Good content can make or break your website, and may even make or break your business. Think of this: Let’s say you sell a product that helps people with their self-confidence. You could say in your content, something like:
“Hey, we have a new product, it helps you with your self-confidence. You can boost it and you’re going to feel better and feel more confident about what you do. And I think you’re going to like it. And maybe you should go ahead and buy it and see what you think. But if you don’t like it, you can get a free refund…
What if you changed the wording around to say something like:
“What would your life be like if you were more self-confident? If you had the confidence to say what you think, when you’re thinking it, to the person you’re thinking about?
How would you feel if you walked into a room with all that self-confidence inside of you? Not arrogance, just self-confidence.”
Do you see the difference? There are different ways of writing the same thing. The way that you write something is extremely important. And what I’m talking about today is content writing.
Content writing is different from other kinds of writing. For instance, I used to be a fantasy writer a very long time ago and I was terrible at it; I had a very difficult time figuring out the interactions between the characters.
I’m much better at writing nonfiction. My books, Leadership for Introverts and Timeless SEO Secrets sell copies every week. Leadership for Introverts, which is three years old, is still being sold on a weekly basis. I don’t say that I’m great; it’s not like it’s on the bestseller list or anything, but it does sell consistently.
I’m much better at nonfiction writing than fiction writing. I’m also better at content writing than I am with fiction writing.
I can look at a piece of content and work out how it can be written better. And by being by written better, I’m talking about being written for people. There’s one thing that the search engines are very intent on doing, and that is getting websites to the top of search results.
Web pages need to be written for people. The stuff that is written for the search engines is pretty much called spam, so the search engines don’t want that because people don’t want that.
I’m sure you’ve been to a website before where you started reading it and all of a sudden, you realize that the whole page is nothing but spam to get that page to the top of the search engine. And my guess would be that you lost interest in hiring them.
Wouldn’t you love to have content that makes people want to keep reading? How about having content that people love so much that they share it with everyone they know? How would you feel if you saw your social media post blow up with thousands of likes and hundreds of shares?
Another example (one that I’m guilty of):
Bad:
“Amazing Architects can help you create a sustainable structure with true ergonomy. The façade will be visually pleasing while using the best materiality. No blobitecture here, the walkability will be exactly how you want.”
Good:
“Get the house of your dreams; one that looks exactly how you want but is also built of the latest materials. You will feel comfortable sitting in your new living room, designed just the way you imagined.”
Emotion before features. And keep the industry-specific jargon to a minimum. Ergonomy, façade, materiality and blobitecture are all architectural words, but I have no idea if I used them correctly. And anyone who wants a custom home built won’t know either.
Use words your customer will easily understand. If your ideal clients read at a high school graduate level, write for an 11th grader. The easier it is for them to read, the more likely they will keep reading.
Content writing is not easy, which is why I recommend that you get training for it. I thought I had access to a good training system, but I can’t find it now. I will update this post as soon as I find one that is worthy.
-Dr. Ty Belknap
CEO, Port Bell SEO
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