Tips for Writing Good Web Page Text Content
In this post we’ll offer you a few good content writing tips you can start using right away.
If you depend on your website for business, and most of your efforts are towards attracting a lot of quality traffic to your website, at some point (if you haven’t already done so) you will need to look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Adding additional content pages to support your targeted keyword phrases is an integral part of any good SEO strategy. So, in this article we are going to cover some general guidelines; good content writing tips to help build out your website content.
Yes, the Website Owner Should Provide the Content
Copywriters and website content optimizers know how to optimize text content so that the text will work well with the search engines while meeting the needs of the website visitor. It is erroneous however, for website owners to think that copywriters would know and understand the client’s business as well as the client.
Yet, many of my clients start by asking if I will write the text content for them. This is workable, but not recommended and usually does cost extra.
When the client provides the text content to be optimized the information is generally more relevant, there are fewer edits and revisions required, and the approval process is much quicker.
Do “NOT” Cut & Paste
There’s a first rule of thumb when it comes to content writing tips – when creating new content pages for your website the content on each page must be “100% unique.”
“Copy and paste” is perhaps the worst sin and must be avoided at all times, even within the same website. Even if you have several pages that cover the same or similar topic, the content on each page should be unique unto itself.
The search engines have very intelligent ‘duplicate content’ filters. Once the search engines find duplicate content they simply give credit to the page with the ‘oldest’ history and then ignore (or worse, refuse to index) the rest. We recommend first doing a content audit to uncover any duplicate content issues your site may have.
Many websites, especially e-commerce websites, have product descriptions provided to them by the manufacturer, which means of course that their competitors have also been provided with those same product descriptions. The solution is to re-word and revise all third party descriptions and content provided to you by the manufacturer. You will need to make the text copy as unique as possible.
Extra Web Page Content Writing Tips
Not everyone is a writer, but by the same token, not everyone knows your business like you do. As the writer however, you will find it much easier if you follow this brief overview of how to structure your web page text content. Here are 7 basic content writing tips you should follow:
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Your Web Page Text Should Have a Logical Flow
Each page has a story to tell and all good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end… in essence, every line should be there for a purpose…leading to the next line or thought.
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Make Your Pages “Customer” Centric
Write your content so that it speaks to your customer directly (ie: “you”) and if possible, try not to use the following “self-centric” references – “I”, “we”, “our” or “us”, etc.
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Discuss One Central Topic per Page
The page text that you write should be focused around your main topic, which is usually dictated by the targeted keyword (as chosen by the keyword research provided by your SEO company). If there are secondary ‘related’ phrases, then these should be used mainly to support the ‘primary’ keyword phrase.
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Opening Paragraph – State Your Central Theme First
In terms of content writing tips, we can’t stress enough how important your opening line and the first paragraph of each page are. They should clearly set up the topic of the page and give a little background on exactly what the topic will cover
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Middle Text – Highlight the Benefits to the Buyer/Visitor
It is better to highlight the benefits of your products to the buyer/visitor than to list the product features. People buy products for the benefits that those products bring them; if you can find unique benefits (something that is above and beyond what competitor’s products offer) than this is the place to disclose them.
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Review & Summarize
This is a great place to introduce your company bio or history as a means of building trust and backing up and supporting the summary of your products and benefits. Be sure not to cut and paste your bio…paraphrase and reword your bio to ensure that it is unique on each page.
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Closing Action Statement
End with a closing “action” statement (with contact links, phone number, link to a form, etc.). However, while the closing statement may be similar across pages, the content should still be unique to each page and revised to reflect the page content and targeted keyword phrase(s).
By following a few content writing tips (the fundamentals), the task of writing good web page text content really isn’t that difficult. After writing a few pages most of my clients can usually pump out additional pages rather quickly and the up side is that these are skills they can use for the life of their website. Happy writing!
1st on the List Promotion specializes in professional SEO Copywriting. Need some new content on your website and you don’t have the time or resources to do it yourself? Give us a call at 1-888-262-6687 to explore your options with us.
Read More About SEO Writing:
- Complete Guide to Writing Search Engine Friendly Content
- 4 Tips for SEO Content Writing
- Writing Powerful Product Descriptions That Sell Themself
- How to Design the Layout of a Content Page
For more information on this subject check out this moz.com article on Creating Quality Content in 2019 (For Search Engines and People).