Is it hard for you to write? Do you have ideas, but can’t organize them? Let me tell you that a content outline can make a difference and help you produce content strategically and much faster.
And yes, perfectly adapted to position yourself effectively in Google, which is what many of us are looking for, right?
If you want to know what a content outline is, what it’s for and how to put one together, I’ll tell you everything here! So you can have great results. I assure.
What is a content outline?
A content outline is a skeleton description of everything your post will include .
That is, you must have well analyzed and studied your topic. What do you have to be clear about? These points:
- Qualification
- Subtitles (H2, H3…)
- Frequently asked questions on the subject
- Primary and secondary keywords
- Objective of your article
- Focus of your article, etc.
Advantages of content outlines
If you’re wondering why invest time in a content outline and not just write your article, here’s a compelling reason to start doing it.
1. Better optimization for SEO
A content outline helps to ensure that the article is created to have a chance to rank in Google, that is, improve your SEO .
This is because you have clarity about the keywords to attack and the search intention that must be pursued to address what people want to find when carrying out said search.
2. Organize your ideas better
Writing is not an easy thing, especially if you do not have an idea of what you will address in an article.
Having a content outline will help you not get sidetracked or wander and you can dive into the writing more clearly.
When you start a topic that you know, thousands of ideas can arise without order, so in the end, the work becomes more tiring trying to organize them. With this tool, nothing more will happen.
3. Say goodbye to writer’s block
When you create content without an outline, you are much more likely to get writer’s block.
Ideas come fast and in droves and overwhelm us, causing us to freeze. This won’t happen anymore.
Having an outline allows you to know where to start from and how to do it. In other words, no more blank pages.
Best of all, it can be very versatile. That is, it not only works for blogs, but for videos, ebooks, infographics and much more.
4. Outsource copywriters for greater efficiency
Having the appropriate and optimized schemes, it is easier for people outside your company to write the corresponding articles, since they will practically have the base and they will only have to fill it out through the pertinent investigation.
Even editors with little experience will be able to produce high content.
This will help your website include much more valuable content for your potential customers and, in the long term, achieve growth. Not only getting more visits, but leads and customers.
Okay… so far, you know all the good things about outlines, but now comes the good: how to build a content outline and have these great benefits? Of course I’ll tell you, don’t worry!
What should your content outline include?
The parts of a content outline can vary, but in general, you can take into account these elements:
- Titles
- meta description
- Subtitle
- Images or ideas about images
- Statistics
The objective is that it allows you to organize your content or research and have a fairly well-worked draft focused on what you are looking for with that content.
Now let’s go to an important part: how to create a content outline in a simple way ? Get batteries!
How to create a content outline (the easiest method)
Creating a content outline is much easier than you think. You have doubts? Well then, I explain step by step how to do it. You will see that it will be simple.
Step 1. Set the goal of your content
Before going into the investigation and so on, it is important that you decide why you are going to address said topic, that is, what objective you are pursuing with it.
You can have different objectives, such as:
- Have a greater brand reach
- Explain the uses of one of your products
- Create backlinks for SEO
- Increase traffic to your website
You can use the SMART method to make it easier.
Once you have it, we go to the next step.
Step 2. Choose a keyword to attack
You can not write an article without having done a search for keywords even superficial.
Even if your goal is not as such to rank in Google, it is important that you take SEO practices into account every time you write an article for the internet because this will help you create good habits.
You will see that if you put together a good article, you will have traffic to your website even though this was not the objective.
Step 3. Pay attention to the search intent of the chosen keyword
When doing a keyword search, always pay attention to the search intent, i.e. why are people searching for that keyword? What do you want to find?
If you don’t have a strong and solid website , it will be more difficult to rank for some words, so you can opt for long-tail keywords, whose searches are lower but perhaps more effective.
There are different search intents, such as:
- informative
- transactional
- Commercial
The majority is usually informative or commercial, since the transactional ones are more in other sections of a website and not in blog articles.
Step 4. Give your article a focus
In addition to determining the search intent, you must choose a focus for your article, that is, from what angle are you going to approach it?
To do this, look for the articles that are best positioned and see what they are about, what they talk about and how they approach it.
This will give you an idea about what people want to find the most. Based on the first 3 positions, you will be able to choose an angle. Don’t just base yourself on number one; a different approach can also work, but it must respond to what people want to find.
If you’re looking for a strong keyword, but the content of your article doesn’t align with what people are looking for, it’s not going to work. So pay attention to it.
Step 5. Define the differential value and the title of your content
Your value proposition is what makes your content different from that of your competitors, that is, what can really get you clicks over them and, little by little, you will be positioning in Google.
What does the title have to do with the value proposition? Simple. You have to communicate it from this, because it is really what many see before clicking.
If your headline doesn’t contain the value bet, chances are they won’t click.
So, define the differential value and then write the title.
Remember that everything you promise in the title has to be fulfilled.
If your title is: ” Easy content marketing from scratch”, then you have to give that content. Explain what it is and how to do it in a simple way and from scratch.
Step 6. Assemble the skeleton of your article
The next thing to do your content outline is to put together the entire skeleton of your article, that is, define subheadings (ordered) and explain what each one will contain, based on the research that was done.
For this, you can base yourself on the SERPs, to see how your competition handles it and to know what points it would be important to cover. It is not about copying, but it is a guide so that you know what it should be and what you are going to add.
You can also be guided by what appears in “People also ask” to see the most frequent questions from users and related searches, which are at the bottom.
And voila, you already have it! These are the 6 steps to make a content outline.
Conclusion
If you follow these easy steps to create your content outline, you will see that you will build effective materials.
Not only is it a very simple method, but it also allows you to create truly complete pieces, focused on users, potential customers and their needs. In addition, your writing work will be much more fluid.
Say goodbye to the dreaded blank page thanks to content outline. What are you waiting for to create yours?
