Knowing how to research an SEO article – no matter what topic the client throws at you – is a key skill that every aspiring freelance SEO writer should master. Watch the video or read the written version below.
So, this week’s question has been in my inbox for a while and I thought it’s time I addressed it because it’s a huge question that’s enormously important. The question is, how do you research an SEO article when you don’t know anything about the topic?
Start with Google
Begin by going to Google. Now, I know a big problem with Google is that you can’t always trust the information you find on random websites that appear in the search results. And one of the trickiest things to figure out when you’re researching is whether or not the information you’re finding is actually true. The last thing you want is to send a client an article with information that’s not factually correct, right? So here’s how I avoid that.
Look for websites run by professional organizations in that niche
First of all, if you’re ever writing an article for a professional, that’s health care related, for example, often there are professional organizations that have websites full of information for consumers. And much of the time, that’s exactly the information you’ll need to write your article.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an article for a dentist’s website and it’s on something you know nothing about. This happened to me once. I had to write an article about dental implants, which I have absolutely no clue about. So what I did is I looked for websites for The Canadian Dental Association, and The American Dental Association. I also looked to see if there were similar websites in the UK and Australia because I figured between all of those countries their guidelines are probably going to be pretty similar, so I should be able to get a good sense of what I could write about when it comes to dental implants and be secure in the knowledge that what I’m writing based on those websites is correct. And that’s the kind of thing you can do for many medical type articles.
What to do when there aren’t any professional organizations to be found
On the other hand, let’s say you get an article assignment for an exterminator, which has happened to me many times. In that case, you’re not always going to be able to find a professional organization that oversees all of the exterminators and can give you information that’s factually correct.
In that case, I’ll look at the websites for a whole bunch of exterminators because my thinking is – and let’s say I’m going to write an article on how to get rid of raccoons – if ten separate exterminators all say the same thing about how best to get rid of them, odds are that information is correct. On the other hand, if I come across a little tid bit that seems like gold that no one else talks about, well then I’m taking a risk if I use that in my article because maybe the person who wrote that didn’t actually know what they’re talking about. It’s always a safer bet to go with info that’s found on multiple sources in a case like this.
Summing up
When you’re doing your research, try to find information that appears in multiple sources. The more websites there are sharing that info, the more likely it is to be true. Additionally, whenever possible look for professional organizations or look for websites where the person who owns the website has a vested interest in being really accurate. All in all, you shouldn’t be scared about writing articles on things you start out not knowing anything about. You can do this, you just have to do a little research, vet your sources as best you can, and in the end, you’ll be just fine.
If you want to have more questions answered, please send them to me. You can either use the contact form on my website, hit the reply button if you receive this video by email, or put your request in the comments below this video. I promise to read every comment, every email I get. I won’t be able to reply to everybody’s individual questions because I get too many of them, but I will pick the most common questions to answer via video. See you guys next week.
If over time, I find a similar subject requested by different websites or clients, can I turn in the same piece I have written before to each client, but with perhaps a few minor changes or perhaps no changes?
Definitely not. The client is paying for a unique article and if you re-sell it to someone else it’ll be useless for SEO. There used to be article sites that would let users buy the rights to use their articles, and such articles could be bought by countless people. Google’s algorithm changes have since penalized sites for duplicate content like that, so SEO writing clients only want new articles written especially for them.