The Most Accurate AI Content Detector
Try Our AI Detector
Content Marketing

Listicles — What Are They + 8 Best Practices for Writing a Listicle

Readers love a good listicle! List posts can entertain, educate, and engage your readers — everything you hope for in content marketing. Here are some best practices.

Trusted By Industry Leaders
Trusted By Industry Leaders

Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

Listicles, also called list posts, are articles presented as lists. 

If you’ve searched for anything online, odds are you’ve bumped into a listicle or two. 

Well-written listicles are entertaining and informative. They break down information into bite-sized increments and organize them into a format that is easy for readers to scan and digest.

Listicles are readable, easy to digest, and can boost engagement. Get insight into what listicles are and best practices for writing a listicle.

What’s In This Article

  • What are listicles? Get an insightful overview of what listicles are.
  • The top benefits of including listicles in a content marketing strategy, such as creating easily digestible content that engages your audience.
  • Best practices for writing a fantastic listicle from checking readability to optimizing content, and organizing headings.

What Are Listicles?

Unlike traditional articles or blog posts, which follow a traditional structure with body paragraphs, listicles use a list-based format

The information is split into a list of items in short, numbered sections that are easy to consume. 

While listicles work well for all types of content, some familiar ones include curated lists targeted toward a specific audience, such as:

  • Top 5 Smartwatches for Cyclists
  • 10 Ideas for a Tech-Free Weekend
  • 8 Things to Know About Gaming Computers
  • 25 Content Marketing Tips for the New Year

Why Include Listicles in Your Content Marketing? 

Listicles make a great addition to your content marketing strategy because people love to read lists! 

An article in The Guardian notes that human brains love ordered tasks, partly because lists help to reduce stress around chaos in day-to-day life.

Order and organization amid chaos

Picture all of the information on the internet as a kind of  “chaos” of potential information to consume. In this context, a handpicked list targeted toward a specific search intent really appeals to readers. 

When a reader spots a listicle, it provides easy-to-consume information they can process and understand quickly. 

Essentially a good, well-structured list provides order, organization, and a quick answer to their search. 

Predictable formatting that can improve time on page

A listicle has a definite beginning and end; at any given point, a reader knows what they are getting and where they stand in their reading. 

If a listicle is titled “The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Location,” and a reader is on number 5, they know they are halfway through. 

So, if the topic of the listicle aligns with a reader’s search intent, they are likely to see this list all the way through to number 10 (which can increase time on page). 

And let’s not forget, within this predictable format, there’s also an element of surprise in looking ahead to see what comes next!

So, how do you know if your listicle will give readers what they want? We’ve got some ideas — and we’ll present them in a list.

8 Qualities of Great Listicles: Best Practices

When it comes to writing high-quality content as listicles — there’s more involved than simply picking a topic and adding numbers on the section headings.

1. Choose an engaging topic that aligns with search intent

Your listicle's top priority is expanding on a topic that resonates with your audience. Long-tail keywords work great for pinpointing a specific listicle title. 

Examples: 

  • Instead of “smartwatches,” focus on something more specific, like “smartwatches for cyclists.
  • Instead of “gaming laptop,” try “gaming laptops under ($ amount) for casual gamers.”
  • Instead of “buying a laptop,” focus on “laptop features that matter most.

In addition, make sure your topic works well in a listicle format. If you can’t number the items, features or components in the article, maybe the list form isn’t right for that article. 

2. Write a clear, catchy title that tells the reader what to expect

After zeroing in on a great topic, ensure the title stands out and confidently and authoritatively addresses a specific search.

Examples:

  • The 10 Best-Fitting Smartwatches for Cyclists
  • 5 High-Performing Gaming Laptops Under ($ amount)
  • 7 Laptop Features That Matter Most in the Long Run

3. Focus on readability to reach the most readers

Once you’ve got a great topic and title, ensure your listicle can reach the largest target audience by addressing readability

Use clear and simple vocabulary, clean and concise sentences and paragraphs, and keep your sections consistent and helpful.

Avoid fluffy copy that muddles your message. This is a list, and it should be clear, concise and consumable. 

To check the readability of your content before publication, use the Originality.ai Readability Checker.

4. Use clear organization and numbering to guide the reader

Lay out your list of items in an order that makes the most sense for your reader. 

The order you use should gracefully and logically guide your reader through the article, whether alphabetically, chronologically, step-by-step, or by a rating system. 

If your content is complex or has secondary lists or steps within the list, make sure the items are broken down into clearly organized, bite-sized sections with headings that serve as signposts for the reader. 

Ultimately, no matter your topic, the list must be easy to scan visually. 

5. Make every item and heading helpful and meaningful

Every item or step on your list is a heading. The heading should be very clear and helpful — not fluffy. 

If a reader were to scan just through your headings, they should get a general idea of each item or step. 

Examples: 

If the article is “7 Laptop Features That Matter Most in the Long Run,” each numbered heading should tell the reader what to expect from that item/section. 

  • While “RAM” works, “You Need RAM: The Key to Computer Performance” is better.
  • Screen” is fine, but “Get a Display You Can Look at All Day” is better.
  • CPU” doesn’t say much. “Higher CPU Means Faster Basic Functions,” tells more.

Expand the headings of your numbered items just enough to give your readers the basic idea and inspire them to read further. 

6. Include as many items or steps as the reader needs

Don’t add more steps or items just to stretch out your content. Include the information that is most valuable to the reader. 

The post doesn’t need to reach a certain number of words. It needs to give the reader the information they are looking for in an efficient, easy-to-read way. 

Emphasize quality over quantity and make your listicle length “just right.”

7. Include internal and external links

As in all blog articles, relevant and valuable inline links add to the user experience by helping them navigate to other helpful information on your website.

It can also help the performance of your website. According to Ahrefs, internal links are key to taking a strategic approach to SEO. Plus, they can enhance the performance of your other pages. 

External links can also help expand a reader’s knowledge or provide background information from authoritative primary sources. 

Learn more about citations and citing sources.

8. Optimize listicles for SEO

The format of your blog article doesn’t change any of the other best practices you know about optimizing your blog writing, such as:

Then, incorporate the Originality.ai Content Optimizer to optimize your listicle for your primary keyword and stay a step ahead of the competition. This is also a great opportunity to check for AI content that may require further editing.

Final Thoughts

People love reading a good list, and listicles can be very engaging and informative for visitors. 

If your content lends itself to list format, follow all the best practices you already know for optimizing your article, and remember the listicle-specific items that will make your post rise to the top.

Get more insight into creating exceptional content in our top guides:

Originality.ai Writers

Our experienced team of writers at Originality.ai are passionate about creating innovative and compelling content across a range of topics, from grammar guides to readability, content marketing, and more!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

View All Press
Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

analyticsinsight.net

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

Software License Agreement

Copyright © 2023, Originality.ai

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Will My Data Be Shared?

This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

More From The Blog

Al Content Detector & Plagiarism Checker for Marketers and Writers

Use our leading tools to ensure you can hit publish with integrity!