The second part of my blog post on why it is important to focus on creating good content for our websites.
What makes good content?
It helps to pick a subject you are passionate or particularly knowledgeable about. Let's face it, you probably know lots more about your industry or the products and services you provide than the vast majority of people out there.
Sharing your knowledge will position you as an informed authority within your niche and also be the benefit to others, Everyone's a winner! It's just a question of extricating the information from your grey matter.
Another key factor is knowing who your audience is. It’s crucial to think about who you are writing for and what their requirements may be, what kind of tastes they have and where their interests lie as well as what their online behaviour and habits are. Finally try to create something original. Don’t just copy material that others have produce and try to pass it off as your own. And if you do use something that isn’t yours then given the original author credit where possible by providing a reference.
There’s no doubt that copywriting is a skill and can take a bit of practice. There’s no shortage of places that can offer help and advice. If you need help try asking your colleagues internally at work, or amongst friends and family. Alternatively you can enrol in a classroom or online course to help develop and hone you skills. There’s lots of free information out there on the web. We've listed some sites you may find useful at the end of this article.
But why bother with humans. It’s only Google that matters, right?
Clearly when writing online copy you should think about using relevant keyword phrases so some keyword research wouldn't do any harm. However, the distinction between writing for Google and that of writing for real people is becoming less distinct. Some of the latest Google algorithms were developed by studying the online habits and behaviours displayed by thousands of people (that's right real people, not bots and web spiders) so that Google could rank website's according to what people like and penalise them for what people find off putting (i.e. spammy, irrelevant, dull content).
As mentioned in Part 1, in April this year I attended a buzzing brightonSEO conference. In his thought provoking talk entitled WTF is SEO? Ade Lewis of Teapot Creative made the point that if we focus on writing content for Google and Google is increasingly doing its utmost to emulate humans, then surely we’re missing a trick. Instead, why not just create content with the people it is destined for in mind and not search engines. Makes perfect sense really. You can view the slides to the talk here:
WTF is SEO from Ade Lewis
So when you create content for the online space it isn’t enough to simply stuff keywords into the mix like you’re preparing a Christmas dinner for 12. Think about adding value and offering your audience something engaging, informative or entertaining otherwise you may be wasting your efforts and frankly what’s the point? Ultimately if your content is fresh, unique, genuine and stimulating, people are more likely to feel compelled to like it, share it and with any luck will even come back for more. This will naturally drive more traffic to your site, increase conversion rates, grow your following and create brand loyalty. Basically all the things you want to achieve anyway.
Keeping it fresh
So, what's stopping you? Well, picture this scenario. You've had some great ideas for a new section for your website, you start typing with frantic keystrokes to get this valued prose saved on your laptop or mobile. Now you can't wait to get it published online so others can share in the mouth-watering fruits of your creativity and benefit from your Solomonesque pearls of wisdom. You email the document to your digital marketing team or web agency but they're snowed under-resourced as ever and you know it's going to take a week before it goes live. How frustrating...
But what if you could just write something and publish it without needing to jump through hoops, sign up for an evening class to retrain as a developer or rely on someone else? Well now you can. A web Content Management System (CMS) allows you to quickly and easily create and edit the content of your website without any technical skills or knowledge of HTML, CSS. You don’t even need to worry about FTP as everything is done “on-page” straight from your web browser. There are many to choose from the most popular being open source versions such as WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. In fact over the last 2 years our boffins here at BarkWeb have even created their own toy and many of our clients are now sleeping better at night, safe in the knowledge that they can easily create fresh content themselves, on demand, and be self sufficient in terms of managing their content.
Make the web a better place
So what's the conclusion? Well we just want you to embrace your online business presence and LOVE YOUR WEBSITE so it loves you back with that same unconditional love we got from our mothers. Get involved, invest in great content and reap the benefits to make the web (and maybe even the world) a nicer place.
On a final note: blogs should be easily digestible and where possible kept shorter than a Tolstoy novel. So that’s it for now and a big thanks for dropping in.
Further reading on writing good web copy
http://www.quicksprout.com/the-advanced-guide-to-content-marketing/
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-rise-above-lackluster-content-making-your-content-marketing-work-for-you
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/18/quick-course-on-effective-website-copywriting/
http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/