It’s Time to Take Your Website Content to the Next Level
Strong website content is so important for a website’s success. High-quality content will bring in more search traffic and help your site rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Keeping a blog on your website and publishing on it regularly can help you create a community on your site, and gives you a means of adding fresh search keywords to your site regularly.
But writing great web content isn’t as easy as it sounds. Even if you’re a strong writer, it’s not like writing for a print publication. You still have to grab your reader’s attention and hold it, but you also have to consider the affordances of the medium. Use these tips to write some truly next-level content for your website.
Grab Your Readers Immediately
How can you grab your readers’ attention immediately? By starting strong with a hook. A hook is a compelling opening that asks a question, uses an anecdote, makes a surprising statement, or uses another of several techniques to seize the reader’s attention right off the bat. Keep the rest of the piece compelling so that readers will continue to engage with it. Readers should be eager to consume the rest of the content after they’ve been grabbed by the hook.
Write for Low-Literacy Readers
Did you know that 54 percent of American adults read below the 6th-grade level? You should write your content so that it’s easy for low-literacy readers to understand. Using simple, clear, and plain language. Readers at all literacy levels will get more out of it.
Take an Upbeat, Friendly Tone
Readers expect a friendly, personable, upbeat tone from their web content. Avoid sounding overly clinical or bureaucratic. Address readers directly. Use “I” and “we” statements when talking about your own perspective or that of your company. Write in active voice instead of passive voice – for example, say, “Zombies ate Mike” instead of “Mike was eaten by zombies.” Active voice sounds less formal, is easier to read, and helps the writing flow more effectively.
Break Up Text
No one wants to confront a webpage full of dense text. Readers encountering a wall of text will bounce away. Break up text into short paragraphs, and use headings and subheadings to break it up further and make it more scannable. Include plenty of pictures, videos if you have them, and bulleted lists or numbered lists. Make sure there’s plenty of white space between paragraphs.
Make the Most of Your Links
Links should be four to eight words long and they should be contextual. Don’t just use “click here” for links. Make a part of a sentence into a link. For example, if you’re writing about white label SEO services, make that phrase your link.
You should add links to your content whenever relevant. Link to other pages on your website or to other posts on your blog. Link out to relevant pages off your site, too. If you call on a statistic, link to the source. If you write about someone who has their own site, link to it.
Optimize for Search
All of your website content needs to be optimized for search. Use search keywords in your title and subheadings if they seem to fit there naturally. Use your primary search keyword in the first sentence of your content and in the last paragraph, as well as a couple of times in the body. Use five to ten secondary keywords in your content body, too, but be careful to avoid keyword stuffing.
Use the Inverted Triangle Structure
The inverted triangle or inverted pyramid structure might be familiar to you if you’ve ever taken a journalism class. It’s a style of writing in which you front-load all of the most important information into the beginning of the piece. This can work because many people won’t read the whole article. At best, they’ll read about 20 percent of it and skim the rest. So you want to make sure that all the most important stuff is in the beginning of the article – the part your readers will actually read closely.
High-quality content – and a lot of it – is just what your website needs to make it to the top of the SERPs. Take the time to craft great content that will grab your readers and keep them coming back for more. It’s one of the best ways to boost SEO, strengthen your brand’s reputation and visibility online, and even create a community based around your website.