It’s your first website, so you want to get it right the first time! I get that, but your website content should be more than information. It needs to engage your viewers, gain traction in search engines and reflect your brand’s values.
Target Audience (AKA Ideal Reader)
Defining your ideal reader makes your web copy tailor-made to converting your target audience. Picture it like this; your ideal reader should be your best friend. You will know them so well you can start a conversation with them with ease. Don’t forget your ideal reader’s demographics like age, gender marital status etc. But what are their personality traits? What are their likes and dislikes etc.? Writing to these characteristics will make your writing appealing to your ideal reader.
Formatting
Website viewers will not scroll through endless paragraphs. You should start with a headline followed by a synopsis highlighting how your businesses products or services will benefit your customers. Your website’s layout must include a variety of these elements:
- Subheadings
- Short paragraphs
- Quotes
- Bulleted lists
It is also important to remember that web content is a conversation. People buy from people. Your content should appear as a direct conversation between you and the ideal reader (or like talking to your best friend).
SEO
It’s one thing to have engaging content, but it’s another to make discoverable! You must include keywords, alt tags and titles to make sure your content can be found in search engines by others. Using keywords in your website copy can attract the attention of search engines but will grab the attention of your ideal readers as they scan through the content of your website. But your site must be readable so you must keep a balance between keywords and your content.
