A shockingly large portion of web content is being written by those with no writing experience or those with no time to ensure the final product is worthy of taking its place on the Internet. While most all web content has—or should have—a specific goal to accomplish, unfortunately there are millions of words floating around in cyberspace with no clear purpose. Developing your content requires serious planning and effort if you want to ensure you fully meet the interests and needs of your target audience.
Content Purpose and Goals
Ask yourself first what exactly you want your words to communicate to your web readers. Every single page of your text should seek to accomplish a very specific—and measurable—goal, and that goal should fit into your overall strategy. You may be trying to reach a specific demographic or your goal may be to rank for a particular keyword or phrase. When you have a clear goal in mind, your next step is to determine how you will write your content to most fully achieve that goal. Research is your next crucial step in writing great copy—research allows you to identify the angle or slant you plan to take with your words as well as decide on your targeted keywords. Aside from the obvious advantages to thorough research, such research can unexpectedly provide invaluable inspiration.
Shaking Up the Creative Process
When you have your strategy, keywords, research and a healthy dose of inspiration it’s time to engage in an idea free flow, also known as brainstorming. Try mixing up the brainstorming method you generally use to encourage creativity. Freewriting is one technique writers used when suffering writer’s block which simply means you set a quantitative goal of 300 words, a page or ten minutes then write without worrying about editing as you write. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you end up with when you use this technique. Using a technique known as listing can also be valuable when writing web content. Simply jot down a list of phrases, single words, sentences, facts, questions, goals, arguments, etc. Your list will include all the elements you want your finished words to possess. This is not an outline, per se, rather more like making a “to do” list.
Drafting Your Final Piece
Once you have done your research, chosen your keywords and engaged in brainstorming or listing it’s time to put your words on your computer screen or paper. Web content must be both informative and engaging while clearly getting your message across. Adhere to best practices for web writing including chunking your content in short, concise paragraphs of around a hundred words. Introduce your key points through the use of highly descriptive headers and subheads. Use bulleted lists to make your text easier to read and to slow your reader down a bit. Use links in the body of your text sparingly as they can be a distraction to your reader. Put your most important facts right up front with less important details following. Remember your target audience at all times while writing, and although web content is generally 50% shorter than print content, don’t get too caught up in word length until it’s time to edit.
Editing Your Content
Once your draft is complete, it’s time for a thorough edit to ensure your piece is as crisp and informative as possible. Never depend 100% on your computer program’s spell check—words can be spelled correctly while making absolutely no sense within your context. After you’ve run spell check, engage in a human check meaning reading your words preferably from a printed page to see how the words actually flow. Web content can become immortal on the web—both the great and the extraordinarily bad—you want your content to reflect the degree of skill and care you’ve put into it.
Tags: Lawyer Website Content
