What is web content?

Web content normally refers to:

• Blogs
• Videos
• White papers
• Website Copy

Just about anyone can create this kind of content; but why bother?

Why does it need to be written?

Each kind of content is useful in its own way.

Almost any content update is likely to help your websites SEO.

Content also gives you a chacne to connect with your audience. It often lets you speak to your customers. If you are providing top quality content, it gives them something they’ll find useful.

Businesses are striving to create more and more content. If you want to keep up, you need to publish quality content regularly.

Why you should hire a writer

Not everyone has the time, or the skills, to provide the quantity of quality content that they need. That’s where content writers come in. Content writers specialise in writign what people want to read.

A good content writer also understand how content updates help your SEO.

If you hire a content writer, you’ll recieve a professional service which will make your life easier. If you’r estruggling to get readers to your blog, or you don’t have time to write copy for your website, let someone else do it for you.

Tested Advertising Methods

by John Caples

A classic. Hammers home the importance of testing your advertising. Explains everything you need to know to get started as a copywriter. Though it may seem slightly dated at times, the advice is as relevant now as it ever was. A must read.

Write To Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Copywriting

by Andy Maslen

The first book I read on copywriting and one of my favourites. Provides a useful guide to getting started as a copywriter. Not too long, but concise and relevant.

Ogilvy on Advertising

by David Ogilvy

Advice and thoughts from the greatest copywriter of all time. That alone should be enough to make you want to read this book. A great range of subjects are covered, and even those with only a passing interest in copywriting should find this enjoyable.

The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells

by Robert W Bly

A copywriting handbook from another all time great. Simple and easy to understand, this book is a wonderful beginner’s guide. A useful book if you’re looking to get started as a copywriter.

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

by William Zinsser

Not specifically targeted at copywriting, but a classic nonetheless. This book describes the craft of writing with a fondness that you won’t really find in the other books on this list. If you want a break from ‘traditional’ copywriting advice, read this book. You won’t be disappointed.

Google’s ‘Penguin’ update has people worried. Site owner’s are scared that their site will drop in ranking and lose traffic.

So how will this update affect your site?

Why (good) SEO advice is still the same

If your site was built on good SEO principles such as:

• Create quality content that encourages organic links
• Publish often, and at regular intervals
• Avoid keyword stuffing

Then you’ll be fine. Remember, Google’s updates are designed to make it easier for people to find the best, most relevant content for their search query. If you work from that principle, then you will be protected from all future Google updates.

How to do well post-penguin

• Create content that people want to read and link to
• Blog as regularly as you can
• Avoid low-quality link building
• Write guest posts
• Involve yourself in social media

If you follow this advice, your site has every chance of ranking well post-penguin. For more advice from some true experts, take a look at these posts:

SEO Copywriting

Search Engine Watch

And in the spirit of good SEO, please find links below if you feel like sharing this post.

Why ‘About us’ pages are difficult

The clue’s in the name. An ‘About us’ page goes against the most essential rule of copywriting; focus on your reader.

If you write an about us page which is about your history, your company news or your ‘values’, people are going to switch off. No one wants to read about those things and you need to remember that.

So why have an ‘About us’ page at all?

How to use an ‘About us’ page

There are several ways that a page about you or your company can be useful. Firstly, it’s a great chance to build up credibility.

You can weave in things about how you’ve been helping people for years, how your qualifications help your customers, or how your spacious car park means your customers can always find a space.

Whatever you write about, make sure it is clearly focused on your reader. Don’t just write about yourself. Always focus on the benefits for your customers.

The complete guide to blogging gives you everything you need to get going with your business blog.

Here is a summary of the posts:

Why use a Blog?

3 Blog Structures that Work

How Often Should You Blog?

SEO and Your Blog

How to Get Readers to Your Blog

Useful resources for bloggers:

Copyblogger Blogging Guide.

Free Stock Images.

Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

Basic Blog Guide. 

Social networks

Social networks are a useful tool for getting views to your blog. They not only allow you to advertise your posts, but also to connect with people who are interested in what you’re writing about.

The social elements of social networking are the most useful. Facebook, Twitter and blog comments allow you to communicate with people as people. So don’t just churn out messages to get links. Speak to people, and you’ll see the benefits.

Guest Posts

Writing posts for other people’s blogs might seem like a lot of extra work, but it is a good way to connect with a new (and often larger) audience.

When you write a guest post, you should make it your best work. It might be your one chance to make an impression on an audience. Unoriginal, uninteresting work won’t make people click through to your blog. People won’t remember boring posts.

SEO

Yes, it may seem obvious, but SEO is a good way to get people to your blog.

To optimise your blog for SEO, you need to aim your posts at specific keywords.

But you also need to make them useful and publicise them in order to get as many incoming links as possible. SEO is a valuable way to get visitors to your blog, so it’s an important consideration.

There’s no guaranteed way to get people to read your posts. The trick is to make people want to read your blog. That means providing quality content, regularly. If you do that, everything else should fall into place.

How a blog helps with your SEO

SEO is one of the main reasons to have a blog. In fact, search engines are the only reason some sites have a blog. So why are blogs so good for SEO?

Regular updates

Search engines prefer sites that are regularly updated. Blogs give you lots of opportunities to update your site.

The more that you can update your site, the better. Sites that are more frequently updated receive higher rankings from search engines. They are also indexed more frequently, so the people visiting your site are more likely to find appropriate content.

Keywords

Although keyword density shouldn’t really be a consideration for your SEO, it is still seen as important to have certain relevant keywords on your site.

Because blogs tend to be relevant to your site, your posts will naturally have plenty of keywords which are useful for your site’s SEO.

Inbound Links

Inbound links are one of the most important parts of SEO. Put simply, the more links there are to your site, the better.

The type of link also affects your site’s ranking.

So to improve your website’s SEO, it’s important to have as many inbound links as you can, as well as having a variety of links.

People tend to link to useful content, so as with everything in blogging, you have to generate useful content. The more useful your posts, the more likely people are to link to your website, and the better you will do with search engines.

How often should you blog?

This is a question that troubles a lot of bloggers, myself included.

Blogging every day, or 4-5 times a week is great for your business because it means more views. Hubspot have an interesting article on the subject, and there are many others like it.

Google also seems to prefer sites which update frequently so you’re likely to improve your blog’s SEO.

There’s no hard and fast answer, but there are some important points to consider.

How much do you have to say?

There are lots of reasons why you wouldn’t have a lot to say about a subject. These could include:

• You’re new to the topic
• You haven’t read around much
• You don’t know where to get ideas from

It’s very common to be stuck for something to say. I’d venture that even the bloggers who can post something interesting every day get stuck for ideas.

Here are a few suggestions on how to come up with great blog posts:

• Write down any idea that could be useful for your blog
• Schedule posts in advance, so you’re not always playing catch up
• Read what other people are doing; it’ll fuel your own ideas.

Do you have the time?

Not everyone has time to write, edit and proof their blog posts.

I rarely find time to give mine a thorough proofing.

Blogs require a time commitment, and if you haven’t got time to spare, then you might need to look at other options.

You could look at other marketing options, or you could hire a copywriter to write your blog posts for you.

Will you burnout?

Even if you have a lot to say, and the time to write you might not have the energy, or inclination to blog regularly.

Blogging can be mentally exhausting, and you need a great deal of creative endurance to update a blog daily. Don’t over exert yourself. Be happy to produce quality content less often.

Everyone wants to blog as much as they can. But it’s important to be realistic about what you can do. If blogging every day means poorly written, unoriginal posts, then it isn’t worth blogging every day.

However if you have the resources to blog every day and do it well, then by all means go for it. You will see the benefits.

The ‘How To’ Post

This post is popular because it gives people what they want; practical and useful information. This title promises an article which will show its reader exactly how they can do something. Some examples:

‘How to write a business blog’

‘How to master email marketing’

‘How to be a copywriter’

These posts provide a clear benefit, and for that reason they will always be popular.

The ‘X Ways to’ Post

These posts are great because they display very clear, ultra-specific benefits.

Here are some examples:

“101 attention grabbing headlines”

“5 ways to get more readers for your blog”

“94 reasons why you need a blog”

These posts make it obvious what they contain, and for that reason, are often successful.

The ‘Guide to’ Post

People love to be given information that they can use. If you write a ‘Guide to’ post, you are offering a single post that will summarise a whole subject.

Your readers will like this because they want complete as useful information.

Here are some examples of ‘guide to’ blog titles:

‘The complete guide to being a blogger’

‘The direct mail guide to better subject lines’

‘The lazy guide to blogging’

The main thing you need to do is make your blog posts useful. If you do that,  be interesting, and with time, popular.

Blogs are used by lots of companies. But how many businesses really need a blog?

How a blog can be useful

Blogs are useful for lots of reasons.

They allow you to communicate with people, and position yourself as an expert in the field. With a blog, you have the opportunity to regularly connect with lots of people.

The second main benefit of a blog is SEO. Blogs give your site regular updates, and are typically full of keywords related to your company.

But blogs aren’t for everyone. A lot of businesses that adopt blogs might not need them. So how do you tell whether you should write a blog?

How to tell whether a blog is right for you

All blogs have to do one, essential thing; provide information that people want to read.

That might be news, opinions, or advice.

Most people don’t want to hear about what’s been happening at your company, unless your blog is designed to be internal. So company news isn’t really the best choice for content.

Think about what you can say that people will be interested in. Most people have an area of interest/expertise that they can write well about. You just need to find yours.

Why you need to consider the human element of blogging

If you want to create a blog purely for SEO, you’re unlikely to be successful.

Search engines are moving away from keywords as a measure of relevance, and other metrics are already far more important when it comes to SEO.

One of the best things you can do to make your site do well in search engines is have lots of inbound links. A blog can help you get those, but only if you’re providing regular, useful content.

So make sure that your blog is giving information that people want to read. It’ll improve your SEO, and make your blog far more interesting for your readers.

If you found this useful, please share it or comment using the buttons below.