In the age of the internet, a website is the face of a company. Website content is crucial for the success of the company’s online endeavours. The idea is simple: if your web content writing is sloppy or dull in any manner, you won’t be attracting as many visitors as you might have liked.
Eventually, you lose sales prospects, you lose potential clients, and you lose business profitable ventures. There’s basically a lot of loss involved.
On the contrary, if you have impeccable content on your site, your blogs will garner more shares, likes, and as a result of which you will also earn a lot of backlinks. More visitors will start clicking on your site, and your online presence will thrive.
A lot of entrepreneurs believe that content has nothing to do with sales. But only the ones who have made the cut to the highest SERP ranking know that the difference between good and bad content impacts brand perception immensely.
21 tips for impeccable web content
A web content writer is not the one who merely inhales these tips, but rather understands the motive behind these and implements them when and where needed. Website content is dynamic, and one needs to flex according to the changing requirements.
Once you start implementing various versions of the tips mentioned here onwards, you will find yourself evolving as a professional content developer every day.
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Begin with keyword research, always
You would never want to feel lost midway through a journey now, would you? Writing an article or a blog is a brand’s journey to make a sale through the written word. And keywords are your guides. They direct the reader towards the central point of the blog, and also keep you from going wayward with your ideas.
In a nutshell, keyword research helps you build a frame on which you can construct your whole piece. The framework is practically everything; else your piece just looks shoddy.
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No keyword stuffing
We have heard that inserting keywords is nice for a piece. But just like that extra Jim-jam you try to steal from the jar kept high above, too much of anything nice is never good.
Google has algorithms in place to detect such discrepancies, and if spotted on your site, keyword stuffing would achieve the opposite of what you set out for.
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Lure them in with interesting Call-to-action
The obvious trait of a good web content writer is to evoke an action among those who read. A good call-to-action is something that calls your audience to do what you suggest. Instead of blatantly putting it out as, “Sign up for our Newsletter” you could subtly say, “Would like to hear more from us? Leave your email address here” When you make it more conversational, there is a higher relate factor, which translates into more people signing up to your site.
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Minute differences
Language is dynamic, and hence writing is supposed to change accordingly. Web content writers need to be hip about what they put out. They got to put out information in the least offensive manner – like adhering to “her and his” is no longer considered polite. In the wake of “Pride”, accounting for all genders using “They” is the new norm. Adapting to such trends makes content more agreeable and impacts website traffic positively.
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Always paste evidence with the statements
When you present a fact or two, make sure you always hyperlink the source. This way, you accomplish two motives. Firstly, you make it clear to the audience that the fact you present is something you did not assume. And secondly, you give them a point to go and conduct their own little research.
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Make the reader feel
A lot of write ups online feel robotic. That is because articles and blogs are increasingly becoming jargon oriented. Break free from the shackles of being merely technically correct and insert some emotion into your writing. When you come up with a piece, what’s a good practice is to ask yourself, “What’s so good about this story? Can I do to make this emotionally impactful?”
Not everything has to be mechanic. -
Write using an active voice
If as a child you missed out on that Grammar class at school, you better catch up on it if you intend to be a professional content writer. One of the oldest tricks in the book, it still remains to be the most effective: always write using the active voice. The difference it makes is immense. The passive voice focuses on the object of the sentence, instead of the subject. This makes the agent in the sentence come across as an afterthought, which sort of defeats the purpose of writing. Example:
Passive voice – The village was attacked by the lion.
Active voice – The lion attacked the village.
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Make sure your links do not go off
Links over time die. Whether you use internal links to boost your internal linking network, or link to other pages to boost your SEO, you need to go back to your links every once a while and update them with newer links. You would not want a certain reader being on a blog, clicking a link and getting nowhere.
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A good SEO suite is the need
You would have to loosen your purse a bit to invest in good tools to crunch data the right way. Just relying on free tools you get over the internet is not enough. Finding the right SEO suite is also crucial. Some SEO tools generate way too much data than you would need, and others generate far too less. As a professional web content writer, you get to take the call on this and decide which tools work in your favour. In the end, it is data that would help you craft better pieces.
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Bear SEO practices in mind
While remembering SEO practices can be hard sometimes, especially when you are constructing a creative article, there are tools available to make it easy. Tools like Yoast can actually help polish your web content writing that complies with Google Algorithms.
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Paint a picture for the readers
When readers see a lot of words, they get fuzzy in their heads. Paint a good picture before you delve into the technicalities. Don’t start off with jargon. If you are writing a piece on “How to reach out for heart attack emergencies” don’t plainly begin with the steps. Make the reader feel it.
Example opening:
“And in the dark of that night shone two hues intermittently – blue and red. I knew an ambulance was upon me, but who had called this, and why?
“My brain could not match up to the pace of the events occurring around me. It came to me much later, that I had a heart attack and my grandchildren knew how to reach out to emergencies in due time.”
You see how visual this is? It makes the reader fall into the shoes of the person and the intensity of the article keeps them hooked, even through all the jargons. -
Good intros set the pace for your piece
Imagine your most favourite novel or film. If you notice, each of them had an interesting intro – something you never heard or had seen before. Put your creativity to test and pull off something like that with your articles.People chose to be on your site because they found your website appealing. And by appealing, we mean different and yet interesting.
You could simply sweeten the deal for them with interesting website content and you would then be left with loyal subscribers and readers who follow every activity you post on your site.
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Punctuate well
The whole internet is filled with Grammar Nazis for a reason – because there are that many Grammatical errors. You would not want that reputation for your website. Spell check every line you write, if that is how weak your Grammar and spellings are. There are specialised tools to help you out with spellings, grammar and punctuation. Implement as many tools as you can to spruce up your writing.
It is so with Grammar as it is with life – you can just never be too sure.
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Use the dictionary
Remember those good old days when you referred to your Dictionary to write meaningful essays in school? Just because you are a graduate now does not mean you fall out the habit. We do not have an inherent store of synonyms in our minds. Also, there is a ton of other words that have come into the picture since you abandoned that poor little dictionary.
Look words up on the internet if the dictionary bores you, but for your sake and for the sake of all those who read what you write, use the dictionary to use meaningful words.
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Double check on the minute aspects of language
While there might be debatable aspects of language, like where to insert an apostrophe and where to splice things up with a comma, you could always try to learn. Look things up over the internet if you are not sure about something. A professional web content writer never shies away from accepting that she wishes to learn.
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Keep away from Verbiage
The last thing you would want to do on your website is unnecessary elongation of letter clusters only to make sentences seem longer and the piece looking grander than it should. You see how pretentious it sounds?
Rather, follow the simplest rule in writing – KISS. Now, don’t actually go ahead and do that to the person sitting immediately next to you, but KISS stands for “Keep it simple, Silly.”
Don’t call it an “elongated yellow fruit” what could be simply be known as a banana.
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Revamp older posts for better results
Never underestimate the edit button. What you post is not the by-all and end-all. Once you post something out, you garner reviews in the form of comments and likes. If those are not in the favour of your article, or if your customers think it could be worded better, learn from your errors, and revamp your posts. This might even get you newer visitors, which is quite a win-win.
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Get your basics right, before you write
What do you write for? A website or web site? For all intents and purposes, you write for a website. So, don’t space it up just to fill in words. Okay? Okay.
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Notch it down
We get it. You’re the Dickens of the New Age world. You like brandishing your thick vocabulary. But the internet audience prefer sailing low-key. So might as well give them what they like? Hinting back the original cue – KISS (Keep it Simple Silly).
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Whenever possible, don’t self-edit
You would find everything to be right with your work. But that might seldom be the case. Make someone else go through your work at least once before hitting Post. If no one’s around, then we suggest taking a few hours off and then getting back to the piece with a fresher perspective. Website content is all about perspective, so get as many opinions as you can.
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Learn newer skills
SEO algorithms are forever changing. Just because you think a certain strategy works, does not mean it always will. Complacency has never been recommended anyway. Sharpen your skills all the time, and put them to use diligently.
BONUS TIP!
Offer value
An interesting approach to content would be, “what am I offering that isn’t there already?” Once you draft your pieces with this mindset, you will create articles that are different from the millions already present out there.
The whole idea behind content creation is to offer value. If you are just hell bent on plagiarism, then we would recommend you to stop right away.
Conclusion
Use these ideas to improve your content writing skills, and with persistent usage of these tips, you will grow to be the best website content writer that can drive engagement and enable better conversions for your online business.
Good luck!
