All websites need content and that is a fact.

But writing that content can be a daunting or seen as difficult task for even the keenest business owner, but that need not be the case.

Focus on the Message

The thing you need to do is focus on what you want your website visitor to DO on your website. Whether that is to contact you regarding a sales lead, sign up to a newsletter, buy something or just to provide information about the company, all these will help highlight what you will need to write.

Selling Your Service/Products

If you are attempting to get your website traffic to convert to sales or leads, you need to use persuasive copy and know enough about the customers to know what converts them into sales.

Avoid listing the features of the service or products, but simply state the benefits of your service to your customers – if you must list features, list them after the benefits. For example, most customers don’t care that your vacuum cleaner is produces 1,700 watts of power and is only really useful when comparing two models/makes of vacuum cleaner. Indeed, if a customer is looking for a vacuum cleaner, then unless they are looking at several, then the actual suction power is of little value (they just need to know that the vacuum will clean their floors!).

That isn’t to stay listing the technical specs of your products isn’t something you should list somewhere on your site, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you put in your product descriptions (and the actual product specs should be put on a different page where they can be found for those discerning customers).

Generating Leads

If the main purpose of the website is to generate leads, then having a content form on your site is a must and this must be one of the most prominent things on your website page(s).

The copy should be there to compliment the form and not distract from the form. The copy should answer most of the common questions you are likely to be asked (it is always useful to answer actual common questions you’ve gotten). Again, list your benefits and not simply the features of your service.

Informational Sites

These are little more difficult to write for, but obvious content include contact details, a small form for contact and maybe a little about the company (on a separate page preferably so that if the visitor is interested, they can get that information).

Search Engines

The text on your website will invariably be indexed by the search engines (usually within a week), so anything you put up live on a website will be visible for the search engine spiders to see and index. This is a double edged sword as you want to write content for your website in a concise manner but include enough content so that it is useful for your human visitors.

Tips for Writing for the Web

Keep to the Point

Write short, concise sentences. Most people don’t read every single word on the web so keep things short and sweet.

Include headlines

To break up longer pieces and give the user some measure of “scannability”.

Add Emphasis

Using formatting to add emphasis to those things that really matter and to highlight key points.

Use Images

Images are worth a thousand words they say. Use them sparing and to good effect when they are tied into the content.

Spell Check & Proof Read

Get someone else to spell check and proof read your work. If that is not possible, leave it a day or so and re-read it yourself and correct those mistakes.