Writing effective web content is an essential skill for any digital marketer, content creator, or business owner. Written content forms the backbone of most websites and online user experiences. From blog posts and articles to product descriptions, web pages, and more – the words on your site are what inform, educate and engage your target audience. While writing web content seems straightforward on the surface, crafting pieces that achieve your business goals requires careful consideration, planning and execution. Let’s dive deeper into what web content is, best practices for writing it, and how to make your written materials as useful and results-oriented as possible.
What is Web Content?
At its core, web content refers to any written text, words, or other textual elements displayed on a website. This includes both on-page materials like headlines, subheads, paragraphs, calls-to-action as well as off-page elements like social media posts, emails, and other digital communications bearing your company name and voice. Web content serves several vital functions that distinguish it from other types of writing like novels, scripts, research papers and the like. Namely, it should:
Inform website visitors about your products/services, brand, mission
Educate people and answer questions they might have
Entertain or impress readers to keep them engaged on your site
Motivate visitors to take some desired action, like making a purchase, signing up, contacting you
Represent your company’s voice, personality, and value propositions in a digital medium
The goal of all web content, whether blog posts, homepage copy, or product pages, is to ultimately drive users towards conversions and measurable outcomes that are meaningful for your business. Writing content just for the sake of filling space is ineffective – every word needs a clear function aligned with your overarching goals.
Best Practices for Writing Web Content
Now that we understand what web content is, let’s review some proven techniques for crafting high-quality pieces that readers will appreciate and that move the sales needle for you:
Use compelling headlines that convey benefits and entice people to keep reading. Headlines with numbers, lists and questions tend to perform best.
Structure copy in scannable, digestible blocks of text broken up by subheads and bold/italic emphases rather than long blocks of paragraphs.
Keep sentence and vocabulary complexity low for readability. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Test can assess this. Aim for 8th grade or lower.
Optimize content for search engines by including target keywords naturally without overstuffing. Talk to readers, not robots.
Tell stories, share case studies/examples and use an engaging, conversational tone to build credibility and trust with readers.
Present statistics, facts and expert opinions to back up claims and demonstrate your authority on the topic.
Uncover questions potential customers might have and provide thorough, helpful answers.
Include high-quality, well-captioned imagery to spark visual interest and keep eyes moving across the page.
Clearly label calls-to-action where you want readers to click, like “Read More,” “Sign Up,” “Contact Us,” etc.
Use judicious formatting like bolding, italics, bullet points to help break up walls of text for easier consumption.
Maintain a consistent voice, brand messaging and value proposition across all your web content for cohesion.
Employ repetition of important messages, terms or phrases to drive comprehension and recall.
Review all material carefully for typos, grammatical errors or factual inconsistencies before publishing.
Creating a Content Architecture
To establish a well-oiled system for producing optimized web content at scale, you need a solid editorial calendar and publishing process. Decide what sorts of content (blog posts, product/service pages, etc) you’ll produce on a regular cadence. Then, outline relevant topics of utility to your visitors across various categories using a content architecture map. This serves as a quarterly/annual guide for your writers. Some elements to include:
Main content categories like “How To” Guides, Blog, Products, About Us, etc.
Subcategories that reflect buyer personas and areas of concern/interest
Relevant keywords/terms to target under each category
Ideal publication frequency like weekly blog posts or monthly “ask me anything” sessions
With an organized content architecture, you can distribute writing/editing duties, maximize coverage of priority topics and measure performance over time more strategically. It keeps everyone on the same page creatively and helps establish consistent distribution patterns.
Measuring and Optimizing Web Content Success
The ultimate goal of any website or digital asset is driving conversions to measurable outcomes. To determine what’s effectively helping or hindering this, you need analytics. Key metrics for assessing web content strength include:
Traffic/views – Are pages getting eyeballs? How do titles/topics compare?
Time on page – Is content engaging enough or too wordy to retain attention?
Bounce rate – Are readers satisfied/finding what they need quickly?
Goal completions – How much content motivates calls to action like signups?
SEO rankings – Which terms/pages rank best organically over time?
Social shares – How much is considered valuable enough to spread?
Email clicks – Do promos motivate people to follow links back?
Analyzing these numbers allows identifying high/low performing material for optimization. You might test headlines, action button locations, topic types and more to continuously boost results. Over time, you establish a process of creating, testing and improving that maximizes value.
In summary – writing lucid, tailored web content requires understanding users’ true needs and using proven formatting/best practices to satisfy them in a cohesive brand voice. With diligent measurement and experimentation, you can turn website words into opportunities that move people to action.
Andrew Stroud