How to Write Effective Web Content

On the Web, content is king. If you’re running an ebusiness, it’s a good idea to have some targeted web content aimed at people doing searches on Google or other major search engines. The more relevant content there is on your site, the more chance there is that a person will find your site after making a search query, as well as remain on the site. Good web content can increase a site's search engine ranking and ultimately increase an ebusiness's sales.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet access
• Website
• Word processor

1. 

   Find a writer. Writing’s harder than it seems, so don’t necessarily tackle the writing yourself if you have limited experience. Unprofessional writing can make the site appear unprofessional. Think about hiring a web content writer through a copywriting firm.

2. 

   If you’re doing it yourself: Don’t just write the content and hit publish. Make sure the content is grammatically correct and free of spelling errors. Using spellcheck couldn’t be easier.

3. 

   3. Don’t cram keyphrases together. This is considered keyword jamming and could have the site banned by search engines. The content should be informative with targeted keyphrases thrown in so the keyword-rich content flows naturally.

4. 

   Hyperlink content with other content on the site so visitors will click-through. The more time people stay on your site, the more likely it is they’ll 1. Buy something and 2. Come back for another visit.

5. 

   Add a blog and/or forums. This type of content is always changing, as opposed to static, and the fresh content is continually indexed by search engines.

Tips & Warnings

• Great artists steal. Read the content on some other similar sites and see how the site's content is written. The first few sentences are very important—especially on the introductory page.
• While a lot of content is great, don’t write so much that a visitor becomes overloaded or confused. What are the most important points you’re trying to convey? Web content is a careful balance between being informative, keyword-rich, and concise.
• Sell, sell, sell—what makes your site’s products or services special? At the same time—don’t oversell. People are pretty adept at recognizing unrealistic claims.
• Warning: spamdexing should be avoided. Writing content unrelated to your site’s purpose could get the site banned by search engines.

[ruf1950]

on 6/15/2009 Thanks for another excellent read; very infomative...5*****

[Henry]

on 1/24/2007 I can name one artist who steals: Picasso. "Bad artists copy. Great artists steal." He said it, I didn't. I don't mean steal web content directly, just ideas that you can use for your own site.

[webzarus]

on 1/24/2007 Great Artist STEAL ???? Come on... I'd like you to name one.

Thought the article was pretty good until I read that.

Although you mentioned the fact of search engine indexing, the comment about stealing means you do not understand ( duplicate content issues ) that search engines are penalizing site with