Writing Website Content Doesn't Have to Be So Elusive
Writing content for your website can feel really elusive, but it doesn't have to be. In this blog post, I share some tips on what content you should include on your website as well as best practices.
Obviously, it's always better to hire a professional to help you, but when you are first starting out and are ballin’ on a budget, you can use the tricks in this post to help guide your process.
Why is it important to have good content
Before I jump into what content you should include I want to point out why it’s important to have adequate text content in the first place. One, it clarifies your offerings and your expertise so your potential clients trust that you can solve their problems. And two, it’s important for SEO.
That being said, a lot of folks get carried away with their content creation process and end up complicating something that is actually supposed to help clear up your client’s confusion.
Here are the essential steps to writing good website content:
Stalk your competitors. You’ll hear me say this a lot and it’s SO important. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Stalk your competitors and jot down the tone of voice they are using as well as how long their blog posts, product descriptions, and about me sections are. Use their content as inspiration for length and tone when you write your own (but don’t copy verbatim because that’s just icky and will be bound to bite you back at some point. #karmasabitch)
Before getting started writing, answer the questions found on this blog post.
Keep it short. I won’t elaborate on this because I’d be breaking my own tenet but when in doubt, leave it out.
Record yourself talking about your product or your founder’s story and then transcribe the audio note and use it as website content. A lot of people don’t think they are good writers but that’s likely a limiting belief. If you can talk, you can write. And if you are passionate about the service or offering you provide, the excitement should come through when you talk about it. Imagine you are describing this product to your ideal client when you press record.
Use the Squarespace template as a guideline for text placement and length. Again, don’t reinvent the wheel. If your Squarespace template has a one-sentence descriptor on the home page banner image, don’t take it upon yourself to drop in a 20 line bio instead. Use the template to guide your content.