Writing Quality Content

You've heard it said by Google itself and by many SEO experts: "Content is KING!" Pretty words, but what exactly does that mean? Think about the value, attention, and status that royalty and celebrities are given by the people. Without significant quality content, your website is just a peasant selling wares in the town square!

Quality content is the single greatest weapon you have for Search Engine Optimization and marketing your site to your visitors. This process takes thought and time, which will not be wasted as it helps to turn your traffic into sales.

Maintaining A Balanced Perspective

In this day and age of the "instant" mentality, it's not enough to just slap a bunch of words on your pages. While it is essential to get site visitors to your website, you only have 7-9 seconds to convince those visitors to stay and browse.

Because some websites have overdone their content in the name of search engine appeal, they have managed to create pages that have no site visitor appeal. Other web owners have gone to the opposite extreme by eliminating content.... to the point that their pages carry no weight in the search engines.

Web writers must balance appeal to a variety of people and to the search engines.

Search Engine Appeal

Search engines return results directly related to the keyword or key phrase searched. Your meta title, meta description, and meta keyword tags can be perfectly done, but have little effect if your content does not strengthen them.

For example, if your meta title reads "Custom Boutique Hair Accessories, Bows, and Headbands" and your page talks about dental hygiene, your page will have little relevance to the search engines in regards to hair accessories. And if your page has lots of pictures and no content, you get the same result.

Some Tips on Search Engine Appeal:
  • Scatter keywords and key phrases naturally throughout your content.
  • Use your meta title at least once within the content.
  • Avoid clusters of linked keywords, especially at the bottom of the page. Instead, work them into your content.
  • NEVER use white text on a white background or other forms of "hidden content" or "hidden keywords."
    • Limit the amount of text in images, as it will not be read or weighed by the search engines.
Site Visitor Appeal

When writing for the web, do not write as you would for a book or a term paper, or you will lose your site visitors in a heartbeat. If you have ever been overwhelmed by a lengthy email, you will identify with how unappealing a webpage of text alone can be.

The words you choose matter just as much as your writing style! By trying to think like your target market, you will find success in writing to appeal to that market.

Be wary of using sales hype, as the site visitor will immediately tune out. (Think used car lot commercials and avoid that type of language like the bubonic plague.) The content should flow naturally, be informative, and sound appealing.
  • Help your customers to imagine owning your products.
  • Be persuasive without being pushy.
  • Help them convince themselves to purchase.
Again, do not use huge chunks of text. Paragraphs should be limited to one or two sentences. Variety is good for the eye, so avoid extremes such as six one-sentence paragraphs in a row. To properly format your web page, use
  • Bullets, instead of long strings of words separated by commas (do NOT overuse)
  • Pictures throughout to break up the text-only look, if appropriate to the page
  • Formatting that places pictures next to text, instead of lining pictures down the page (you can use tables to do this or settings that wrap the text around the picture)
  • Enticing headers to draw the eye in and to make both skimming and reading more enjoyable
  • Appropriately used bold and italicized text for emphasis and to catch the eye
Shorter sentences are usually best, but you can also use a variety. Many experts recommend writing for a 7th grade reading level, which is more advanced than many might think. Basically, you want to avoid using large words and "industry-specific" buzzwords (words that only people in the industry understand). If you must use buzzwords, define them within your content.

A Note on the Nitty Gritty Details

While we certainly emphasize quality, quantity is also important. The leading experts recommend 1,000 words to a page. With regard to ecommerce, 1,000 words on a product or category page is marketing suicide. Even in regards to word count, balance is key. This is what we recommend for specific ecommerce pages:
  • Home pages, articles, and About Us pages: 400-600 words
  • Category and product pages: 100-400 words, depending on the page (for category pages, aim to have at least one row of pictures show before people have to scroll)
  • Other pages can range between 50-600 words, depending on the page
When writing, always make sure that you spell check. Typos and grammatical errors are one of the best ways to communicate to your potential customers that you do not know what you are doing. If you want them to feel comfortable buying from you, you need to show them that you care enough about your web content to make sure it is well written. And if written and formatted correctly, your web content can begin to work for you to get traffic to your site and keep it there.