(Even More!) Web Content Writing Tips

ABOUT KARI DEPHILLIPS

Kari DePhillips is the owner of The Content Factory and co-founder of Workationing. She’s been featured everywhere from Fast Company to Forbes to NBC News for her management style and digital marketing expertise, and Thrive calls her a “limit‑breaking female founder.” See all posts by Kari DePhillips.Follow:

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Your website represents your company. If your website content writing is sloppy, bloated or confusing, your brand will look sloppy, bloated and confusing — and you’ll lose sales, no matter how good your products or services are.

On the other hand, great web writing can help you across the board. Your blog posts will earn more shares, your pages will earn backlinks and your site will start to earn trust the moment visitors surf on.

Why should entrepreneurs learn content writing?

Good content writing is your best employee — in fact, a Salesforce/Pardot survey found that consumers consider trust in a company’s content to be 3x more important than trust in the brand’s actual employees. 97% of the same survey respondents also said that bad content negatively affected their trust in a brand.97% of consumers surveyed by @Pardot said bad #content negatively has impacted their trust in brands. #marketingCLICK TO TWEETMost businesses understand that they need to up their content game — that’s why our last post about web content writing tips was one of the most popular we’ve ever written. But just wanting to do better won’t make you a great website content writer, and the differences between strong and weak content marketers can make a significant difference in brand perception, web traffic and conversions.

You don’t want hours of researching and writing content to go to waste. You want ROI. So bookmark this list of content writing tips and keep it handy any time you create content for the web.

23 Tips for Writing Web Content

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• 1. Always start with keyword research for SEO.
• 2. Keyword stuffing is never okay
• 3. Drive toward powerful calls to action
• 4. Email vs. e-mail, Internet vs. internet and other style debates
• 5. Always hyperlink to your sources
• 6. Make the reader feel something.
• 7. Keep the action in your content writing
• 8. When writing for the web, chop it up.
• 9. Update your links
• 10. Invest in a good SEO suite 
• 11. Don’t forget SEO best practices
• 12. Give your readers a reason to care from the first sentence
• 13.  Paint a picture
• 14. “Do’s and Don’t’s” vs. “Dos and Don’ts” — which is correct?
• 15. If you’re not sure, look it up
• 16. Dictionary.com is your friend — so visit the site often.
• 17. Don’t call a banana an elongated yellow fruit
• 18. Revamp posts for maximum value
• 19. Web site vs. website vs. web site
• 20. Keep the reading level low
• 21. Provide added value
• 22. Never self edit your work (at least, not right away)
• 23. Level up your skills with online content writing & SEO training

1. Always start with keyword research for SEO.

Before you even start to write content, you need to know what you’re writing about — and you can kill two birds with one stone if you combine search engine optimization with your editorial calendar planning. New York Times Bestselling author and top marketer Neil Patel calls keyword research “the most important part of digital marketing” and “how we keep our ears to the ground,” and for good reason.

SEO keyword research tells you what topics Google (and your target audience) finds relevant.

It illuminates your competitors content strategy, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses in your own. And it allows you to optimize individual articles and your content strategy as a whole to bring in more traffic.

The ROI is unbeatable. TCF’s site generates over $400,000 worth of organic traffic each year (as in, we’d have to spend more than $400,000 dollars in AdWords to get the same number of site visits). And all it takes is a little extra research time, and occasional tweaks to update the content and keyword targeting.

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If you don’t know where to get started, we’ve created a killer SEO Keyword Research Starter Kit.

It includes everything you need to know from which tools we use to get the job done to how to use them to achieve your own results. Get your free copy now!

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2. Keyword stuffing is never okay

Keywords are a means to make your content valuable, readable and search-friendly. But when you start cramming in keywords, it does the exact opposite.

A web page stuffed with keywords looks dubious and untrustworthy — to both Google and human readers. Your conversion rate and SERPs rankings go down, along with your pageviews. Readers start to see it as a low quality page and bounce quickly, and over time search engines slap down your domain.

Search engines are smart these days. You don’t have to work in grammatically incorrect keyword phrase just because searchers use it. You don’t need to work in every conceivable variation of a search term for Google to understand what your page is about.

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3. Drive toward powerful calls to action (CTAs)

What do you want readers to do with the content you create? If your only answer is, “Well, read it, I guess,” you need to go back to the drawing board. Before you even start writing, you need to know what your call to action will be, and you need to make it compelling enough that readers can’t help but click. That’s how you connect content writing to marketing goals and prove ROI.

Which calls to action should businesses use in their content?

Here are some examples of calls to action you can incorporate in just about any blog post or landing page:

• Desired user action: download resource. Download our free guide for more expert tips about [topic].
• Desired user action: subscribe to newsletter. Sign up for exclusive resources in your inbox each week.
• Desired user action: get a demo. Schedule a free demo of [software/ app name] to see how many hours you can save each day.
• Desired user action: share content on social media. Know somebody who could use these tips? Share this article and tag your colleague!
• Desired user action: make a purchase. Click here and use offer code “CONTENT” to save 30% on the purchase of
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When writing calls to action, put yourself in the reader’s shoes: what would it take for a company you’ve never heard of to convince you to do something, even something as simple as sharing the article with a friend? Now, connect it to your goals: how can you craft a CTA and content specific to your company’s marketing and sales KPIs that actually persuades readers to take action?

4. Email vs. e-mail, Internet vs. internet and other style debates

Language always changes, and web writers need to be hip to the trends to appeal to modern audiences. For example, many organizations would never use the singular, gender-neutral “they” as recently as the early 2000s. Now, the only language authorities that make you write out “he or she” are middle school English teachers.

Similarly, “e-mail” was considered the correct term for a long time by major authorities like the AP and The New York Times, but one by one they gave in. The same goes with the lowercase “internet.” There are people that still treat it as a proper noun, but none of them work as editors in The Guardian, The Economist or the BBC.

The bottom line is, whatever your language pet peeves are, your online writing is for your audience, not for you.

Play it safe by following the conventions of the AP or another respected style guide, or creating your own house style guide that adheres to modern usage rules. Be consistent, and be modern.Grammar snobs, take note: whatever your language pet peeves are, your online #writing is for your audience, not for you. #marketingCLICK TO TWEET

5. Always hyperlink to your sources

When you reference another website’s content, make sure you hyperlink back to that site. It’s good internet etiquette, and you’d want the same courtesy. Always cite your sources, even if you’re afraid it’ll send your web traffic to another site — and you can always choose the “open link in another window” option if you’re that concerned about keeping your traffic.

Besides being the right thing to do, citations can also help you get backlinks.

Frequently, the sites you link to will see your effort and thank you for it with a reciprocal link or quote — like Hootsuite did for TCF.

Read 14 Ways to Get Backlinks for more information on effective linking strategy.

6. Make the reader feel something.

There are a lot of factors that go into viral content. Promotion is a huge factor, and brand identity, timing and plain luck all play a role.

But almost all viral writing shares one thing in common: emotional impact..

In a recent article, Hubspot interviewed three different marketing experts on why content goes viral. Although each emphasized different factors, all three emphasized the importance of creating web content that evokes an emotional response in the reader. Megan Conley, Content Marketing Strategist at HubSpot, put it this way:

We all have opinions on what types of content go viral: a soundless social video, a data-backed explainer, a perfectly timed newsjack. But no matter the format, it ultimately comes down to emotion. Does the story make you feel enraged, inspired, understood? With everything you create you have to ask: If this scrolled by on my newsfeed, would I care? If the answer is no, it’s not worth it. Your online content habits are your own best judge.

So the next time you’re crafting a piece of ad copy or web writing ask yourself, “What’s good about this story? How can I give this more emotional impact?” Find it, and you might just have viral website content on your hands.Want to go #viral? Ask yourself: “What’s good about this story? How can I give this more emotional impact?” #marketingCLICK TO TWEET

7. Keep the action in your content writing

Writing for the web should be powerful, direct and punchy. To do that, your sentence structure, word choice and style need to emphasize action.

For example, let’s take the common writing tip, “don’t use the passive voice.”

The passive voice happens when you switch the subject and object in a sentence. Instead of “the lion attacked the village” you have “the village was attacked by a lion.”

Notice how the second sentence is somehow less exciting (even though it contains a killer lion?) That;s because the active voice emphasizes the action with “the lion attacked.” In the passive voice, the village is the subject. The agent (the lion that performed the action) is only mentioned afterwards using the prepositional phrase “by the lion.” It’s almost an afterthought.

As a web content writer, you should also use unique and exciting verbs to impact the reader. Try swapping out “sales climbed” for “sales rocketed.” Instead of “we cut costs” try “we slashed costs.”

Finally, remember to vary your sentence style.

Try using short simple sentences get attention, then longer more complex ones to flesh out ideas. Use interesting verbs to highlight important actions, then more conventional ones for variety. Even passive voice has a place sometimes — for example, to share background information or highlight whom a particular action affected.

These small changes won’t add to your word count, but they will make your content writing more exciting and engaging.

8. When writing for the web, chop it up.

If you’re writing the next Great American Novel, it’s okay to end paragraphs when pauses seem natural. Writing for the web, however, is a whole different world. Attention spans online are a LOT shorter than they are in Oprah’s Book Club, and your paragraphs need to reflect that.

Put simply: keep it short! A five-line paragraph is great, but a three-line paragraph is even better. Content kings like Derek Halpern even let single sentences fly solo.

Don’t worry if an idea doesn’t seem to be fully “complete” before hitting that enter key. Err on the side of short paragraphs and chop it up!

9. Update your links

Most website content writers know the importance of internal links. Linking to other pages on your site boosts SEO, gives readers useful info, and increases page views and time on site. However, it’s not enough.

You need to revisit older posts and pages to update them with new links. This boosts your search results, makes your pages more useful and relevant to users and helps your content stays fresh.

It’s just one part of revamping older, evergreen content to improve SEO.

10. Invest in a good SEO suite

You can do SEO keyword analysis with nothing but a Google spreadsheet and some free tools,but there’s a lot of data to crunch. And digging through all the keywords and traffic data makes it easy to get lost in the analytics.

Not all SEO suites solve the problem. Some bombard you with too much data, without providing the tools you need to sort through it and tweak your content strategy. Other SEO tools break everything down into their own proprietary system, without giving you the enough data to draw your own conclusions. And when they get it wrong, you’ll have no way of knowing until your traffic starts to crash.

One SEO tool that gets the balance right is SEMrush — in fact, we’re such fans, we’ve even become an affiliate!

With SEMrush, you’re given a lot of data, but all of that data is easy to understand (and even easier to export, if you need to analyze it in another program).

Seriously, take a look at this screenshot:

All of the important analytics are displayed in front of you: what keywords you’re ranking for, how many backlinks you have, what your competition looks like, and the total ad value of your keywords.Even if you’re new to SEO content writing, it’s quick and easy to learn.

Likewise, when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of keyword research, SEMrush makes it easy to parse data: you can sort keywords by common metrics like CPC or search volume, find related keywords, compare competitors or narrow in on a specific subdomain of your site.

Whether you’re trying to build out a new blog for your brand, audit your whole site, or zero in on your competitors strategy, it’s an invaluable tool.

If you’re interested in trying SEMrush out, click here for a free 7-day trial of SEMrush Pro!

11. Don’t forget SEO best practices

Repeating your targeted keywords a couple times isn’t enough — you need to use your keyword (and related phrases) anywhere it fits: in the url, H2 headers, meta description and even in the alt tags of your images.

If you’re using WordPress, Yoast can help you nail the SEO.

Once you’re finished inputting your content, expand the Yoast box and check out the Content Analysis portion for some helpful hints about what you should improve before you publish.

Not only does Yoast nail big problems like missing keywords in the meta description, it can also help you zoom in on granular issues like low keyword density to gie your site an extra SEO boost:

12. Give your readers a reason to care from the first sentence

Good intros are hard. It can feel unnatural to skip right to the point. You want to provide some background, warm the reader up and then work your way to the main topic when you feel ready.

But by that point, your reader is long gone.

Your website isn’t literature. Site visitors aren’t there for your nuanced language or slow, measured flow. They’re there to get information or solve a problem (ideally by buying your product or service.)Content writing tip: your website isn’t literature. Your readers are there to solve a problem, not gush about rhetorical devices. #marketingCLICK TO TWEET

And if you don’t give them a reason to care about your article, they’re going to get that information or solve that problem somewhere else.

Our intro is a good example. The first sentence is “your website represents your company.” In five words, we’ve told you why this article is important. The rest of the intro expands that, talking about how website content writing can help (or hurt) your company.

Finally, we remind you why you need us: you don’t want to waste time — “you want ROI.” So bookmark this article and reference it when you write.

Every piece of content you write should tell your readers why they should invest their time in hearing what you have to say. How will what you’re teaching them help them? What goal will they accomplish with your help? Why should they care?

13. Paint a picture

Give this paragraph a read:

“Is it just us, or do some people talk about gay dating like it’s an elaborate magic trick? Even unexperienced gay or queer persons may approach the idea of dating with the kind of abject fear one feels when opening the instructions for a new piece of IKEA furniture. ‘Am I doing this right?’ they may ask themselves, months, years and even decades into their dating careers.”

That’s the opening paragraph for blog post we wrote for our personal product client titled 8 Ways Gay Dating Is Just Like Straight Dating and it’s the perfect example to illustrate our point (pun intended).

That point is this — creating web content writing is a lot different than writing a 7th grade book report.

Your audience isn’t an overworked and underpaid teacher with no choice but to read your reworded Cliffs Notes on Lord of the Flies. Your audience is choosing to read your content (or to head elsewhere on the web). Imagery is a great way to capture their attention.

Don’t think for a second that a boring or technical topic gets you off the hook either  — IKEA assembly instructions have nothing to do with gay dating (usually) but we used a visual to help the reader make the connection. Push yourself to add a little creative fiction to your website content writing and see how much more fun it is to read (and write!)

14. “Do’s and Don’t’s” vs. “Dos and Don’ts” — which is correct?

The latter! Nothing drives us crazier than people putting apostrophes in pluralized words.

When in doubt about spelling, capitalization or grammar, Google it! Which brings us to…

15. If you’re not sure, look it up

There’s never been a better time to learn as you go. Double checking the words/grammar/spelling/etc. you don’t know about can help you catch mistakes and internalize the rules, so you can write correctly without looking it up next time.

If the finer points of grammar elude you, you can always download the Grammarly browser extension to catch issues in real time.

Don’t stop with language mechanics, either. Look up content marketing strategy, read industry blogs, study successful online social media marketing campaigns. The more time you spent thinking and picking up new information, the better you’ll get.

Soon, you’ll be writing your own blog posts about web content writing tips!