The Search Engines: Why Content Writing Works Long-Term

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

Farmers eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You, too, must be patient. (James 5:7-8, NLT)

A Word For Writers

My first informational website, www.tomatodirt.com, taught me why content writing is not a quick fix but works for the long game. 

After painstaking topic and keyword research, I built the first ten pages of the website.

Each week, I added a page. After six months, I eased into adding affiliate ads. 

I checked my traffic stats and affiliate payments every month and watched them creep up. And I continued to add content. Page after page, week after week.

This went on for two years. But lest you think I have the patience of Job, please understand that I had plenty of encouragement from my writing instructors. They explained that an informational website is a long-term project because search engines take time to index new websites and new pages. 

One day, I saw an unusually high surge in the site’s stats and profits – as in three times higher than the previous month. Consistent content produced results!

Impatience leads people to try to cheat the search engines with keyword stuffing, skimpy content, and low-quality or unnatural links. 

But that’s not how and why content writing works. 

Search engines use algorithms to gather data and index pages. The goal is to give the user the most helpful page results from a search term. Does the website have a good track record? Does the page offer quality content? Are the links useful and valuable? 

Content writing is a long game, much like farming (James 5:7-8). 

Results come when you do your part: write quality, consistent content over the long term.

A Wise Word

Content writing works long-term.

A Word To Pray

Gracious Father,

I confess my impatience. I want to see immediate results from my content writing. Help me to look at the long game as I write and consistently produce quality, helpful content for my readers.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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The Navigation Bar: Guide Readers Through Your Site One Click At a Time...

The Link: Make an Effort to Make Them - the Benefits May Surprise You...

The FAQs Page: Use it to Make a Call to Action ...

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The Referral: Quality Content Produces More Traffic and More Jobs

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