I am writing an article about how I am going to write my articles – I’ve never watched Inception but I think this would be the place for a reference. First disclaimer: I used ChatGPT in my research. I am pretty confident in using Chat in this case because it’s common knowledge what I am about to write about. It also wouldn’t be the end of the world if Chat made mistakes in this instance. Also I am verifying everything that Chat is saying. If something sounds weird alarm bells start ringing. I have been on the web for quite some time and know a few things about SEO. I also used to work as a domain quality rater (I used to rate websites for search engines). This gave me insight into what makes a website qualify for a high rating when audited by a human. I am now trying to use this knowledge to build my own website. The key focus being on providing maximum value to the user.
So here we go: I mainly asked Chat how I should structure my writings from now on. I wanted them to be optimized for ease of reading and also for SEO. It should give me a starting framework I can adjust as I gather more information myself.
Table of Contents
The first suggestion was to start with a table of contents in the beginning. I think this will be very helpful for users to navigate the article and skip to important parts. This could be auto generated but for now I’ll stick to doing it manually.
Introduction
Next comes a brief introduction explaining what I am doing and why I am qualified to do so. You have read this part already. You can leave a comment at the bottom of the page if you wan’t to give me feedback on any part of this article.
Main Part
For the main part, Chat recommended that I use a different structure depending on the type of article I am writing. Here is an overview of what he sent me:
A: Informative Article
- Definition & Basics
- Use / Benefits
- Problems & Solutions
- Usecase / Tips / Practical
- Conclusion / Summary
B: Personal Experience / Review
- Context / Ausgangssituation
- What I did / experienced
- Results / Learnings
- Recommendation / Conclusion
C: List („Top 10…“, „Best of…“)
- Short Intro
- For Each Point:
- Titel + short sentence
- Description, Experience, Image or Comparison
- Call-to-Action (→ Link, Product, more Info)
I think Ill use variant B the most and C the least often. But the others could also be useful in specific circumstances.
Ending
The ending should contain a brief recap of the most important points I have discussed. It should also contain a clear recommended action if I talked about a problem (If you want X you should do Y). Optional and depending on the type of article: A personal evaluation or opinion. I could also add a specific CTA like subscribing or leaving a comment here.
Best Practices
Chat also gave me some best practices to follow for SEO. He said that I should focus on one keyword per article. This keyword should be present in the H1 title, the URL, first paragraph and so on. I should also link to similar articles like wikipedia. It’s also a good idea to link to other high quality websites. This shouldn’t be done to often though. Meta title and description are also important, as thats most likely what the user sees before clicking on the article.
Paragraphs should be kept at 3-4 lines to ensure readability. Good subheadings providing more structure and context are also important. Bullet points, tables and highlighting certain words can also help with readability. If it’s possible I will add images. But the images have to create actual value and not just waste space. And for language I will try and keep everything clear while making sure my personal style stays.
I think if I follow this structure, I can organize my thoughts well and provide helpful articles to the website users. I will post updates if I change my strategy. If you have any ideas for improvement, feel free to leave a comment.