One of the most common things we hear from dealership owners is that when it comes to creating content, for their blogs and social media accounts, they just can’t think of anything to write.
Or if they can think of something to write, the fear that it isn’t what their customers want to read, or that they aren’t skilled enough at writing to bring the post to fruition appears and they aren’t able to make the post as great as they wanted it to be.
Whatever the cause, the result is the same—the content doesn’t get written.
Succumbing to writer’s block once might not feel like that big of deal. It is that big of a deal, for two reasons.
First, because letting writer’s block win once means that it is more likely to win when it rears its head again.
Second, because consistency is key when it comes to building and maintaining a relationship with your readers.
Missing even just one post may signal to those readers that you’ve abandoned the endeavor and they’re better off looking for a different blog to read or social media account to follow.
Professional writers will tell you that you can’t sit and wait for the muse to show up—inspiration and motivation don’t work that way.
You have to learn how to beat the writer’s block, sometimes even before it ever shows up, and power through the task.
Here are some tips for doing just that and kick starting your automotive SEO:
1. Start talking to yourself.
If you’re having difficulty putting words to paper, it might be time to stop trying to put the words to paper.
The pathways in the brain for speaking out loud are connected to but are not the same as those for writing.
If you are having trouble formulating sentences, stand up from your computer, and just start talking about your topic.
Get the words flowing.
You might find this technique so effective that you just start using speech recognition software to write your content, instead of actually typing it out.
2. Change your writing venue.
It’s true that changing your physical location can improve your motivation and bring the inspiration, but it’s also true that simply changing what program you are writing in can help you be more focused and produce better content.
If you usually write in Microsoft Word before pasting your content into your account or blog, just write on the blog or account.
If you don’t want to do that, try switching from Word to Wordpad or another minimalist writing program that is probably already loaded onto your computer.
Even just changing the font you use to type might be effective.
3. Drink something with caffeine.
This isn’t a permanent fix, but if you are having some short-term writer’s block, downing a cup of coffee or a soda might give you the burst of energy that you need to power through a topic or post.
4. Write in the morning.
Writing in the afternoon, when you are starting to get tired and have already accomplished a lot of other things you wanted to do that day, isn’t usually the best way to avoid writer’s block.
Instead, write first thing in the morning, when you are fresh, and before you have already generated a sense of accomplishment by getting other work done.
That sense of accomplishment is a great thing—but it can trick you into thinking that you don’t actually need to write that day, which isn’t true.
5. Clean your desk.
If you usually have a messy desk, you might find yourself getting distracted by the papers you have on your desk.
Writer’s block can be fueled by annoyance at your surroundings.
Take five minutes and straighten your desk. Put things away, get things out of your elbow space and out of your line of sight.
You’ll be able to focus better.
6. Change the time you write.
I had a friend who discovered that she did her best writing at two in the morning.
That doesn’t work for everyone’s schedule, but if writing in the morning or writing at the time have currently set aside for writing is also not working for you, it’s time to pick a different time.
Shuffle your schedule so you can try writing at a different time.
7. Stop self-editing.
If you are spending more time going back and reading over what you have written than you are actually writing, you need to cut this practice out of your habit.
Self-editing can be extremely dangerous before you’ve actually written everything down—you’ll forget your train of thought, lose track of ideas, and slow yourself down.
None of these things will help your automotive SEO.
8. Stop focusing so much on keywords.
This is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to writer’s block in automotive SEO. Keywords are vital—there’s no doubt about that.
But they can also be a slippery slope.
If you are worrying more about how to include certain keywords into your writing than you are worrying about the writing itself, you can be stifling yourself.
Write naturally, and if need be, go back and add in keywords afterwards.
9. Forget about originality.
With so much discussion in automotive SEO being about the importance of “original” content, many people are afraid to string sentences together, fearing that someone has already strung those words in the same order, or that someone else has already covered the same topic on their blog or social media account.
The truth is that they probably have, but that doesn’t mean that your take on that topic isn’t important.
