Professional web content is an investment you want to make
You may be thinking of building a new website. Or perhaps updating an outdated one that should have been brought into the 21st century years ago. When we meet with clients for the first time to discuss their business needs and online presence, we most certainly are going to discuss the importance of optimizing your web content. It is undoubtedly an essential and key component to any successful website — yes we are talking about optimizing your online presence by optimizing your website copy.
Hiring an agency or team to develop professional optimized website content is a smart long term investment for your website, both in terms of SEO and visitor retention. You want content that is engaging and full of keywords, so that when Google crawls your site it brings traffic back to you. You need to think in terms of your visitors and potential customers’ first impressions of you, and this is more often than not coming from your online presence. In order for someone to even be able to gain a first impression, they need to be able to find you on search engines like Google.
The point of SEO is so that when people are searching for industry keywords they will find your website. Without optimized web copy, your site is less likely to the see the amount of traffic that it potentially could otherwise.
Pitfalls to not having professional web content
Spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors are unfortunately more common than you might think. A simple way to improve your website’s reputation is to make sure it has clean grammar and spelling. If your content looks like a mess, how can anyone take your business seriously? Another big mistake that can be made is spending too much time focusing on the design alone, and not enough focuson design & content marketing together. If the reader isn’t engaged right away or can’t find the information they are looking for, they will move on to the next competitor’s site. It’s important to grab your visitor’s attention and keep them engaged. Especially with today’s internet, you have an incredibly small window to capture someone’s attention. You have to get your point across in a few sentences, while not overwhelming them with info. That is the essence of writing persuasive copy.
Here are 6 Tips for Writing Effective Web Content
A lot of people who like to read online like to scan, so the best type of online copy is usually straight to the point and easy to comprehend. Keep your copy short and sweet.
- Keep what you are trying to say as brief as possible. Make what you are saying engaging, otherwise it will only bore your visitors.
- Write in short paragraphs. Try to avoid writing long paragraphs at all costs. Huge blocks of text can be overwhelming. A good rule to follow is to keep your paragraphs 3-5 sentences in length.
- Emphasize with headlines. Headlines help to break up the monotony of text, and allow your visitors to scan your content easier. Remember, keeping a visitor’s attention on the web is limited so make your content scan-friendly.
- Avoid big, complicated words. A rule of good web design is to avoid making your visitors think. They should be able to understand what you are saying.
- Add images. Don’t be afraid to add visual breaks in contrast to the words. You want to incorporate at least one content specific image. Unless the images are small, don’t wrap the text around them.
- Know when to hire a copywriter. Here are a few instances when hiring a professional copywriter can be a good investment: if you need to boost your SEO, if you need help with branding, if you are writing sales copy.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Guaranteeing a ranking of page one on Google can get tricky, and a lot of it depends on keywords (the terms people would be searching for). One thing that is for sure, poorly written content which isn’t SEO friendly will limit the amount of traffic your site gets.
Your keywords must be strategically placed throughout the website’s copy. Effectively using keywords isn’t always easy to do since it has to be done in a way that doesn’t clash with the intended message. Writing great SEO optimized content requires a certain finesse that takes time and practice to master. The many ways of reaching people online are unlimited. Don’t allow poor web copy to limit your potential.