Writing Great Site Content: The Top 10 Rules

 “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” Albert Einstein 

Writing content for your website shouldn’t be a chore, but should be a reflection of your business and the problems you solve for your customers.

It’s not all about keywords either; search engines pick up great site content much more than endless repetition of keywords.
 
So what should you consider when writing site content, here are my top 10 rules to follow:

1. Have a plan
Think about what you want to write, in what order and in what context.
Most writers spend on average 50% of their time planning, it makes the writing process much quicker. In fact writing should only be 20% of the process, with editing the final 30%
 
Plan your content in advance, think about who you are addressing and what you want them to learn:

• What do you want visitors to your site to know?
  
  
• How do you want visitors to feel?
  
  
• What do you want them to do as a result of visiting your site?

 
Planning will help shape your thoughts and make the writing process so much easier!

2. Write about the most important point first
 There’s a technique journalists use called the inverted triangle, which basically means: put the most important information at the top of the page, before drilling down into more detail.  

Think of it as front-loading your content so a reader can get a great idea of what you offer first up, before you tell them how or why later on.
 
I’ll talk more about this in my next blog.

3. Explain what it is you do as a business on your home page
 It still amazes me that business owners make assumptions that site visitors know what they do.
 
A better rule is to assume visitors don’t know what you do, so write as though the visitor is meeting you for the first time.  

4. Write in shorter sentences, not long paragraphs
I’m often asked, how long should a sentence be? Ideally I’d suggest no more than 30 words, preferably fewer than 20. And each paragraph should be no more than 2 sentences long.  

Remember you’re writing for the web here, so paragraphs need to be compelling and easily digestible for visitors who may just scan the page.

5. Be clear and concise
 Don’t use complicated language or over elaborate sentences. Simplicity is the key.

To quote the writer C.S. Lewis;  

“Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”
 
Many web writers’ manuals suggest writing as though you’re addressing a 14-15 year old. So keep it simple.

6. Write for your ideal customer
 Most businesses know who their best customers are, they know why they buy from them and what they like.

Write your content to reflect these customers – they’re the ones you want more of.

7. Use headlines, sub-headlines and bullets
 Dividing up your content, giving way markers and, making the next bit sound exciting keeps visitors interested and reading.  

8. Don’t be afraid to edit
 I’ve always found it useful in whatever context, to write in long form, then walk away and do something else for a while, before coming back and editing the text until it says exactly what I want it to say.  

Then I repeat the process – your third or forth draft is always much better than your first.

9. Print it out
 If like me you spend lots of time at your screen, you don’t always see something obvious staring out at you. Whether it’s a typo, poor grammar or awkward phraseology I tend to see them only when I’ve printed the piece.  
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Believe me it’s so much easier to edit when you can scribble on the paper and rewrite different ideas by hand.

10. Read it
Make sure you read your finished work after you’ve edited it.

You need to check:

• Does it make sense?
• Is it what I planned to say?
• Does it follow the structure of my plan?
• Is it compelling?
• Are there any typos, spelling mistakes or grammatical errors?
• Am I proud to publish it?

 
There’s a lot more than can be said about writing for the web. In my next blog I’ll look in more detail about the concept of the inverted triangle and how it can help you with writing compelling content.