Writing Effective Content for the Web - Quick Guide

Before you begin writing: 3 questions to ask yourself.

  1. Who is your target audience?

  2. What questions you want to answer on the page?

  3. Why do you want people to visit the page?

These three questions will focus your attention on what to write about and how to write it.

Plumber example:

  1. Who: homeowners looking to have a kitchen sink installed

  2. What: where can I find a reliable plumber that can install a kitchen sink at a low cost?

  3. Why: So visitors see that I’m a great option and contact me for kitchen sink installation.

Writing for the Web: Top to Bottom

Here are some of the most important elements that should be on a webpage of your WordPress site.

But before that, a little information on Pages and Posts in WordPress.

When using WordPress you will notice a tab for Posts and a tab for Pages. What is the difference?

Posts - This is the section where you can create blog posts, press releases or updates on your business. When created, a post will automatically contain the time and date of publication and will be in reverse chronological order. This means that newest post will appear first for visitors and they will have to delve a little deeper into the site to find older posts.

Pages - This section is for static pages of your WordPress site like the about us, services/product pages, privacy policy and so forth. They do not contain a date/time stamp and will not be ordered chronologically.

Though WordPress makes a distinction between pages and posts, the term ‘webpage’ or ‘page’ can refer to any page on your site, be it the home page, a blog post, etc.

Now that you know where to write, let’s get into how to write.

The Title/Heading

Your title, sometimes referred to as the heading, should be catchy and contain the main keywords the page is about. As a general rule, titles should not be more than 70 characters.

Start by going over the answers you came up with for the 3 questions above. From there, take on the perspective of the intended audience. What would the average person type into search engines to find your page?

Write down a few possibilities and test them by punching them into a Google.

Do the results bring up pages that are similar to the one you want to create? Then you are on the right track.

You can also scroll down to the bottom of the search results to see suggestions on related topics. This will help you understand related topic which can be very helpful to understand searcher intent.

Once you have an idea of the primary keyword for the page, write down a very straightforward title, then spend a little time trying to make the title a bit more engaging while keeping the main points.

Plumber example:

Basic title: Residential Kitchen Sink Installation Services

More engaging title: Home Kitchen Sink Installation: Quality Service, Budget Prices.   

Local SEO tip: If you are targeting a specific area, put that location in the title.

If you would like to dive deep into keyword research easily, then try rankingcoach free for a month.

The Content

When writing a page of content, it is a general rule to have at least 500 words on a page.

While writing be aware of

Scan-ability: People are probably not going to your site to read essays.  Break up the text so that it is easier to read and scan with

  • sub-headers

  • bullet points

  • short paragraphs

  • images

  • putting specific words in bold

Originality: If you copied your content from another site search engines will know and might penalize you for duplicate content by lowering your rank or removing you completely from search results. Plus, you could potentially be sued for copyright infringement. Be Original!

Simplicity: Are you writing for a small group of experts? No? Then make sure that the average person can understand what you are trying to say. Don’t use jargon unless you have to.  You want to write about the technical aspects of something? Put it on a separate page. 

Ending a Page

Remember that there is a point to creating the page. What action do you want the visitor to take? The end of a page should be a brief summary of why they should take an action followed by a call to action.

Example for blog:

As we have seen, bees are an integral part of an ecosystem, so we need to take steps to ensure their continued existence. Sign the petition below to help give bees a fighting chance.

Example for service page:

With 24 years of experience, 12 awards for Excellence and a completely eco-friendly service, you can tell that we not only produce great results but also care about how those results affect the community in the long run.

Call us today for a free, no pressure estimate!



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