your bases, and then I could go into the conclusion. But I don’t want to because we’re running out of time. I don’t want to do questions. So
Chima Mmeje 50:12
yeah, yeah, this is this is really good. I’ll just I’ll just add that something I noticed in this article was that she didn’t. She didn’t use topics or semantic entities when writing like, I couldn’t see any a lot of the words that will Claire would have been, like, say, hit the spot more if she had used relevant semantic cases, like we were talking about marketing teams. Always something advice like it to like marketmuse.
Grace, neurotics always has like a list of topics for every keyword they are trying to rank for. So something I tried to do is to look at those topics try and like remember a couple of them.
And then when I’m writing users topics, because as much as you tried to run the content organically and write for the user, you also have to factor in that search bots are going to crawl this content, and it’s those entities that are gonna help them understand that but you don’t have to make it look, just just stand out like a software or it can still be integrated and look natural, if you think about it when writing.
So that was something I really noticed because I’m coming at this from the SEO angle bots, Erica, I felt like just like clapping like boom, boom, everything is hitting the spot.
So if anyone has questions for Erica, you can raise your hand or you can use the q&a session, I think we have less than seven minutes to go. So yeah, we have one question that is relevant. are the takeaways meant to be explained in the copy or left as a caption underneath the images?
Erica Schneider 51:45
Oh, no, definitely do both. So so you don’t need to have a takeaway. As a caption, the caption is more like explaining what’s in the image. The takeaway is part of the logical flow, right?
It’s part of the explanation that you are giving as to like, why what you’ve just introduced is important. And the idea of a takeaway is that a reader fully understand your argument. So when it comes to arguments, you want to introduce your claim, back it up with support, and then conclude. So those are the three steps I’ve written about this online as well.
Those are the three steps of what we consider a logical argument. And the idea of a logical argument is that you convince and persuade people that what you’re saying is credible. And makes sense, like logically makes sense. And so it’s very difficult to make an argument, and then leave the reader hanging because it doesn’t, it doesn’t like wrap it up in a nice bow.
Like think of it like a circle. So if you’re going to make a claim, this is this. And then say, here’s an example. Like here’s why. And here’s an example, you have to conclude. So the takeaway is the concluding sentence to your argument, it wraps it up.
It’s like the in summary without saying In summary, you have to give them like, a reason to feel like, okay, I get it, I’m with you. Like there’s no more questions in my head, like you’ve made your point. Let’s move on. That’s what a takeaway is. It’s the conclusion to an argument.
Chima Mmeje 53:18
That’s interesting, because I never I use screenshots when writing more. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about adding, like takeaways, or like the way you do it to to content. So that’s something I’m really interested in.
So I want to ask a question regarding FAQs, because I got a feedback from an editor recently that got me thinking that usually when we get FAQs, it’s kind of like, oh, let’s pick soft, secondary keywords, and then use that as FAQs, to kind of our chances of ranking.
But the editor was like, No, we don’t need FAQs. Let’s put that up in the main content. So what are you talking to pick you? Is this something that needs to be added to contents? Or do you think that the content on its own can do all the work of like ranking for the main keywords? And also writing for the secondary keywords?
Erica Schneider 54:04
That completely? It completely depends like I’ve done both? Okay. My best answer to that is that you should answer the questions in the body of the content as best you can. So the reason why FAQs are good is because of those like Rich Snippets, right?
Yeah. And so you want like if it’s one of those articles, where there’s a bunch of FAQs, and seeing them like mapped out in a way that’s really easy to just sort of go from one to the next is going to help people like totally understand what it is quickly and skim.
Like that’s good. But my advice would be if you’re going to go for the rich snippet, also answer the questions as best you can within the context of the body. Because you want to do like you just want to do both. So I wouldn’t say choose one over the other. If it’s an F if it’s an SEO play. I’ve done both before. I’ve answered it within the within the content body.
And then I’ve also included a bunch of secondary keyword FAQ is at the bottom, where it sort of acts, it sort of acts as like a summary and something that if people understand the topic, they don’t need to read the article, they can just skip to the FAQ, or they don’t even have to click into it. It’s just a Rich Snippet. I guess it’s I guess it’s one of those like, 360 degree like, try to get everyone.
Chima Mmeje 55:21
Okay. There’s a question here. Do you have a checklist to use or follow for copy edits? To ensure you don’t miss out on anything? Actually, for someone else? Anyway? I did think content of someone who is new?
No, it’s really for a person. Okay. Yes. Let me read this again, do you have a chance to use or follow for a copy edits ensure you don’t miss out on anything? This is for someone who is new to editing.
Any quick tips to quickly absorb and follow an organization’s style that these are two questions from one person. First one is the other checklists for copy edits for someone who is just getting started in new editing, or, and also how tips for following an organization’s style guide. Hmm. I have,
Erica Schneider 56:10
I have less of a checklist and more of questions that you can ask yourself. I can send that to you. I’ve written a thread on that worth.
Chima Mmeje 56:19
Yes, they send that over, we’ll add it to add it to the to this when it goes live.
Erica Schneider 56:24
Yeah, I’ll send it to you. So I have like, I think I wrote a thread where it’s like, these are the most common questions that editors will ask you, and here’s how you can get ahead of them. So I’ll send you that.
I have a personal checklist that my editors follow, but it’s very broad. It’s like, you know, make sure that everything from the brief is included in here and like make sure there’s no redundancy, but it’s not specific, like you know, make sure these specific words aren’t included.
Um, it’s hard, because that would be like the longest checklist ever. You know, what’s interesting, though, someone did tagged me in something in LinkedIn where someone did make a checklist, I will find that and send it to you because it was incredibly long. Someone asked me what I thought of it.
And I didn’t have time to go through the whole thing it was that wrong. That might be useful as well. I’ll find that too. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Second question about style guide keeps on following
Chima Mmeje 57:15
an organization’s style guide. struggling because yeah, you have to It’s like jumping from this client who has a completely different style guide to jump into this client who has a completely different style guide.
And it’s like, your brain has to keep like, as stimulated as you keep jumping in and it’s affecting your writing style. So I think I understand where this question is coming from.
Erica Schneider 57:41
I do too. It’s, that’s why I kind of grimaced because it’s really hard. I call that context switching. Yeah. And it’s like, it’s like you have to, it’s almost like you’re acting. And yeah, cuz you know, how actors like they read a script, and they get into this, we have to do the same exact thing. And it does mess with your style. Sometimes.
I don’t know like what my own style is, which is why writing on Twitter has been so fun. Because I’ve like refound myself, right? Because I’m like, behind all these other people’s voices.
Read this, read them, read the read the style guides, I would say the most important thing, make a list to yourself have like, really important key information. So like at the top of ours, we put key information, but I know not all clients do that.
So most important things are like the Oxford comma, do they use them or not? And that’s the third comma and a list. So like, the sky is orange, blue and green. It doesn’t make any sense. But orange comma blue, comma green that that second comma, after the second word in the three word list is what’s called the Oxford comma.
Some people use it some people hate using it. So learn if they use it or not. I would write things like little things like that down so that you aren’t like pissing them off essentially, like, Yeah, whatever they whatever they care most about, like, focus on that make a little cheat sheet for yourself.
And the rest of it, like, I would say, read it, do your edits, and then read it again, and make sure that what you’ve edited is in is in the style. It’s really hard, though. And there’s no good way. There’s no good way around. Yeah.
Chima Mmeje 59:16
All right. I have two we have two more questions I really want you to answer. So please, two questions. The first one, give us some tips on writing, introduction and conclusions, quick tips on
Erica Schneider 59:28
conclusions. The introduction depends on the type of blog that you’re writing. So this type of blog was like an SEO play. You want it to rank, and it’s very, very simple. So you want to explain what the thing is up front surface situation, poke at the pain a bit and then have a transition sentence.
So like SEO, search intent is this but it’s harder it can be difficult, or the only way to do it right is this here’s how make it very simple. All right. So that’s the that’s the what we call S C QA.
But the Q stands for Situation challenge question answer. The question is not necessarily important. So just what’s the situation? What’s the challenge? What’s the answer? Problem agitate solution. Like, there’s all these frameworks that you can use, I can send you this as well.
I’ve written a thread on this. Yeah. You don’t have to write it down. That’s the most basic, like, just follow that, and you can’t go wrong. Problem, agitate solution situation challenge answer, like, it should be like, one paragraph, a second paragraph, a transition, like, this is what you’re going to learn.
However, if you’re writing a thought leadership piece, you can have more fun, and play with storytelling, which is the most interesting type of introduction, where you can say, you know, company A, in 2016, you know, lost a million dollars, because they like, totally messed up this product.
But five years later, they’re now outranking. Like, everybody, they’re kicking ass. You know, like, how did this happen? Oh, because like, they picked the right pricing strategy. Like, let’s learn about it like, oh, shit, that’s interesting.
Okay, so that’s the storytelling, storytelling framework, that doesn’t necessarily make sense in something like, what is SEO, but if you’re making an argument that says, how to use pricing strategies to beat the competition, that’s interesting.
What’s the story of a company that’s done that? So it depends on your format, I can send you I’ve written all about all of these, so I can send you that and then conclusions. My best advice is that they are not summaries, they are a follow up of the introduction.
So again, with the argument, think of the logical argument that’s like the entire draft, so you’re making your claim you’re supporting it, and then you’re ending it with a conclusion you’re not, you’re not saying In summary, so a phrase that I always uses, you’re not summarising your synthesise? What did you just say?
And what can you leave people with that adds to the point that you’re making instead of summarises it. So my hack is to read the introduction, and then write the conclusion. And you don’t want to repeat it, you want to follow it. So pretend that the body doesn’t exist, read the introduction, and then write a conclusion as if the body doesn’t exist.
And I swear, you’ll find a way to say something different by doing that. Because the if you read the body and then write the conclusion, you’re just going to repeat yourself, what are you leaving them with?
That’s like a new way of arguing what you just said in a like, it’s a point, maybe it’s a point that you’ve already made, but you’re saying it in a different way? And then What action are they going to do? Don’t just say In summary, this is what we’ve learned. That’s, that’s not interesting.
Chima Mmeje 1:02:47
All right. Final question. Can you give an example of logical flow?
Erica Schneider 1:02:52
logical flow means that what you say in one sentence, you take something from it, and you carry it to the next sentence. That’s literally what logical flow means. So it means if I’m saying, the sky, the sky is blue, when I look at the sky, I see that the colour is blue, like that’s logical flow, what logical flow is not is the sky is blue, I have a coffee.
And when I look at the sky, it’s blue, like this coffee makes no sense in that in that paragraph, it just, it literally just means take something from one sentence and connect it so that the ideas are connected.
And your point is flowing, like talking about coffee in the middle of a point about the sky makes no sense. And I know I know that this is over simplified. But it’s amazing how often people do that content.
They’ll say something and then they’ll sort of like ramble about something else. And then try to wrap it up. You don’t want any friction. You don’t want any speed bumps. You want to just make your argument connect, like think of it like a nice waterfall. Like it should all connect. I’ve written about this too. I can send you tonnes of reference materials,
Chima Mmeje 1:03:55
just just in this and I’m gonna answer this last question real quick. Someone said how do you maintain the balance between your contents? Okay, how do you make your contents meaty? Why things didn’t work out.
I’m just gonna say these quotes. That’s the That’s the thing I keep putting in my head when I make when I’m self editing called quotes, quotes, quotes ruthlessly, quote because Miami gets editor there’s gonna be more cotton.
So what ruthlessly so that will be my answer for that. But if you want more detailed as I think, follow Erica on Twitter, I don’t know she’s gonna answer your questions. We’ll follow her on Twitter. I know you have something that was going on right now. So I’m not gonna force you to answer this question.
Erica Schneider 1:04:29
I’m sorry. I have to go to a baby appointment. Yes. Yes. Erica, thank
Chima Mmeje 1:04:33
you so much for joining us today. This has been so impactful. I look forward to getting the documents from you and taking this live at some point in the next couple of months. Thank you so much.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
