Writing content for your website isn’t child’s play.

It requires tons of research, a fair amount of SEO knowledge, and the ability to hold your audience’s attention.

But what is website content writing? And how is it different from plain-vanilla writing?

With millions of blog posts popping up every day, there’s a lot of competition. The ultimate goal for all website content writers in this race is to drive engagement and meet business goals.

That said, you can become a top website in your niche by adding good-quality content. The information you provide should be valuable, credible, and packaged in an engaging format. In this article, we’ll explore why content is important, how to add content to the website, and steps to rehash your website. By the end of it, you’ll be able to spruce up your blog completely.

Why Content is Still King?

In Bill Gates’s famous essay ‘Content is King,’ he asserted that the real money would come from content on the internet. It’s been two decades since he made these claims, and we couldn’t agree more with him.

Here are some stats to support that claim:

• 89% of marketers in a survey agreed that content marketing helps in achieving their business objectives
• Another study by Deloitte suggests that marketing spend is set to increase by 14% every year
• Companies with an active blog get 97% more links to their website
• 98% of survey respondents claimed that written content is prevalent because it is effective

Content is used to build a strong connection with customers. Write-ups with informational value help in increasing brand value and bottom-line figures. So it’s no surprise that content marketers love how-to guides, product comparisons, and explainers.

It further gives an opportunity to answer questions about your product in a fun and exciting manner.

Let’s take Lyft’s website content example here. The company is trying to attract users with a blog post that emphasizes that there are more drivers now. In around 500 words, it packs information on shorter wait times, priority pick-up options, and membership plans. The best part about the post is it’s an easy read, and the message is conveyed well.

Blogs are considered to be a reliable source of information by most people. At least 60% of Americans have made purchases because a blog recommended a product. So how to add content to the website? We’ll look at that in the next section.

6 Best Practices for Writing Website Content

Now that we have understood the importance of content let’s look at some best practices for writing website content.

1. Grab Attention With Your Headline

You have just 15 seconds to capture your average reader’s attention — so better make it count!

A headline is an opportunity to draw readers in without giving out a lot of information. While there are no steadfast rules, your ideal headline should be 6-11 words long. That way, you can give enough details without losing the reader.

2. Have a Great Hook

This is the #1 tip you’ll get when you ask a marketer ‘how to write content for the website homepage.’

A headline will only compel the reader to hear you out. You have to start with a great opening so that the reader stays till the end. That is also known as “the hook.”

A behavioral study on internet users concluded that only 57% of the reading time is spent on the first screenful portion. That trickles down drastically. Only 3-4% of reading time is spent by the third or fourth screenful of content.

These figures show the importance of a hook. If your intro isn’t catchy, they aren’t going to stay on the page. The best way to stay ahead is to jump into your main content within the first few lines.

3. Be Specific

An ideal article on your website should focus on a specific topic and draw logical conclusions.

Let’s say you’re posting an article titled ‘How to Dance Better.’ While it can be a good pillar page, it simply cannot satisfy all kinds of readers. Your target audience is too broad and diverse. It’s impossible to cover all the facets of dancing even if you go on for 10,000 words!

If you publish something like ‘Beginner’s Guide: How to Be a Better Tap Dancer in 10 Hours,’ you end up catering to a narrow and well-defined audience. Plus, you can cover all the nuances of the topic comprehensively.

More importantly, there’s evidence to suggest that broad content doesn’t help in generating interest. Users tend to search for specific terms and click on links that match their exact needs.

4. Cater to Your Audience

Knowing your target audience is as important as executing the right website content idea.

If you’re writing a beginner’s guide for tap dancers, it means that your target readers are new to the dance form. So, assume that they know nothing about ‘shuffle’ and ‘step-heel’ dance techniques. Hold the reader’s hand until the last word.

Keep your writing simple. Don’t use jargon or complicated phrases as far as possible. Else, you might have to bid farewell to a large number of readers. There might be certain concepts that require some preliminary reading. Add reference links and tell your readers to refer to them before getting to your article.

By putting your readers’ interests ahead of everything else, your website can gain credibility and authority.

5. Make It Readable

Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

There are nearly 6.9 million blog posts published every day. This means by the time you finish reading this article 48,000 new posts would have made their way to the web. An overwhelming majority of them have issues of grammar, structure, syntax, and the likes. In short, they aren’t readable. 

Creativity might be subjective, but readability isn’t. Use any grammar checking tool to ensure that you haven’t made any rookie mistakes. There are numerous free tools like Hemingway App, Readability Analyzer, and WebFX Readability Tool that can give you a readability score.

This readability score tells you what age or qualification your readers must have to get a grasp on the topic. Try to make your writings readable for the 10-15 age group. It will ensure that anyone above this age can comprehend your article easily.

6. Include Actionables

By actionable, we’re not just talking about CTA buttons.

Mention concrete steps in your write-ups. Your readers should be able to practice the dance techniques after reading your beginners’ guide. If you’re plugging a product or a service in your article, mention the links clearly. Ensuring these aspects is more than enough to beat your competitors in the content race. But what can we do about the published content on your website? We’ve listed five steps to give your existing content a much-needed facelift.

5 Steps to Rehash Your Website Content

Now that we’ve looked at how to add content to the website, let’s see how we can improve your existing content.

1. Get a Broad Overview of the Website

Check the sitemap of your website and look at it from the perspective of the website manager.

Understand what kinds of meta descriptions, title tags, and URLs are being used.

Look for trends during this phase. Is there a category of posts that is doing exceptionally well in SERPs? What are the pages that return a high ROI? Are there pages that haven’t been indexed?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to understand the needs of the website.

2. Read Every Article 

Yes, we mean it. Go through every article on your blog and get a sense of where it stands.

Over the months (or years), there might have been many structural and functional changes. That will clearly reflect on your blog.

You can address issues of sloppy writing in this phase. If something can be clearly explained in 200 words, why use 2000 of them? Changes in writing style or a shift in business goals could also be a reason why you might want to do away with some older posts.

All in all, an extensive content audit will help you get better website content ideas.

3. Remove Any Duplicate Content

Duplicate or very similar content is a common sight. That’s especially true if you have a big team of website content writers working.

If there’s a replica of a page on your domain, it might reduce the SERP ranking of both pages.

On the other hand, having two similar posts is going to reduce the credibility of your blog. Readers might not want to rely on your website for information, and the bounce rate might start rising.

Tools like Screaming Frog and Copyscape can help you eliminate duplication easily. All you need to do is enter the URL on either of the platforms and follow the suggested steps.

4. Optimize Low-Quality Content

Weed out everything that isn’t important for your readers. Improve everything that doesn’t meet the technical standards of a modern-day top website. After all, what good is website content if it can’t make it to the SERPs?

Search engines usually prefer large websites. But that does not mean that you go on a page creation spree. Add lots of helpful tips and relevant content about your industry. Having a news section is the best way to increase pages without sounding redundant.

Remove any backlinks that seem spammy or non-functional. Having too many bad links might hurt your rankings in search engine results.

With Google making clear that mobile optimization is important for SEO, you’re left with no choice. Making your pages mobile responsive is a fairly easy task. Besides, it’ll boost your readership and tap into new markets.

5. Update Content Regularly

Updates are an essential part of any content marketing strategy. You can’t keep quoting stats from 2010 on your blog forever.

You don’t have to go back to every outdated blog and update it. Instead, you can pick out the top-performing ones and edit them to make sure they’re still fresh and relevant.

Finally, add a note to the post to let the reader know it’s been updated to ensure transparency.

You can edit the title, meta description, and keywords mentioned in the blog if you feel they’re outdated. But remember, you shouldn’t update the URL, or else the page will lose its ranking in the search engines.

Final Thoughts

Whether yours is a B2B or a B2C website, the rules for quality content are the same. The aspects we covered in this article will help your website gain authority in your business niche. Additionally, keep a tab on industry trends and browse through website content writing examples to stay ahead of the curve.

Here’s a quick recap of everything we covered in this article:

• To become an authoritative voice in your niche, knowing how to add content to the website is important
• Website content such as blogs is considered to be a reliable source of information by most people
• Companies with active blogs generate more user interest
• Use a catchy headline and an interesting hook to get the reader’s attention
• Focus on a specific topic, address your target audience’s problems, and conclude with actionable
• You can rehash the content on your website getting an overview, and reading all the outdated posts
• Optimize low-quality content, remove all duplicate posts, and update your website regularly

Does this sound like a lot of work to you? You can leave the writing part to us! At BoostOne, we’ll take care of your website’s content needs right from SEO to your weekly blog posts. For more information on our content writing services click here.