One of the most important aspects of website design is Website Content Writing. You can be as innovative with your website layout and design as you want it to be, but if the actual meat and potatoes of your site – that is, the content – isn’t effective, all of your efforts will be for naught.
By following the guidelines below, you’ll ensure that your website content is worth reading and keep your visitors coming back for more.
Website Content Writing – Remember The K.I.S.S. Rule
If this is your first foray into making your own website and creating a presence on the web, it is important to keep one very important distinction in mind right off the bat: Web readers want different things in their content than do readers of print media.
Even the best print writers can’t necessarily create great web content. To help keep web readers interested:
• Keep the eye moving
• Be concise
• Get to the point fast
Not sure how to do that… Keep reading.
Give Them The Gist… Fast
People are busy these days. No one has the time to read or even scan your entire article in search of your point. Grab their attention in the first line, and give them the gist of your article by the end of the first (ideally short) paragraph.
By the end of the first paragraph, readers should know exactly what they can expect to learn by reading the rest of the article. Moreover, they should be compelled to read on. If by the end of the first paragraph they aren’t interested, they can move on.
Make Your Website Content Easy On Your Reader
Don’t make your reader work for it! When creating online content, focus on your intended audience. Don’t make your readers have to search for their high school thesaurus to understand your content. Use a simple, easy to understand style that will appeal to a wide audience. You aren’t in college English class anymore; you can stow away your fifty-cent words.
Strike A Balance
One of the trickiest parts of creative Website Content Writing is finding a balance between being informative and being succinct. Be sure to:
• Choose your words carefully – Don’t say in 10 words what can be said in 2.
• Don’t ramble – There’s no room for filler in good web content.
• Stay on topic – Only include relevant information.
It’s important to convey all necessary relevant information to your readers, but at the same time you don’t want to bog them down with too much content. Find a balance. A good idea is to ask a couple of honest friends to read your content and give you their feedback. If they lose interest, chances are other readers will, too.
Break Up Your Content
No one wants to feel like reading your website content is a homework assignment. They want to get the information they want with minimal effort or time investment on their part. To really help your readers absorb your web content fast, avoid filling your web pages with large chunks of uninterrupted text.
Break up the content by using heads and subheadings and keeping each section a manageable size. Bear in mind that a computer screen is only so big (and these days, many people surf the net from the phones!) so the more manageable the chunks of text are to read, the more likely you’ll keep your readers’ attention until you’ve said all you have to say.
Another way to break up text is through the judicious use of bulleted or numbered lists, italics and bolded text. Don’t go too crazy with these elements, however. There is a fine line between being useful to the reader and being distracting. Bullets and numbering do more than break up sections of text, too: They make it easy for readers to find the information they are looking for, fast.
Be Creative
A massive part of successful website creation is the ability to catch and keep the attention of your intended audience. An effective way to grab their attention is through the use of catchy headings and subheadings. Your headings should compel your reader to want to learn more.
Keywords Are The Key
Even if you choose to ignore every other tip on effective Website Content Writing in this article (although, we don’t suggest you don’t) you must understand the importance of keywords. If you want to drive website traffic by way of search engine results, you will need to use keywords effectively as part of your SEO strategy. More than that, you’ll need to use the right keywords effectively. More on this in another article.
Thanks for stopping by!
Scotty S. ©2009
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