How to create good Content for Websites

“Nobody reads online content” – a wide­spread claim that (un­for­tu­nate­ly) contains some truth. Many website visitors prefer not having to read through lengthy, badly struc­tured texts. But how exactly do these consumer habits affect you and your website content, and how can you improve your texts? We’ll show you 9 top tips for writing better website content.

1. Select the purpose of your website and copy
2. Get to know your audience
3. Answer reader queries
4. Write precisely and in line with your topic of choice
5. Com­mu­ni­cate in a clear and simple manner
6. Prepare the text in a reader-friendly way. Put the most important things first and create structure by using headings, short para­graphs, high­lights, links, lists, tables, etc.
7. Add pictures, graphics, videos, and other visual elements
8. Compare with and be inspired by the com­pe­ti­tion
9. Optimize your texts for search engines (SEO)

Before you draft your first text, ask yourself what purpose it has and how it supports the website’s goals. Do you want to convey expert knowledge, explain the features of a product, encourage a purchase, or simply entertain your readers? The type of website you have is also crucial, i.e. whether it’s a blog, store, or corporate platform. The dis­tinc­tion is important because it impacts the length, depth of in­for­ma­tion, style, and other features of your website copy.

Find out who you are writing for. How old is your (primary) target group? What media do they use? What are their reading habits? What topics do they typically engage with? If your readers are young and tend to use Instagram, Snapchat and the like, you’ll write very different web copy than for audiences who regularly read news­pa­pers and magazines and are therefore used to reading long-form content. If you aren’t sure about the target group of your blog, think about the type of content they may want to read and in what form and tone.

To narrow down your online store’s target audience more ef­fec­tive­ly, you can define buyer personas. Who are your customers and what are their needs? How can you prepare content that advises on products to reach customers?

Un­der­stand­ing your audience also helps shape the tone of your content (formal or informal).

While browsing websites we often ask ourselves many questions. Website owners can take advantage of this by writing sub-headings as questions. Questions tend to be entered in search engines and web copy that answers them ef­fi­cient­ly is ranked higher and displayed toward the top of the search results.

To find out which questions your readers may have you can use tools such as an­swerthep­ub­lic.com or enter relevant keywords in Google.

Remember the five Ws: who, what, when, where, why? Try to answer them at the beginning of your copy and structure text ac­cord­ing­ly. See tip 6 for more in­for­ma­tion.

There is a wide­spread rule that copy for a website should be as short as possible – precisely because web reading behaviors are sup­pos­ed­ly such that shorter content is preferred. However, that’s not entirely true. In the end, purpose and topic determine the length. If you write a guide on choosing the best health insurance, you will likely end up with a longer text than if you are promoting a new jeans trend. More important than length when writing website copy is relevance and in­for­ma­tion that is easy to grasp.

It’s good practice to omit in­for­ma­tion that is unim­por­tant to the overall message of your text. Sometimes we may think in­for­ma­tion that pops into our head while writing is relevant, only to find out that when we read it back, it doesn’t directly relate to the topic on-hand. You can note down such in­for­ma­tion and use it in other texts later on. It makes sense to plan out a long-term content strategy that includes a detailed plan of topics and content.

It’s also good practice to avoid filler words and phrases that simply sound good but don’t add any in­for­ma­tion. Formulate simple, precise sentences and avoid lengthy and nested ones that are passive.

Using the right structure ensures that even long texts are easy to read. Formulate short sentences and para­graphs and divide them using mean­ing­ful sub­head­ings. Use bulleted lists, check­lists, and tables and bold important passages or in­di­vid­ual words. Use tip and link boxes to highlight cross-ref­er­ences or important tips.

In terms of content, aim to use the principle of the inverted pyramid, in which you work your way from the bigger picture toward the details. It makes sense to have a short in­tro­duc­to­ry paragraph that high­lights the topic or sum­ma­rizes the most important points (the 5 Ws); in­di­vid­ual aspects are then dealt with in short para­graphs, and a con­clu­sion follows at the end.

To improve the structure of your article you can add images, graphics, videos, and other visual elements that make it easier for readers to grasp in­for­ma­tion and context. For example, com­par­isons and ex­pla­na­tion of features are often easier to un­der­stand when supported by images. Again, don’t use an image just for the sake of using an image, but always ask yourself what purpose it serves. Sometimes new web design trends provide sug­ges­tions to simplify the pre­sen­ta­tion of your content.

The aim here is not to pla­gia­rize or duplicate content. Both practices would harm your web project. But you can def­i­nite­ly be inspired by checking out the com­pe­ti­tion. Look at the topics they cover and the length of their texts. Write website content that is a little longer or answers al­ter­na­tive questions.

By the way, there are tools that not only optimize keywords, but also check how your text fares against the com­pe­ti­tion: length but also type of content are examined here.

Though your target group should always be people, it’s im­pos­si­ble to avoid search engine op­ti­miza­tion when writing website copy these days. Keywords that rank high on Google are based on the search interests of people. In the best-case scenario, you’re able to please both – your readers and search engines.

As part of your content strategy, examine what people search for on Google and what topic-related keywords are out there. These could become a source of new content ideas. If you don’t have access to the Google Keyword Planner, several free keyword tools are available. Their search volumes may not always be exact, but they’ll still provide reliable ideas for keywords. During content planning, determine which text should be optimized for which keyword (and secondary keyword, if ap­plic­a­ble) in order to cover a broad range.