With over 1.9 Billion websites, it is evident that the internet is a crowded space. And if you want to build your own website, you have to make it creative and engaging in order to pique the interest of your audience. Great website writing is a critical aspect of making your website stand out. Web content and blog content are significantly different from each other.
Following are some important tips that will help you create creative and unique content for your website –
- Know Your Target Audience
Before writing content for your website, it is important to determine who will be visiting your website. Your website content should be solely focused on the audience you are trying to sell. If you are creating a website for your law firm; your audience is likely to be your existing clients. Law reporters, attorneys, law students, etc. might be your secondary audience. You have to make sure that your content is accessible and understandable to all these people.
- Focus on Short and Simple Sentences
You are not writing a story; therefore keep your sentences short and precise. If your web content is filled with a lot of explanation and heavy words, you might end up confusing the readers altogether. Readers what to know what you are selling and how is it different from your competitors. You should focus on answering these two prominent questions.
- Use Active Voice
Use active rather than passive verbs and specify the subject of the sentence. For example, rather than writing “A coffee was ordered,” write “The man ordered a coffee.” Instead of saying “Products can be ordered on our website,” say “You can order products on our website.”
Active voice helps create succinct, reader-friendly sentences. It’s also more direct; when you speak directly to the audience (“You can do it”), it’s more engaging than saying “It can be done.”
- Nix the Jargon
The web is for everyone—not just technical experts. So make sure information is understandable for the educated non-specialist. Spell out acronyms on first reference. Avoid insider language. Explain complex or niche terms. And provide hyperlinks to other articles where readers can get more background information on a particular topic.
Consider this sentence:
The journalist grabbed a SOT from the MOS, drove back to the station and put the story in the can.
Many of these terms are comprehensible only to broadcast journalists. A reader-friendly revision would be:
The journalist interviewed a bystander about the incident and recorded her statement to include in the story.
This tip is especially important if you work in a technical industry, but want your website to attract non-expert customers. Remember that you need to write for your audience (see point #1) and not for your colleagues. Using accessible language will help you come across as approachable and open—just what you want to convey to future customers.