5 Tech Tools for Better Blog Writing & Content Creation
What’s your biggest blogging challenge?
Is it finding time to write? Coming up with your next topic?
Or do you need a little help getting found?
While technology won’t help you define your “secret sauce,” there are some remarkable tech tools to help make your content creation and blog writing smarter:
1. Website Analytics
Website analytics provide a wealth of data and insight about your visitors and how they interact with your content. They can also help you set benchmarks and success metrics.
Analytics can tell you:
- What search terms people use to find the site
- Where visitors come from and what they do on the site
- Which topics resonate with prospects and lead to conversions
- Where people leave the site
- Which pages retain visitors the longest
At the very least, every blog platform (WordPress, for instance) offers native analytics. The next step up, Google Analytics , is free and easy to implement – as is its companion Webmaster Tools. It is by far the most widely used analytics tool on the web. A quick search will provide a full list of other free and low-cost analytics options. The key is to use them!
2. Keyword Tools
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a sophisticated science, but you don’t have to be a webmaster to master SEO basics and help your blog rank for important search terms. Optimizing your posts with relevant keywords is an essential part of being found online.
If you have a WordPress blog, there are some great plugins that can help you search-optimize your posts (Yoast SEO is the one we use). But there is a free tool that every blogger should have bookmarked, regardless of CMS (content management system): the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
The AdWords Keyword Tool can help you:
- Identify popular search phrases related to your topic that actually get significant search volume,
- Determine relative competition for a word or phrase (how many people are already vying for a spot on the 1st page of Google results)
- See the volume of global monthly searches and local monthly searches by keyword (note: check exact match to get the most specific results).
- Update: The Adwords Keyword Tool is being retired: a good substitute is Wordtracker’s new free Keyword Tool!
3. Webmaster Tools
For search engines to efficiently index your site, things have to be running well “under the hood.”
Google Webmaster tools can help you:
- Monitor what Google sees when it crawls your site
- Check how your content is being indexed
- Insure that keyword clicks, sitemaps, and links (internal & external) to your site are all in good working order
In addition to Google’s Webmaster Tools, Bing also delivers a tool with all of the same topline features, and a few different ones that are worth a look. You may want to implement both … to make sure your content creation and blog writing efforts are being indexed.
4. Monitoring and Notification Tools
We all need to stay current on our “topic” for certain key phrases, and monitor what’s being discussed and of interest to readers, in as close to real time as possible.
Whether you decide to choose one tool, or a combination:
- Set “alerts” for topic categories, key phrases or industry terminology and competitor names, to help you stay relevant, identify opportunities, or fill a knowledge gap.
Google Alerts may be best known, but Moz (formerly SEOmoz) recently compared three services — Mention, Google Alerts, and Talkwalker. You may be surprised at the differences in the speed and quality of results:
- To monitor what is being discussed on popular social sites, also check out Google Trends, Topsy and Social Mention.
5. Duplicate Content & Plagiarism Detection Tools
All the effort you put into writing unique and insightful content is wasted if others steal your content and create duplicate content and plagiarism issues for your site.
Several services offer automated plagiarism detection tools and monitoring – iCopyright, Copyscape, and Plagspotter, for instance. Note that of these, only iCopyright offers help to resolve it quickly and efficiently.
It’s best to choose a service that helps you respond once duplicate content is found found , and can help you get it taken down quickly.
iCopyright’s DiscoveryTM isn’t just an infringement detection service. Our infringement detection AND resolution system not only discovers infringement, but helps you resolve it.
We guide you every step of the way, starting with helping infringers republish with permission (converting infringement to licensing) as a first step.
Our technology helps to simplify and manage the process, and assist with your response: first offering the legitimate reuse of your original post, contacting infringers or their ISP (Internet Service Provider), sending DMCA takedown letters, etc.
Tech Tools: Not Just for Developers and SEO Professionals, Anymore!
Whether you’re a superstar blogger, or a professional content marketer, what you know and the way you express it is at the heart of your blog.
When it comes to working smarter and more efficiently, what’s in your technology toolbox? Hopefully, which “tech tools” help you to bring your content to the next level? Leave a comment to let us know!
P.S. Free Trial for bloggers and web developers:
You work hard to create unique content. Take control of your content, using advanced tools like iCopyright Discovery to monitor and resolve content theft.
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