Welcome to the 2nd issue of Friday Deep Dives, a monthly newsletter by me, Dozie Anyaegbunam, where an industry expert or I go all in one question on content marketing from you all. I'm glad you're here. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you need your own: Subscribe here.

Hey content folk,

You all good?

In today’s deep dive, I have the brilliant Maddy Osman sharing some of her rules for writing for humans while satisfying Google.

I believe excellent content marketing programs MUST":

Appease the Google algorithm to attract attention and rank.And please the reader to own and rank for that keyword in the long term.

Over to you, Maddy.

How to write for humans and robots 

Hi there! I’m Maddy Osman, Founder of The Blogsmith content agency and author of Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style. 

Writing for the web means satisfying two stakeholders: humans and robots. The trick is figuring out how to balance catering to both without sacrificing either user’s needs.

At the end of the day, the human will always be the most important user. Why? Because humans can buy what you’re selling. They respond to empathy. And although robots don't, they are still a critical user because they help you reach your ideal human audience at the right time.

TL;DR: With a little strategy, you can simultaneously optimize for the needs of humans and robots.

Here are a few quick ways to balance the needs of humans and robots:

Create a data-driven content structure

Content optimization tools like Frase and Clearscope help writers create effective content briefs—faster. Based on top search results for a designated primary keyword, they suggest keyword phrases to include in your content and even keyword placement within headings or body copy.

Yes, you’ll still need a unique angle and presentation to avoid creating “copycat content” or content that’s a regurgitation of existing top search results. But armed with this robotic search data, based on real human search queries, you’ll build a solid foundation for creating content that helps humans answer the questions that brought them to Google.

Consider the target reading level

Another cool feature of content optimization tools like Frase and Clearscope is that they can analyze your content for its average reading level. The Flesh Reading Ease score is a measurement based on the average sentence length and average syllables per word. 

Would it surprise you to learn that the ideal target for a web audience is the 7th or 8th grade? But be sure to adjust for your ideal target audience. For example, if it’s a group of people with PhDs, expect a higher target reading level. 

But in general, to satisfy the robots suggesting a specific target reading level for a given keyword, you’ll probably need to de-complicate your language. So avoid complex words like “antidisestablishmentarianism” and aim for simple, concise language wherever possible.

Generate title ideas with formulas and refine with heading analyzer tools

So many writers are worried that AI is here to take their jobs. I think we're still far off from that—robots don't have human empathy, and it shows. That being said, robots can and should kickstart your human idea generation. 

Here's a title generation process you can try that combines the best of humans and robots:

1. Provide a topic prompt for GPT-3 tools like Writesonic or Copysmith, and write down any ideas that stick out.

2. Check out my book or this Twitter thread for several heading formulas and examples of them in action to refine your initial ideas.

3. Use heading analyzer tools like those created by CoSchedule or Sharethrough to identify further opportunities to refine title ideas.

4. A/B test title ideas as social post copy on your most active social network (Twitter is great for this). Whichever variation gets the best engagement, make it your final article title.

Curious to learn more? Grab your copy of my bestselling book, Writing for Humans and Robots: The New Rules of Content Style.

And that’s it, folks.

If you found it helpful, let me know in the comments or by replying to the email. If you have a question you would like me to explain in-depth, send it in. And even if I don’t have the answer, I’ll find someone who can answer it properly.

Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!

Be good out there. If you can't be good, be careful.

Dozie

P.S: If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it on LinkedIn or with a friend! I would be grateful.