Marketing your Company with Excellent Web Content

A brief DIY guide for writing web content

You’ve taken the leap and become an entrepreneur with a start-up business. To minimize costs, you’ve decided to create your own website and write the content. You sit down at your computer, open your blank website, and realize there’s serious effort needed to organize and orchestrate what you want to say. Now, where do you go from here?

Organize your thoughts

First, make a list of the pages you want for your website. Think of it as the master outline. You can use separate pieces of paper, separate pages in a single electronic document, or individual documents for each page. To get started, write down titles of basic pages the website needs, such as the Home, About Us, Services & Products and Contact Us pages.

Next, jot down what you want on each of the pages with no idea being a bad idea at this point. You’re having a brainstorming session and getting the ideas on paper before they’re forgotten is the key. The ideas can be in any format, such as a bullet list or in paragraph form. Now arrange those points in order of importance, with the most important item at the top.

Write it out

It’s time to write the content. As you write, remember to:

- Write for your audience. Speak to them using words they already use and write in a format that is easily scanned with the eyes. Web content is usually scanned for key words that relate to the reader rather than read in detail.

- Keep the content brief and to the point. Laser focus is important to keep the reader’s interest and encourage further reading.

- Create lists with no more than seven points. Embed hyperlinks to more detailed information so interested readers can follow the links, while casual readers easily read your most important information.

- Include relevant pictures and links. Search algorithms love this technique and it helps raise your site in search rankings.

Review your work

Review your content from your reader’s perspective. Does it draw you in and make you want to know more? Are the ideas focused and relevant or scattered and lacking focus? Is the amount of information too much, too little, or just right? These are great questions to keep in mind because your readers will think the same questions. The key is to convey your message, empower your readers, and be available as a resource.

Post your work to the website

The effort you put into posting your work will directly impact your website quality. It’s very rare to simply copy, paste and publish text that looks perfect and formats well on a website. Be prepared to adjust font type, size and color and make sure it’s consistently formatted throughout the site. You may need to adjust your content to better fit your space or create smaller blocks of content to be placed throughout the site. Ensure the hyperlinks work properly, the pictures are sized and uploaded correctly, and you save your work — often.

How Pen In Hand can help

Creating web content takes talent and a huge investment of time. If you’re up for the job, terrific — you are the best narrator of your story. But, if you need assistance, Pen In Hand is here to help. We can work with you to develop the key points. Then, we can be involved as much or as little as you wish. Some customers prefer we create the content for them to review and approve. Others prefer to write their content and have us put that finishing touch on it. Either way, our approach will ensure your web content is at its best and your customers understand your message.