How to write about programming languages without a technical background

Intro

Writing has always been a passion of mine. When I got a job as a Web3 writer for an ed-tech company, I was on cloud nine. As per Social Media Today, 77% of internet users read blogs. Thus, my job served as an opportunity to introduce the world to my work.

While I was daydreaming about how I will have a loyal audience and an international readership in the next couple of months, I was asked by my manager to write guides on different programming languages that are heavily used in the Web3 space. Coming from a non-technical background, this felt like a difficult task.

However, after much trial and error, I eventually reached a point where I had curated a recipe for writing lengthy guides on various programming languages, and that too, in a way that a person belonging to a technical background would write.

So, in this blog, I’ll be sharing five tips that saved my energy, and time and helped me write technical and factually correct guides that can rank on Google.

(Image by Metaschool)

Why should you be writing guides on technical topics?

Before this guide jumps to the formula, let us first understand why writing guides on technical topics is important and can yield good results for your blog.

First of all, technical guides serve as a great way for you to connect with an audience, share your knowledge and skills. However, technical content is also very niche-specific. You are not likely to write such guides if you own a lifestyle blog. However, with new technological advancements such as AI and blockchain gaining traction, tech-related blogs are seeing a rise. Many have their own AI-backed products. This is where technical writing can play a huge role in driving traffic toward your blog and product.

Secondly, there is no doubt that in today’s day and age, when you want to learn something technical, YouTube is your go-to place. There are hundreds of thousands of videos and tutorials available. The space is quite saturated if you will. You may now wonder that if the required material is already available on YouTube, why would anyone want to resort to writing lengthy guides? Well, that’s your answer right there. Everyone around you is, more-or-less, thinking the same way. People are focusing on making more and more video content, not realizing that they can build an audience by writing content, too.

Thirdly, if we talk about programming languages then there are not many written guides on the internet. The documentation available on the official websites tends to be wordy and contains a lot of information. Guides essentially consolidate all the available information provided by a language’s lengthy documentation, summarize it, and share a less-cluttered, easy-to-navigate version to cater to the audience that prefers to read.

Lastly, to reiterate, if you have a business that revolves around technology, Web3, and AI, writing guides is the swiftest way to help you rank for different keywords and bring your business to the forefront. These are some of the reasons why you should consider writing guides on technical topics if you have a blog or business in a similar niche.

Tip #1 - Choose wisely the languages you want to write your guides on

The first step is to tread wisely because you wouldn’t want to write a guide on a language, such as Solidity, that is already difficult to rank for. Thus, you should begin with thorough keyword research before starting to write guides on a language. The magic formula for low-effort keywords is; high search volume and low difficulty. You can leverage Ranktracker’s Keyword Finder to do so. You may also check for the number of full-length guides that have already been published to get an idea of your competitors. In fact, in order to gauge your competitors, you may use Ranktracker’s SERP Checker which will help you consolidate the weak points of your competitors.

However, before you have selected your primary and secondary keywords, make sure that the language you are writing on is not growing obsolete or undergoing any major changes. Sometimes you might end up finding the perfect keyword to write your language guide on only to realize that the language’s name has changed i.e. Cairo is now Cairo 1.0. Tools like Ahrefs won’t instantly show you that.

If a language has already undergone a change, you will see it. But in some cases, a language may still be at the stage of proposing changes. This is why doing extensive homework on what a language intends to do next is also super important.

Tip #2 - Be very specific about the guide outline

The outline is everything when writing lengthy guides on languages. However, creating outlines also happens to be one of the difficult tasks. When writing guides for a wider audience, there is a rule of thumb that you must follow: you can’t be too basic and you can’t be too technical either. You must always strike a balance between both.

This means that both a newbie programmer and an expert should be able to understand and grasp the point you’re making. And your outline greatly helps you in this case. Now, here it is equally important to meet the searcher’s intent and produce the content accordingly.

In my experience, when people search for guides on languages, they are usually looking for practical knowledge. Thus, your outline should be more focused on hands-on learning and less on generic knowledge such as the history of a programming language.

(Image taken from Sulekha)

Tip #3 - Start the guide with less complex stuff

When you finally start to write your language guide, make sure to start with the basic stuff and then increase the complexity as you move. If you are writing about a language like Python, briefly and succinctly introduce it from the beginning. Note down all the important and fun facts about the language and start sprinkling them in the beginning. In order to hook the reader to the blog, it is recommended to add stats like what percentage of people use this language, etc. You can also think of it as answering the _who, when, _and _why _of a language.

Then, you must mention some of the popular projects that have been coded using this particular programming language. In many cases, people are not aware that an application that they have been using on a daily basis is partially or fully coded in a certain programming language. Thus, this makes them intrigued and curious and they keep on reading. In fact, mentioning these fun facts occasionally within the guide makes the guide more palatable for less experienced programmers.

You can also consider drawing a comparison between the principal language and its competitor. This shall further bring a new perspective to the reader. All in all, try to spend the first 500-600 words introducing the language. But try to not go beyond this limit.

Tip #4 - Put ample focus on the meaty portion of the guide

As mentioned, people who are looking for written guides online are looking for practical tips and the specifics of the language. You will also see a pattern when you read the documentation of a programming language. Some things are constant across all of them. These include data types, variable types, frameworks, libraries, tools, etc.

This shows that these specifics can’t be compromised on and should always be mentioned. While each programming language has a number of different frameworks, libraries, and tools, what you should do is choose 3 popular elements for each and add them. The languages’ official GitHub accounts can significantly help you in this regard.

Now, you may wonder that if these details are already there on GitHub, why should you be adding them to your guide? Well, information on GitHub tends to be difficult to navigate because there are hundreds of files. Thus, focusing on the important bits will greatly help as you will be filling out a gap by quickly providing the readers with the top 3 libraries, frameworks, tools, etc. Moreover, the readers will also be able to get the most out of the guide.

Tip #5 - Double down on the learning part

When you have started writing the main portion of the guide which includes language specifics, you should ensure that you are providing value to the reader by practically applying what you have written.

Most guides available on the internet today do not include coding. Coming from a non-technical background, you would also not be aware of coding. However, mentioning basic coding steps within the article, especially using the frameworks and libraries, and tools that you have mentioned, can make your guide more value-packed.

But how can you code if you don’t know anything about it? This is where you can get help from Bard or ChatGPT or Ranktracker’s AI Article Writer to help you, say code the simplest smart contract, in 3 easy steps. You may have it checked by a coder friend or acquaintance, or post it on a coder’s forum to make sure that what you have written is correct.

This will add to your authenticity and authority as a blog owner or writer.

In conclusion,

Writing lengthy technical guides is not an easy task to do, especially when you don’t have much knowledge about the programming jargon. There will be sundry challenges. However, once you have written your first 2-3 programming language guides, you will get a hang of things. It works as a process. While the tips mentioned above may not be the most accurate formula for writing guides on programming languages, they can surely help you align and add structure to your guides as someone not belonging to a technical background.