My Top Tips For Writing Web Content
Obviously in my opinion, your visual brand is what makes the very first impression on your website and hooks your audience. But once they’ve decided to stay and look a little closer, your content is what’s going to keep them there. First off — what is website content? Your content is the meat of your site. It’s all the writing that tells people about you + your business. It’s the literal voice of your company, and it can be one of the hardest parts to nail down during the web design process. To help you get started on what can be a super daunting task, I’ve put together my top tips to help you write your website content and hopefully make the process a little less overwhelming.
Decide on your tone
First things first before you dive right in and start writing — you need to decide on the tone of your website. This can affect how you end up writing all your content. Do you need to sound professional or technical? Should you write conversationally or have a friendly tone? To figure this out, you need to answer the question – who are you writing to? Figure out who your target audience is, who the people you want to work with are, and then you can develop the tone in which you should be writing to them. So, ask yourself – who is your ideal client and how do you want them to see you?
Where the heck to start
Start at the very beginning…a very good place to start. The first page people will be landing on is most likely your homepage. This is your introduction to new visitors and your chance to make that all important first impression — make sure it’s a good one! Use short, snappy sentences that get right to the point. Be clear and get to the point.
You don’t want to overwhelm your visitors by throwing all the information you can at them at one time. You do want to give them a brief idea of who you are, what you do, and who you do it for. Then guide them to other information on your site that they might be interested in to keep them engaged.
Add a personal touch
People love to know who exactly they’re working with. When you go to a site and you can’t find who runs the dang business after scouring the entire site, you lose confidence in their ability to help you. Adding personality and info about yourself is a huge benefit — not only to convey your core values, but to build trust with your audience (i.e. potential customers). Adding an About section to your website is a great way to tell the story of how you and your business got started. Real photos of you and your work can help establish your expertise and put a face to your name. Show some flair in this section to make yourself stand apart! For instance, I like to share my love for tacos and have connected with tons of people over this fine finger food.
Write with a purpose
I’ll leave you with this last, important tidbit to keep in mind while you’re writing your website content: ALWAYS HAVE A PURPOSE. Your first purpose on your site should be to provide important, meaningful information to your audience. Think quality over quantity (the first step to creating a Google-friendly site). Ask yourself if the information you’re providing is valuable to your visitors or if you’re just figuratively throwing spaghetti at them to see if it’ll stick to their face.
Your secondary purpose should be to help guide your visitors through your site with ease. I recommend having CTAs or “calls to action” all over that encourage people to do something specific like ask for a quote or learn more. This helps users navigate through your sea of information more easily.
Writing your web content can be super intimidating, but if you put the work in, the return could be huge! Hopefully these tips will help you create a site that’s valuable and makes a great impression on your target audience. And if you still can’t seem to hit the nail on the head with your content, consider hiring a professional copywriter to guide you through the process and polish up what you’ve already got in place (that’s what I did and it was 1000% percent worth the investment!).
Have you been putting off writing or refreshing your website because it seems too overwhelming? Do you have any tips or tricks that helped you write your website content?
