4 Traits you’re ‘not so good’ at researching online (& how to fix)
For bloggers, content writers & everyone who digs up the web for work
Blogging has become one of the most attractive professions in 2021, already. This post is for those who find it difficult to write better content for their blog or for the client you’re writing for.
I’ve come across several people asking for help regarding visibility online, mostly they’re students or beginners who’re into blogging. I’ll tell you about my beginning.
When I started blogging in early 2011, I had no clue of what topics should I be writing on. I’d write on anything I could think of, without any strategy. I had no clarity of what should I write & for who should I write that.
That’s exactly where research helps anyone. Thanks to amazing accessibility, such information is easily accessible right now. If you struggle researching online, this post is for you.
Let’s begin.
Why Researching Online is Important for bloggers?
Research skills are vital for bloggers & content writers for two major reasons:
- Google is very particular about user experience & hence good research will be the largest input for a great user experience.
- Apart from the technical aspect, good research helps your audience find the solution they’re looking for.
Just by scratching the surface, I was able to dig up so many reasons, but as far as bloggers as concerned, these two are the most significant.
Here are some traits that can tell you that you need to improve your game as a researcher for blogging.
#4 You haven't recognized your audience
Bloggers are required to be spot on, especially when there are over 600 million blogs on the web right now. There’s already a ton of noise on the web, people don’t need yet another blog.
They need someone who can help them solve their problems. There are 5.5 billion Google searches happening each day, I’m not even counting the searches made on search engines other than Google.
4.8 billion people search 5.5 billion times a day. Imagine the market you can cover.
That’s exactly why recognizing your audience is crucial. Identify the people who will find your work helpful & create content for their problems, concerns & challenges of their day-to-day life.
#3 You haven’t identified a reliable source for your research
If you’re not aware already, there are over 200 ranking factors Google considers before ranking a page on the SERPs. The weightage of each ranking factor is different for each query.
Without getting involved in the technicalities, I’ll introduce the #1 ranking factor, backlinks.
It’s every external link you add to your blog. People are getting one fundamental thing completely wrong. If you don’t link to a reliable source, not only the end-user will find it pointless, even Google will see this & your page will not rank high.
Backlinks are more of a vote of trust than just a ranking factor. When you don’t put identify the right source to link to, you’re wasting your time.
#2 You’re not interviewing people to ask real-life questions to real people
Sure, the web makes information highly accessible, but it has a limitation that no algorithm can eliminate.
The human touch. The web doesn’t have practical questions answered, it can be answered only when you sit in front of relevant people & ask the right questions.
I’m an SEO guy since the inception of my career, but I don’t think SEO is reliable anymore. Sure, the algorithms are extremely smart than just a couple of years ago. But whatever ranks on page one of Google is highly fabricated, i.e the results are SEO-friendly but a very small portion of those are actually user-friendly.
This makes it very difficult to find the practical experience you’re looking for. Hence, it’s always better to reach out to real people & ask the right questions. Use social media to discover new people & put your questions in front of them.
#1 You don’t organize your research (you might need anything anytime)
The biggest mistake I did over the years was not to save my digital footprint. Neither was I aware of any tools, nor I had any clue of organizing my footprint.
Organizing your research means, you can find relevant information
It’s no more the case. We have come up with a tool where you can not only save your research but organize by tags, add notes, save highlight snippets from the webpages you visit.
You can find everything on the dashboard & with the help of an advanced search, you will be able to organize your footprint for later use.
It’s a cute chrome extension & everything you save resides on the cloud. The best use case of this extension (at least to me) is when I come across a post that isn’t worth attending right away. I add tags & notes so that I can find them later when I’m looking for something similar.
Comes in handy when I need inspiration from my own research.
Final thoughts — TL;DR
Researching for bloggers is important now than ever. You can no more rely on existing posts & rewrite it as sky scrapper. Not saying it doesn’t work anymore, but the real essence is fading away.
People are solely focusing on views, traffic, click on ads & money. There are very few people like you who focus on real value, which comes with extensive research.
If you’re someone who finds it difficult to research, these are the tips. We have a tool that can help you organize your research so you can reuse it as & when required.
We’re sure you’d love the tool, especially when you can do everything you usually do without lifting a finger.
