SEO: How to write for content for website even if you are a dyslexic web designer or failed English at school

I had to spell check dyslexic and yes I failed English at school but neither of those two shortcomings should prevent you from writing content for your website or a client’s. This article outlines some of the problems with writing for your website and then offers up some of the solutions I have. This is a 2000 plus word article so be prepared to spend about 10 minutes reading this.

But first, the business owners, web designers and developers I know have 3 issues with writing website content.

• Copy and content isn’t sexy
• They don’t see the value in it
• And they don’t think they have the skills for it

Writing copy for a website isn’t sexy

My clients would rather be out talking to prospects, having meetings or being on the phone.

A web guy would rather be stuck in code or Photoshop. It’s what you love, right? But let me ask you; are you on page one for that search term?

They don’t see the value in website writing

Of course putting words down on paper seems like school all over again but do a Google search for “Google Panda” and you’ll find that the aim of Google Panda is “to lower the rank of ‘low quality websites’ or ‘thin sites’ and return higher quality site near the top of the search engines”.

Google have given you a massive clue. They want high quality.

Go to your website and look at all your pages.

If you have a couple of paragraphs about a product or service of yours, then the page is low quality according to Google. And you want to be positioned higher in Google as there is business value in generating highly targeted website traffic.

I did some research into what people search for before writing this

I use KeywordCanine.com.

I plugged in a few search terms.

Then I group a few related terms together to come up with the article title.

I’m not worried that there’s not a huge volume of searches.

I am looking for long tail keyword searches that have very little competition as these phrases are easier to rank for than a 2 word search phrase like “website content”.

Plus I know I’ll have to post this article onto BufferApp and share it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus to get anyone to see this content.

You don’t have the skills to writing website copy

The number one delay in any website project is the supply of content.

I’ve told you I’m not very good with the written word but I soon realised that if I took control of the text and images in website projects then I would get paid quicker. I know I didn’t have the skills like someone with a degree in the Fine Arts or an English major. F**k that, I want paid. I’ve sat at the table with clever business owners and watched them literally freeze when I asked them to write about a recent project they have worked on. Yet ask them to speak about their business or products and they will talk all day. So don’t think for one minute you don’t have the skills. You do. Like my accountant friend says, “the Internet is still the Wild West, anything goes”.

Dyslexic or failed English, writing for a website isn’t a problem.

I used to get really angry with my web designers seeing spelling mistakes in design proofs but then a client and product inventor told me about the whole left brain right brain thing and told me to go easy on web designers. Likewise, I sucked at English at school. I was more interested in hitting a little white ball around a green field. I failed English O Grade twice in my 4th and 5th year. Fortunately the head English teacher was also the golf coach so my parents bribed him so I could skip from failed O Grade to H Grade level (kidding), they me got a tutor and I managed to pass the Higher Grade English in my final year. And to be very honest I don’t care how grammatically perfect my articles are. Now I’m going to give you some writing solutions I’ve picked up over the years that hopefully you can apply to your own writing.

What the hell do I write?

Write from personal experience and stick it on your website.

I generally write about what I have experienced at work. So it might be a website I’ve built or a project I am involved in. I was inspired to write this article today because I have a website project and the only missing element in the project is the supply of content from the client about their products.

Write Your Own ‘How To’

When you think about Google, it’s a place people come to find an answer to a question they have or a solution to a problem.

So they start off a search queries by typing “how to …”

You can have a bit of fun on Google messing around by simply typing different letters of the alphabet after you’ve typed “how to”.

Most people fear giving away their secret how to method. But unless you own the secret recipe for Coke or Irn Bru, rest assured, most people will never ever implement your ‘how to’ method. But if the ‘how to’ that you write is really valuable for your audience, people will share it, like it and so on and then it becomes valuable to others.

So try the ‘how to’ method.

The next way to write for your website is to follow Sean D’Souza 7 Bags Method

Sean wrote a book about 10 years ago about why people buy and don’t buy.

He used the visual of 7 bags going round and round on an airport conveyor belt to communicate how people go about buying things. Not until all 7 bags are taken off the conveyor belt does the customer have all his questions answered. Those 7 bags are as follows:

• Target market
• Problem
• Solution
• Objections
• Testimonials
• Risk Reversal
• USP

So use these 7 bullet points as a framework to help you write your website article. In fact I am using this method in this article. Target: Business owners and web designers/developers Problem: I wrote the 4 issues about writing for a website Solution: Now I’m writing about some writing solutions

So have a look at the Brain Audit.

The Aladdin’s Cave of Website Content

One of the very first websites I created was for a printing company.

They sold all sorts of business cards, flyers, posters, brochures and getting content together was an issue.

Luckily they stored all previous work in PDF format on their servers so I just had to access the PDF’s and then I could create all the pretty pictures for the hundreds of products and visuals their website needed.

Take an old proposal and turn it into website content

The following link is an adapted version of a proposal I created for the design and development of a recruitment website.

There’s nothing confidential in the proposal and adapting what I had already written saves me a bundle of time and less agony writing.

And I have lots of successful and failed website proposal I can use for future articles.

Write your views and insights on your industry like Simon Andrews

Simon has worked in the advertising and media industry for many years at a very high level and writes a weekly newsletter that he publishes on his Addictive Mobile website and in his newsletter.

His business is mobile strategies for big brands and his website content, published weekly, gives readers an insight into his views on what is happening in the industry. Many would say this is curated content but what Simon does is translate what is happening in a way most people can understand the impact or opportunities for their business. There’s a ton of quality content in each article and notice the calls to action at the end of the article :

• Hire Us
• Get in touch
• Sign up for email here

Add a bit of Drama and Excitement to your website content

Kevin Spacey kills that dog in the opening scene of House of Cards. At the start of the legal TV series Damages, Rose Bryne comes running out an apartment block with blood all over her appearing that she’s murdered someone.

Holy shit you got my attention now.

The opening scene in a movie or TV series sets the scene. It makes you think “what’s this gonna be about”. It pulls you in as you immediately become intrigued about the character’s situation. “A guy in a suits that kills an injured dog, tell me more?” “A good looking women, distressed, blood all over her, running out on the street, what did she do?”

I ain’t no Hollywood screenwriter but I do try and pick up some little content tips from them.

My article headline was about writing content.

That could be so incredibly boring. Then I added a twist — even if you are dyslexic or failed English. I know my audience (many designers are dyslexic) and that may generate some interest. And I know I failed English so I was trying to be humble and appeal to those people who don’t think they can create website content.

Learn to write for the web by learning how writers write.

If you are a golfer there aren’t many good golf movies. Of course, there’s Caddy Shack but that’s just a comedy farce. But Steven Pressfield wrote a book that was turned into a movie about a golfer who lost his golf swing and had to get it back. That book and movie was called The Legend of Bagger Vance starring Will Smith and Matt Damon and was directed by Robert Redford.

To write about a golfer that lost his golf swing is to really know the innermost minds of golfers and so I got hooked on what Mr. Pressfield writes about.

He spills the beans every week on how he writes in his newsletter and blog. Go to his website and look at some of his ideas for writing, in particular, these ideas

Think about a project you worked on.

I bet there was a villain before you get involved in the project.

It could have been the previous contractor or the client who created a problem.

Paint your team or product as the hero.

You could write about that, couldn’t you ?

Steal then make it better

Go to Buzzsumo.com and type in something. Anything.

OK, I typed in “solar panels”

The number one result is “The best idea in a long time: Covering parking lots with solar panels” BuzzSumo tells you how often an article gets shared. This one gets shared 126,000 times. Sure it helps that a professional journalist at the Washington Post writes the article but the point is that he’s turned a boring subject into an interesting and well-shared one. Stock Photos that don’t suck. This guy wrote a short article outlining where to find photographs to put on your website that don’t suck. He got 4500 people sharing. Then this guy took the idea but made the resource 10 times better. He got 322,000 shares and a shit load of new website traffic. His article went into way more depth than the first article.

• It showed example photos
• It explained photo licensing
• It explained the types of photos each website provided

So don’t be afraid to borrow other people’s ideas and add your twist or an updated version.

Getting your website content ideas down in writing

I use either the iPhone notes app when I’m lying in bed at night staring at the ceiling when my mind is still racing at 70 mph. Then on the Mac Book Pro or iMac I open up text editor and write down the heading and bullet points for potential articles. Then I flesh out each bullet point to create a first draft. As I’m doing that I’ll have SnagIt open and take full screenshot of website or images I am going to show in the article. And lastly I save my entire note to Dropbox so I can update no matter where I am.

The Record and Transcribe Method of Website Content

One method I have used for client content creation is to use the iPhone Voice recorder app to interview clients and then once I’ve recorded and captured I then upload to SpeedPad to turn the audio file into written words.

The entire FAQ section of this roofing website was done this way. All the case studies for this client website was done this way.

Get someone else to write for your website

For years I’ve used Textbroker to get other people to write the content for client’s websites.

I honestly could not write enthusiastically or with authority about flat roofs, value added tax services, car engines, renewable energy or pony insurance.

I’ve dabbled with iWriter as well to outsource my writing. I am sure there are other resources out there but those two work for me. Just make sure you choose the highest quality writers, go for 700 plus words and make sure you brief the writers who outline of what you want plus a link to some resources to help them out.

Copy and Paste From Notepad to Word and Spell check it

Please please spell check 2 or 3 times.

And then go and read it a couple times.

What comes out my head then towards my fingers hitting the keyboard is something entirely different from what was originally intended so spell check, grammar check and if needs be, read out loud.

And Lastly, The Layout of Your Website Content

If you look at Seth Godin’s books you’ll see that he understand how people read and consume words. He has some books with only a headline and one paragraph. That’s a super cool easy way to read something. But when you have a 2000 word article like this you need to break it up with lots of sub headings and short paragraphs and lots of spaces. The odds are that people are reading what you write on their mobile devices.

Oh and don’t scared about having your paragraph font size as high as 18 to 20 pixels so the reader can read your stuff without zooming in and scrolling.

And finally,

All you need to do is make sure your page is search friendly with Page Headings, Page Titles in H1 format and a meta description so Google can index and find your article and have some share buttons for everyone to wild share.

This article was written by Fraser McCulloch of Platonik.