Being a content writer doesn’t come easy in today’s digital world; it has become more than just a flair of words. Integrating technology into every field has also made digital skills indispensable to content writing. There are several things that a content writer needs to keep in mind to thrive in this ever-evolving industry. 

To ensure you do not miss out on the latest technologies to become a “pro” at your work, our article here emphasizes 5 important digital skills that every content writer must be well-versed in. So, let’s dive into each one of the skills one by one.

5 Essential Digital Skills for Content Writers 

1. SEO ( Search Engine Optimization)

Your content may be good, but there’s never a good time to switch to new techniques to improve it; that is when the SEO techniques come into play. SEO has become an increasingly important skill to build a strong content writer’s profile in recent years. It is so because by using the SEO best practices, you can write a blog that ranks well and can drive traffic to your website. It also paves the way for content writers to get a ranking on the first page of different search engines. According to Intergrowth, SEO helps to drive 1,000% more traffic than organic social media.

Now, a question arises: how do you build good SEO skills? Should you enroll in a course? Well, the answer is simple: to build exceptional SEO skills, you only need to go to the internet for the rescue. Start by researching relevant keywords in the particular niche that you’re about to write. Then, write optimized content for the same.

Simple. 

However, there are some other factors that you should consider in your SEO checklist, such as providing adequate title, meta title, short description, and alt text in your blog. Note that when you have a good knowledge of SEO, you can create content that answers the user’s search intent. When you can cater directly to your target audience, the search engines judge you favorably, and your blogs start ranking without additional help or paid traffic!

2. Social media

Content writing, at its core, is a way to combine storytelling and the technological power to target customers. On social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, it's all about numbers! The only thing that drives your social media content, irrespective of your niche, is the number of likes, comments, shares, and, most importantly, followers. If you have a good follower base, you can have a better brand outreach and get more offers for sponsored content.

Many brands hire social media content writers to make posts that amplify their reach to sell their products. However, understanding social media might be difficult for you if you’re not a frequent social media user, but it’s not that hard. To become a social media content writer, you need to have a good knowledge of social media trends, and of course, you need to know your target audience. For the same, you need to have good writing and research skills.

Unconventional as it may sound, here you don’t have to write a 2000+ word blog post. Still, even a 300-word article might suffice, given that a single social media post has the potential to reach a larger audience. If you can use it correctly, you might even make a post as impactful as several social media strategies, which all comes down to your creativity. There’s no hard and fast rule to become a social media writer who can reach billions of people, but you need to learn, understand, and speak your audience’s language.

3. Email writing

Becoming a good content writer doesn’t come easy, given that plenty of fish are in the sea, so how can you stand out amidst all this stiff competition? You might have known this all but still not believed in it; yes, it is email writing!

We understand your concerns regarding how monotonous writing emails can be and how time-consuming it can be, knowing that more than 20 of the emails might not even make it to the inbox. However, please focus on the silver lining here: the rest of the 80% of the audience that gets your emails, out of which supposedly some might even revert back to you. Email writing is often a greatly underestimated form of communication and finding new clients as a content writer.

Perfecting the art of email writing might do you wonders as a content writer, as it helps to start a distribution chain. As a freelance content writer, once you’re done writing with your content, it’s time to put it out somewhere. And if you’ve excellent email writing skills, you can write an email that might appeal to a website and get your content placed somewhere. But to get to that position, you need to craft effective emails that are straightforward and yet maintain a conversational tone. For this, you might need to get well-versed in multiple copywriting techniques that will help you not only master email writing but master content writing as a whole. 


4. WordPress

With content writing becoming more synonymous with all forms of digital content, content writers nowadays have become more technically able to publish blogs independently. Millions of websites on the internet are created on content management systems (CMS). Out of these, most of the websites are built using WordPress. Surprisingly enough, research estimates that 43.1% of all the websites on the internet are WordPress, which accounts for 810 million websites. 

In addition, WordPress is the simplest and fastest platform to publish blogs online, even if you’re a beginner. Its easy-to-use user interface allows you to add extra features to publish your blog. With the basic knowledge of WordPress.com and wordpress.org, you can easily publish blogs free of cost. Moreover, WordPress is an open-source website, which makes it easier for the publisher to make any new changes from time to time. By mastering WordPress, you can publish interactive blogs as it is easy to integrate media such as images, PDFs, audio, video, and hyperlinks.

Another factor that you must consider as a content writer is the ability to find new clients. WordPress has a huge audience, which is equivalent to more than 409 million people viewing 20 billion plus pages on a monthly basis. WordPress allows all content writers, especially freelancers, to showcase their talent and build a reader base. This is one of the factors that clients consider before hiring a content writer. 

By learning the basics of WordPress, you can become confident in setting up the header, footer, and sidebars alongside adding media to your blog. Apart from this, you can also optimize your blog and know your SEO score before publishing the blog to get more reach. And just like that, you can manage publishing a blog and gathering a reader base around the same all at once by learning how to use WordPress.

5. Voice search optimization

At last comes the digital skill, which has recently come into existence and has not gained much popularity; however, it affects your visibility in several ways: voice search optimization. With over 4.2 billion people using voice assistants in 2023, it’s no wonder it affects your visibility.

Understanding the subtle differences in how consumers express their questions or queries verbally is critical to enhancing voice search optimization. As these texts are more likely to be informal and conversational, the answers for the same need to be carefully optimized than textual questions. As such, the better your content is tailored to voice search optimization, the better your rankings will be.

Voice search uses AI to hear and interpret the user’s question. By using relevant AI algorithms, AI provides the user with an answer to the question that has been asked. In such a case, if a user asks for the nearest bakery in their vicinity, the voice search would interpret the question and give them the results of the closest bakeries. Now, if you own a bakery and your content is voice search optimized, there is a high chance that your bakery will show on the top.

Conclusion

In conclusion, updating your skillset as a content writer in today’s world is essential to stay relevant. For the same reason, you must know about the five crucial digital skills outlined in the given blog- SEO, social media, email writing, WordPress, and voice search optimization. These five skills will empower you as a content writer and help you thrive in the digital era. Mastering these skills will help you amplify your connections, find more work, and, most importantly, help you stay relevant as a content writer.