Website content writing should be at the top of your design strategy, as the thoughtful, compelling, and SEO friendly text will help draw in new site visitors and customers. With decades of content marketing experience, 3 Media Web has learned the strategies that actually drive results, rather than waste time on creating content without clear goals or a clear strategy to drive revenue.
5 Content Writing Quick Tips
If you’re in the midst of designing––or redesigning––your website, here’s a complete plan for getting your content in order, starting with these five quick tips:
- Know Your Audience
- Provide Value to the Reader
- Less is More
- Grammar Matters
- Integrate SEO Keywords
1. Know Your Audience<
Before hitting your first keystroke, spend some time thinking about who you’re writing for: what is your target audience? It sounds so simple, but taking this one step will save you a lot of time and energy. What are your content readers’ pain points? Why are they reading this content, to begin with? What problem are they trying to solve? Maybe you are writing content for a tire shop. Your reader may be someone interested in purchasing snow tires for an upcoming road trip north. They may be interested in travel tips for driving in winter weather and how to choose snow tires. They may be interested in general auto care. They may be interested in general road trip safety. Knowing your content reader’s interests will make it easier to write. Consider topics you yourself may want to read about in whatever subject area you are writing about. Focusing on the reader’s reason for being there will keep your piece focused and relevant during your website content writing efforts.
2. Provide Value to Readers
It may be tempting to focus on web content writing efforts strictly on what fabulous products and services you offer. Your products or services may be fabulous! But readers often read content because they are attempting to solve a problem. No one wants to be sold to. Instead, in helping these readers solve a problem, you, as the business owner, have provided value to this reader. And without selling to them. This reader now associates your name and brand with solving that problem. They may even follow your content on social media or other platforms based on your great content. Providing value rather than selling means that you are more likely to gain their trust and people typically buy from brands they trust. Valuable content also connects your brand name with industry expertise. The next time a reader thinks about buying tires or anything else, they will likely think of your business first.
3 Media Web is ready to help your business with a content strategy that delivers value to your target audience and grows your business. Start your next project today.
3. Less Website Content is More
Attention spans are short and especially in this digital age. Readers are bombarded with information almost constantly in their daily lives. Acknowledging that your reader’s time is valuable is important to remember in writing content for the web. Articles or content that is unfocused will eventually lose your reader. And maybe even push them to your competition.
The more you can boil down your writing to the bare essentials, the more effective it becomes. Less is more. Short and succinct wins every time.
4. Grammar Matters (A Lot)
Check all web content for correct grammar. Utilize spell check tools in the review of every piece. Keep a dictionary and thesaurus handy at all times. If you have access to an editor, ask him or her to review your work. A second set of eyes can pick up things you may have missed. Nothing says scam more than misspelled words or poor grammar online. Readers are not going to patronize a business that looks untrustworthy or illegitimate.
5. Integrate SEO Keywords
Before sitting down to write web content, it’s wise to think about what keywords your reader may be entering in a search bar to pull up your article. A search engine’s purpose is to produce content that matches the searcher’s inquiry. The more your piece reflects the topic you are writing about, the more likely it will be indexed in the search engine and the more valuable it will ultimately be. The exact algorithms used by search engines are highly secret and may change over time. But, if you are writing quality content that solves a searcher’s problem or provides valuable information focused on your subject matter, you are on the right track in writing content for SEO. 
Create Your Content Marketing Plan
The quick tips above can help your content marketing be more effective, but to connect your website content to your entire digital marketing plan, you need a content marketing plan to achieve several business goals. From improving brand recognition to reaching new potential customers and clients in your target market to increase sales, content marketing often delivers a strong ROI when done right. Too many businesses often don’t take the time and effort needed to strategize and develop a well-rounded, effective content marketing plan that actually yields results. Developing a content marketing plan isn’t as daunting as you might think. It can be as simple as:
- Determining Your Goals
- Planning Your Content Types
- Choosing the Right Channels
- Committing to Content Topics
The market, as well as customers, wants, needs, and motivations, are constantly changing. Subsequently, your content marketing plan needs to be occasionally reviewed and adjusted accordingly. When you do so, you must follow these important steps to ensure that your plan remains relevant to your business goals.
Set Goals for Content
What is it you are trying to achieve with your content marketing? Do you want increased brand awareness, better sales, or more customers? All three? It’s okay to have more than one goal. You will ultimately utilize different marketing channels to focus on different goals while still maintaining continuity between the different pieces of content. But first, knowing which goals are most important will enable you to determine better which channels will be most beneficial and help you tailor your content properly.
Plan Your Content Types
Now that you know what you want to achieve, you can figure out what type of content might be best received and help you achieve your goals. Will your audience respond to video? Do they prefer reading blog posts? What about infographics to convey your information? Don’t feel as though you must be tied to one specific type of content. You can repurpose one type of content into many other forms, such as podcasts, webinars, case studies, etc. Most importantly, the content you produce should be informative and/or entertaining and provide some use to the potential customer or client.
Pick Your Content Marketing Channels
Do the segments you are trying to reach spend most of their time on social media platforms? If so, which ones? Do they read magazines or listen to podcasts? Do they watch videos? The more you know about where your target audience is most likely to be reached, the better you’ll be able to determine which marketing channels will deliver the highest ROI.
Decide What Topics Are Most Important
Which topics will appeal to your audience the most? Are they seeking industry-related information? Do they want to know more about the benefits and features of specific products? Remember, a content marketing plan can contain several different content pieces, but having a theme to tie them all together serves to improve brand recognition and establish yourself or your business as an expert in the industry. This, in turn, creates trust in your brand among your audience. So focus on topics that serve two purposes: They attract the most attention from your audience and work in conjunction with one another to deliver consistent information.
Optimized Content Marketing
The difference between a decent, working, and valuable content marketing strategy, and a poor, sloppy mess of content somewhere on your website, is the difference between creating content and optimized content marketing.
Search Engine Optimization
First and foremost, all content should be run through an SEO strategy. How is anyone going to find your content if not even search engines can find it? Use keywords correctly, including in meta tags and meta descriptions.
Follow an SEO checklist to optimize different types of content better.
Add Simple Calls-to-Action
Not all content may be intended to drive traffic to your site, but if it is, be sure to include calls to action and easy-to-follow links in the content.
Stick to a Content Calendar
Consumers today, like seeing new content regularly from the companies they choose to do business with. Stay on schedule and engage customers regularly on social media. Get involved in discussions, answer questions, and post content consistently to stay firmly in the minds of your audience.
Want to learn even more about content marketing?
Learn how to write content for your business website that drives actual results. Download the new “Content Writing That Delivers Results” ebook to learn more business content strategy best practices.