Content Creation Guide - Hudson Valley Media
This Content Creation guide will take you through the step-by-step process used at Hudson Valley Public Relations to create the best content for our clients. If this is your first time writing content for a client, it is strongly recommended that you go to their website and read their recent blog posts to familiarize yourself with the tone and voice that is used for that client’s audience.
The steps are as follows:
- Research the Topic
- Write your Article
- Edit / Desktop Publish
- Plagiarism & Readability Check
- Optimize for SEO
- Distribute on Social Channels
- Analyze Metrics
Research the Topic
When researching content, our clients’ need sources that are trustworthy and reputable. The best resources can be found on .gov or .edu sites, however you are not limited to those. There are many reputable websites that don’t fall under those two domains.
When taking notes during your research, you want to get into the habit of writing all your notes on paper.
Never copy and paste text from an article into a Word document or directly into WordPress.
Text sometimes carries code with it when it is copy and pasted and can set off red flags when run through a plagiarism checker.
To keep material 100% unique, taking notes on paper will prevent any unintentional plagiarism.
Write your Article
With your notes in front of you, you can start to write freely without worrying about plagiarizing.
When writing, stay consistent with the existing material on the site. There is usually a specific tone or style we use for each client. Think about how the audience would react to the writing of the article (i.e. Humor may not be appropriate when talking about medical conditions).
Remember that when writing content, you are selling the client’s brand message. Write your article so that it helps the client reach their goals. Are they looking to inform people of a new type of product or service? Then try and talk about that new service indirectly in your article.
The length of each article should be at least 500 words (for SEO purposes). There should be enough material there that people learn something from the reading. Be specific and don’t fluff the article with redundancies.
The objective is to get people’s attention and familiarize them with the client’s brand. Many people tend to skim through articles so give them a reason to stay a while by creating a story within the article.
Edit / Desktop Publish
Add relevant images or graphs to your copy that support the material. This also keeps the article interesting and engages the reader.
Blockquotes display the most important information so readers that skim can still retain the message articulated throughout the article. A full page of text can sometimes be daunting, so don’t be afraid to add a relevant image in between two big blocks of copy to ease the reader’s mind.
Blockquotes display the most important information so readers that skim can still retain the message articulated throughout the article.
Give your content structure with headers, (H1, H2, etc.). These headers are how you organize the content on a page and how search engine crawlers know whats important. Adding a higher header can make subject lines more prominent so reader’s don’t get lost in “paragraph” copy.
Always reread what you write and check for proper grammar.
Plagiarism & Readability Check
Be safe, not sorry. Run your article through this plagiarism checker to make sure it is 100% unique. As long as you wrote your notes on paper and type your article from scratch you should be getting 100% unique every time. Its best to check either way.
Make sure the audience can also read what you wrote with ease. Not everybody online can read at a college level. Therefore, an 8th-10th grade reading level is preferred. Even the big publications like the NYTimes write their articles at a middle to high school reading level. This helps it appeal to all types of audiences and makes it quick and easy to process mentally.
Optimize for SEO
Under the ‘body’ box you’ll find an SEO form. It is extremely important you fill this out as it will allow people to find your content on search engines.
- Under the Snippet preview you can click to edit the snippet. Then you will find text boxes for Metatitles, Metadescriptions, focus keywords etc.
- Your Meta title should be no more than 60 characters. Always capitalize key words in your title to make it more clickable.
- Your Slug should already be there. That is taken from your permalink that you created when you wrote your article’s title.
- Your Meta description is a brief and detailed description of your article. This should be no more than 160 characters.
- Your focus keyword is important. Choose a unique word or two that sums up your article. For this specific page, my focus keyword is “Content Creation”. Its in the title, it’s in the body copy, its in the meta title and the meta description. Having your focus keyword in each of these sections is very good SEO.
- The density of your focus keyword should seem natural. Don’t force your focus keyword in every sentence of your article. Having it show up a few times in your article should be sufficient enough. Search engines are smart and they know when you’re keyword stuffing.
Publish/Distribute to Social Channels
Once the article has been published you want to start distributing it on social media channels. For distribution, Hudson Valley Public Relations uses Buffer. Each client has its own separate Buffer to prevent any cross posting. There are a few points you need to consider when loading up articles to Buffer:
- Frequency: How many times will the article show? This is different for every social site. Some require only one post others allow for several per week.
- Time: The time of day is important to find out when the client’s customers are on checking their accounts. This can be checked on each individual social media account’s analytics. Note: Some social media analytics don’t record time of day. Just go with your gut based on other social media times.
- Channel: Each channel is different. Some make better use of hashtags than others. Some need a URL in the copy, others don’t. Making sure these are done right is great practice.
- Metadata: Make sure each post, before it is scheduled, has an appropriate Meta-title, Meta-description and Image. There may be times where you need to add these in yourself. Just double-check before posting.
Analyze Data-Metric
Focus on data that reveals both reach and reader behavior:
Average Time on Page – Indicates how engaging your content is.
Bounce Rate – High rates may mean your intro or layout isn’t hooking readers.
Scroll Depth – Shows how far readers get before dropping off.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) – For internal links or CTAs, measures how compelling your prompts are.
Social Shares & Comments – Reflects content resonance and community engagement.
Interpret & Act on the Data
- If traffic is low → Improve SEO with keyword optimization, better headlines, and meta descriptions.
- If time on page is short → Strengthen your opening paragraph, add visuals, and break up text for readability.
- If bounce rate is high → Ensure your content matches search intent and loads quickly on mobile.
- If engagement is low → Add interactive elements (polls, quizzes), ask questions, and encourage comments.
Optimize for Continuous Growth
- Content Refresh – Update older posts with new stats, examples, and visuals.
- A/B Testing – Experiment with different headlines, images, and CTAs to see what drives more clicks.
- Audience Segmentation – Use analytics to identify top reader demographics and tailor content to their interests.
- Posting Schedule – Publish when your audience is most active (analytics can reveal peak times).