Content Hacks: How to upload content without formatting

Back in my SEO agency days, we delivered content by uploading it directly to the customer's website. That was usually done using RSS, but if a client's website was built using WordPress, we would upload it via their WP admin page instead.

Some of my colleagues would write the page from scratch directly into WordPress, which at the time didn't always save every edit immediately. More than a few times, an internet glitch erased entire articles, with no way to restore the lost content.

This is just one reason why I prefer to write content in Microsoft Word, with my active document backed up to OneDrive in real time. Every edit I make is immediately stored online in the cloud, I can roll back to previous versions if I spot a significant error, and I can access my documents from other computers if I need to.

But of course, MS Word adds all sorts of formatting to the text. In some cases this can be helpful - I have standard Styles set up for H1, H2 and H3 subheadings, which makes it easier to structure my content in the way it will appear on the website.

At times though, this formatting can be a hindrance. My own blog is powered by Blogger, which gives me two ways to paste content from Word:

1. 'Compose' view with full MS Word formatting
2. 'HTML' view with no formatting at all

(There is a 'clear formatting' option hidden away at the far-right of the Blogger toolbar, but this Content Hack is a quick and easy way to achieve the same thing on any PC, for any CMS.)

What's the problem?

The problem with pasting formatted content into a CMS is that you get a lot of unnecessary HTML code, which can do weird things to your page layout. Paragraphs can end up double-spaced, or not spaced at all, fonts may display incorrectly, and you risk losing valuable SEO-friendly HTML tags like H2 and H3 headings.

Conversely, when you paste completely unformatted content into HTML view, many CMS platforms will ignore line breaks (unless each line break is marked with a <br> or <p> tag) and your entire page will post as a single block of text with no paragraphs.

What you need is a middle ground solution, whereby the text posts without font formatting (allowing you to add your CSS styles in place of the MS Word formats) but keeps those line breaks, paragraphs, subheadings and lists.

Blogger's 'Clear formatting' option is hidden on a secondary menu.

On Blogger, the 'clear formatting' button can do this after pasting formatted text into Compose view - but is there an easy way to clear formatting before uploading the content to your CMS?

The easy way to clear MS Word formatting

There is a reliable solution to this problem, and it's one I use often. It can also be useful to copy and paste weirdly formatted text into a Word document, if 'paste unformatted' is giving you strange results.

It's simply this:

1. Copy your content from MS Word
2. Paste your content into Notepad
3. Copy your content from Notepad
4. Paste your content into your CMS
5. Add your HTML/CSS formatting

Notepad can now be configured to display text in the font of your choice, but it essentially still works with plain, unformatted text. You can even still turn off Word Wrap on the View menu, if you only want to see where you have inserted manual line breaks.

Because of this, when you copy content from Notepad and paste it into a CMS in Compose view, you get line breaks where you want them, but plain text apart from that.

But now my text isn't formatted...??

True, but that's actually the desirable outcome. It's much better to paste unformatted text (but with line breaks) and then add minimal formatting using HTML and CSS, than it is to paste formatted text and expect Microsoft Word formatting to look right online.

Of course, if you hire a good freelance writer for website content, they can handle all of this for you - if you want me to upload content directly on to your website (or save it into Drafts so you can check it before publishing) I can do that and apply the relevant HTML formatting and CSS styles throughout the page as needed.

But if you're trying to upload content written in Microsoft Word and struggling to clear fonts and formatting without losing all your paragraph breaks, this is one quick and easy solution to get your text into a more workable format (or not-format, as the case may be...).

And in case you're wondering - yes, I do use this method myself. I also have shortcuts set up to paste into MS Word without keeping any font formatting, so as far as possible, the only styles and formatting in my content are those I've added myself.

Need help with this issue?

Feel free to contact me via email or on my socials if you want any help with this issue, or if you'd like to discuss content for your website or blog. I can either deliver pages in a Microsoft Word document, via Google Docs or directly to your CMS.

I'm familiar with various CMS platforms, including WordPress, and I can add any Custom Fields your website template relies on, as well as SEO meta titles, descriptions and so on. Just ask if you need me to allow time for any of these extras, which I can usually do at no extra cost.

Why to hire a CEO blog ghostwriter

Writing a CEO blog is a great way to show your knowledge as an entrepreneur and set yourself apart as an inspirational business leader, but it can be time consuming and not everyone finds it easy to put words on paper.

As your company grows, you're likely to outsource much of your marketing (or hire an in-house marketing exec to handle it). But your blog needs extra care, because it represents you as an individual, as well as your organisation as a whole.

A business man in a purple suit.

Taking the decision to hire a CEO blog ghostwriter can give you the dedicated talent you need to produce regular, insightful blog posts for your website, written with good spelling and grammar, but still keeping your own tone of voice, figures of speech and any catchphrases you like to use.

In my freelance career I have been hired as a CEO blog ghostwriter several times, working with business leaders across the UK to write first-person pages that accurately reflect their views, while including all the SEO keywords and marketing calls-to-action needed to turn blog visits into sales.

Entrepreneurship can sometimes feel lonely at the top of the ladder, but you're not up there on your own. Reach out at any time and you'll find likeminded, motivated people like me who are ready and willing to help in a freelance capacity.

What is a CEO blog ghostwriter?

OK, so what's the difference between a CEO blog ghostwriter and a general freelance content writer? It all comes down to tone of voice and the ability to write in a style convincingly similar to your own.

We're already in a world where AI is rapidly gaining the ability to do this too, but you'll typically find AI-generated content to be wide of the mark, often in ways that are hard to pin down or correct. It's that 'uncanny valley' feeling of content that just sounds... weird.

By working with a human freelancer like me, you can give me any examples of your own writing, or have me work from a video or podcast. Alternatively, just give me a few bullet points of what you want your blog post to say, and a pointer on tone of voice, and I can come up with a first draft we can hone together.

A good CEO blog ghostwriter will deliver good-quality content while taking all of the following into account:

• Writing to match your tone of voice and phrasing
• Including SEO keywords and CTAs
• Reducing time and effort needed from you
• Editing (if needed) to get wording spot-on
• Adding research and context about your industry

By providing some thoughts of your own and letting your freelance blog ghostwriter add their own research, you'll often end up with an even more insightful finished blog post than if you had written it yourself.

In the end, it's about making your life easier so you can focus on running your business. As a freelancer, I know self-promotion isn't always easy, especially when there are more pressing priorities on a day-to-day basis.

How to start a CEO blog

What if you don't already have a CEO blog, but you want to start one with the help of a ghostwriter?

There are a few things to check first:

1. Does your website template include a blog/news section you can post to?
2. Do you have ideas about what you want to say on your blog?
3. Is your ghostwriter familiar with CSS, SEO and website formatting?
4. Are you planning to upload your content, or do you want your freelancer to do it?
5. How much content (and how regularly delivered) do you want?

A full-time freelance content writer should be able to commit to the schedule you need, without any gaps in delivery. Consider working with a ghostwriter who can create content several weeks in advance, so you always have a stockpile of scheduled blog posts to keep going through any unavoidable absences.

Once you've got a good idea of what you want from your blog, it's time to agree a content schedule with your freelance ghostwriter. You can start with a single page if you want to test the waters, or set out a plan for daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly blog posts over the next 3-6 months.

It's also sensible to set an approximate word count for each page. For the best performance in Google Search results/rankings, this should be at least 1,000-1,500 words, but this is a very general rule of thumb. Your SEO agency (if you have one) can help with this decision, or you can trust your freelancer to write the number of words needed.

The work you put in early on will help to make sure your ghostwriter produces better content even within a matter of days or weeks. Don't be afraid to provide constructive feedback, especially when it comes to your tone of voice.

Remember, authenticity is one of the critical factors in a CEO blog, so make sure your ghostwriter does a good job of 'sounding' like you.

How to organise a CEO blog

As you start to build up a collection of blog posts, it's a good idea to introduce some simple organisation to keep posts on similar topics together.

Most content management systems (CMS - your website's admin page e.g. WordPress) support categories and topic tags. As you add new posts to your blog, you select one or more categories to group posts according to their subject matter.

This helps you to provide an organised archive for visitors to your blog, where they can read more of your insights on each topic just by clicking a category link. It's also a good way to signpost to the search engines that pages are related to each other in some way, which can help to reinforce your search rankings.

Again, if this is something you're not confident about, that doesn't matter. Your freelance writer, SEO agency, web designer or in-house marketing team should all be able to help.

Planning a weekly agenda for scheduled blog posts.

You might even find categories help you when it comes to planning future content. For instance, if your blog has four main categories, you might decide to post one page per week and cycle through those topics, so each section receives one update per month.

Organising your blog should (by definition) help to organise your content creation process too - so ask your ghostwriter if you need an expert opinion on how to do this.

Get a CEO blog ghostwriter today

If you'd like to know more about my services as a CEO blog ghostwriter, please email me or contact me via my socials. My emails come through to my phone, so that's the best way to reach me wherever I am (flag your email as important if you need a reply urgently).

As a full-time career freelancer, I make it my business to be available whenever possible. I'm also very flexible whether you want a single blog post to see how well it performs, or you're ready to dive right into a long-term CEO blog content schedule.

My prices are competitive and I'm open to offers. I write everything from scratch - I don't use AI to generate anything - so there aren't massive economies of scale, but I am open to negotiation for larger orders and long-term commitments.

I've always found ghostwriting CEO blogs to be really rewarding. As a writer, it's both challenging and interesting to mimic another person's way of writing (or speaking) as closely as possible, especially when they have genuine insight and entrepreneurial spirit to share.

Let me know if you have any questions about my services or about anything on this page. I'm available all year round with very few days off, so please get in touch and we can start planning your first blog posts immediately.