Who are you writing for?

This is the first question all writers (should) ask themselves before putting finger to keyboard.

When you know who you’re writing for, you can create an article that’s relevant and interesting – quality content for your readers.

At the most basic level, online writers usually consider two main audiences – people and computers. Humans and spiders. Your readers and the search engines.

By writing primarily for one audience (your readers) you can also satisfy the other (the search engines).

If you create a targeted article for a specific group of readers, it is likely that it will be keyword-rich fodder for the search engine spiders.

Readers are also more likely to share the article with their peers and link to it – something else the spiders look for when searching out results.

But when you begin to write for the search engines, rather than your readers, your writing becomes less useful.

As Copyblogger says this week, ‘it’s only natural that once your readers realise you are no longer providing quality content and shifting instead to useless keyword-filled articles, they will not be thrilled to stick around.’

So, remember to write for the humans. Your readers will continue to return and the spiders are happy too!