Ultimate Guide to Authoritative Online Content (2023)
"I thought content-writing was easy until I actually tried it myself."
That's the number one remark we receive here at Inky when clients first come to us for content writing services.
Be it a SEO blog for their online service or Instagram caption copywriting, online content writing is often underestimated by many.
Some even claim it's one of the hardest forms of copywriting to master.
With constantly-changing guidelines, the way people consume online content will inevitably change.
Until then, we at Inky have compiled a guide on how to quickly set up online written content to establish authority and brand reputation.
Article Summary
Aims of Online Content
Admit it, all online content is created to do two things: attract people, and keep people attracted.
After all, why publish content if you don't want anyone to read it or remember it, right?
To be specific, if you're aiming to publish online content, you'd need to be very clear about what that content aims to do.
Is the content to drive traffic to your website, or to push for a specific user behaviour like subscribing to your newsletter?
Do they aim to drive sales and get customers to buy your products?
Do they aim to educate and help customers made an informed decision before they purchase anything?
At the bottom line, you must know what your written content will do before you write it.
Topic Research and Clustering
Now that you've decided on the purpose of your online content, the next time is finding out what to write about.
Online content writers typically call this topic or keyword research, where we use specific tools like SEMrush or KWfinder to find out what other people are looking for, and what other websites have addressed.
You can choose to use any tool (or even not use any!), but generally you'll want to know the following:
- What people are searching for (i.e. the search terms used)
- What other people are also asking (with the help of Google)
- What people are writing about that answers (or doesn't answer) search requests
Let's see that in action right now.
Use KWFinder, search for keyword, find high searches and low difficulty, bam.
Once you have your topic confirmed, the next step is really to create topic clusters so that you have an idea of what content you can write about after you've written the initial article or post.
There are a ton of different ways to do this, but based on Inky's experience the easiest is really to look at your competitors and existing articles, and then come up with a word cloud from there.
A word cloud is a pretty nifty tool for you to see both relevant keywords and their proximity - or level of relevance - to your root keyword or topic.
We'll show you how to do it here, using the example earlier:
This lets you see what words appear the most and which you should cluster your main content around.
There are a million different tools to create your own word cloud, but the one we recommend (and the one we use the most) is the Word Cloud Generator by Monkeylearn.
Just put in your desired words, subtopics and basically brainstorm about the topic, and they'll generate a map of which words are deemed the most relevant to each other.
The bigger the words, the more important they are in the topic cluster.
With the word cloud generated, what you can then do is plan what will your pillar articles be, and what secondary pieces of content can be supported by them. More on this topic in the next subsection.
Pillar Content
Now that you've created your topic cluster and identified the main keywords you want to write for, it's now time to start writing!
Most of the time though, you'll start with what people call a pillar page.
What is a Pillar Page?
A pillar page is an authoritative post that aims to provide most, if not all resources and content about a specific topic.
These pages are mostly long (definitely about 1000 words), and they form the backbone of your content marketing strategy.
After all, they're meant to be 'pillars' - they're supposed to be pages that support other secondary pieces of content, as well as the main page that establishes authority and knowledge about the subject you're writing on.
These secondary pieces of content will be supported through things like internal links.
This means that while typical posts cover very specific topics, pillar pages often talk about many different aspects of a subject, and then internal or external link out to relevant niche articles talking about each specific topic.
This type of site architecture helps visitors find information easily and provides a clear knowledge pathway for them to follow should they be more interested in the topic.
In fact, because content and the way people search for and learn information is changing so quickly, pillar pages are becoming the structure of choice for audiences to learn and organise information.
In general, there are 3 types of pillar content that we recommend:
10x Pillar Page
This kind of pillar page is extremely straightforward - you aim to produce 10x the information and 10x the quality of the top ranking page for that search term.
This in terms means you need to do in-depth research about everything you know about the topic, and produce content that's above the fold against your competitors.
Above all, you're creating written content that acts as a hub for customers to come back and refer to every time they need information about the topic.
As such, think of your pillar page as a free, comprehensive guide with a ton of useful information, statistics and tools for people to constantly refer to.
As such, your 10x pillar page should probably have the following characteristics:
Length: 2500-3000w, or more, depending on your topic.
It's long but necessary to make it as comprehensive as possible for your audience, and provide your content with as much linkable material as possible for both external sites and internal posts.
Keywords: Based on your word cloud above, your pillar article should hit at least 75% of the keywords you've identified in your topic cluster.
This ensures that you're writing relevant content and also provides valuable link text for your secondary articles. However, remember not to keyword-stuff.
Visuals: It should be very easy to skim, or at least navigate to the most relevant sections.
This can easily be done with anchor links like in this article. It should also be visually pleasing, or at least easy to read.
With this in mind, let's take a look at a 10x content pillar page that achieves these goals from Similarweb.
Why is it Good?
When you're reading through this pillar page, it really feels like an authoritative source.
The reasons? It's easy to scan through the table of contents to jump straight into what you need to know, and it's chock-full of knowledge that feels in-depth and well-discussed.
While you don't need to structure your page like this (we didn't, as it didn't fit our website aesthetics), it's a good benchmark nonetheless for an awesome 10x Pillar Page.
Resource Pillar Page
Semrush calls this the 'how-to' pillar page format.
Sometimes, it's just not possible to produce content above the fold, or maybe it's just too difficult to outperform the highest ranking page in terms of content.
Maybe the industry or audience you're writing for aren't looking for information, but rather, looking for answers.
If that sounds like you, then instead of a 10x pillar, a resource pillar will be a lot more valuable to your audience.
A resource pillar is basically a collection of useful tools, products and resources that help your audience achieve what they need to.
For example, if you're writing about the tools and proper steps to setting up a blog, then you'd have a lot of links to writing software, note-taking tools, or products to help with productivity and writing.
In other words, you provide resources for the reader to help them with every step of the way.
Another kind of resource pillar would be your typical 'top-10' lists.
For example, a top-10 list of schools to enrol, or a top-10 list of things to do, or places to go. These would then be filled with relevant information and external links to help people access these resources.
To help us visualise what this means, here's a resource pillar page from UX Mastery that goes above the fold in providing content for its users.
Why is it Good?
It's pretty straightforward - you get what you're looking for.
Think about the search terms used by the end user - it's probably to search for top UX tools, or alternatives to paid tools, or just general research into UX tools that are available. This page answers all of that.
There's not a lot of writing, but everything is neatly condensed into a table for your viewing, and it cuts to the chase. Very quickly.
It then pushes itself above the fold by providing not 1o, but 200 available tools, greatly helping their users with market research. Which reader can resist this value?
The Information Pillar Page
If you're dealing with a rather general topic or something that's seasonal or trendy, you might want to build up hype and awareness by creating an information pillar page.
A general, trendy topic means that people will likely be searching for this, and that presents an opportunity for you to be an authority in answering that question.
If you create a page that is shareable and further justifies why knowing about this is important, then this becomes a gateway for new customers to learn more about your business, cause or website.
A side note: Images
No webpage can exist without a single image.
That's the inevitable truth of content. While people were attracted to different fonts and big flashy pictures in the past, people today are similarly attracted by high quality, value-adding images within blog posts.
While there is a plethora of different advice depending on your content platform, we'd recommend:
Doing research on the best practices for image resolution, size and format for your required platform.
Different platforms have different needs, and not following them could make your content stand out in the wrong way compared to others.
Never use stock images.
How many times have you seen a stock image appear on an article and immediately dismissed it? Probably countless. Create your own images and photos where possible.
Use them liberally. It's a lot easier to scan through content when the images scattered throughout the text are comprehensive. A general guide is maybe an image every 250 words, but you decide what's best for your post.
Use them creatively. Images can be used to break up sections (like in this post), or can be used to summarise sections altogether.
Ensure you have your alt texts and captions when you need them!
Secondary Content
Once you've created and written your pillar page, you're on track to spinning off many other pieces.
Think about how you can repurpose or explain points made in the pillar in a different form.
You can also think about how you can present your pillar itself in a different form.
Here's a list of secondary content types:
- Snippets: Social media posts, pictures and captions, short blog articles, email topics, interviews
- Explanation: Separate blog posts / separate pillar pages, guest posts, email newsletters
- Repurposing pillar: Emails, newsletters
Basically, with your pillar page in hand, you should be able to spin off an almost endless list of content that all links to each other and is thoroughly relevant throughout.
The more links to your pillar page, the more relevant it becomes - not just in Google's eyes, but in your readers' eyes as well.
Brand reputation and credibility will then slowly be built the more knowledge you display about the topic at hand.
Let's have a look at how sites can repurpose their own content to generate even more content!
Tips to Boost Credibility
However, following all the steps doesn't mean that people will read or trust your content.
The reality is that there can ever only be those few credible sources.
What we want to do is be one of them.
To help you achieve brand reputation and credibility, we've compiled a list of best practices here to start you off.
Know that these best practices are purely our opinion based on experience in the copywriting industry.
1. Don't ignore headlines.
Headlines are what appears on search engine results, and is the first thing that a reader sees when they come across your page.
Whether you create something clickbaity, or something factual, make sure it's a head-turning headline that immediately stands out from the crowd.
2. Write in active voice.
You're not writing a report, so throw that passive voice out the window!
Writing in active voice helps to engage the audience (like how I'm talking to you now) and gets your point across so much clearer.
Also, speak in as few words as possible!
3. Focus.
Don't go off topic, and stick to your keywords as you continue to write your pillar page.
Going on tangential rants not only makes your audience lost, but also hurts your online presence.
Instead, stick to the plan and have different blog posts for different topics.
4. Don't ignore the tech!
Optimise your content for SEO, and optimise your content for maximum readability.
Have a font that's unreadable? Change it! Don't have alt texts for images? Add them!
Sticking with best practices for digital content always helps you win the long race.
If you're pressed for time like most of us are, then we'll need tools to help us achieve our content goals quickly.
Here are some that we use here at Inky to deliver timely and quality content.
Writing Tools
SurferSEO - By far our best acquisition, and also by far the best tool for content writing, hands down. SurferSEO not only helps you generate potential topic clusters, but also provides competitors' contents, search queries and even provides a proposed structure for your writing.
Canva - When you need to create custom pictures, Canva's the way to go. Without any technical knowhow (or any photoshop knowhow!) anyone can create amazing images to go with your articles. For more information on how to create stunning images for your content, we have an article for that right here!
Grammarly - Creating written content is one thing, but making sure it's error-free is another. Using a proofreading tool like Grammarly can greatly help with producing custom images for your work. After all, nothing says 'cheapskate' more than stock or stolen images from the web!
Copy.ai - AI is the future of content (or is it! Stay tuned for our opinion), and copy.ai aims to make content easy to generate. Creating an account and trying things out is free too, so it's virtually risk free. We would suggest not to rely too much on AI for now though! Human content written for humans is still the best.
Closing Thoughts
Writing content isn't easy.
But, it does not need to be hard.
Based on what we've shared today about creating a content strategy and your pillar article, it's our belief that you have everything you need to be a great online content writer.
The next step to focus on would really be practising and writing with purpose.
It's our humble intention to serve as a one-stop guide for online content writing, so if you liked this page, feel free to drop us a comment or bookmark if you'd prefer.
Until next time, happy writing!