Useful tips for writing good website content -

Most of us are familiar with the phrases ‘quality content’ or ‘content is king’, and their relevance to digital marketing. But while these terms are frequently trumpeted as the new and compelling way to market, it’s worth remembering that good content has always been a powerful way to influence action and thought. Here are ten ways to attract and engage your readers:

1. Be the customer

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and consider the relevancy of your writing. Does it provide the information they’re looking for, and does it include the words they’ll type into search engines to find that information and your page? If you’re unsure, ask a typical customer (refer to your customer personas) unfamiliar with your site to cast a critical eye. Everyone likes to judge.   

2. Keep it simple  

The moment someone lands on your website they want to know two things: What you do and What’s in it for me. Keep your message simple, customer-centered and make sure both the copy and imagery reflect your brand identity.  

This example makes it instantly clear who Ahmad Tea are and what they do.  

3. Keep it fresh

Search engines may value fresh, valuable content but so do customers. Vary the format (point 4), length and the topics of blog articles to appeal to different market segments, search engines, and to drive more traffic to your website. Clever repurposing of content across different platforms can also help you achieve wider reaching impact and get a better ROI on your content efforts.  

4. Mix it up  

Your audience will be a mixture of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners so mix up the format of your content and appeal to them all. Try interspersing shorter blog posts and video with long-form content and data-driven pieces for maximum impact. And make sure your content is easy to digest by breaking up text with bullet points, headings, images and videos.  

5. Make it unique

Placing auto-generated content or content of little value or originality ruins the customer experience and could lead to a ranking penalty from Google. If you’re unsure whether you’ve inadvertently pinched someone else’s text, Grammarly’s plagiarism tool [link to: https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker] will, for a small fee, instantly check your copy against a database of 8 billion web pages. 

6. Avoid silly mistakes

Typos, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes cost internet businesses millions yearly. In June 2015, poor proofing led to one of Deutsche Bank’s London-based forex team accidentally processing a $6bn trade. While you’re unlikely to experience a mistake of that scale, visitors will judge you on the quality of your website content. To avoid silly mistakes, proofread everything you write and remember that Microsoft Word may be set to US, rather than UK English. You could also use Grammarly.com [grammarly.com], an automated proofreading checker that will find and alert you to common mistakes.  

7. Keep links relevant

Internal linking can usefully direct visitors to other pages on your site relevant to the one they are reading, and help boost conversion. Always ensure links work before you publish content and never use thin affiliate links – in other words, text copied directly from the merchant’s website in which the product descriptions and reviews are the same. Keep your copy unique.

8. Get an expert

Niche content written by an expert can help you gain more respect and attract a wider audience. If you’re not the expert you need to be to target a specific customer group, hire someone that is and avoid shallow, flawed website content that doesn’t provide EAT: expertise, authoritativeness or trustworthiness – key factors in what Google considers to be a high-quality site.

9. Get keyword savvy  

Keywords are as much a part of the marketing lexicon as content quality, helping to connect website owners with web users looking for pages that match their search. While keyword stuffing can result in a website being penalised in search rankings, and in severe cases banned, relevant keywords are vital to making your page visible on search engines. There are several keyword research tools, but Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner can give you keyword ideas while Google Analytics can provide more advanced insight.

10. Be keyword specific

Using longer and more specific keyword phrases known as long-tail keywords can help you appear nearer up the organic search. For example, if you’re a company that sells tea, you’re unlikely to appear anywhere near the top for the word ‘tea’. That’s particularly true if you’re a start-up or small company. If, however, you were more keyword specific about your products, you’ll get a better page ranking and actively help people find what they want. Those customers are also more likely to buy. For instance, this company sells tea.  By being more specific about their product line, e.g. Evening Tea – Decaffeinated, they appear high on the first page in organic search.