Aazar’s Content Writing Checklist

Intention Setting

Why are we writing this blog piece? Which 1 main keyword are we targeting for this article? 🤔

What is the  Call to Action we have in mind? If not demo booking – would it be newsletter sign up?

Writing The Piece

0. Content & Copy Checklist

• [ ] Is the Headline Urgent, Unique, Useful, and Ultra-specific?
• [ ] Does the headline make user curious to click and dive deeper?
• [ ] Have you defined the concepts clear?
• [ ] Does it have a data or metric to back it up?
• [ ] Is it inspiring? Does it have examples, ideas, and thoughts they never thought?
• [ ] Is it instructional? Like so practical that someone can map out to go step-by-step to understand and take an action?
• [ ] Is it immediately actionable?
• [ ] Is it useful (utility)? Can they use it in their job?
• [ ] Is it fresh? Does it at least tell something new or insightful?
• [ ] Can the reader take at least one thing or idea with them?

1. Title and Meta Description

• [ ] Title should contain your primary keyword
• [ ] Meta Description is more of a user experience, click through rate indicator – are you enticing your potential reader to learn more?

2. H1 Heading

• [ ] Should contain your primary keyword
• [ ] There MUST only be one H1 in the entire page/article – like the top of a pyramid!
• [ ] See this image for a quick structure overview

3. Introduction

• [ ] Don’t bury the lede––get to the point quickly.
• [ ] Open with a question, raise the stakes, lead with a personal narrative
• [ ] Work your primary keyword naturally into the first paragraph
• [ ] Use active language. (Never passive.)

4. Include a table of contents (Optional)

• [ ] Include jump links to each section
• [ ] Items in table of contents should be based on related keywords or integral to article structure
• [ ] Add a quick call to action here if relevant (incase we have some impatient readers that want to get to the goods! 💥Sign up for our demo)
• [ ] For list posts (like “appcues competitors”) make sure Userpilot is first

5. H2 Headings

• [ ] Directly from each item on your table of contents
• [ ] Should contain the main keyword or close variation of it but getting into more of the details
• [ ] Ex. H1 is “Marketing Reporting”, H2s might be “Marketing Reporting For Digital Channels”

6. Body Copy (Under each H2)

• [ ] Write in short sentences
• [ ] Add main keyword in when relevant but less necessary compared to the headings
• [ ] Frequent line breaks-make the post more readable
• [ ] Add bullets or numbered lists any time there’s a listing of any sort
• [ ] Add quotes from subject matter experts and cite them––this makes your content more authoritative
• [ ] At least 2 relevant inner links to most important menu pages ex. https://userpilot.com/solutions/user-onboarding-software
• [ ] Add relevant inner links to other blogs where helpful to user

7. H3 Headings

• [ ] H3s should go a level deeper into your H2s, i.e. your H2 might be “Google Analytics Reporting,” and your H3s might be “Google Analytics Traffic Source Report”

8. To “dofollow” or “nofollow”?

• [ ] “dofollow” means we’re allowing Google to pass on some link juice 💦 to the site that we’re linking
• [ ] As a rule of thumb, if we are citing high DR sites like Harvard Business Review – it should be fine for a “dofollow” since they’re already an authoritative site
• [ ] The exception is if it’s for a competing page (in terms of keyword)
• [ ] Try not to link competitor website in general, even if they’re “nofollow”

9. Rich Media

• [ ] Images, infographics, video help with proving a point or illustrating a concept – also spices things up 🔥
• [ ] Google can’t actually “see” what’s on the photos though: so you need to include alt text (describe what the image is showing)
• [ ] and name your images appropriately. For example, an image like this emoji → 🤠 may be named “cowboy-emoji.jpg”

10. The End!

• [ ] Include an FAQ section at the end of the post if you think it may be helpful for quick fire questions and answers
• [ ] Or a summary bullet point list
• [ ] Always include a call to action – they’ve made it all the way to the end, what should they do now? Book a demo?

Final Checks

Try to take a step back and ask yourself “if I were the target audience and I was looking for an answer to my original question – would I find it here easily?”

Check for organization, is it easily scannable, is it intuitive to navigate? Ex. If someone was searching for a step by step how-to, do you have a numbered list that is easy to follow?