Are you making a common mistake of writing web content with one thought in mind – what makes people click? You are imagining your website viewers as readers, and readers will need to read something interesting if you want to keep their attention. Right? Wrong! Writing persuasive web content is all about one thing – being concise and writing for people who are in a hurry. They don’t have ten minutes to read the entire text only to get the big picture – they might just have a couple of minutes to skim it. In the days of digital marketing and virtual environment, you have to keep pace with the times. Right now, we will deal with the things you might have missed when it comes to creating web content people will actually like.
The most important information comes first
When writing an article, a landing page, or product description, you have to keep in mind one thing – our attention spans. And they are getting shorter by the minute. So not only does your website speed matter, as research shows that web visitors will leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load, but the way you disclose information also bears a lot of importance.
Let your readers know right away what your content is about. / a woman holding a tablet
If you have written a fairly interesting first create a thesis statement for your research paper , you might be able to count on people sticking to the second and third. But what about the fourth paragraph? No one can guarantee that. That’s why you want the most important information to come first, and then you can deal with the details in the remaining of the text. In journalism, this type of writing is called the inverted pyramid.
Writing persuasive web content isn’t about being clever
After all, no one is expecting to read a piece of text that resembles Shakespeare’s writing. They are looking for one thing and one thing only – the information about the services/products they need. People these days don’t have the time to figure out complex phrases and structures. Everyone wants to read simple and straightforward posts and pages.
A good rule of thumb is to imagine that you are writing for a 12-year old. Do you think a sentence structure or wording would be too difficult for them to understand? Then simplify it! This way, all the traffic you manage to drive to your website will turn into real customers/buyers. To spell it out, all of your efforts will pay off.
Expect people to comb through your website
Reading web content is nothing like reading a book. When reading a book, you start with the first chapter and move on in the corresponding order. But when reading web content, you hardly ever start with the homepage. Even if you do, your homepage could lead people in dozens of directions. They might start reading the services you offer. They could take a look at your colorful portfolio. Or they could start reading your blog posts one by one.
That’s why you can’t be attentive when writing one page only – you have to be consistent with every type of web content you create.
You entire website should contain persuasive content. / a woman and a man reading about writing persuasive web content
Now, you know you have to be concise, and you have it pretty clear what type of information is to be disclosed in which part of the text. But what about the actual writing of words and sentences? Believe it or not, you don’t have to be a celebrated, award-winning writer to write persuasive web content. You just have to follow the following guidelines.
Making your copy easy to read
We won’t venture out as far as to say that you are writing for lazy or uneducated people. But you do have to keep in mind the fact that not everyone has gone through the same upbringing, meaning you may be writing for PhD holders as well as for those who have a GED. But even that isn’t as important as the fact that a lot of people won’t bother with anything more than light reading before dinner. To make your content informative but also fun, try sticking to the guidelines listed below:
- Use mostly short sentences.
- Try to stay away from passive.
- Keep your paragraphs short.
- Use simple words.
- Don’t use jargon.
The visual appearance is very important for persuasive web content
Admit it – how many times have you bought something just because it came in a nice package? They say don’t judge a book by its covers, but in this case, the same won’t apply. There’s something in people that makes us lean towards aesthetically pleasing things. And that’s why you have to make your text visually appealing if you want anyone to bother with reading it.
The final product has to look appealing. / a man holding a tablet
- Instead of writing lines of text trying to make a point, why not insert a photo or two?
- You could also emphasize different parts of your text which will help you gain credibility with your readers.
- Don’t be afraid to use bold and italics.
- Don’t be stingy with headlines and sub-headlines.
- Break your paragraphs into bullet points (see what we did there?)
Make sure there is someone to read your text
At the end of the day, writing an amazing sales page won’t mean much if web visitors can’t find it. And unless you rank well for your target keywords, chances of your content being read are slim. That’s why you have to work on the SEO of your website.
Make sure your every blog/page is focused on one keyword, and ensure the text is well-optimized for it. In case you don’t know the basics of SEO, you needn’t worry. If you don’t want to pay for professional help, you can always take a course or read about it online. Hey, if it will help you succeed in writing persuasive web content, why not make the effort? That’s the beauty of the 21st Century – every piece of information is readily available for people across the world. So why not use it to the max and utilize all of its potentials?
Things to do before starting to write content
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Case Study
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Read Blogs
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Write White Papers
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Read E-books
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Read Ranked Content
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Open Grammar checker
Why not to use Spin content
Spinning Tool is bad due to following reasons:
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· Increases the bounce rate
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· Gives bad signals
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· Increase Grammar mistakes
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· Decrease Page Authority
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· Content Structure
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· Low Quality
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· Keywords Issue
Some more important points to keep in mind while writing
1. Embrace the line break
2. Break up your content with compelling subheads
3. Create bulleted lists
4. Use “deep captions”
5. Add relevant and helpful links
6. Highlight content strategically
7. Harness the power of numbers
8. Check your formatting to turn scanners into readers
Your writing skills can be beneficial only when you are able to engage users to read it – Logicpin Technology
