Content Writing Trends that will Dominate 2024

2024 brings with it a new ray of hope in the New Year. As our content writing team sat down to jot down our plans for the next few months, we were intrigued by the exciting events unfolding around us.

Right from SGE in search engines to AI content impacting our industry, there were quite a few updates in front of us.

Now, making sense of these changes required us to sit down and take note of these trends. So, this is what we have been doing in the last week of December.

Having done that, it made me think — Why should we keep our findings to ourselves? Why not be the good folks we are, and share this knowledge with the world?

Let us check out some key content writing trends in 2024 that are likely to have a tremendous impact on the content writing industry.

1 — Reliance on AI is harmful

I started writing this section with the heading “over-reliance on AI is harmful” in mind. But mid-way, I edited this to “reliance on AI is harmful”. Even a small bit of reliance on AI for any work can really impact the way we work. Take, for instance, the seemingly ‘good’ reliance on AI for topic search for your next blog.

You will save time getting good topics quickly. But what happens when you do this 15–20 times? You will start losing the manual way of sourcing topics for writing a blog. You will rely more and more on AI till you completely stop manual research.

A good fix would be to mix and match things up. So, for in-depth blogs, we need to build a proper outline that will be the framework for the blogs. But for shorter SEO blogs, we can rely on AI for topic suggestions.

What it means for content writers?

• Use AI as a research assistant rather than letting it write the final draft
• Human writing will be needed to add the emotional and storytelling context into the content
• While AI can do 30% of the job, the remaining 70% will still need human intervention. Don’t let it be 100% AI in ANY CASE AT ALL.

2 — Focus on Storytelling

Storytelling has long been a ‘pull’ factor for content creators. But since AI has invaded the market, its importance has risen exponentially. Hence, it has become one of the hottest content writing trends in 2024.

People are the heart and soul of content writing. So, the focus on storytelling is more pronounced. This is especially true in the face of an onslaught of lifeless, dull, robotic content emerging in response to AI prompts.

ChatGPT simply cannot match the raw, emotion-filled authenticity of human storytelling. The idea is to blend the initial research with genuine narratives associated with storytelling. The result is highly engaging piece of content that keeps readers hooked.

Incorporating narratives into SEO content helps create an emotional connection with the reader. This boosts user experience. It also increases the likelihood of social sharing and backlinks.

What it means for content writers?

• You need to have an engaging hook at the top. Start the blog with an attention-grabbing anecdote or personal experience. It needs to be relevant to the topic to immediately capture the reader’s interest.
• A good way to inculcate storytelling is to paint vivid pictures with words. You can consider employing descriptive language and sensory details to transport readers into the narrative.
• Remember to have all 4 elements of storytelling — a character, a problem, an action, and a solution.
• When you infuse emotions and conflicts into the narrative, it helps a lot. You can easily evoke empathy and keep readers engaged. To do this, you can highlight challenges, successes, or failures. These can help create a connection with the audience.

3 — Focus on the Experience

The focus on EEAT principles will continue increasing in 2024. Google will put priority on first-hand experience. This way, the value emerging from the content remains high. It will perform better than low-quality, spammy, AI-generated content.

Hence, implementing E-E-A-T principles will emerge as one of the top content writing trends in 2024. This will help ensure that your content ranks higher and is more visible to users. The reason is that such well-articulated content reflects authenticity and reliability. This type of content meets the stringent standards set by search engine algorithms for quality content.

What it means for content writers?

• We will need to demonstrate first-hand experience of usage of the product or service being promoted in the content.
• A well-articulated author bio will help as well. This section will showcase the author’s credentials, experience, and qualifications. Doing so will build trust.
• If you need to back information with links to third-party URLs, then these sites need to be authentic and non-spammy.

4 — Limited impact of SGE on search experience

The advent of Google’s SGE is a significant shift in the way searchers search for information. But ask experts, and many will concur that SGE may have a limited impact on the search process.

A strong example here is the Bing AI chat. While people have explored its interesting potential, the feature has not been as groundbreaking as anticipated.

The reason is that people want their search to begin and end the same way they have been accustomed to over the last two decades. So, they will still prefer going to source websites after clicking on the results page.

What does it mean for Content Writers

We will need to continue focusing on the quality of the information provided in the content. This will ensure more click-throughs that will re-direct the searcher from the results page to your website.

5 — Optimize for voice search

Voice search is likely to soar far beyond typed queries in 2024. The rise of compatible tech like Siri and Alexa will further improve the prospects of voice.

Voice search results in longer, more in-depth conversations between virtual assistants and users. This increases engagement and the likelihood that users will become clients.

The emphasis would be on conversational content and longer keywords (or keyphrases). For example, if you are looking for Italian restaurants then your typed search will be “Italian restaurants near me”. But voice search queries will be longer, like “Hey Siri, where can I find good Italian restaurants nearby?”

What it means for content writers

• Explore SERP features like ‘People Also Ask’, Featured Snippets, and Local Pack on Google search to get ideas for content writing.
• Short tail keywords won’t cut it with the conversational nature of voice search. Unlike the short-typed query, the voice search will differ. It will comprise of more direct queries. The expectation will be to get more relevant answers to the voice search query. Hence, we need to add long-tail keywords.
• You need to think about developing content with an informal tone. So, instead of being direct, the content needs to be colloquial. This will help match the tone of the answer to the question being asked.

To conclude

The content writing landscape is evolving at a fast pace. Some of us may be petrified by these rapid changes. But at Textuar, we rub our palms together in eager excitement about the changes that can herald a new face for the industry overall.

This list of content writing trends in 2024 was an endeavour in this direction. It gives our team (and hopefully your team), guidance on the path we need to take in 2024.

Originally published at https://textuar.com on January 3, 2024.