The art of writing great website content
Filling a website with interesting and informative text content can be exciting and straight forward for some, and a thing of nightmares for others.
Not all of us can knock out a pleasing paragraph or eight at the blink of an eye. Some of us will sit and ponder, then sit more and ponder more, and still not have the slightest idea how to get to get started. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered with some tips to help you begin your writing journey and create some great website content that should sparkle!
What do you want to achieve?
Perhaps you’ve been tasked with writing a weekly blog article, or descriptions for all the services your company offers, or all the content for your new website? Whatever your writing task, you need to set goals for exactly what you want to achieve. What is the purpose of that text content? For example, is it to entertain and engage, provide information in an uncomplicated way, or persuade someone to get in contact? How much text do you need to write? Keep in mind that too little text or too much text can both be off-putting for readers. Once you have set yourself some simple objectives, you’ll feel more comfortable taking on the task.
Who are you writing for?
Sounds a silly question, but who will be reading what you write? Writing good quality content takes time and effort; anything you publish on your web pages needs to appeal to, interest and engage your target audience. Who are these potential readers, and what will work best for them? What style, tone and formality of writing will be the best route to take? For example, writing up technical specifics for architects will be a completely different ball game to that of writing a review about the latest rock concert.
Do you know your subject?
You may know the subject you’re writing about inside out, which makes things a whole lot easier. On the other hand, you may only have limited knowledge, which adds more burden to your writing task. Don’t be tempted to bluff your way through a subject when creating text, as it will be obvious to many of your readers. Immediately your credibility will fly out of the window, and they’ll be gone! If you simply don’t know enough about the subject at hand, then it’s time to take time out and do some research. The Internet is full of resources that can help broaden your knowledge.
Make your content easy to read
Don’t be tempted to bulk out text content with confusing, over waffly, repetitive paragraphs to make it look grand. Always try to make your website text content easy to read, informative and digestible; remember what was mentioned previously – you need to pitch your writing to appeal to and interest your target audience. Also, keep in mind that visitors to your website could be using desktop, tablet, or mobile devices, and that most will simply skim your text content to pull out information that is relevant to them.
Don’t forget those keywords!
After all your hard work, you’ll of course want people to read the content you created. That’s where keywords come in; short string of words that all of us type into search engines when we want to find websites, or website content that we’re interested in. For example, ‘web designers in Toronto’, ‘Turkish restaurants near me’ or ‘Budget car hire’. Optimizing your text content with keywords relevant to the subject you are writing about will be essential. Doing so will make your text appealing to both readers and equally as important – search engines.
Don’t be tempted to copy
Yes, creating unique and original text content takes time and effort, but please don’t even think of copying someone else’s hard work. It may be the easy way out, but the price is high. Search engines are constantly crawling web pages, and are adapt at finding duplicate content, regardless of where that content is held anywhere across the world. Websites containing the same content as each other can be penalized, resulting in the dreaded drop in search rankings. This can be disastrous, especially if your business relies on web generated sales and inquiries. You may also find legal action being taken out against you by the original content creator.
Take time to review your work
Once you’ve completed your writing task, it’s always advisable to reread your work a few times. This will give you the opportunity to spot any errors and rewrite certain bits. Sometimes, leaving a reread until the next day is much better as you will see the content with fresh eyes. Once you’re happy with what you’ve done, it’s time to run a full spelling and grammar check too. Poorly published content is a sight for sore eyes and can put people off ever reading your work or visiting your website again!
Don’t give up!
Like any other task, writing content will become easier over time as your confidence grows; you’ll even develop your own writing style and feel more comfortable. Yes, there may be days when you come across the dreaded ‘writer’s block’, when even stringing together a few sentences will hurt your brain. But take comfort, even the world’s most famous authors still experience that from time to time!
Looking for help?
Perhaps, after this article you’re still not convinced to get started on your text content. That’s OK – we can help you regardless of what type of text content you want created. Our professional copywriting service is used by clients from all sectors of industries. Why not get in touch with us today to see some examples of the work we have done and get a quote?
