How Long Does It Take To Write 1,000 Words For SEO?
Guess what’s the point of this article today, you’re right, to tell you how many hours it takes me to write a 1,000 article and you can magically rank your website to Google page 1.
SEO does not work like that. Hiring an SEO copywriter to write search engine skyscraper content that’s 1,000 or more words, 2,000 would be awesome -but just one article won’t help your search engine rankings.
Let’s ask the real question: How long would it take an inexperienced person to write 1,000 words versus a professional SEO content writer with over 2 decades of online experience?
How Long Does It Take To Rank In Google? How Much Does It Cost?
Here’s my 1,500-word article that’s at the top of Google page 1 for SEO Rome. This article took me 3.5 hours to write based on notes I’d already taken over a 2.5 hours Rome walking tour in 2017, so before we even get onto the Google and search engine page sculpting the research this blog took for accuracy (my notes were brief, I searched online for accuracy and to check spellings).
How Long Does It Take To Write An Article for SEO?
SEO article writing services for 1,000 words can take anything from 3 hours to 6 hours depending on the industry and the skills of the person instructed to write. Some people find it impossible to write more than a few sentences, other people are trained in journalism or work in an office with touch typing skills, so it’s not an easy question to answer.
Hiring an SEO content professional will be far more expensive than paying £10 online for 500 words, maybe you think that £20 would cover 1,000 word article and you’re right but what you will get is purely word salad without page sculping for search engines. Some people deliver content to me or provide website access so I can merge 3 short blogs into one long skyscraper blog that’s fully optimised and submitted to Google Search Console for faster crawling. On some occasions, this has taken me 6 hours – but instant Google ranking which sticks.
Contact Me for examples of old content from 2016 which still ranks in 2020 with zero changes. You don’t have to pay me every month to keep your content on Google page 1, this is a myth.
Higher word count SEO Blog posts and articles attract more traffic
My SEO Rome BLOG article took 6 hours to write, but it hit the top of Google within 7 days and at the date of writing this article (October 2020) it’s still there 3 years later with zero added work or backlinking. This 1,000-word article took most of one working day to appear in SERPs – and isn’t that worth paying an SEO for very quick Google results to remain at the top of Google years later? My current day rate is £560* (May 2021) so if we say you hire me and I push your website to the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and 3 years later you’re still there, isn’t that great value?
Some people find it impossible to write more than a few sentences, other people are trained in journalism or work in an office with touch typing skills, so it’s not an easy question to answer.
Ebook – How To Write A 1,000 Word Blog Post for SEO in WordPress and other CMS websites
Contact me for your free ebook.
Write For The Reader Not For Your Ego or Search Engines
Sometimes I meet prospective clients who just won’t listen to logic or reason because their ego gets in the way. When I see obvious areas for improvement for ranking in Search Engines often it’s easier to get straight to the point to save time, especially if you’re giving advice for free. I don’t have time to write a long winded email when I’m not being paid, spotting a red flag client does come easy to me these days so buckle up and I’ll share a story that I find very funny – Let me give you a real-life example from 2020:
I connected with someone [Client] who wanted to be known in their city as a business mentor a few months back. When we initially swapped emails, I thought I’d be a lovely SEO lady chatting about local Google ranking for [City] but communications broke down rapidly within the first 24 hours to the point of mutual virulence.
Admittedly, I find it hilarious in these rare instances of cynicism when I’m able to factually prove my methods are correct with experience spanning 12 years, yet the other party chucks it back into your face as they are adamant they are right and you are wrong.
When you read my reviews they are written honestly and you have my 100% permission to contact anyone you see that’s left a review of my company to ask “What’s it REALLY like to work with Nina?”. All of my clients love my capacious knowledge and brutal evaluation of their websites, this reassures me every day that I have the correct business approach that reflects my personality. Back to this case in point.
In the name of anonymity for the sake of my explanation here’s the scenario. This instance was one whereby my no-nonsense approach totally offended the [Client] in [City].
[Client] sold training services to the fitness industry, how to train trainers better, and how to improve diets and routines with new ideas. Also, the client wanted to connect with corporate clients so they would pay for in-house gym routines for their employees as a perk, plus helping with their fitness regime. [Client] in [City] was not happy at all with my upfront, overcritical approach when I dissected her website homepage as if my eyes were Google.FULL DISCLOSURE: this is not a screenshot of the real website, I just mocked it up in Canva, I’ve changed the exact wording and Canva doesn’t have Comic Sans so let’s just imagine this was in Comic Sans too!
Looking at the website homepage where does it say anything to do with fitness or being a personal trainer in [City]? Nowhere. [Client] in [City] took instant dislike to me. Why? Because of my helpful email.
- From the top, “Welcome to my website” is a very common thing the business owners make with their websites, the problem is that Google ranks you for phrases that you type on your website. You don’t want Google to rank you for “Welcome to my website”, you want it to rank for [Services] [City] right?
- You are charging £75/hour and are working closely with affluent fitness fanatics and businesses, the use of Comic Sans in pink as an inspirational quote on the homepage is not a professional-looking call to action.
- In fact, it’s not a call to action at all. “You can be anyone you want to be” is wishy-washy and ineffective. Again, Google will be ranking you for the words you use on your home page, so you don’t want Google to rank you for “You can be anyone you want to be”, you want it to rank for [Services] [City]. You need to tell search engines and visitors exactly what you offer
- Let me help your business! using exclamation marks looks like a teenager has designed your home page, again, you’re missing telling me actually what you do: Offering companies your personal training services to their staff in [City]
- Your website is built on Weebly/Wix and you are not located in [City] but 10 miles away and have pound signs and aspirations in your head that is not going to be met with your choice of CMS system nor the wording on your homepage.
- Your website blog is full of inspirational blogs, by writing one blog a week, or one blog a day, with no SEO direction, is futile and a fool’s errand, invest in SEO training or employ an SEO Freelance professional for a paid Zoom consultation depending on your budget. SEO training is cheaper but longer to grasp over many months when compared to the experienced methods implemented by an expert. I feel that’s a logical and understandable statement.
In this case I politely declined to quote, I felt this client was a classic case of “Champagne Taste and Lemonade Wallet”
Social Media Posting Times and Twitter Marketing Tips
Looking to find more followers on Twitter? Be engaging and interact with people to increase your Twitter followers. The number one question I hear when it comes to Twitter is “But what do I talk about?” Given that most people do NOT know what to talk about, many wind up either boring their social community to death or they turn them off because they default to talking about themselves. Surprisingly, one trick to getting noticed on social media is knowing what times are best for posting in your country:
Let’s take you back to see what people were doing back in 2014:
Bruce Daisley of Twitter: Running In Real Time: Bringing Campaigns to Life by Marketing in the Moment
- Superbowl 2013 – 25 million tweets yet Oreo managed to be timely, current and humorous and stand out with “you can still dunk in the dark”.
- 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile – 70% of which at home
- 25% audience purchased via twitter,
- 50% use twitter to give them the latest news, personalised news
- 15.2 million tweets on the #grammys hashtag
- •#pharrellsHat was a talking point
- Mobile click stream analysis – 94% of twitter users shop on mobiles,
- 56% of twitter users are influenced in what they purchase by what they see on twitter
- •37% visit twitter before and or after shopping on their mobile
- 1 in 3 say that twitter has a direct influence on their purchase decision
Never fear. You do not need to default to tweeting like a self centered, babbling idiot. Except if you are wearing gloves and tweet at the Superbowl.
Check out these 100 ideas to inspire, connect, entertain and delight your audiences. No, not every one of them is going to work for every tweeter and every audience. However, many of them will work for most people and most businesses.
As I always say “there is only one way to do social media, and that is the way that works for you and your business.” Listen to the advice others have for you, but determine priorities for investment of time, resource, conversation content based upon your objectives and goals.
Remember your number one goal is to inspire and connect with your audience. Help them achieve their goals and by default you will achieve yours. Inspire – connect – achieve! Don’t overcomplicate it. Below you will find 100 Twitter tips from 2014, this blog post was refreshed in 2020.
100 Topics To Talk About on Twitter in 2014 and 2021
1. Tips to help your customers solve their business problems.
2. Tips to help your audience solve life problems.
3. Tips to help your audience, clients and friends live a better life.
4. Anything that shows you are human. Be real, engaging and talk like a human being, not a robot.
5. Industry news.
6. News about your city, state, country or the world.
7. Content that will strike an emotion. Make them laugh, cry, and think. Made them feel something.
8. Links to videos, podcasts or other materials that inspire, connect and delight them.
9. Inspirational quotes. Did you know quotes are the #1 retweeted content on Twitter?
10. Quotes of famous authors, artists or business leaders.
11. to help people save money, time and resource. No, this does not mean you tweet coupons for your own business.
12. Information about a charity that needs help.
13. Photos of you doing something fun, inspiring or helpful to your community.
14. Photos of others doing something interesting. Remember, every tweet shouldn’t be about you!
15. Tips for how to get started with a new business or idea.
16. Tips for starting a business. If you are business owner, share your story, ups and downs.
17. Tips for how to use a product such as software, hardware, game or other.
18. Funny jokes.
19. Tips for local discounts or fun and unique things to do.
20. Adventures you experience while not working. Could include concerts, visits to the zoo, park, or even the neighbors house.
21. Photos of nature, sunsets or anything beautiful, funny, inspiring and entertaining.
22. Friendly reminders of important dates or holidays.
23. Holiday wishes.
24. Birthday wishes.
25. A simple hello, good morning or goodnight.
26. Thank someone for inspiring and delighting you.
27. Thank a favorite blogger, writer, thought leader, business, or artist for what they do.
28. Let someone know you appreciate them for simply being who they are.
29. Share tips from an event or presentation.
30. Share funny moments from a movie, sports game or event of any kind.
31. Information to help people avoid risk in business or life. This could include traffic avoidance, deadlines for state government requirements and the list goes on.
32. Share a song.
33. Start a conversation about anything other than yourself or your own business.
34. Ask a question that requires an answer other than yes or no.
35. Thank someone for commenting on your blog.
36. Ask a question to support a research project.
37. Conduct a poll.
38. Thank your community for following you.
39. Ask your community what they would like you to talk about.
40. Tweet pictures of your favorite food dish, restaurant or recipe.
41. Tell a story over a few tweets.
42. Ask for help.
43. Offer help to others.
44. Ask for tips for finding a product or service you want to buy.
45. Ask for opinions on a product or service you are considering buying.
46. Share your favorite content from other blogs and news media outlets.
47. Ask for tips of where to find good content that pertains to your industry, business or community.
48. Ask questions of others to learn about them.
49. Curate the best possible content you can find. Do NOT be afraid to share your top competitors content. Show confidence in who you are and what you do.
50. Let people know something interesting or funny that happens to you during the day.
51. Share a frustration, though do this with caution. I usually don’t recommend talking negatively excessively as it will turn many people off.
52. Do the mama test. Tweet like nobody is listenin’ except yo’ mama!
53. Share a new recipe.
54. Share tips on a hobby such as fishing, biking, skiing, rc cars and the list goes on.
55. Share your journey on reaching a goal such as weight loss, shedding a bad habit. By doing this you may inspire others as well as connect with people with the same interests.
56. Celebrations and milestones. Reach a big goal? Share it. As long as you are humble and share your good days, mediocre and even bad days your community will gladly celebrate with you as they will have helped build you!
57. Fun photos of an amusement park.
58. Photos of your business team enjoying life outside of the office.
59. Tips for others to take a break from work.
60. Tips for others to enjoy more life balance.
61. Connect and talk about many topics and meet new friends via a Twitter chat.
62. Stock market or other financial tips.
63. Breaking news from national and world media outlets.
64. Progress toward goals and objectives in business and life.
65. Encouragement for a friend or colleague who you know needs inspired.
66. Retweets of other people’s awesome tweets and content.
67. Replies to others who tweet and talk to you.
68. Reviews, opinions and formal evaluations on products and services you have tried.
69. Check-in at your favorite restaurant or store via FourSquare or other geo application.
70. Weather tips if there is a storm in the area.
71. Statistics about products, services, industries or niches.
72. Data of any sort that can educate and teach others.
73. How to information and guides.
74. Maps or other helpful advice for tourists if you are in the tourism or hospitality business.
75. Welcome tweets when people check in to your business location.
76. Reply to people who tweet about your brand /business.
77. What you are thinking about. Tweet a deep thought daily tweet.
78. What you are dreaming about. Share your dreams and aspirations. Some may have the same dreams and you will be able to connect with them in a very unique way.
79. Customer services tweets to those who need help from your business.
80. Thank you messages to your customers for stopping in, purchasing something or simply being your customer.
81. Help other people achieve their goals. Share their content, promotions or charity fundraisers.
82. Be a connector.
83. Help people get answers to their questions.
84. Tweet and acknowledge similar interests. If you notice a new follower lives in a town you use to live in, let them know.
85. Compliment someone’s profile, bio or other information that inspires you.
86. Refer your followers to some of your favorite businesses, authors or colleagues.
87. Share something funny your kid or family member did that made you laugh. It might make others laugh too.
88. Share simple moments of life that share a part of you, show your human side but don’t come off as self centered.
89. Share a prediction.
90. Tweet a good Pinterest board.
91. Tweet a good Google+ community.
92. Tweet an engaging and inspiring group on LinkedIn.
93. Tweet a cool and inspiring Facebook business page, group or community.
94. Share a poll or focus group research which results will be shared with those who participate.
95. Share or start a poll.
96. Start or share a list on list.ly.
97. Teach others how to do something.
98. Help people simply do more, do less or simply be better.
99. Tweet this post so your friends can stop tweeting like self centered, babbling idiots.
100. You think of something. I have give you 99 ideas. You can at least come up with one and then add it in the comment section, can’t you? That way people won’t yell at me and say I only offered 99 tips when the blog title states 100!
What Do You Think? Is there anything else I left off? What do you like to tweet about? What types of tweets do you like to read and engage with?
Learn How To Understand Twitter
When I first started to use Twitter in 2009 I was posting discount vouchers constantly, adding random people I didn’t know, and repeat postings from a Word document I had created, allowing me to copy and paste previous tweets. It wasn’t long before I realised no one was talking back to me. I was ‘Megaphoning’ – shouting out about myself and not listening to others, retweeting or engaging with my audience. I was being ignored and only followed by spam accounts.
Then I downloaded Tweetdeck – I really recommend this free software (it will auto shorten URLs and you can add photos and pictures with a drag & drop). After then I realised, how uninteresting I must be, who wants to be bombarded with repetitious discount codes for a product you don’t specifically need at that time.
I quickly picked up the basics of Twitter:
* Names are preceded with ‘@’.
* Sending out a tweet to ExampleUser will not show up on their page, it needs to be @ExampleUser. * RT = Re-Tweet, repeating some else’s post and crediting them by mentioning their name.
* # the hash symbol represents a group, e.g. I am interested in any local tweets, so I have #bristol and #somerset saved on tweetdeck
* # groups that are being tweeted about (by mentioning this in your post) that are the most popular are called “Trending Topics”
Trending Topic
A regular trending topic is #FF or #FollowFriday where tweeps looking to increase their followers will RT their follower’s names in their posts and the circle goes on – here’s an example: Here’s some great tweeps for #FF @ExampleUser1 @ExampleUser2 @ExampleUser3. This really helps increase your followers, because they join in with the #FollowFriday they WANT to follow and be followed.
I faded out the promo tweets and started to interact directly with local tweeters, and tweeters who have a similar business, by re-tweeting their promotional tweets, effectively helping out their reach, and with good success. In the first 2 weeks of me using Twitter, I had appeared on local radio and booked an advertisement in an eshot who I would have never come across before. You can also tweet to advertise #jobs or #vacancies online, real-time, for free.
I hope this you have found this useful as I should have researched Twitter before I went barging in full steam ahead. One twitterer said there are 3 golden rules on Twitter
* 30% Personal tweets and observations
* 30% links to interesting, pertinent articles and webpages
* 30% Shouting about your own business.
That leaves 10% to do what you like – for me it’s following celebrities and replying to their tweets, and tweeting about trending topics.
How Many Words Is This Skyscraper Article and How Long Did It Take To Write?
The takeaway here is that I used an old 2014 article with some content about Twitter that needed updating with the best times to post socially. Above this I began writing content, creating a YouTube video, an eBook and slides to demonstrate helpful techniques to use when writing Skyscraper content. This article took 5 days to compose including all the visual elements and it’s best to leave an article overnight and review it the next morning with fresh eyes. The word count here is 3,700 words.
These tricks are especially effective when combined with a custom URL featuring your target keywords/search terms at the beginning. Then there’s using Yoast to edit the snippet for the Page Title and Meta Description. Lastly, remember to go to town with WordPress Tags and Categories. My eBook is featured higher up in this article, for ease of viewing please refer to the individual slides below.
SEO Lady Contact Form – Free Google Audit – 5 questions
- What is the domain address and how old is it?
- Have you had any previous SEO work carried out?
- When people use Google what search phrases would you like clients to use to find your website?
- Do you rank in Google already for any of these search phrases?
- What top 3 geographical areas are you wanting to target?
Where To Next?
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