The Practical Guide to Web Content Development and Organization

Intro-1 The Practical Guide to Web Content Development and Organization © 2011 - 2012 by Riavon Enterprises. All rights reserved.

IntroductionContentsIntroduction Intro-2

So, where do you start? 1Start with The Five W’s 2Know thy visitors. 4The Ready To Buy visitor (RTB) 5The Still Needs To Be Sold visitor (SNTBS) 6The Existing Customer visitor (EC) 8Know thyself. 9Know thy keywords 10Tell your website visitors what you do for them. (Not just what you do.) 11Know what you want your visitors to do. 12Know thy competition. 12Compose Your Website Content 13Get your content together. 15A Few Do’s and Don’ts 17Content that absolutely must be on every single page of your website 21What to write 22How to write it 25Structure 26Content Writing Dos and Don’ts 27Recommended Reading 27


IntroductionAbout this GuideEvery web designer/developer needs to have website content as ‘ready to go’ as possible in order to build, deliver and launch a website as quickly and effi ciently as possible for their client.

The Practical Guide to Web Content Development and Organization was originally de-veloped by Riavon Enterprises as a tool for our clients to help them prepare their website content for submission to us.

This Guide was written exclusively for sole proprietors, start ups, and small businesses or organizations who do not have an in-house marketing team or the resources to hire a professional web content specialist or copy writer.

The Guide also provides our colleagues, professional web designers and developers, with a tool which they can use to help their own clients to prepare and deliver content for their website projects.

This Guide is intended to be used for the sole purpose of planning and communicating your brand message via your website more eff ectively in order to convert prospects into customers.

What You’ll Need


Introduction

1IntroductionYour website represents you to the entire world every minute of every hour of every day, and it makes a huge diff erence in whether people choose to do business with you. People will form an opinion about you based on their impression of your website, so you must make sure your website gives you the competitive advantage to be successful, no matter what the size of your business. Everything in this Guide applies to anyone who wants a successful website that does the job it’s meant to do.

The single most important part of your successful website is your content.

Content development and organization absolutely, positively must be your

fi rst step in the website development process.

“Words and pictures are yin and yang.Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.”

--- Dr. Seuss


IntroductionThe hardest part is getting started. The rest is simple. Start with the basics and always keep your website’s visitors in mind, and you’ll do fi ne. Which leads us to our next point. Before we begin, please establish the following very fi rmly in your mind:

YOURVISITORS

MUSTALWAYS

COMEFIRST.

Worry about what Google thinks later.


Introduction

Before we begin.1. Decide who is responsible for developing content for your website project.

Assign the task of content development to an individual or team of people within your orga-nization. Make it very clear exactly who is responsible for what content.

2. Determine how much time you can devote to content development for

your website project.

Set up a realistic timeline for delivery of each section of content. Set specifi c milestones and adhere as closely as you can to your deadlines in order to stay on track for the scheduled launch date of your website.

Ready to begin? Read on.

The Practical Guide to Web Content Development and Organization © 2011 - 2012 by Riavon Enterprises. All rights reserved.pg. 1

Website Content Development

1p a g e

Eff ective website content is con-tent that ultimately generates the results that you want and need to get from your website. In order to do that, your content must fi rst be useful and relevant to your website visitors.

Communicate > Motivate > Activate

A website is merely a communication tool that’s sole purpose is to communicate a message that will motivate people to take action. It’s your job to make your website communicate your message eff ectively enough that it will motivate the right people to take the right action.

This process has also been described by some experts as Connect > Engage > Convert. Regardless of how you label it, the key to remember here is that you should never forget that you are communicating with real people via your website. People with very little time, and a very short attention span, too!

There are a few key things that must come into play to get you and your website’s visitors to the “activate” part of the above equation, and it all starts with eff ective website content.

So, where do you start? There is a good chance that if you have an established business or or-ganization, you already have some of the basic material you will need for your website content, especially if you have put together a business plan or marketing plan. If not, that’s okay - this exercise will be helpful to you in more ways than one! Whether you have a written business plan or not, your fi rst step in this process is to ask and answer some “5W” questions that will help you start to generate the foundation of your website content.



2p a g eStart with The Five W’sWho, What, When, Where, Why

(and an H -How)

You should know the answers to the following questions

Who is your ideal customer?

Who are your website’s visitors?

Who needs your product/service the most?

Who benefi ts the most from what you off er?

What’s important to them?

What do they need from you?

What do you have to off er to them?

What makes you valuable to them?

When do they need your product or service?

When do they visit your website?

Where are they coming to your website from?

Where are they going when they leave?

Where else are they looking for what they need?

Why are they looking at your website?

Why do they leave your website?

Why should they get what they need from you?

How long do they take to make a buy-ing/action decision?

How will you get them to the informa-tion they need most?

How can you get them there faster?

How do you make it easier for your ideal customer to do business with you?

Write down the answers to as many of these questions as you can. If you’re not sure of an answer right away, then do some research and fi nd out what that an-swer is. Then write it down.

Be as detailed as pos-sible in your answers. Drill down and get to the root of the answer. For example, for the “What do you have to offer them?” ques-tion, you could answer “I offer top of the line commercial air fi ltration systems.” which is true. But if you dig down further you will fi nd that be-cause your systems reduce airborne pathogens you also offer reduced employee sick time, which leads to in-creased productivity in the workplace, which saves money for your prospec-tive customer. Cha-ching!



3p a g eCraft Your Benefi t StatementWhen you can, try to describe a benefi t that demonstrates value in your website visitor’s mind. This will take your message beyond the product itself, and quickly defi ne how your product actually helps your visitor. If you can address your visitor’s key pain, predicament, or problem via your website content, then you are going to keep that visitor interested in you, which keeps that visitor on your website longer (or coming back to it), which increases the chance they will take action. Now that is eff ective website content!

The information that you gather here forms the

foundation of your website content.

Your website content should always address your visitors, fi rst and foremost. Train yourself to think in terms of your visitor’s perspective. Keep in mind that your visitor is asking: “What’s in it for me?”

In order to present the most eff ective website content, it’s important to know the people who are visiting your website, and to understand their needs.

1.2.3.



4p a g e

Yes, we realize there are other types of visitors coming to your site, such as the press, researchers, or the simply curious. For the purpose of this Guide, we’ll focus on those visitors who have the greatest impact on your website’s objectives.

Know thy visitors.You should be able to defi nitively answer these questions:

1) Who are these people (your website’s visitors)?

2) Why are they here (at your website)?

Most of your website visitors will break down into one of three types:

The Ready To Buy (RTB) visitor

The Still Needs To Be Sold (SNTBS) visitor

The Existing Customer visitor (EC)

Note: Understand that when we say “buy” that is just our general catch-all term for ‘take action’. Whatever action you desire from your website visitor is what you’re selling.

1.

2.

3.



5p a g eThe Ready To Buy visitor (RTB)Your RTB visitor is already convinced of the value of your off er when he ar-

rives at your website.

What does the Ready To Buy visitor need from you?

How does your website content meet the needs of your RTB visitor?

Your RTB visitor is already convinced of the value of your off er, so what content does this visitor need or want from your website?

Information: Despite being convinced of the value of your off er, your RTB visitor may still have some questions for you, such as “How do I get my hands on one of these?” So, you want to be sure you provide your RTB visitor with content that will answer any questions he may have. Your content should clearly present important information your RTB visitor needs, such as order forms, prices, special off ers, installation procedures, product details, support, delivery options, and the like.

In your eagerness to sell, don’t forget that some of your visitors are already

sold. Tailor your website content to accommodate the RTB visitor as well.



6p a g eThe Still Needs To Be Sold visitor (SNTBS)Your SNTBS visitor needs to be convinced to buy from you when he arrives

at your website.

What does the Still Needs To Be Sold visitor need from you?

How does your website content meet the needs of your SNTBS visitor?

The SNTBS visitor either needs to be convinced to buy it, to buy it from YOU (as opposed to your competition), or both. Ideally, your website’s content should eff ectively address each of these possible scenarios.

Keep in mind that just because he still needs to be sold doesn’t mean that

the SNTBS visitor isn’t interested in what you off er.

The the SNTBS visitor may be:

Deciding whether he needs/wants what you off erFiguring out if he can aff ord your off erComparing your off er to that of your competitionDoing pre-purchase research about your off er (we call this ‘tire-kicking’)Considering alternative options

It’s a good idea for you to have an understanding of what is important to the SNTBS visitor, based on your knowlege of what is their pain, predicament or problem and how your prod-uct or service alleviates it. Think about ways you can present website content that will eff ec-tively do that.

»»»»»

Important: Don’t forget to KISS it - Keep It Short and Sweet. There’s no need to go on and on (and on) about what you do and how wonder-ful you are. Your website’s visitors don’t have the time to read large blocks of copy, and they don’t need to have all that information at once. You really don’t want to “oversell” or overwhelm your visitors with TMI (too much information), as it can actually be counterproductive!



7p a g eYour SNTBS visitor wants to know: “What’s in it for me?” . Your SNTBS visitor needs to have information that will enable him to fully understand the benefi ts of doing business with you. Your content needs to help him to see the value of your off er.

Your website content should make it clear to both your Ready To Buy

visitor and your Still Needs To Be Sold visitor exactly what you off er

and how they can get it.

Establish Credibility and TrustYour SNTBS visitor needs to know that he can trust you. Establishing credibility and trust should be at the top of the list when developing content for the SNTBS visitor.

Gather testimonials. Nobody sells your business as well as your existing happy custom-ers. And bonus! Not only does it help convince the SNTBS visitors to buy from you, by fea-turing testimonials as part of your website content you also underscore and reinforce your RTB visitors and your EC vistors confi dence that they have made the right decision by do-ing business with you.

Accreditation and Awards. If you are accredited in some way that is important to your industry or market segment, be sure to include this information in your website content. If you’ve won any awards that would be meaningful to your website visitors, be sure to in-clude this information in your website content.

History. If it’s important to your visitors that your company or organization has an es-tablished history, then be sure to include information about your history in your website content.

What’s important to your SNTBS visitor?

TrustworthinessAvailabilityOngoing supportEase of orderingSpeed of deliveryAccuracy of informationLocation ExperienceLongevityCredibityCertifi cations/AwardsQualityPriceReturn on Investment (Value)

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13.14.

?



8p a g eThe Existing Customer visitor (EC)

What does the Existing Customer visitor need from you?

How does your website content meet the needs of your EC visitor ?

Adoration: Do you value adore your existing customers? Your EC visitor needs to feel adored (valued and cared for) when he arrives at your website. He needs to know about things like new products, upgrades, where to fi nd support, and how to reach you. He needs content that provides updates, information, support, news, and a reason to stay loyal to you.

Rewards: Your EC visitor may also want to re-affi rm his buying decision or compare you to a new competitor on the market to see how you stack up. Be sure your website content sup-ports your existing customer and encourages their continued loyalty.

Helpful Hint: Picture your ideal customer in your mind as you de-velop your website content. What is this person’s age, gender, occu-pation, income, location, etc.? Re-ally get to know this person. You can even give him/her a name! And once you do, address your message directly to him/her.



9p a g eKnow thyself.Ok, now it’s your turn. As much as we’ve preached the gospel of “your visitors must always come fi rst”, they still want - and need - to know something about you. It’s important to do this for a few reasons.

You need to establish credibility and trust in order for anyone to feel good about buying from you.

Your visitors want to know that they can make a connection with you.Your visitors need to clearly understand what the benefi t is to them when they buy from

you.

Because of this, the information you provide about yourself is actually still in line with the idea of putting your visitors fi rst. We have to remember that even though we are commu-nicating via a machine, we are still people behind that machine. Let your visitors know that they are still making a connection to a real person/people. Tell your website visitors who you are.

Who are you, anyway?You can let your visitors know who you are in various ways. Here are a few ideas.

Author a blog on your websiteFeature a “Meet Our Team” section of your website with photos and short biosPost a personal message from a top executive or owner on the “About” page Publish testimonialsPut up a photo galleryProvide a history of your company or organizationFeature news items about your people and eventsPublish a regular newsletter

»

»»

»»»»»»»»

However you decide to let your website visitors know about you, just remem-

ber to always keep them and their needs in mind, and understand that they’re looking at you because they

want to learn something about you, but also because they need to know

they can trust you. Keep your message brief and to the point, and focus on

the key benefi ts for your visitors.



10p a g eKnow thy keywordsFor the purpose of this Guide, we won’t go into an indepth discussion of search engine op-timization (SEO), but we certainly cannot address website content without acknowledging its relevance. This guide is more about what happens between your visitors and your web-site once they arrive at your website. But, the words you include in your content can serve to attract visitors by placing you well in the search engine results pages (SERP) for search terms (keywords) people use to fi nd what you have to off er.

There are countless books, websites, podcasts, webinars, workshops and experts who can provide you with a thorough explanation of SEO tactics, as well as several tools which you can use to develop a list of keywords. The reason we bring this up? Because we want to remind you that once you have developed a strong list of keywords and key phrases, you want to be sure they’re included in your content. The advantage to using tools such as the free keyword tool provided by Google is that you can not only get help putting together your keywords, you can get some insight and help determining which keywords are used the most to fi nd what you have to off er.

SEO carries varying degrees of importance depending on the type of website it is, which will determine how intently you will need to consider SEO during your content development. Having a robust SEO strategy may or may not be a priority for you for your website. If it is, there is a list of excellent SEO resources we recommend for you at the end of this Guide.

Our SEO philosophy is that if you develop content that properly de-scribes your off er and meets the needs of your targeted visitors, then a majority of those keywords will generate themselves naturally.



11p a g eTell your website visitors what you do for them. (Not just what you do.)

What do you do? You provide accounting services.What do you do for your customers? You relieve the average working man’s tax headaches by 1) helping him get a bigger tax refund and 2) by making it easy for him to fi le.

Who do you do it for? Describe your ideal customer and address him/her. If your ideal cus-tomer is a struggling single mom trying to juggle raising 3 kids while building her career in a tough economy, then know exactly what is her pain, her problem, her predicament. Then, be sure your content tells her that you are here to relieve, solve, and resolve it for her. What do you do for her?

How do you do it? Do you use a whatchamacallit to generate in-tegrated core structures of mega ultimate cohesiveness in order to perpetrate the collective rate of incline-to-plateau ration index? Or, do you build and install commercial air fi lters that reduce allergens in the workplace by 99%, therefore creating a healthier working envi-ronment, thereby reducing employee illness and loss of productivity in the work place?

DO: Map out clear benefi t state-ments. And write them down. Prioritize these benefi t statements or organize them by type of pro-spective customer. Then, your web designer can work with you to place this content into well po-sitioned text, links, calls to action,

or banner ads in addition to includ-ing them within your website copy.



12p a g eKnow what you want your visitors to do.Determine what it is specifi cally that you want your website visitors to do.

Purchase products from your online store? Sign up for your newsletter? Join your club? Make a donation? Call you for a quote? Take a survey?

List, then prioritize all of these action items - they will become your website’s calls to action.

Know how you will motivate them to do it.Think about what kind of incentives will motivate people to take action for each. Limited time special off ers? Limited availability? A free gift if they sign up now? What is it they want? Can you provide them with a value-add that saves them time, informs them, edu-cates them, saves them money? This will form the “carrot” that you dangle in front of your visitors. Be sure to make this content available to your website visitors.

Know thy competition.You need to understand what you’re up against when it comes to your competitors. Do as much research as you can to learn about how your competitors are positioned in the marketplace. Figure out what it is that you can do to fi ll a niche that they don’t and off er something they don’t. Be sure that aspect of your off er is addressed and presented to your visitors in your website content.

»»»»»»

You should know exactly what your most important calls to ac-tion are for your website content.

For example:

#1 Buy our product (right now!)

#2 Contact us for an appointment (so we can motivate you to buy our product)

#3 Sign up for our newsletter (so we can remind you about us and motivate you to buy our product later).



13p a g eCompose Your Website ContentWe’ve all got something to say. But not everyone is a born copy writer who can get what they have to say across to their audience brilliantly in writing, especially in a way that com-pels people to buy something, let alone compel them to buy it in less than 10 seconds. That’s a pretty tall order!

Don’t worry, you can do this. Writing for the web is a simplifi ed process that doesn’t require any great writing skill beyond what you will learn here in this Guide combined with some of the basic spelling and grammar rules we all learned in grade school.

Benefi ts fi rst. Answer your website visitor’s question “What’s in it for me?”

Be sure to write your content in terms of how it benefi ts your visitor.

For example, telling your visitors that you have over 20 years of accounting experience doesn’t mean as much to them as knowing that you can help them understand the new tax laws, or (even better!) that you can help them get a bigger tax refund this year.

What do you think your visitor is thinking when he lands on your website? Is he thinking “Hmmm. You know, I really need an accountant with exactly 20 years of experience.” Or is he thinking “Hmmm. I really need someone who can help me get a bigger tax refund this year!” Always write your content with your visitors’ needs in mind fi rst.

Of course you can mention that you have 20 years of experience!

Just don’t forget to also mention that your experience enables you to offer better solutions than less experienced accountants can.



14p a g e

Let your visitors know that you help, serve, deliver, solve, fi x, increase, decrease, eliminate, sort out, save time,

or make it easier.



15p a g eGet your content together.

Filling in the blanksHave you been reviewing the wireframes or the staging area of your new website while it’s being built and noticed that your web designer has fi lled in the pages with placeholder text that begins with “Lorem ipsum”? That’s industry standard placeholder text we designers and developers use to temporarily fi ll the space with natural looking words of varying length and spacing that closely mimics the fl ow of actual text. But, at some point we need to re-place all that “Lorum ipsum...” with your actual words - your content.

Will you be ready when your web designer says to you:

‘Ok, we’re ready for your content now.’?



16p a g eThis is where you come in.Now is when you must come in to this web design project with a very solid understanding that fi rst and foremost, this is your website. Your website is being built in order to provide you with an online presence that gets results you need. There is a lot your web designer can do for you, but only you know your business, your purpose, your history, your goals, your vision. Your web designer cares, but does not share this knowledge with you. Therefore, it is absolutely, unequivocally, without a doubt, your job and yours alone, to provide your web designer with your website copy. Granted, web designers are pretty darn talented people, but alas, we are not yet mind readers. We also are experts, some are even considered gurus, in our fi eld of expertise - which is all things web design and web development. Some of us are experts in other areas as well, but (and my point is...) seldom, if ever, will you fi nd a web designer who is also a quintessential expert in all areas of your industry, your business, your company, or your products.

You must take responsibility for your website’s content.

If you don’t, nobody else will.



17p a g eA Few Do’s and Don’tsWhen it comes to your website content, there are ways that you can contribute to - or detract from - the effi ciency of the website project when you are working with your web designer.

DON’T send your web designer to other competitors websites to ‘get content’.

This. Is. Just. Wrong. Not only is this horribly bad business practice (can you say plagiarism?), it’s really not actually your web designer’s job to go to another website to “get” content for you.

Think about it. Do you really want someone who has no clue about what your business does to be in charge of putting together the information that the entire world sees about your business on your website?

What kind of job do you think your web designer will do developing the content for your mortgage lending company? Or your dog grooming business? Or your party planning ser-vice? What do we web designers know about that stuff ? Most likely, a whole lotta nothin’. Probably about as much as you know about PHP and MySQL. Which is why you really don’t want us out there hunting and gathering your material for you. That doesn’t mean that you should take content from other websites and send it on to us, either. There are services like CopySentry that major players and little guys alike utilize at a very low cost to ensure their online content is not duplicated (plagiarized) by anyone else on the Internet. Don’t be “that guy” who steals his content from others.

and



18p a g eDON’T fax your web designer scans of printouts of screenshots of websites.

Ideally, your web designer needs to receive your content in digital format. This way it can be placed quickly and effi ciently into your website’s pages by your web designer.

If you provide only printed, faxed, or scanned material, your web designer then has no choice but to hand-type each and every word into your website’s pages. You can imagine the added time and cost this means, in addition to the increased potential for errors. If your web designer has to typeset all of that for you, I can guarantee you three things. One: they won’t do it, two: they’ll hire someone else to do it, and three: they will charge you double or even triple what they paid that other person to do it. Also, you’ll add countless hours onto the project scope that will only delay the launch of your website. It’s a much wiser decision for you to compose and write your website content and provide it to your web designer in digital format.

Tip: Web designers can work much faster for you if you provide the URLs to which you’d like to link your content. For example, if your company exhibits each year at a tradeshow and you’d like to include that information in your copy, be sure to provide your web designer with the correct name and spelling of the link as well as the URL of the trade show’s web page to link it to. This saves an incredible amount of time taken while we hunt and peck around Google, hoping we’ve guessed at the correct link. Any and all details and information such as this is crucial to saving time and decreasing errors on your website project.

What is digital format? Text that’s been typed into an email message, a word processing doc-ument fi le, or text (.txt) fi le, such as Wordpad or Notepad, emailed to us or uploaded into the project managment fi le sharing area. Text should be ready for your web designer to use for your web pages with a simple ‘copy/paste’. It’s ok if you wish to submit your copy in a formatted version such as MSWord with bold headlines, italics, etc. Your web designer will use this as a guide to how you’d like the content to appear.



19p a g eDO get your content as close to perfect as possible BEFORE you submit it to your web designer.

Proofread. Edit. Proofread. Edit. Rinse well, repeat. Then edit again. Only after you’ve proof-read and edited your content and you are confi dent that your content is “ready for the world”, is when you submit it to your web designer to place on your website.

Tip: Your web designer won’t appreciate it if you ask them to go back and edit and re-edit your con-tent multiple times. Bear in mind that because of this, most web designers will most likely charge you an additional fee for anything beyond a few minor revisions. You’ve been warned.

DO remember that content includes images, as well.

If your website content includes photos of your products, your staff , your storefront, etc. then you must deliver those images along with your text to your web designer.

Digitally deliver all of the images and photos you want to be used on your website in the correct sizes and digital formats. Ask your web designer what is their preferred method of delivery of your images. There are usually several diff erent options for doing that, none of which are diffi cult to do.

Images that can be included as content:

Your company logoPhotos of your building or store

frontPhotos of you and/or your staff Event photosProduct photosPartners/sponsors logosVideo / Audio fi les

»»

»»»»»



20p a g eBest Practice Alert: Practice fi le naming conventions

Name your fi les logically. Following basic fi le-naming conventions makes it easier for your team to keep track of what documents and images are and where they belong throughout the planning and development of your website. For example, it’s better to save your CEO’s bio photo with the fi le name “abcco-biophoto_jamessmithCEO.jpg” rather than “DSC0018.jpg”. Also remember that when naming fi les for the web, there should be no spaces in the fi le name. Use a “-” or “_” in place of spaces.

If you submit fi les that don’t follow convention, it adds more time and potentially more cost to your project because your web designer has to rename everything for you.

The logical fi le name places the images in context within your fi les as well as your web designer’s fi les for easy reference and searching. You can do the same by segregating your website content into logically organized and named folders on your computer or within the project management interface with the associated documents and images inside, such as: Company Website / About Page / Executive Team / James Smith with the “company-name-website-biophoto_jamessmithCEO.jpg” and “website-bio-james-smith.docx” inside the “James Smith” folder.



21p a g eContent that absolutely must be on every single page of your websiteBy now, most website visitors expect to fi nd certain information on certain areas of a web-site. But, that doesn’t always mean that it’s easy for you or your staff to put that together, so we’ve gone ahead and provided you with this list of suggested content for each of these typical main content areas.

Contact InformationEvery page of your website should contain your contact information. Email address or on-line contact form, physical address (if applicable), mailing/shipping address (if applicable), company HQ (if applicable), phone numbers. Your website visitors should be able to fi nd the information they need to email, call, visit, or ship to all departments.

Address: If your geographical location is important to making sales, then you must be sure that your address appears in the exact same place on every single page of your website, preferably at the top of every page of your website.

Phone Number: If you know that your website visitors will want to be able to call you and speak to a real person or place an order, by all means be sure that this is included as well as easy to fi nd on each page of your website.

Hours of Operation: You may also want to consider placing your hours of operation on your website, depending on what type of business or organization your website is for.

Your contact information and social media links are typically placed in the upper right hand portion of every web page.

Social Media Links

Another item we suggest you include every page of a website is a con-nection to your social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or YouTube. This can be something as simple as the social media icons linked to your social media pages, or it can include an area that shows your actual Face-book page wall feed or your Tweets in real time right there on your web-

site. Including this with your content provides additional opportuni-ties for prospects and customers to interact with you.



22p a g eWhat to writeFor your Home page You never get a second chance to make a fi rst impression.

There are two basic rules to follow when it comes to the development of your home page content.

State who you are and what you do. This lets your visitors know immediately whether they are at the right place.

Don’t overload your website visitors with TMI.

Your home page serves to segment your audience and then prompt them to move around your site. Your home page is a great “preview” of all that you off er, not an index of every single benefi t you off er.

A well-written home page should serve as a “teaser”, off ering a preview of the great benefi ts your com-pany has to off er.

Your home page is NOT the place to discuss each and every benefi t you off er, or list each and every keyword or keyphrase in your arsenal.

Your home page IS the place to off er your readers a taste, then clearly direct them to exactly where they need to go for the full entrée.

Trying to say too much too soon overwhelms the reader, dilutes your message, and detracts from those keywords and phrases that actually apply to the home page.

It is better to sprinkle your benefi t statements and related keyword/keyphrases throughout your site. You’ve got your product/service pages to address specifi c product/service benefi ts, and your “About” page to discuss your company and mission statement, etc.

Credit: Laura Crest, Blog Editor for The SuccessWorks Team www.seocopywriting.com

1.

2.



23p a g eThis is an excellent example of home page content. It says who they are, what they do, and where they’re located. It also tells us who they do it for (ideal customers) and for how long they’ve done it (establishes credibility). All in one concise sentence (hooray, no TMI!).

It masters the art of bullet points to condense a lot of information into an easy to read lay-out, then provides access to the 2 most important areas of the website, using calls to action as headlines with good supportive text to explain and to provide incentive.

View this website home page athttp://leadmarkgroup.com



24p a g eFor your About pageThe About page is where your visitors can learn more about you than is apparent to them everywhere else on your website.

The About page is often the most highly visited page on a website. The About page can be as basic as a simple ‘Who we are and what we do’, but why waste a perfect opportunity to engage your visitors, earn their trust, and establish credibility?

Remember that most of the visitors who click on that “About” link are fi rst time visitors to your website. As always, consider the reasons why they would want to read the About page content, remembering to focus on your visitors, rather than present only “me me me me me” content.

The About page gives you the opportunity to tell visitors your story as well as remind them about the benefi ts you off er. In addition to being factual, your About page should refl ect your personality (or your company’s personality) and be written in a style that appeals to your target audience. Just make sure the information you share on your About page is relevent, succinct, and well organized.

The About page content can include:

Organizational profi leHistory or timelineMission Statement / PhilosophyCauses and supported charitiesAnnual eventsStaff biosPhotosContact informationLocation(s) + mapHours of operationTestimonialsAwards / AccreditationsPress / NewsroomPartnersEmployment opportunitiesInvestor relations informationPrivacy policy and/or legal informationFAQMedia library

•••••••••••••••••••



25p a g eHow to write itWebsite Content Writing TipsScannability is the key to your success.

Wait, is scannability even a word? In the age of writing for the web, we say yes it is! What does scannability mean? It means that your website content gets the point across to visitors who aren’t reading every word, but are instead quickly “scanning” your pages for useful in-formation, stopping only to read what interests them.

In order to write eff ective web content, it’s important to understand how people (don’t) read when they read something online. You want to ensure that your website visitors see the information that is important to them as quickly and easily as possible, so it’s important to employ some basic good web writing practices.

Some best practices for you to use when you are writing your website content:

Use shorter sentences, words and paragraphsLimit your writing to just one idea per paragraphWrite very concise text. A good rule of thumb is to cut in half the word count of what

you’d typically use when writing for print. (And when you’re done, cut it in half again.)

Make your most important point or conclusion fi rst.Keep the language simple. Use as little jargon as possible.Master the art of bulleted listsDraw attention to important information quickly with highlighted text (bold, colored,

larger)Take the time to develop meaningful headlines and subheadings. Provide quality helpful content that is kept up to date and relevant to the needs of web

readers.Never, ever write in all caps or all lower case. Always, always double-check your spelling and grammar!

»»»

»»»»

»»

»»



26p a g eStructure Conclusion > Explanation > Details

Compose your copy by presenting it in easily digestible segments on each page. Use the “inverted pyramid” style of content presentation and structure, which means: Start with your conclusion, then explain, then provide details.

HeadingSubheading (optional)Make your most important point fi rst. Get to the point quickly. Give a short explanation or description of your most important point, including the benefi t to your website visitor.

Key bullet point 1

Short paragraph explaining bullet point.Key bullet point 2

Short paragraph explaining bullet point.Key bullet point 3

Short paragraph explaining bullet point.Short conclusion (1 or 2 sentences) including benefi t to visitor. Call to action

•

•

•

Conclusion Conclusion ||

ExplanationExplanation

||

DetailsDetails

||

CALL TO CALL TO

ACTIONACTION

Is your content appetizing?Is your content easily digestible?

Is your content irresistable?



27p a g eContent Writing Dos and Don’tsDon’t use jargon and technical terms that only your co-workers and industry peers will understand, unless you’re writing specifi cally for that audience.

For example, have you scouted web designers or developers websites only to be informed that they do “Clean XHTML And CSS Markup, Front-End Development (JQuery, Flash), Back-End Develop-ment (PHP, MYSQL)”? Huh? Does this mean anything to you? I didn’t think so.

Do use active voice (instead of passive voice). We call this “action” voice! For example, action voice: “Upload documents here.” vs. passive “Documents can be uploaded here.”

Recommended ReadingIf you’re interested in learning more about how to develop eff ective web content, we highly recommend you spend some time with any or all of these books.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug

Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne

The Copywriter’s Handbook, 3rd Edition: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells by Robert W. Bly

Killer Web Content: Make the Sale, Deliver the Service, Build the Brand by Gerry McGovern

»

»

»

»

Helpful links:

Google Keyword Tool

Google Webmaster Tools

Google’s SEO Starter Guide

The Beginners Guide to SEO



28p a g eOther types of content

Your website content can consist of much more than just words and supporting images. Once you have gone through the exercises above, you can apply these same principles to other types of content which can expand on what you have to off er to your website visitors. Apply the same goals and priorities you use for your text content to these and any other types of content you place on your website.

Case StudiesDemonstrate your accomplishments and capabilities with compelling case studies.

BlogsAdd some interactivity and a personal touch to your website through a blog (or multiple blogs) written by you and/or members of your staff . Blogging has become a very main-stream method for adding fresh content that’s timely, relevant, and engaging. And bonus! A blog is excellent for your SEO, as well.

ArticlesPosition yourself as an authority in your fi eld of expertise by publishing articles on your website.

InfographicsYou know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words. Try using a graphic as the star of the show now and then, rather than just a supporting player. An interesting infographic can be a memorable way to convey useful information.

VideosAnother method you can use to relay information in a powerful and memorable way is to use videos as part of your website content. Tip: Be sure your videos are well produced and edited.



29p a g eSummary

Start with asking and answering important “5W” questionsYour website content should always address your visitors “What’s in it for me?”Craft your benefi t statementKnow thy visitors 1. The RTB visitor 2. The SNTBS visitor 3. The EC visitorKnow thyselfKnow thy keywordsTell your visitors what you do for them (not just what you do)Know what you want your visitors to doKnow how you will motivate them to do itKnow thy competitionCompose your website content - Benefi ts fi rstLet your visitors know that you help, serve, delivery, solve, fi x, increase, decrease, elimi-

nate, sort out, save time, or make it easier.Get your content together. Will you be ready? You must take responsibility for your web

site content.Do’s and Don’tsPractice fi le naming conventionsWhat content must be on every page of your websiteWhat to write: For your home page, for your About pageHow to write it - Scannability is the key to your successStructure: Conclusion, Explanation, DetailsContent writing Do’s and Don’tsRecommended ReadingOther types of content: Case Studies, Blogs, Articles, Infographics, Videos

Now it’s time to decide what content goes where, and how your visitors will fi nd it.

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

»

»»»»»»»»»

“If you hire a professional, hire a great one. The best one.

Let her do her job. 10 mediocre website consultants working in perfect harmony can’t do

the work of one rock star.”

--- Seth Godinhttp://www.sethgodin.com/sg/

The Practical Guide to Web Content Development and Organization

Business

effective website content

web content development

website visitors

section of content

task of content development

website development

activatea website

sureyour website