There is nothing as intimidating for most of us as staring at a blank piece of paper (or Word document) and knowing that it needs to be filled with luscious prose painting a compelling picture of who you are and why your potential customers should work with you. Creating Web site content for a Web site re-design seems to be a nerve-wracking task for many clients and can even bring a project to a screeching halt on some occasions. This doesn’t need to be the case.
A few tips for writing Web content:
- Let your site map be your guide. Your site map is the outline of all pages on your Web site. With it, you know exactly what content you need to pull together.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Look to existing marketing and product collateral as sources of content. This will also ensure consistency of message throughout all of your mediums and save you a ton of work in the end.
- Remember: Visitors don’t read. They skim until they find what they are looking for. Front load your content (most important information first), use chunking (short paragraphs), bullets and imagery as they make sense.
- Write content for the Web that is rich with your keywords. This is the best way to be found on search engines, so make sure to optimize your Web site for search engine rankings.
- Know your visitors. Know who your primary audience is and why they are coming to the site. Speak to them.
- Be concise. Enough said.
If you have a case of writers block or simply no time or desire to craft your content, there are professional services that will work with you to present your perfect message. But remember, no one else knows your business as well as you do, so no matter who does the writing for you, ensure they are saying what you want said about your company.