I write my drafts in Google Sheets.
It's a little quirky, but it works. Using the custom spreadsheet below, I can see at a glance the word and sentence count for each paragraph, the keyword density, and other important stats for content writing.Rather than drafting content and then editing it for readability and SEO-friendliness, I can self-correct as I go.
When finished, I copy the text into a document for spellchecking, then run it through AI and plagiarism detectors. If it passes, it's good to go!
You can use it yourself, for free, using the Google Drive link below.
Note: You'll need to make a copy before you can edit it.
How Does It Work?
Primary Keyword Density
The number one guideline to follow with this spreadsheet is write in the white, and stay away from the grey.
Start by putting your primary keyword in C3, next to where it says 'Keyword 1.'
As you write, cell D3 (Instances) will track how many times you've used your keyword. It only counts exact matches, but the case doesn't matter. F3 (Density) tells you what percentage of the total word count that represents. Use this to avoid keyword stuffing.
Note that D3, F3, and H3 (Wordcount) do not include the title.
The 'Subheading' box just tells you if the keyword is used in at least one subheading, a good SEO practice.
Hyperlinks
In the majority of pieces I write, at least three links must be included: One of these will be
- a link to a page (usually a product) on the client's site
- an 'Internal Link,' which leads to a page on the blog publishing the post (for guest posts)
- an 'External Link' to a high-authority site (like a .gov or .edu)
Personally, I like to find all the links that will be included before writing. Cells C4, C5, and C6 are where you can keep them.
Writing Your Blog Post
The actual writing is done from cell C9 down. On the left-hand side (column B), you can see where you are in the basic structure of your piece. But the right side is where you will be focusing most of the time.
This contains five columns:
- Characters
- Word Count
- Sentences
- Avg. Sen. Length
- Primary Keyword
These will update when you have finished typing in a column-C cell and pressed 'Enter' or clicked somewhere else.
You can use the Word Count and Sentences columns to make sure your paragraphs are not too long.
The average sentence length is a helpful indicator of readability. It helps you avoid overly long and complicated sentences.
Characters are most important for the title (Google results only show up to 60 characters in their headlines) and subheadings.
You can add some conditional formatting to make cells green when you're within the limits and red when you fall outside them.
What To Do When You're Done
Highlight all your text. Ctrl+C will copy it, then you want to open a document, and hit Ctrl+Shift+V.
You might have to manually add lines between paragraphs, but once you have it all in a document, you can run a spellcheck.
The next things I do are a plagiarism check and an AI check, edit if needed, then add links and format the headings.
What's the Catch?
There's no catch.
It's the fashion these days to give something away in order to get something back. Rather than make that a PDF full of info that'll be out of date in a few months, I thought this would be more helpful.
Sure, some people might use this rather than hire a content writer. That's their right, but not everyone will. Maybe their friend or a client sees their improved writing, asks what changed, and they point them towards this site.
Not everything in business is zero-sum.
Writing Still Taking You Too Much Time?
Let me do it for you! Your content will be created using the exact process described above.
It's how I maintain a consistently high standard of reader-friendly content, and can produce it at speed without AI.
Learn more about my service or contact me to get started.