One Skill Every Writer on the Internet needs to Learn for Better Results in 2021
Add this one step to your writing process and upskill as a writer in no time, getting maximum traction on your content or website.
It’s not easy to be a writer on the internet. There are millions of questions that need to be answered before you can ever hit “Publish”. What niche to write for, what platform to showcase your work on, what your writing style should reflect. Often we focus too much on the quality of the content, so much so that it hardly leaves room for the energy for more questions.
Questions like, “How can I optimise this for the Search Engine?”, “What can be done to get more views?” are often ignored, a mistake usually made by beginners. On the other hand, a writer with experience knows that the modern reader base is not just looking for a good writing style, if at all a new reader stumbles upon your content. To get that extra reader and that extra result, you need to be able to go the extra mile.
And as a good-ish writer, I know better than keeping my readers waiting for the solution this long. So without further ado, here’s that one skill you need to learn which can get you a better search rating, more clicks on your content and adds some more aesthetic creativity to your piece:
Graphic Designing.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Or maybe, I’m just guessing.
“Don’t I need a lot of training for that?”
“That doesn’t sound like it can be done in ‘no time’.”
“Time, money and energy-wise, it doesn’t sound very economical. And I cannot afford to hire a graphic designer as a beginner.”
Now check this. No, you don’t need extra training for that, you just need extra 5–10 minutes before you start writing or after you’re done writing. Yes, it practically can be done in ‘no time’ once you get the hang of it. Yes, it is very economical if you stick with me through this whole article and have a little patience while I solve all your queries.
And lastly, no, you don’t need to hire a Graphic Designer, whether you’re an amateur writer or expert, writing on Medium or anywhere else.
But first, let’s start with the most important part of this discussion: Why do you even need to learn to make your very own images for your articles?
Here’s Why you need it:
Better for SEO
As a writer on Medium, or anywhere else on the internet, if you’re not optimising your content for the Search Engine, don’t bother writing at all.
I’m kidding. Quality content is very much required, yes. But just ask yourself this; what good is good content if no one is reading it?
To meet the Medium Curation Guidelines, a lot of writers stick to the convenience of using stock images from Pexels, etc. Don’t do that. Our objective for today is to eliminate this habit unless it’s totally necessary.
As an added burden, there is a huge chance that your stock images, on Medium or on your website, can be hurting your SEO. A test done by Shai Aharony proves just this theory. He began by creating a few new websites, exclusively for this experiment. He then proceeded to add stock images of half of the websites and original, unique images that were owned by him, on the other half of the websites. By the end, the results showed that the websites with original images outranked the ones with the stock images on the Search Engine.
For further SEO improvement, never forget to add Alt Tags to your unique images. Since Search Engines cannot interpret images, Alt Tags help in letting the Search engine know what the image and your content are all about, which is definitely crucial to improving the ranking of your page in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Alt Tags are also helpful when the reader/viewer or browser is unable to process images. It lets them know what the image includes. This is just one of the steps in optimising images on your content that you need to know to begin.
Added tool for Branding
As a serious writer, it is important to not just build your readership, but also build your brand. How do you do this? Consistency. That doesn’t mean you bombard your readers with ads and promotions of your work every chance you get. Branding can work in sneakier ways than that.
Take the images on your content, for instance. If you spend so much time and efforts in being consistent with your content topics and your tone of writing, why not do the same with your images?
You want to tell the world that you’re offering unique solutions and opinions that no other blogger or writer is currently talking about. You want to tell your readers that your innovativeness is not restricted just to your written content. So why use the same, old, unoriginal stock photos for your content when you can be creating your own images, using a certain theme and colour palette which further sets the tone for your written matter.
You can set a standardised theme or tone for all your images, just like you design your profile on Medium.
Visually Pleasing
It’s a no-brainer that stock images are dull and not at all unique. You can just look at a picture and tell by its awfully happy-looking humans plastered with an unreal grin under exceptionally good lighting, that it is a good-old stock image.
But can you relate to that?
And if you cannot, how do you think your reader will be able to relate or connect with your content?
Your unique images will show your readers a more innovative side of you, yes. But it will also help your reader visualise the idea that you have in mind so that you and your readers stay on the same page. When you add an original image to your matter, it can help the writer better understand the tone and context of your writing.
And lastly, it just shows that you’ve put in the extra effort for curating better quality content for your readers when in reality, it hardly took 5 minutes.
Not a lot of Writers are doing it
Navigate through Medium for a while and you’ll notice that not a lot of writers have started using this very important trick for their articles. Instead, they are sticking to no-hassle stock photos. This makes this an early-bird opportunity for you to seize and establish your brand before it becomes a widespread practice.
What’s more? If your images are exceptionally good, other bloggers and writers can also use it for their own articles and link the image back to the source (your page).
Tools to use:
As a beginner, graphic designing can seem overwhelming and competitive. But it works as a great added skill when you’re a writer. And who better than you can visualize your own content?
Then, what if I told you, you don’t actually need to learn graphic design. The article below is your complete guide to which tools you should be using that suits your content and your blog best.
Bonus Tips:
- Add a little watermark or signature on every image of yours for further Branding. This directly shows the reader that the picture is wholly designed and owned by you. Here’s the logo we use on all our images of the content written by TemplateToaster.
- On Medium, you can add Alt Tags to your images. This is great for SEO.
Want to create your own Website without knowing complex coding? Try TemplateToaster!
Or Follow us on Instagram if you’re an entrepreneur, a blogger, or someone wanting to start.
