How to write great website content

There is so much rubbish content out there on the web. When you sit down to write a post for your website, you need to stand out from the poorly written, badly researched nonsense that is clogging up the internet.

But, how can you be sure you’re writing copy that your audience will enjoy?

Check out our 7 tips on how to write great website content.

1. Know your audience

Who are you actually writing for? You need to define your target audience before you start typing so you can strike the right tone and level of expertise. Picture your ideal customer before you, think about their interests, their challenges, and what it is you want them to take away after reading your piece. Then, translate that to the content you’re putting on the page.

 2. Don’t hard sell

People hate pushy sales pieces and will simply abandon your article if you’re going too hard on the sell. Instead, focus on putting across the information a user needs to make an informed choice about a purchase. The more helpful you are to them, the more likely they are to choose you over your competitor. Show the benefits of your offering in a subtle way rather than giving a list of features and demanding “buy now” call to action.

3. Do your research

You know that you’re the experts at what you do, but a first-time user doesn’t. Your digital copywriting should show them how well you know your stuff. A great way to do this is to include statistics and links to relevant research elsewhere on the web. This also helps you to enter into a topical community online which can be beneficial to your SEO.

4. Clear, eye-catching headlines

Your content’s headline is likely to be the first thing a user sees from your post. It needs to be eye-catching but not full of click bait and false promise. Make sure it is specific to what you’re actually writing about, so your user is getting exactly what they expect when they click through. If their experience doesn’t match their expectation, they’ll leave.

5. Break up the text

A user doesn’t want to have to force their way through huge, chunky paragraphs to get to the specific piece of information they need. Use headings, line breaks and even images to break up text blocks so a user can scan more easily.

6. Include your keywords

You need to include your keywords in your copy to ensure it can help your site rank in search engine listings. But, you should use them naturally across the page – don’t cram them in where it doesn’t make sense to. Keyword stuffing will do more harm than good and won’t help you write a compelling piece of user-friendly website content.

7. Proof, proof, proof

Great website content is clear and engaging, offers solutions, and engages emotions. It does not include lots of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and shouty calls to action. Before publishing anything online, make sure you have proof-read it.

It’s often useful to have a break between writing and proofing too so you don’t miss a glaring copy error because you read what you meant it to say, rather than what is actually written on the page. Using Word’s read aloud feature can be helpful here as your ears will pick up on little mistakes that your eyes might not.

Following these 7 steps will give your next piece of digital content a boost. Good luck and happy writing!