You may use a designer to ensure a professional look, especially for a website or marketing brochure. Remember that there is too much distraction in the age of the Internet. But, if it seems you’re just wasting time to fill up space, avoid that. They will feel cheated and will remember not to come back to your website. Have necessary references to hand (style guide, dictionary, web access etc). Use conversational style. It depends on how much you understand the importance of the written text on your website, whether you are writing it yourself or getting it written by a professional content writer. What I’m trying to say is, use industry-specific, audience-specific language. The best way to develop buyer personas is to analyze your current customers and identify their common traits. So, an individual using “we” seems strange. The Wordy Style guide has further useful information. If you are producing public information you must use plain English geared to a low reading age. bullet points to illustrate key points will enhance readability, though you must avoid the obvious pitfall of populating your page with a multitude of off-putting dots, call out boxes are used for special offers, important information, opening times, contact details and so on, pullquotes add interest, but must be used with caution as many people find them distracting, quotations that are longer than a few words can be displayed, that is put on a separate line, perhaps indented or in quotes or in a different font, biographies of writers usually placed at the end of articles, headers and footers, which can contain useful information, captions, pictures are often used to ‘break up the page’ but an informative caption will add value. Here are a couple examples of short, effective CTAs to include at the end of content: For great tips on content marketing, SEO, PPC, link building and more, subscribe to the Vertical Measures blog. Break it up. Internal links encourage visitors to your site to continue exploring your site. Write as if you are having a conversation with your audience. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Suppose you want to tell someone to “think out of the box”. Megan is a content manager at Vertical Measures. The main website content which is basically copywriting because you are selling products and services through writing. What message do I want to get over? Many content writers and copywriters, when talking about best practices, advise you to avoid using jargons. The better the grammar, the clearer your message. Use only for reflexive meanings and emphasis, for example: What will Mario Monti appoint himself to next? Sometimes the results are stellar… and sometimes the results make me want to chase a box of Ding Dongs with a pint of vodka. If you are not using a designer, consider the look of your document. Write in a conversational style: Nobody likes to read long streams of text without emotion and feeling. Similarly, if you want to tell someone that you use “agile methodology” when you develop mobile apps, there is nothing wrong in mentioning this as long as the other party understands what being “agile” means in this context. Don’t change your mind about what you are saying half way through; make sure your message or argument or communication is consistent in meaning, Lists: how they are punctuated and capitalised, Quotations – new line, single or double quotes, attribution, Spellings, especially –ise or –ize (organize or organise), Give yourself time and space to revisit your writing with a fresh pair of eyes. Gather key facts, and research if necessary. Send draft for consultation and approval if appropriate. When they spend time on your website Google assumes that it has valuable content. The message matters more than your writing style, although, writing style does matter. Always refer to things in the same way, and stick to your decisions. Keep subordinate clauses to a minimum, and don’t embark on a grammatical structure unless you are sure you can get it right. Also don’t use: However, these types of sites are excellent places to get ideas for content and find other credible sources. Although you should reveal everything that is to be revealed in the beginning itself, especially, when you need to inform and educate your readers before they can make a logical decision, you shouldn’t beat around the bush needlessly. You have to know who your target audience is and who is likely to read your document. Everyone wants to publish great content that generates traffic, boosts leads, earns links and gets shared on social. How will the reader read this? She’s a native New Yorker, diehard indoors enthusiast and mom to two amazing teens. You can present to them contrary viewpoint. You cannot revise and edit your writing too much. Remember, your content is laying the foundation for clear communication. In addition, make sure the keywords appear in the first 65-70 characters of your headline. First, a list of these content writing best practices: This is something I ask my client every time I’m about to write a web page, a blog post or an article. Numerous studies confirm that posts with images get clicked on, read and shared more. It has two purposes: Hence, every sentence I write, is written keeping that in mind. Screenshots are quick and easy – but effective – ways to capture and post information in a visually appealing way. Long-form content performs better in search, earns more backlinks and gets shared more often on social. As I have mentioned above, right in the first person because it is easier to use a conversational style in this manner. Start writing, making notes of any style decisions you make along the way. Below I am explaining these best practices in detail. Learn how to build a combined 'smarketing' team through frequent and strategic communication. Integrate your target keyword phrase into the headline and body of your blog post. Have you a specific target audience or is your document intended for a general readership? In some cases an executive summary will ensure that key points are read even if the rest of your document is ignored. Set an appropriate reading level and cater for skimmers. If you are a non-native speaker of English, getting a native speaker to review your work will throw up awkward phrasing and off-key use of words. Use the right words – keep the reader in mind and use one word rather than several. Content writing for websites is of 2 types: You may like to read Difference between content writing and copywriting, explained. You must have a clear idea of what you want to say if you are to communicate it efficiently. This will be guidance on what to do another time and anyone else involved in writing or editing can do the same. Generally ‘we’ and ‘you’ are friendlier and less formal than ‘it’ and ‘they’. Certain types of writing: business letters, academic theses, minutes of meetings and so on have their own conventions and structure. space – is it better to have indented paragraphs or a line space between? Be consistent in meaning and words used – adopt or create a style guide. Always check an image’s license and give appropriate credit. Keywords are words and phrases that echo what your audience is searching for. It isn’t universally the right thing to do, but is worth thinking about. Search engines scour the web looking for content that closely matches what people are looking for, so it’s important to include those phrases in your headlines, subheads and content. As you go along you may discover that you need to source other information, but do as much as you can first. But don’t worry if you find yourself using several simple words rather than a longer one. Basically, I’m doing my best to optimize my text for these 2 phrases and their combinations so that people who want to read about content writing best practices, they’re able to find this blog post on Google and elsewhere, and benefit from it. Include verifiable statistics from trustworthy sources that support the … In other words: we, you or they? If appropriate liaise with your designer. Sometimes it involves holding your cards close to your chest, and this is fine. Include verifiable statistics from trustworthy sources that support the points you are trying to make. How do you make your content writing powerful and effective? In book publishing editors and proofreaders are provided to polish the text. The writer is emphasising the fact that it was the President who made the statements and not one of his supporters or aides. If you are arguing a point or trying to persuade the reader, stick to essentials. It shows you how to create high-quality content that: As you move through the content writing and editing processes, follow these best practices. You must find the words that describe yourself or your company or your objective best and the words that the reader will be most comfortable with. The Wordy Style guide has further useful information. When you post links on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, your title is picked automatically. The goal of your blog content should always be to help readers find what they need and help solve their problems. For example, if I want to tell web design companies that I can provide ongoing content writing and copywriting services to them, I expect them to come to my Content writing & copywriting services for web design agency. This best practice content writing guide is divided into seven parts: At the end we provide a model workflow for writing and producing content, which you can adapt to your situation. For example: Teaching children is a rewarding experience. Save your branded mentions for end-of-content CTAs. If you are telling a story or relating history put events in a clear chronological order; flashbacks work OK in film but not in informative writing. Take for example this blog post. At the end of this process send it to the professionals. You don’t want to clutter your writing unnecessarily. I have scattered them around the entire body text of the blog post. Who are you writing for – structure your tone and text for your audience. If they immediately leave your website Google assumes that your content is not useful and if, by any chance, your links have been ranking well, the algorithm lowers your rankings. In addition, always attribute the following: Widely known facts don’t need attribution. Avoid bullet-land. Choices have to be made about how a variety of things are written. Some people find it easier to work with mind maps to impose order on their ideas. You should attribute sources for statements that are likely to be challenged or refuted. The bank will now be owned by Virgin but will still be run by the same staff and executive responsibility for the running of the bank will be undertaken by the current board members; additional financial resources may be found through new share issues. In this sentence it is Mario Monti who is doing the appointing, not anyone else. Who are you writing for – structure your tone and text for your audience. Consider using illustrations, maps or a video to make your meaning clear. Use verbs rather than nouns: ‘inform’ rather than ‘give information’. Include relevant images that support your content and make it more visually appealing. Use it when: Or you want to avoid saying who did something: The decision was taken to refuse your application. If you don’t immediately talk about what you have promised in the headline or in the intro, they will feel cheated and lose trust in what you are trying to say. Home \ Digital Marketing \ 11 Content Writing Best Practices + Free Downloadable Editing Checklist. Are there some best practices to follow? As mentioned above, if you’re just beating around the bush, if you’re just using fluff to exaggerate your claims, your readers are going to feel it straight on. Google “knows” certain words and phrases are related, which is why when you search for “best new ovens” you may also see results for “best new stoves.”. Use simple, grammatical sentences – keep sentences simple and as short as possible. You must have the content (the facts) to hand and you must also know what effect you want to have: do you want to inform, sell, persuade, alarm, reassure – or what? This is also not about how the practices that follow are going to help my client (though, if I follow these practices, then I assume that I’m going to write well for my clients too). But don’t get too hung up on word counts. This is why I have separate pages for different niches. If necessary, use a hierarchy of headings and subheadings to add details to the structure. It’s OK to mention your company name where natural and relevant, but avoid going for the hard sell all the time. Meaning may be the most difficult one to spot the holes in; after all, you know what you mean and it’s difficult to spot where other people won’t. Remember that even if you don’t have a purpose, the people who come to your website, especially when they come across your link on Google or elsewhere, they have a clear purpose. practice identified. However, once persuaded that the page has information of value to them they will return and read it more thoroughly. When you are not focused it reflects through your writing and consequently, even your readers won’t be able to focus. You next have to get your structure right. She joined the company with 15 years of experience in communication and marketing, first in journalism (remember print?) Short sentences and simple structures are more readily understood than sentences with many subclauses and diversions. If you have to write an instruction, keep the words simple. Of course, sometimes long sentences can’t be avoided; that’s fine as long as the structure is kept simple. Offer them something that will shake them out of their inertia. Compare: We have decided to offer you £100 compensation. Are the words right? For more information about how you can use widgets like an expert, join our mailing list. Then I decided to expand it into a full-fledged blog post. You don’t have to reveal everything in the first paragraph. Last Friday he met his clients at the hotel to discuss future strategy. Virgin has taken over the bank, the current staff will continue in their roles for the present and the current board members will maintain their executive responsibilities. However, you must still pay attention to paragraph length, headings, and other features on the page. Also, if your writing has a human voice (that speaks in terms of “I” and “you”) it is more effective and helps you achieve your end result in a better manner. When you are writing, keep the following opportunities for varying the look of a page in mind: If your document is going to be laid out by a designer, make sure you tell them what you envisage and discuss the options with them. Do the readers understand specialist language or jargon? Use terms and phrases familiar to them from their day-to-day lives, if possible. Great! The answer will depend on the formality of your writing. 90-Day Content Marketing Course-Correction Plan, How to Map Your Content to the Customer Journey, A Data-Driven Look at Successful Link Building in 2019, The Future of SEO Trends in 2018 & Beyond, The Beginner’s Guide to Content Promotion, Facebook Ads Guide with Targeting Options. People are more apt to skim content than truly consume every word on the page. Use custom images and screenshots where possible. Sometimes when I’m writing for a niche industry, I either do my own research and if the client is accommodating, I ask him or her to send me a list of words and phrases he or she would like me to use when I’m writing. Would you be better off compared to when you hadn’t read what you’re writing right now? Never write something useless just to get search engine traffic or clicks from social networking websites. I have both “content writing” and “best practices” in the title of the blog post. When do you call a book a page turner? Think about what you can leave out or put in an appendix at the end. This investment will be of interest to pension funds. Your content is considered valuable if people, upon finding your links on Google, come to your website, and spend some time, explore your website and then, preferably, don’t carry on with the same search that helped them find your link. Good news though this is, you feel better if you are told in the first way rather than the second. Speeding up the process of creating content (while making sure all competencies in a writing team are used) and heightening the quality of your content are not mutually exclusive. To that end: Include calls to action (“CTAs” in marketing speak) that invite readers to do what you want them to do next, such as “Learn more,” “Donate today,” “Download our ebook” … here are 31 CTA examples from HubSpot. I have been reading The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly and he has multiple times said that the purpose of every sentence you write should be to make the reader read the next sentence. Headings are crucial on websites where accessibility for people with disabilities is of growing importance. If you can use one word rather than several, do so: ‘with’ rather than ‘with effect from’. The teaching of children is a rewarding experience. And why not? For more on personas, read this Vertical Measures article. In fact, Robert Bly says that – contrary to the advice given by copywriters on the web – you don’t have to use a headline that says exactly what the copy is going to deliver. Never force it; keywords should appear naturally and relevantly. Find out how much content marketing costs, from creating a content marketing campaign, to strategy, research, content creation, optimization and distribution. Below I am explaining these best practices in detail. Keep sentences simple and as short as possible. SEO isn’t just important for your business – more traffic means more business – it is also important for people looking for useful information (I’m assuming that you always intend to publish useful information). I’m writing about content writing best practices. Of course, if beating around the bush is part of your narrative towards building an exciting climax, then sure, go ahead. There are many image optimization tools out there that will help you do this – Optimizilla is a free one we like. Are you trying to persuade, inform, entertain or do something else? Put your audience first. Inevitably there comes a point when you have done your best and someone else must take over, but the more often you can come back to your writing with a fresh pair of eyes, the more likely it is that you will emerge with a crisp and efficient communication. The list of content writing best practices help you keep these attributes constantly in your head while writing content. So, for example, use ‘extra’ or ‘more’ rather than ‘additional’, and ‘finish’ rather than ‘cease’. This fills the role of promoting your brand naturally. Consistency in all its forms gives reassurance about the validity and authority of writing. Would you feel that the content justifies the title? It’s OK to add a soft, branded call to action at the end of your content. Coming back to this blog post, it is about content writing best practices. At the same time, write as if you’re talking to them. Instead, focus on meeting your audience’s needs. Conversely, sloppy content portrays you as careless and leaves users thinking they can’t trust the brand behind it. Distracted and confused, they will leave your website. This will present no problems if you have got your structure right and have your message, argument or policies clear in your head. Shorter sentences, when used with clarity, are more impactful. Content Marketing – Certification Course by University of California (Coursera) UC Davis offers this … How Much Should You Budget for Digital Marketing This Year? If you are unsure about structure try to get hold of a previous report, minutes or whatever to see how the document should be structured, or find out from a colleague or the internet. Use the passive voice with caution. Gather all your facts and do your research up front. The spelling and usage section gives guidance on common problematic words. You can also try out text on your prospective audience – web designers and marketeers do this as a matter of routine. First, a list of these content writing best practices: Understand the end result. Writing SEO friendly content isn’t very difficult, provided you stick to the topic. To ensure fast page load times, resize your image to under 100KB before uploading. “Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States” doesn’t need to be sourced. It goes on like this. This is what I’m trying to achieve. Use verb rather than nouns when you can. If in doubt, check in a dictionary. People with visual impairment will use text-to-speech software, which reads headings and links in order to help the reader evaluate a page. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have spent time talking to the oldest member and listening to him rambling on. If you are producing web copy, advertising copy or a press release a reader may simply skim the document. This investment will interest pension funds. Hence, when you are writing, stick to what you have promised (the end result). Problem is, most people aren’t content writers and editors, which doesn’t necessarily stop them from creating and posting content. Because you mean it. The whole sentence is a conditional statement, but could be written a great deal more simply: He didn’t imagine the club would accept him as a member. But, in the age of the Internet, it makes sense to use a very direct headline. Use topical anecdotes so they can easily relate what you are saying to something they are totally familiar with. In my case, the reason is logical rather than thinking that it is difficult for people to follow complex sentences, although, this is also the case if you don’t structure your sentences well and you yourself are not clear what you’re trying to say. Why are you writing – gather facts and define key points and goals. Megan is passionate about words, language, grammar, punctuation and style, and she loves helping companies create great content that drives leads and boosts conversions. This brings us to the next section in this list of content writing best practices…. Gather your team if more than one person is involved. The words that you use to link to external and internal sources are called “anchor text.” Use anchor text that’s relevant to the source site and that explains to users what they’ll see if they click. It is a rare writer who can edit their text efficiently. Take for example this blog post. *Disclaimer: Yes, long-form is good. All it takes is good planning, a bit of structure – and this guide for best practice content writing. Although we love to use the cliché phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” it unfortunately doesn’t apply to the internet-age of headline surfers. It is not about the importance of the best practices to follow when you are writing content. 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