Authoritative vs. Agreeable Content: Which Is Best for WordPress Blogs?

Finding a tone to use for your WordPress blog’s content is crucial. You’d want to establish a specific voice for your blog’s content marketing to reach and engage with the right target audience. However, deciding whether you’d want to use authoritative or agreeable for your articles can be confusing at times.

Keyword planning and your SEO efforts can help with communicating to the right consumers, but those are not enough to convince your clients that your brand is relatable and it’s what they need. Giving them the right information and conversing in a manner that they can relate to is key to a healthy customer-to-business relationship.

First, let’s discuss the main differences between authoritative and agreeable content.

What is Authoritative Content?

To put it in layman’s terms, authoritative content is a type of blog writing that demonstrates expertise and depth. It informs the reader about certain topics and it typically includes sources and citations to support the article. Authoritative content provides answers to questions that the consumers are looking for and helps the author become a trusted expert on the matter that they are focused on.

Here are a few examples of authoritative blog content:

1. Long-post articles. These types of content usually contain about 1,500 words or more. They are typically informative, scannable, and have the right format.
2. In-depth tutorials. Tutorials that include step-by-step guides on how to be an expert on a topic are also considered authoritative content.
3. Buyer guides and manuals. These guides are made for helping with purchasing decisions, as well as inform buyers on how to use specific products and services.
4. Evergreen content. These types of articles are targeted to the audience’s interests and are made to withstand the test of time.

So, how does one create authoritative content? The following strategies listed below can be followed to impose authority in your articles.

Be an Expert on the Topic

The first thing that authors should do is to be knowledgeable about the topic that they are writing about. Intensive research should be done, and citations must be made all throughout the draft. You must convince your reader that you know what you are talking about and that you are a native in the field.

Additionally, your whole blog page should be free of errors. Use the right format, add meta descriptions, include alt tags, and optimize your content to make it easier for Google to crawl your data. Adding a short author bio can also help with showing your customers that you are, indeed, a subject matter expert.

Exude confidence in your writing tone and make sure that your article is free of grammatical errors. Moreover, you should use unique images that are related to what you are writing about.

Work with Other Experts

Work on your network and talk to other experts in your field. Get backlinks from established bloggers in the industry and produce evergreen content that wouldn’t get outdated. Engaging with other authors helps build trust within the community, plus, you can get your website backlinked. Doing this will not only help increase the traffic on your blog, but it can also aid with increasing your website’s domain authority.

Focus on Establishing Trust

If your article or WordPress blog looks cluttered and messy, then chances are your web visitors wouldn’t trust your brand. They will most likely exit the website and look for a new site that displays dominance and authority. To establish trust within the community, make sure to follow the following strategies:

• Create an author bio including a short description and a high-resolution picture.
• Dedicate a section wherein the readers can find your contact information.
• Include hyperlinks and sources in your article.
• Have FAQs ready and let your customers know that you are open to answering their questions.
• Avoid placing too many ads on your blog page, as doing this might make it look too spammy.

What is Agreeable Content?

Agreeable content is defined as a type of writing that demonstrates sympathy. It focuses on using a tone that is more on the caring and trustworthy nature rather than a dictating one. Agreeable content tends to steer away from being confrontational and instead has a compassionate and compromising voice.

Below are a few tips for making your content sound more empathetic rather than dictating.

Create Different Personas

One of the best ways to relate to your readers is by creating different personas. Doing this will make you relate to their needs as a customer and thus, you will be able to write with them in mind. To truly connect with your customers, you have to understand them on a deeper level. Consider conducting surveys through a CRM system, interview your clients, and be open to hearing suggestions.

Here are a few questions to ask when surveying your patrons:

1. What are their jobs, interests, and skill level?
2. What age range am I marketing to?
3. What are their pain points and how can I help solve these?
4. What answers are they looking for?

Be Inquisitive

Ask yourself why empathy matters to you and your audience. Determine why you want to use this tone of voice in your articles and if it is applicable to the brand’s overall image. Pay attention to your readers’ comments and suggestions and take those things into account. The more connected you are with your blog visitors, the more you’d know what tone to use on your content.

Avoid Sounding Robotic

Nothing bores blog readers than a robotic-sounding article. Make the blog posts conversational and write from another individual’s point of view. Ask yourself what you want to read in an informative article and start with that. Web visitors are more informed and inquisitive nowadays, and they can tell whether they are reading something that’s been written by a bot or an actual human being.

The Bottom Line

Deciding on whether you’d want to use an authoritative or agreeable tone on your blog content strategy lies beyond your brand’s identity. Survey your customers, learn about their behavior, and communicate with them. See which tone of voice they tend to respond to and be consistent with it.

However, you must avoid using jargon and instead use words that are easy to comprehend. No matter what tone you decide on using, keep the reading level easy to make complex topics easier to understand.