How to Write Great Website Content

Badly written websites don’t often succeed in establishing a level of trust with users. In a digital age where there is so much competition for attention, websites must be at the top of their game to be competitive and cut through the noise.

Gone are the days when a chunky paragraph of text explaining your business and everything it provides would suffice. There has been lots more research into user experience, and unfortunately for some, there is more to consider with websites in this modern era.

Whilst there is a lot that can be done in the back end of a website, we’re not going to worry about that in this guide. Instead, we will discuss ways in which you can best utilise your words to sell your business to current and prospective clients.

Easy to Navigate

When it comes to finding your way around a website, it needs to be as simple as possible. The last thing you want is for a prospective customer to visit your site, not be able to find what they want, and then to leave immediately.

Instead, keep your website informative and concise. People are likely to skim through pages to find what they are looking for, and this is easiest when sentences are short and to the point.

Having enough clear space and images to break up the text will help. If there are different pages on the site, make sure that they are labelled in the most obvious terms possible.

Less Clicks and More Links

The unofficial ‘three-clicks’ rule is that a user should be able to find what they want on a website within three clicks. While this is primarily down to website design, it should also be considered when labelling page tabs, maintaining clarity throughout.

When writing for different website pages, you can insert in-text links, too. Where relevant, you can either link to an internal page on the website or an external page, if it makes sense or is necessary. If you are using a different website as a source of information, you should link back to that.

Write for Your Visitors

A website can be visited by anyone, from a long-standing shareholder to a brand-new prospect. The content on the website needs to be clear enough for all website visitors to understand and navigate.

Use less words but make it more punchy. Write in the active voice and create an excitement around your products. If there is lots of information which has to be there, use bullet points. This will make it so much easier for the user to find what they are looking for.

Think also about what your visitors want from the website. Include a call to action (CTA), link to a product page or terms and conditions if needed.

Clarity is key across the board. Be clear on what you do and how users can do it, and you should be on the right track from there.

If you need to hold information on the website which would be unnecessarily in-depth for most visitors, you could think about having a member’s area. In this area, detailed information could be stored and uploaded, then accessed through a login, in order to separate it from standard website visits.

Tone of Voice

While jargon is advised against, keeping up the company tone of voice is most definitely advised. A company website might be the first interaction that a user has with a brand, and after all, the website can act as a digital business card.

Website visitors should be able to get a taste of the brand personality and values within a few moments of landing on the site. What they see and read in those first few seconds could impact their decision to either stay and explore the website, or leave.

Stay true to your brand guidelines and know your audience. Consistency in your messaging applies to the website too. If you would like to know more about tone of voice, take a look though our guide on knowing your audience.

Make it Visible

With every new page that you write for your website, aside from your home page and ‘about us’ pages, research some keywords to suit the page.

Knowing what your audience is searching for will mean that you can tailor your website content to fit those terms in. Incorporating keywords can help your business get closer to the top of a user’s search results. Read our guide on the basics of SEO to get more information on keyword research.

Content Which Lasts

Web pages which are not time-limited can be helpful as you can re-share them and they will still be relevant. Search engines and their ranking ‘bots’ increasingly value and trust content which has been around for a while, so where possible, try to make your content ‘evergreen’.

Think of exciting and interesting topics around your products or industry which, if something was written about it, it wouldn’t be ‘out of date’ within a week or two. A few of these pages on your site should help you get some brownie points from the search engines.

Check up on your evergreen content every so often to update any links which need updating.

Writing for Your Website

Whether you already have a website that is up and running, are planning a re-build or are looking to start up a brand new site, we hope that this guide has helped shed some light on things to bear in mind when writing for your website.

In summary, research what your users are looking for, create compelling content that will last a lifetime and keep your audience at the forefront of your website content planning to reap the best rewards.

If, once you have drafted up your website content and would like a second opinion, you can get in touch with us for an instant quote. We provide a professional proofreading service for businesses. Our professional proofreaders can check all of your written copy to ensure that spelling, grammar, syntax and sentence structure are all perfect before you publish the website or web page.