Writing Unique Website Content
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David
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February 20th, 2012
Writing unique website content is essential to the success of your website. There are two main reasons, search engines will visit your website more often to index your pages in their search results. Also, your website visitors are looking for information so the better your information and the more legible you write it the more they are likely to return or complete a purchase.
What I've covered below are some of the more important areas of writing useful content along with methods to make your website legible to more readers. It's important to read this before you start making your website.
Unique Website Content
Writing website copy is one of the easier things to do especially if you're familiar with the topic that your website is about. WebsiteToad.com is all original copy because of the fact that I've spent many years working with websites so I'm extremely familiar with all aspects of building a website.
It's important to have unique content because search engines don't like websites with duplicate content. Using plagiarized information can you trouble in your search engine rankings along with the owner of the original information.
Lastly, it builds creditability. Users will see that your content is unique and that you know what you're talking about so it builds credibility and increases the odds that they'll purchase from our or come back again when their looking for something related to your website.
Use Legible Website Fonts
Although it looks neat to use some of the fonts on the market is hard to read. People using older computers or older internet browsers may not be able to allow the newer fonts on their machine so I'd recommend using some of the basic fonts such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman. I personally use Verdana in a size 10 font and find that it's extremely easy to read online.
Limit The Number Of Images On Your Website
Try using more text than images. Sites that have too many images take longer to load. Even though you may be using a broadband service many people still use Dial Up so sites that take you 5 seconds to load can take minutes for dial up users.
Avoid Using Flash If Possible
Avoid flash at all means. Flash looks great but if you're trying to rank a site well for search engines, Flash has absolutely no value. This is also part of the previous mentioned dial up users. Flash files are generally large and take time to load so people most likely will just leave your site. Lastly, although flash is very popular, many people don't have a flash player loaded on their computer. For this reason, I don't use flash on any of my sites at all.
Write To Draw Visitors Interest By Using Headlines
As I mention below, visitors don't want to have to scour though a ton of content to get the information that they want so if there are certain things you want them to read you'll need to draw their attention.
Using headlines is a great way of doing this. Using a headline such as 'I made $100,000 last year on my website and you can too!' is a great way to get someone interested. It's important to try to portray a personal feeling such as using 'I', 'You' and 'We'. This helps make your reader feel that you're not there to just sell something.
There are certain techniques that just scream of amateur or spammer. Using all capital letters is one technique that I recommend that you avoid along with 'exclamation points!!!!!!". I'm not saying to not use an explanation point but just use one!
If you can't write an effective headline you may be missing out on potential sales so be sure to take the time to write effective headlines.
Write Using Effective Layouts
Your layout can make or break your website. There are standards that you'll find at most websites and through the years people have become accustom to those layouts. One thing to consider is your navigation. I use a left hand navigation because it's easy to notice plus it allows me to place the links in order of importance or in my case from beginner subjects down the line to more advanced subjects.
Another effective area to place your navigation is along the top. This is an area that is certain to draw the attention of your website visitors. I use the top navigation to link to additional resources that I'd like to draw attention to aside from my website building pages.
When I say that the layout of your website can make or break your website it holds true to the fact that if your website visitors can't easily find the information that they're looking for that they'll go elsewhere.
My suggestion would be to visit quite a few different websites, even websites with different topics. Find what you feel is easy to read and navigate, from there you can build on that to give your website the layout that it needs to be easy to navigate and easy to read.
Look At Your Website Through The Eyes Of Your Visitors
Building a website that you like is like painting your house pink because you love pink. You may love it but your neighbors may hate it.
The same holds true for web design, it's important that you look at your website through the eyes of your visitors. Ask yourself questions like do the colors fit the theme of my website, is the font going to be easy for nearly everyone to read, do I have too many images on the page which may be difficult to load for those visitors with dial up, etc.
When I put a new website online I'll just onto three of the forums that I belong to and find the section for 'Review My Site'. I'll then ask for unbiased reviews of the website. Many times people will say things you don't want to hear but don't take it personally, they are just giving you what you asked for.
From there build on the reviews that you were given. You'll find that the reviews will give you ideas and problem areas that you hadn't considered.
People Won't Read Everything
I'm sure you know exactly what I'm saying here. People don't want to spend ages reading through paragraphs of text to get the information that they're looking for. As you can see from the nature of my website I have taken the time to break the categories into headers that first describe what that section is about.
This gives my readers an easy way to determine if they're interested in that topic. If not, they just move to the next section. I think that this is a way to keep your readers from getting board.
Even after the headline I just write a few paragraphs about that subject that gets right to the point. It's important to write useful information without a bunch of fluff that will bore your readers.
Granted it's tough to write about certain topics within a couple of paragraphs but people just want to scan for information without wasting an entire evening so keep your visitors interested by giving them what they want and cut down on un-necessary paragraphs.
Additional Resources
Although I've covered some of the more important topics, I certainly haven't covered them all. I welcome you to visit our webmaster forum to find further information or run questions by some seasoned webmasters.