Research Techniques for Content Writing

Most of us have heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none.” We the content writers can be great at documenting and be a master at it.  We are also the “jack of all trades” because as a content writer we have to have knowledge about many things at the same time, many times this leads us to the knowledge gap or not knowing a topic completely or as a whole. 

In this article, we will be discussing how to do fruitful research to gain knowledge before you start tapping around the keyboard. 

To write great articles apart from having a way with words you need to have a backup of wholesome research. As a content writer, you will always have to be on the know. Research which is done with time and proper technique helps you write informative and quality content.

Even if you are writing a travel blog or something of your own experience, it is necessary to read through and gain more insight into the particular topic and see what others think of it. This will help you to diversify your writing and also make your content rich with facts and descriptions.

No matter how well you know a topic, read more and make notes of unique concepts you come across, trust me because each time you read some else’s writing you will definitely come across something new. 

Several times we come across a topic which is completely new to us, not to be told here good research is very mandatory. Take more time to know these unknown topics and take a longer time to research. It’s okay to do so cause you cannot compromise on your informative quality of the writing.

This article will help writers who are beginners or people who are trying to refine content writing skills or someone who wants to learn proper research techniques. Yes, I know you might say “what is there to know about researching a topic, Google has it all I just have to search and read and know. Simple!” 

Yes, Google has it all but I will be providing you with some essential tips and tricks to do research properly in the quickest time before you start writing for an article.

1. Choose Authentic Sources to Gain your Knowledge
2. Give Priority to Search Engines Top Results
3. Have Trusted Go to Sites
4. Have Reliable Research Tools
5. Always Keep on Researching

1. Choose Authentic Sources to Gain your Knowledge

There are at least hundreds of related articles, blogs, and videos you will find on the internet on a certain topic. All of them are not trustworthy and also can be misleading at the time. The time you spent researching a topic is valuable and you must read something that is giving you reliable insight. Reading shoddy topics can really hamper your interest to learn about the topic and write about it. 

When you choose a piece to read, do not just jump into reading at once, give the whole piece a scan first, strike down the headings and subheading and you may have an overall idea of if it is worthy of your time or not. If you find your key points that you are looking for in it give it a complete read.

Look for the following qualities inside a blog or article to see if it is worth your time:

• The blog or article should be written in simple language. Reading hard language content is time-consuming because you may come across difficult facts which may take a while to understand.

• The content must have interesting insight. This will help you look at the topic in a brighter light. It should be written in such a way you feel like “ Wow! Now I understand, it is not that complicated.”

• Look through how relevant the content is. If you find that there are only a few pieces of facts informative than let that content go, do not take anything from it.

• Get a close look at how much depth the article carries. Articles that are unnecessarily long or short related to its topic may not be much authentic or relevant.

• Check on how much-related links and references the blog used to make the topic easy to understand. Links and references guide you to better research sources and make the content trustworthy.

2. Give Priority to Search Engines Top Results

Search Engines are very particular and serious about showing their searchers the best results. They have more than 200 factors to rank a site in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). So you can easily check the first 10 results of the SERP and get a lot of information for your given topic. 

Search Engine judges the quality of site and blog with three main techniques that are E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). The top results are always expertly written, they have an authoritative tone and always have high-density information and lastly, they are always trustworthy as they provide the most relevant answer to your topic. 

If you are still not satisfied with the given results, change the search quarry to a different phrase or be more specific. The search results are keyword specific. Changing the keywords will give you more different top results.

3. Have Trusted Go to Sites

Whenever we used to write an essay in school our first choice was always Wikipedia. This site was always at the top and still, it is. Though you will get most of the details on Wikipedia, nowadays not every topic is updated properly and there is sometimes old information or inauthentic information. So it is wise if you are using Wikipedia you cross-check it with some other authentic sites like Britannica or Encyclopedia.com.

For the most recent updates on the scientific, tech, and business world, I often follow Forbes, Medium and Quora. These places always provide me with data and ideas that my article should require.

For writing post related digital marketing I always end up visiting Neil Patel and WordStream, Hubspot for software related queries. These sites helped me personally a lot as a beginner.

Having go to sites will make your research work more stressful and you will know where to go whenever you are in research mood instead of just wondering.

4. Have Reliable Research Tools

Buzzsumo, here is a reliable tool you can use to see the reliability of different sites. You can go to this site and put down your Keyword in the search box, Buzzsumo will show you the top results with websites which are visited the most and the number of times they are shared across the social media. The more the number of visits and share the sites the more reliable the source can be.

5. Read Books and Always Keep on Researching

The Internet may have all the answers but one should read books. Reading books can be a lengthy process but going through an entire book flourishes your writing skills at a different level. There are some topics we have to face many times, for such topics you can read a whole book and gain more expertise. In the future, this will help write these certain topics like a professional.

The Internet has done wonders and made it very simple for everyone to know about any kind of topic. The content we write should help people and give them access to an easier and better way of understanding. To evolve as a great writer you can never run out of researching and gaining knowledge. So it is always wise to keep on reading and understanding every sort of information. It is like reading the newspaper every day but you have to do it in a more extensive manner to write like an expert.

So here is my share of tips and tricks to help you do wholesome and helpful research which you can try before writing your next topic. Researching might seem boring and very lengthy but it is the compulsory step for a content writer, it is the heart of content writing.