Writing great content is a choice. You can choose to put in the time and work required to create great content and build a prosperous brand. Or you can choose to take the easy path and write poor content – a path that ultimately will get you nowhere. Will only result in a waste of time, energy, and resources. Your content has to be better. It has to stand out. And it has to strike a chord with your audience and engage your influencers. Can’t write that kind of content consistently off the top of your head. All you need is research.
1. Put Your Most Important Information First
In writing for the web is completely different from writing an essay or paper. Information that would be most important to your site readers is often a simple statement of what you do. They might want to know several important details once they understand what you’re doing. Then–they might want to know some background information. Your most important points always come first on the web pages.
First of all, your customers want to know the big picture What do you do or what can you do for them? Journalists call this way of writing the inverted pyramid. For newspaper articles, the most newsworthy information comes first before facts and background information. Even if you only read the first paragraph of a newspaper story, you still understand the big picture. It’s the same thing on your website.
2. Use Familiar Words
Carewords are the words that people are looking for. We often like to make ourselves sound better than we do. We’re trying to embellish what we’re doing. Trying to sound scientific, fancy, or special. But your web visitor is looking for familiar words — care words— because they’re the fragrance trail that tells him he’s in the right place.
3. Write For Lazy People
The web is for everyone—not just technical experts. So make sure information is understandable for the educated non-specialist. Spell out acronyms on the first reference. Avoid insider language. Explain complex or niche terms. Provide hyperlinks to other articles where readers can get more background information on a particular topic.
4. Make A Visual Impression
Web copy and web design should work together. Can’t write your words, you can’t compose your sentences, you can create your bullet points, without considering how your web page will look. The visual appeal of your website impacts the readability of your text; and influences whether web visitors can quickly get what you’re about.
How to increase the visual appeal of your web copy:
- Replace text with photographs or videos
- Consider different font sizes – think about people scanning large text first
- Emphasize quotes of customers (or experts) to add credibility
- Play around with highlights, bold text, CAPS, or italics
- Break a long headline into a headline with a sub-headline
- Change paragraphs into bullet points
Don’t treat your web visitors like academics who love reading challenging and complicated texts. Instead, make your text as simple as possible. Do not try to be everything to everybody. Know who you are and what you do. If your positioning is clear, it’s much easier to stand out on the web and be found. When your message is clear, much easier to create persuasive web copy. Be clear, specific, and bold.
5. Make It Easy For Hunters To Find You
Potential customers are hunting for information or products. Lure potential customers to your website by providing useful information. That is how writing for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) basically works:
- Answer the questions potential customers are asking
- Discuss one key topic for each page
- Include links to relevant pages on your own website or to other websites
- Use phrases and words your potential customers are looking for
You’ve heard the term content marketing no doubt. All of the above was content, but the final step is marketing it. If you follow steps 1 to 3 then your content will (hopefully) deserve to rank for some meaningful queries, but if your post is hidden somewhere obscure then it might never happen.
