Web Content Writing - Characteristics of Good Website Content?
Saturday, July 21, 2007
While doing my last post about How to get Free backlinks, I thought of writing something on what is "good content" because it is often a question to many. Most of us are almost bored with the cliché saying "Content is King" and for obvious reasons everyone wants to have the King on his side.
It has been said time and again that a "good content" for web is one that is meant for users and not for the search engines. While I agree to this statement whole heartedly, I also believe that even on the web, depending on the purpose of use, content should take its form and structure.
If we take an analytical approach towards the various type of web content, we can probably classify them into few major groups.
a) Content for general business websites
b) Content that is specifically meant for distribution as free website content.
c) Blogs
This is just a broad classification that makes me work out an easy way to determine the type of content I want to produce for a website, however, this can be further broken down into sub categories and I am sure there will be many people on the web who might not even like this categorization of web content.
Now, for all these different types of web content, the requirement is very different and the content needs to be structured keeping these in mind. but the common factor always remains the same - develope your website content for your VISITORS.
a) Content for General Business Websites: For this type of websites the content needs to provide enough information about the business, its products / services and at the same time have the pitch to sale its product / service or whatever their conversion goal might be. Here there is no harm even if you are putting up a direct sales pitch. However, it should be kept in mind, that if your site content is all about the sales pitch people would probably not make a purchase from you. If you can provide useful information about your products/services that are not directly related to the sales pitch but would actually educate your prospective customers about the usage, maintenance and various other aspects of your product/service that would help to establish an authority status for your website and people would have more confidence to make purchases from you. Also, this type of informative web site content works as ideal weapon to get some Free backlinks.
Though website content should always be for the human visitors, these business websites can not really ignore the search engines, as they are the major traffic drivers. So it is also important to optimize the content for the search engines with proper keywords. But, you should be careful not to mar the readability of the content with excessive use of keywords ( keyword stuffing ).
b) Content For Distribution as free Website Content: While creating this type of content, always remember, no one wants to read your advertisement. If you really want to get some link love by distributing free content, write something USEFUL. Yes, that is the key to write good free website content for distribution purpose. Make your articles informative, useful and detailed. Try to add some unique information. If you know your domain well enough this should not be a problem at all. Also, if you can add a tinge of humor that would just be fantastic.
For most of these articles, it is advisable that you also write a summary, so that it is easier for anyone to understand your article and decide to publish it on their website, even without having to go through the whole article. Try to make this summary and the Title of the article as interesting as possible because this is what is going to sale your article to the people looking for free website content.
c) Blogs: Probably the most important source of website content in today's perspective. While it is extremely difficult to add particular characteristics to content for blogs ( because of their varied nature and purpose) it has often bee observed that blog content that are written with a personal touch and in a communicative style so as to engage the users is often the most favored option. In addition, the more useful and unique your blog content is the better it is.
Some General Characteristics of Good Website Content
It has been said time and again that a "good content" for web is one that is meant for users and not for the search engines. While I agree to this statement whole heartedly, I also believe that even on the web, depending on the purpose of use, content should take its form and structure.
If we take an analytical approach towards the various type of web content, we can probably classify them into few major groups.
a) Content for general business websites
b) Content that is specifically meant for distribution as free website content.
c) Blogs
This is just a broad classification that makes me work out an easy way to determine the type of content I want to produce for a website, however, this can be further broken down into sub categories and I am sure there will be many people on the web who might not even like this categorization of web content.
Now, for all these different types of web content, the requirement is very different and the content needs to be structured keeping these in mind. but the common factor always remains the same - develope your website content for your VISITORS.
a) Content for General Business Websites: For this type of websites the content needs to provide enough information about the business, its products / services and at the same time have the pitch to sale its product / service or whatever their conversion goal might be. Here there is no harm even if you are putting up a direct sales pitch. However, it should be kept in mind, that if your site content is all about the sales pitch people would probably not make a purchase from you. If you can provide useful information about your products/services that are not directly related to the sales pitch but would actually educate your prospective customers about the usage, maintenance and various other aspects of your product/service that would help to establish an authority status for your website and people would have more confidence to make purchases from you. Also, this type of informative web site content works as ideal weapon to get some Free backlinks.
Though website content should always be for the human visitors, these business websites can not really ignore the search engines, as they are the major traffic drivers. So it is also important to optimize the content for the search engines with proper keywords. But, you should be careful not to mar the readability of the content with excessive use of keywords ( keyword stuffing ).
b) Content For Distribution as free Website Content: While creating this type of content, always remember, no one wants to read your advertisement. If you really want to get some link love by distributing free content, write something USEFUL. Yes, that is the key to write good free website content for distribution purpose. Make your articles informative, useful and detailed. Try to add some unique information. If you know your domain well enough this should not be a problem at all. Also, if you can add a tinge of humor that would just be fantastic.
For most of these articles, it is advisable that you also write a summary, so that it is easier for anyone to understand your article and decide to publish it on their website, even without having to go through the whole article. Try to make this summary and the Title of the article as interesting as possible because this is what is going to sale your article to the people looking for free website content.
c) Blogs: Probably the most important source of website content in today's perspective. While it is extremely difficult to add particular characteristics to content for blogs ( because of their varied nature and purpose) it has often bee observed that blog content that are written with a personal touch and in a communicative style so as to engage the users is often the most favored option. In addition, the more useful and unique your blog content is the better it is.
Some General Characteristics of Good Website Content
- Write your website content with human visitors in mind - not the search engines.
- Use proper grammar and spellings. (keep your target audience in mind, spellings are very different In UK and US English standards )
- Provide useful information
- Unique content ( borrow concepts but do not steal content ;) )
- Write in easy to understand language
- Make your titles interesting - Try to have your keyword in your title
- Break down entire content into smaller paragraphs.
- Try to put your main points in bulleted lists - it helps your readers!
- Add keywords in your content wherever applicable - BUT do not overdo!
- Use call to actions wherever applicable.
While I am not really anywhere close to being an expert in web content writing, with my years of experience I have seen these points to be very effective in improving the overall quality of a website. I am sure there might be loads of other factors that also contributes to good web content. Feel free to put your inputs in the comments.
Labels: blogs, content, content distribution, free web content, link love, website, writing
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