When it comes to using a website builder and making a website, your content should be your main priority. You don’t have to take our word for it though, you can look at the facts: Over one-third of visitors will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.
Great website content is written with both the readers and SEO in mind. And if you want to capture the attention you rightfully deserve, you’re going to need to put in some effort.
What is website content?
Website content includes all written and visual elements present on your site that provide information about your business, products or services to your site visitors. This includes, but is not limited to, text, images, videos, infographics, audio files, PDFs and various forms of interactive content.
Examples of text focused website content includes headlines, page copy or body text, blog posts, product descriptions, and downloadable content like eBooks or whitepapers. Examples of visual driven website content includes images, videos and infographics, all of which help to break up your website's text while engaging users.
Good website content should be relevant, valuable to the reader, and optimized with keywords for search engines to improve visibility. It should always reflect your company's brand voice and be consistent in style and quality across all pages. This means it will need updating regularly too.
Learn more about how to start a blog, with a blog maker.
10 tips to write engaging website content
We’ve compiled the following 10 tips on writing website content that will help you boost your traffic and conversion rates:
01. Get to know your audience
Having an understanding of who you’re speaking to is something that you might’ve addressed back when you decided to start a business. Establishing how you will voice your offerings when you’re writing for the web takes that effort one step further. These words are meant to sell something, whether that’s an idea, product or service. And in order to do that, you’ll have to talk your audience’s language.
Consider your target market: What do they look like? Where are they from? What is their age range? What are their common interests? Write the answers to these questions down so that as you go through the proceeding tips and perfect your website content, you can keep this community at the front of your mind.
02. Provide value
It’s not enough to be a great writer who transcribes elegant text. You need to be able to provide value through your chosen words and copywriting. And now that you know who your audience is, you’ll want to speak directly to them and their interests. Ask yourself, “Would my targeted visitors care about this sentence?” for each and every line you write. Restructure your words to align with their desires, to fix their problems, and to spark their curiosity.
You should also consider the current Internet trends of content from relevant and popular blogs. Use these publications as inspiration for your own work - whether that’s your homepage text or your written blog posts. Find a way to do it better than them. In turn, you’ll become a natural salesman.
03. Optimize your website content
A great website full of targeted, valuable content is interesting and visually appealing but it’s unfortunately not going to get you noticed. Why? It’s apparent that you’ve worked so hard? What could you have possibly forgotten?
Enter, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO is the process of using several techniques to get your website ranking higher in specific keyword search results on search engines. These SEO tools will support you in your mission to befriend Google and users alike.
You’ll want to focus the grunt of your efforts on keywords. First, figure out what your keywords are and then make them your soulmate. In other words, do keyword research to discover the popular terms associated with the theme of your website, such as “fashion boutique” or “artisan pies.” Then, drop their name into sentences whenever naturally possible. Even mention them in the places where it might seem like no one is listening, such as your website’s description, your blog posts’ meta data and the alt text of your images.
04. Factor in website links
While we’re on the topic of SEO, you’ll want to also understand the power of linking. Linking to outside traffic sources (external linking) will help these search engines validate the credibility of your web content. It will also help you make friends with other site owners on the web, and improve the chances that they will want to link back to you.
Don’t just link to anyone though. You’ll want to first of all link to credible sources. Secondly, you’ll want to link to them only when it amplifies the strength of your content marketing strategy. For example, linking to stated facts and statistics, which will go far in legitimizing your content.
Through another process known as internal linking (or linking to your own pages), you’ll also experience great benefits. You can simplify your content and encourage readers to navigate the depths of your site by referencing blog posts and different site pages from one to the other. This will allow you to avoid saying too much in one area, which you’ll see in the next section can unfortunately deter favorable engagement rates.
05. Keep content short and simple
You’ve probably browsed at least one personal blog in your life with an ‘About’ page that’s a lengthy personalized summary. You might even mistake it for a short novel. Unless that was your BFF’s page, you undoubtedly skimmed it in a few seconds or disregarded it completely.
Let’s be frank. We all do love to write about ourselves and our businesses. We are proud and have so much to say about everything we stand for and all that we’ve accomplished. Yet, many of us tend to go on rants, which can be put an end to our high traffic hopes. No one wants that. So work on your content writing and make sure it is direct and straightforward to heighten the chances that it will get read all the way through.
Know that you don’t have to say everything here. In fact, in blog articles alone, 75% of readers prefer that posts are under 1,000 words. And likewise, you should keep things tempting by leaving your readers always wanting more.
06. Apply the inverted pyramid method
The inverted pyramid starts with the most important pieces of information, and then slowly declines in the order of priority - just in case your readers are lazy scrollers. So, begin by ranking your content to understand how to apply this method to your own work.
When you formulate your structure, still take into account organization and logic. Think of a story: Your title, your intro, and so forth. If done correctly, you’ll reap the rewards. This method is known to grab attention fast and keep it.
07. Avoid using jargon
Jargon is the inside jokes between you and the other parties in your industry. It’s specific to you but meaningless to most website visitors. Assume that the people who land on your site have never heard of your brand before or anything slightly related to it. Speak to them with words that are simple and easy to understand. This will enlarge the size of the potential audience that will read your content. With this in mind, writing evergreen content with topics that maintain consistent interest and search volume over time is a great way to ensure your material is relevant and appropriate for years to come.
08. Vary your word choices
This tip is as straightforward as your content should be. Readers don’t want to hear the same thing said over and over again. So except for your consistent use of keywords throughout your website content, change up your wording choices. For example, you don’t always have to say “buy,” you can sometimes say “purchase,” or “shop.”
To make sure you didn’t favor one word more than the rest, it’s best to have a friend or colleague go over your almost final content and look out for repetition. Also download one of our favorite Chrome Extensions, Power Thesaurus, so that you always have your alternative word choices available on hand.
09. Use calls-to-action
This step ensures that your content is effective. In fact, it’s so powerful that it’s the mission your words are driven behind. A CTA is the action item of what you want readers to do after you get them on your site, or the shiny button that you’ll want them to click on.
For instance, if your mission is to get readers to your newsletter, the microcopy on your CTA could read “Subscribe to our mailing list.” If it’s to get them to buy something, your CTA could be “Shop our store.”
As you can see in these examples, the CTA is very straightforward. You’ll want to use language of this sort, while potentially also evoking emotions through your own flare. Don’t stray aware from your brand’s personality though. It’s important to stay authentic throughout.
10. Make your content visually pleasing
The clock is always ticking, and time is of the essence. Why does that matter for your web content, though?
Grab attention with intriguing design. Beginning with your words, break them up into paragraphs, bulleted and numbered lists,and add in white space to allow it to breathe. Then consider your overall site’s layout. Always be on the lookout for trends, and browse your favorite websites to understand what’s working these days, from oversized fonts to split up screens and more. Understand what kind of images users respond to - infographics, for example, is also important here.