A Guide to Content Writing for the Web

When creating a new website, the best person to write the content is the business owner. Why? No one knows your business, your products and your market like you do. No one else is passionate about your products or services like you are. Whether you’re a wordsmith or not, writing comes alive with passion.

When writing website content there are a number of things to consider. I'll list a few of them below.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

There are over 200 factors that search engines look for within your website when their search bots are crawling through it. A lot of them we look after in the background, however one thing is for sure, content is king! One of the most important things in a website is great content. Content that is relevant and content that is kept up to date.

When users type in a search phrase they are typically asking a question about something they want resolved or what marketing professionals call the pain point. So when you are writing your content, think carefully about that. What are the common questions your customers ask? Be really specific about how you can answer these questions. How can you solve their problem? And what is the outcome of that result? How has that result improved their life, or their loved one’s life? How has it improved their business? Has it improved their productivity or their bottom line? How? Do you have real statistics?

Who is your target market? What is your niche? What is your marketing message? What is your brand positioning? What do customers think when they hear your brand?

How well do you know your customer? Get out a piece of paper and list 10 pain points. Then 10 results that your product or service can deliver them to address these pain points.

That’s okay if you can’t get 10, but try to get as many as you can think of. Use your list as your guide to what you focus on when writing your content.

Never copy!

Plagiarism is not only illegal, but search engine algorithms are really smart and they know if you’ve copied another website. Be warned, you will be penalised for this and may even be de-indexed, which means your website won’t show at all in search engine results.

Use Video

People love to watch videos, and a great video will have them stay right there on your website to watch it. Those smart little search engine algorithms monitor how long someone stays on your website, so the longer you can keep them there watching your awesome video, the higher that search engine time clock will tick over, ultimately leading to better search engine results.

Images

Great quality images are a must. If you’re selling products then invest in getting great images of your products. Your images need to be optimised for the web, which means resized to a web-friendly size. Resize your image to exactly how you want it displayed on the website, so not to waste bandwidth and load speed. Your image needs to be 72 pixels per inch. Anything greater than that will cause your image to be unnecessarily large for the web. If you don’t already have software that will resize an image for the web, there are a number of sites and apps that allow you to use their services for free. Just search “free sites to resize photos online”.

Which leads me onto the next topic...

Real images, real people

Business is now more personal than ever. People love dealing with real people. Put an image of yourself, your team or your shop front if you have one. Put an image of your dog if Woofy is your passion. You will be amazed at how many people will relate to Woofy! Talk about yourself. Why are you in this business? Why are you passionate about what you do? What is your story? Has your product/service helped you or a loved one personally?

Disclaimer: Please be aware of how much personal stuff you share if it means putting you or your loved ones in potential danger.

Research

Research what your competitors are doing. Note what they’re doing but more importantly, what they’re not doing! How are you are different? What makes your products/services unique? Why would customers want to deal with you? Don’t go to war with your competitors on something that they are really good at. Show your customers why they should choose you instead.

More information

If you get stuck, as a lot of business owners do, a great resource to refer to for inspiration is your own business plan. Your business plan has a wealth of information that can help steer you in the right direction when writing your website content.

If you need more help, check out Linkedin Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/. Linkedin Learning have a heap of short courses run by industry experts that can get you on your way. Search for “writing content for the web” and “digital marketing”. And if you’re not already a member, you can take advantage of the 30-day free trial to get a few courses under your belt.

Help

If you don’t have the time and/or desire to write the content for your website, that’s okay, we can help you. Please get in contact with us to discuss.