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Writing for the web or on paper, is there a real difference? The answer is yes.
The way of writing is different, because the internet has its own rules of writing and we will explain why.
If you're thinking of creating a blog, your writing and content will soon become very important to you!
It is essential to do everything you can to optimize your writing because it is the first contact between you and your visitor.
The objective is twofold:
👉 To give readers the information they want
👉 And to convert them
Here are some tips that will help you improve your web writing and be a great web writer.
In order to create quality and optimized content, don't hesitate to follow these steps before starting writing.
The very first step before starting to write your content is to determine which keywords you will focus on.
Indeed, it is best to choose a theme and a main keyword for your pages.
But why?
To avoid search engines from getting lost in your content. With too many different keywords and themes in a single article, the page won’t be well ranked because Google will not understand what your content is about.
To choose your main keyword, there is a very simple method.
First of all, you have to put yourself in the users’ shoes: what would you type in the search bar to find your information?
There are also tools to help you find your keywords, such as Google Ads or SEMRush. These tools will give you an idea of the search volume for your keyword and how competitive it is.
💡 Our advice: use the long tail
Using the long tail is a method that consists of choosing more precise and therefore less competitive keywords.
The keywords, known as "generic", are very popular and therefore very competitive and it is very difficult to rank on them. Moreover, if a page has been ranking on the first page of Google for several months, and even several years, for a certain keyword, therefore they are difficult to compete with.
The idea is therefore to choose longer, more precise keywords. Thus, the user you target will be more convinced and the competition will be lower.
Source: Crowd Media
Now that you've chosen your primary keyword, it's time to expand the lexical field that you will use on your site.
In 2013, Google's Hummingbird algorithm changed web content creation.
From now on, Google not only takes into account only the main query of the page, but also the whole lexical field around this main keyword.
It is therefore essential to find secondary keywords for your pages, that is to say synonyms or equivalent expressions of your main keyword.
But how to do it?
For this, you can find keywords ideas based on your main keyword. It is good to have about 5 of them, to have a rich semantic structure.
For example:
If your main keyword is "website builder", the secondary keywords might be "website creation software", "tool to create a website" and many more.
The main thing is not to use words already present in your main keyword, but to use words or expressions that are close to it, and that mean the same thing.
You can also be inspired by what your competitors offer. But be careful! You have to spot their mistakes, and avoid reproducing practices that have proven ineffective. This is a good way to get ideas.
Once you've chosen your keywords and made sure that they are relevant, it's time to start writing.
We have listed the best practices to be a really good web writer.
To write quality content, it is important to know how to structure your content.
👉 To improve readability
👉 To improve its positioning in search engines
To structure a content, there are several elements:
👉 Titles (H1, H2, H3)
👉 Subtitles
👉 Paragraphs: short, 1 idea = 1 paragraph
These elements will allow you to prioritize your content and structure it with titles that will help with readability, but also with a better ranking on Google.
Work on the titles and subtitles. Your titles should summarize the content of the article.
If the article is long, consider writing an introduction: often written in bold, it is a summary of your article.
Remember that most Internet users only read the top of the page (it is said that the user's gaze forms an F-pattern) and then only scan the text, reading it diagonally.
A good web writer should be able to hook the readers from the first lines.
The structure must be clear and visible. It is therefore important to prioritize your content. For this, it is possible to use the method of the inverted pyramid.
That is to say, write your content in the following way: start with the most important information and put the details below.
Source: Ohio State
It is said that 81% of the Internet users read the first paragraph while only 32% of them read the fourth one (Nielsen Norman Group study).
It is therefore essential to get to the point when writing for the web, and to find content for your blog, hence the inverted pyramid method.
Generally, Internet users come to a website to get information and stay only a short time on a website.
It is therefore important to prioritize the information and to use simple and clear sentences.
The best is to be dynamic: use short sentences (about 20 words), a simple and clear wording, and a direct and concise style. Also avoid using too many linking words, which slow down the reading and make your text difficult to read.
Also be careful with the length of your text, an article that is too long may discourage the reader before he or she has even started to read it. An article that is too short, on the other hand, can be poorly indexed by search engines, and lacks information.
Generally, an article must be at least 1500 words in order to be well ranked by search engines.
The readability of your content is an important factor for readers. Writing web content does not only require interesting information, it is also necessary to take into account the constraints of the digital world. On the internet, there are many factors that may make the reader lose focus:
👉 Screen reflection
👉 Page load time
👉 Screen size
👉 Scrolling
Etc.
To address these factors, it is important to focus on the readability of the content.
To improve the readability of your content, there are many elements to take into account.
First of all, the structure of the content is essential and helps immensely with readability. The organization of the text must be perfectly optimized regardless of the device used by the reader.
It will therefore be necessary to optimize your pages for all devices (desktop, mobile, tablet ...). This is called responsive.
In terms of visuals, it will be necessary to work on the color, typography and font size of your text. Make sure that the colors of the text and the background of your page contrast well, that the typography is readable (choose a typography without serif) and that the font size is adequate.
It is also important to space out your content, so remember to make paragraphs when necessary, etc.
As for the visuals, it is a key step for the readability.
An article well illustrated with beautiful images or visuals is more pleasant to read than a block of text. However, make sure the images are the right size so that they don't overlap the text, and take into account the fold of your page (i.e., the place on the screen where the user starts scrolling).
Remember to balance text and images in your articles and carefully choose quality images that are relevant to your content.
A good web writer will improve the readability of his or her article, and will space out the content and make it clear and pleasant to read.
Now that you have carefully written your web content, let’s think about SEO!
Indeed, a good web writer should think about SEO and optimize his or her article accordingly.
The goal is to strengthen your SEO on a specific topic. For this, the semantic cocoon technique is excellent.
What is the semantic cocoon technique?
The semantic cocoon aims to optimize the internal network by semantic classification of mother, sister and daughter pages.
It is a question of scrupulously organizing content hierarchically and semantically.
The goal is to link content that addresses the same topic.
Once you have done this internal linking, you can also add external links to your content. That is to say links pointing to other websites.
In addition to internal and external linking, there are other elements to take into account for SEO:
👉 The strong tags: words put in bold in a web content. They should not be too numerous and be close to the keywords determined before.
👉 The length of articles: the size of an article counts a lot for ranking. An article that is too short will not be valued by Google's algorithm. It is more sensible to produce less content, but complete quality content.
👉 Alt tag on images: this tag on images also helps in SEO. Search engines can have a hard time understanding an image, that's why it is better to help them with this tag
👉 Title / URL / Meta description: these three fields need to be optimized for SEO and to be better positioned in search engines.
The title should provide your value proposition, the purpose of the article. The meta description should attract the user and make them want to read more about the topic.
You now know (almost) everything about writing for the web!
But we still have a few more tips to improve the quality of your web content... stay with us 🚀
Creating content is good, but creating quality content is even better!
Content marketing is a practice more and more used by companies, and the competition is getting tough. It is necessary to differentiate and add value to your web content with a quality article for example.
Content has a strong impact on the purchase decision of the users, they generally have specific expectations when they come to visit a website.
It is therefore important to meet their expectations to avoid frustration. You can even bring them more than what they came for, with your added value.
If your content doesn't meet the user's expectations, it can damage your credibility and create a certain amount of frustration for them. Therefore, always remember to address your headline, as this is what drove the reader to click on your content.
A content allows the user to get information and to specify his/her need! We all know that the needs of consumers are constantly changing, that's why you should follow the major trends and update your content regularly.
The purpose of a content strategy is first of all to provide information, but also to convert the readers into customers.
To encourage readers to stay on your site, internal linking will be very effective at first. The reader clicks on one of your links, and is redirected to another article.
This way, they can become aware of your brand and appreciate your writing style, your content and their quality.
Call to action buttons are also a good way to convince readers.
Call to actions (CTA) are elements that are apart from the text and that encourage the visitor to continue browsing.
In a word, the longer a user stays on a website, the more likely they are to come back or to purchase.
Your content is at its best, you have published it.
What to do now?
After the publication of quality content, it is essential to distribute it. This distribution can be done through different channels:
👉 Social networks
👉 Newsletter
👉 Website
👉 Videos
Etc...
For this, you can establish a strategy, in order to optimize the way you communicate about your content.
Last but not least: analysis of the results.
Once your content is published and distributed, you will need to track and analyze the data you collect.
There are many tools such as: Google Analytics, Google Search Console... to collect and analyze the data of your blog.
Thus, you will have an idea of what works, or not, and what you need to change to make high quality content challenging any competition!
You now have all the tips that will help you write quality content for the web and improve your writing on the web.
And if you run out of inspiration: our guide will help you face the blank page syndrome.
All you have to do is use this content wisely, for example to optimize your ranking.
You will undoubtedly become an effective and talented web writer in no time!
Last update: March 24, 2023
