A 13 step guide for writing great content for your website!
- Put Your Most Important Information First.
The first thing that your visitors need to know is what you do. Put it in a simple statement that’s easy for them to understand. All the additional details they need will then fall into place once they get the big picture. What is it that you do and how can you serve them?
2) Write for Scanners
According to research, 84% of the people scan the webpages, and not read them entirely. Make sure your content suits this reading type by following these guidelines:
– The headline should communicate the essence of the content
– The image caption should match the title and communicate a sales message
– Each additional headline should summarise the main point of the paragraphs presented
– Use bullet points or numbered lists to avoid wordiness?
Your visitors need to understand your message from the very first visit, and you need to help them do it quickly. If the visitors can’t wrap their head around your first page, they’ll move on to the next website, because they are hunting for easy information.
3) Make it Easy for Readers to Find You
Attract consumers and potential customers to your website by ensuring them they’ll find something valuable there. How can you do that?
– Know your audience and identify any potential questions they may have. Then, make sure you answer them throughout your content;
– Keep one main subject per page;
– Use the power of links to send them to other pages on your website or other websites you think might help them;
– Use your customers’ language – this includes keywords, expressions and wording.
4) Make a Visual Impression
The visual design of your webpages also has an impact on how long your visitors will spend reading your content. If you want to make sure that time is longer than the industry standard, keep an eye on the following:
– Use photos or videos instead of some parts of the text;
– Use different font sizes – large text is easier to be seen;
– Enhance credibility by using quotes from experts or testimonials from customers;
– Don’t refrain from using different formatting techniques, like highlights, bold text, CAPS, or italics;
– Use both headlines and sub-headlines to break text, but still express everything on your mind;
– Use bullet points and numbered lists.
Last, but not least – de-clutter. No one wants to read a block of text that seems to have no ending. Break the text into short paragraphs to make it easier to read, but also enhance your credibility.
5) Start With Keyword Research for SEO
Make sure that your consumers can easily find you and choose the right keywords for every page. SEO is here to stay, and „black hat techniques” – or the shortest path to content success – will always backfire. Don’t stuff keywords in your pages, because it is not user-friendly and you may get the opposite effect.
6) Update Your Links
Introducing links to other pages on your website encourages your visitors to spend more time in there. Moreover, it is also a ranking booster for your SEO score.
7) Revamp Posts for Maximum Value
Keep your content up to date. You can do it by rewriting pieces of content at a different length – for instance, turn a social media post or video content into a full-sized article, or vice versa – and update the keywords that are more accurate at the moment. That might give you another good ranking boost!
8) Provide a Simple Navigation Menu
The navigation panel should be simple and easy to use. This affects the time your visitors spend on your website, your conversion rate and the overall SEO score. Think of it as of a table of contents for your website – that’s the place your visitors will want to check to find their way and navigate through your online home.
9) Use Calls to Action
Call to Action buttons are what make the difference between a visitor and a customer. Having multiple such buttons is ok and even useful, as long as it’s not a constant bombardment to buy something or subscribe to a newsletter. Think of them as reminders, and place them where they are most relevant in the content structure. Otherwise, your visitors might feel overwhelmed or forced into buying something they’re not convinced of yet, and they will leave your website without thinking twice.
10) Create Original Content
Copy and paste is too last century. Besides being unethical, Google will lower your SEO score so much, that your website won’t get to see (at least) the first ten pages of results. Make you’re your content is 100% original, and increase your chances of getting noticed in Google.
11) Pay Attention to the Meta Title and Meta Description
Meta Title and Meta Description are snippets of text, usually shorter than 60, respectively 160 characters, that are meant to give further info to your potential visitors about your website.
If these texts are relevant to your customers, they will click it. If not, they’ll move on to the next appealing Meta Description that they find trustworthy. Also, bear in mind that the text should also be linked to your website.
12) Don’t Forget to Blog
Another thing to consider is how “lively” your blog is. If you keep posting articles at least twice a week, that would be a sign for the search engines that your blog is actual, up to date, and ready to provide useful information to potential visitors, therefore enhancing your score.
13) Check for Errors
Great content is about how much your visitors enjoy spending time on your website, how easy it is for them to read (or scan) the content and how much value they get out of that. This means that grammatical mistakes, misspelling, typos, wordiness or links that lead to 404-error pages are not allowed on your website. If you’re not sure of the quality of your content, work with a content specialist, that will take care of everything.
