Content needs to be SEO-friendly. At the same time, it needs to adhere to a certain word limit. For the designing team, here’s how to maintain both:

• Use tabs to keep the page ‘tight’ and make information easily available to visitors. You can actually hide chunks of content using tabs. Visitors will read the entire content, in various tabs  and here will be no room for boredom.
• SEO content should be ‘below the fold’. Keep in mind that a site’s traffic flow increases when visitors see attractive design, not when they find a chunk of text. There’s also a possibility of a conflict between SEO and content team here because according to SEO strategies, ‘above the fold’ is the place where optimized content should appear.
• The pages where SEO is not that important, such as the ‘about’ page, should be adorned with appealing designs. So, if you are a designer, let your creativity loose on these pages.

Navigation

Be clear when it comes to site navigation. Keep your website navigation buttons as clear as possible. You do not want to mislead your visitors. This does not mean you have to curb your creative desire. You can design the labels as you wish, but in order to offer a better user-experience, you need to position the text and the labels as clearly as you can.

Home Page Header Design

Animations and rotating images in the header are an effective way to present the good things about your company along with your value proposition. While content must be informative, the header must connect with the visitors emotionally in order to be effective. There are several ways to establish a connection between a website and its visitors. Try telling a story with the website design, logo design and content writing rather than talking about the products/services that your company offers.

Call-to-action

Needless to say, call-to-action is what takes visitors to the next level after they have browsed a website fully. Call-to-action can be simple as well as elaborated. But similar to the landing page, the call-to-action text should be simple, short and most importantly, clear. It also needs to be relevant to where it leads the visitors. Interesting content alone can’t help. You need attractive design in the call-to-action and the design should be done is such a way that it can be read with ease.

There are a few more things to be taken care of regarding the call-to-action. These things can arouse conflict between content writing and web design again. Below you will find how to resolve the conflict.

• Communicate with all the team members of content and design team clearly.
• Communicate with the client clearly.
• Choose a project manager who has excellent communication skills.
• Do not deviate from the purpose of the design.

Now, let me tell you that there are writers who cannot shorten information and designers who cannot but create elaborate designs. Trust me, they are quite common and both of them do not contribute anything to a site’s effectiveness.

These conflicting tendencies of content writing services and web design make the actual work very challenging. A good way to sort things out here is to have a discussion as a whole team. Another, quite effective way, though not followed very frequently, is to request feedback from clients. Just show your web page to people and take their opinions. This will give you an idea as to how successful your website is going to be.

Bear in mind that everyone is subjective about their own creations because there’s an emotional bond between a creator and his creation that overshadows any flaws that might be in the creation.

Web design and content writing should complement each other. Web designers should create designs that are relevant to the content. Since website owners have only a few seconds to impress their visitors, the key to make a strong impression lies with creating designs that represent the purpose of the content, and content that is useful for the visitors.

Since a website is not similar to a graphic novel where every page has different pictures accompanied with text to tell the story, designers and content writers must keep in mind that consistency in the design and content matters.

Explained below are some plans of action that will help you boost the consistency of your web content writing and website design.

Back up your content with images to establish a sense of worth

Visitors should know about your products without scrolling over images. Give your visitors a tour of your product catalog where they will enjoy the combination of images and text and also feel an urge to proceed.

The key to creating a seamless image-text combination is improving the quality of the images. If the visual experience is not rich and professional and at par with the claims you make about your company, content alone can’t impress visitors.

Nobody likes boastful language. If your content makes sky-scraping claims about your products/services, no visitor would stay in your website for long. Support your claims with facts. Put your past records up. Let visitors browse through your portfolio and find out your area of expertise. It will justify your claims and convince visitors of your standards of service.

Compress

After eliminating the ‘big talk’ from your content, you will discover that it has become a lot more compact. Brief and compact content coupled with evocative design will help you garner desired results from your online identity. But only these two aren’t enough. If you want to capitalize on your content, you need to embrace a few more steps like prioritization, precise labeling and segmentation.

• Prioritization – It is about how you understand your target market and their activities and decide what you want your website to do. Create your website accordingly and get rid of any content that deviates from its objective. Present a comprehension for visitors to let them know why they are in your website. Don’t stress on how good you are in your field. Let the web design do that for you. Instead, tell your visitors you have what they need. If your web content clarifies that, visitors will automatically go further. Use appropriate headings, page titles and link text.

• Precise Labeling – Create the labeling in accordance with the visitors’ goals. Describe your product/service in a concise text. But let the design explain why you are better than others in the market. Cohering web content and design will allow visitors to have a sense of control.

• Segmentation – This is about dividing content into several sections according to the target market or objective. The content of the home page should briefly describe the different needs of different visitors and provide links to the specific pages. By doing this, you’ll be saving your visitors, time.

Create a Narrative Tone

For an engaging user-experience, narrative tones are very important. Web designers can create a narrative tone that will convince visitors. With intelligent content, you can experiment with different typographies and other elements that can be narrative. But you have to make sure your content and design are in keeping with each other and facilitates rich user experience.

Trust the Visitors

Rely on the visitors to establish a connection between your content and graphics. Remember, the higher sense of control you give your visitors, the closer you will get to them.  Enable the user to read and see what you have to offer at the same time.

These points will help you create and maintain consistency in your website content writing and design. They will also help reap the benefits of your online promotional campaign.

With the introduction of Google Panda, good quality content now assumes an important position in the SEO industry. No longer, sites can get away by publishing low quality or duplicate content. Rather, to improve rankings and avoid penalty, sites now have to post original and fresh content regularly. However, even that is not enough to acquire a strong fan following.

Despite posting good content, many sites find that their traffic rate is not improving. This leads them to believe that content marketing is an ineffective strategy. Unfortunately, they are unaware of the fact that the problem does not lie in Google or content quality. Sometimes, the way you market website content also affects your traffic rate.

What is the definition of ‘good’ content?

Everyone has his or her own interpretation of ‘good’. In most cases, an article qualifies as a ‘good’ content, when it gets several Tweets, Likes, or comments. However, we feel that to qualify as a ‘good’ content, an article should possess at least one of the following features.

• Good content is credible

To create good content, you need to be an expert in the particular field. If you do not possess an in-depth knowledge of a topic, avoid writing about it. Remember that a great article should always contain reliable and authentic information. Unless you are an expert in the field, it is impossible to incorporate authentic information in the article.

• Good content involves great effort

Web content writing demands investment of time and energy. A well-edited video, detailed research, and an informative infographic design – all can help you to come up with good content. Obviously, to edit a video or create an infographic design, you will have to put in time and energy.

• Good content contains useful and practical tips

People read blogs and articles to acquire good information. Therefore, to create a great article, you need to include valuable information in it. Additionally, ensure that the tips you offer are practical. Providing users with tips that they cannot implement in reality does not make any sense.

Tips to market your content

Considering the fiercely competitive scenario of the 21st century, it is wrong to assume that your job ends after writing a great article. Many believe that people will be aware of a great article automatically. Unfortunately, in the cyber-world, you need to be market your article and site aggressively. There are millions of sites in the Internet and if you do not market yourself well, people will not be interested in visiting your site.

• Interact with people

Once you have published your posts, get in touch with your friends and relatives. Inform them about the posts and request them to Tweet or Share them.

• Strategize your launch

Most of us are unaware of the fact that publishing time of the content plays a critical role in its success. If you publish your blogs at a time when the whole world is busy, chances are high that people will not be interested.

For this reason, creating awareness about the time when you would publish the article is important. Compare blog publishing with product launch; declare the date and time beforehand, plan the launch, and be vocal about it.

• Promote your content well

As mentioned earlier, publishing your content is not enough. You need to promote it aggressively. Few powerful marketing techniques can include sharing the content at social media platform, building links, and writing guest posts on similar sites.

Finally, consider the fact that success never happens overnight. To acquire a loyal fan base, you need to post good articles and market them regularly. Read comments of your readers and find out their preferences. Interact with them to show that you are willing to be part of a meaningful discussion.

Bob Stone, a famous copywriter, highlighted the importance of a great headline, when he declared, “Your first 15 words count more than the 15,000 words that follow!”

A great headline is somewhat similar to a movie trailer. It raises your curiosity and encourages you to explore the movie/article further.

As an Internet marketing expert, consider the fact that good web content writing can evoke various responses amongst the target audience. A well-written headline can provoke the user to read the article. On the other hand, a poorly written title can drive away people.

We provide you with few examples of great headlines and discuss why they are effective.

Headlines that Highlight a Thought-provoking Question

Maxwell Sackheim, in an article used the headline ‘Do you make these mistakes in English’? The headline, written almost 80 years ago, is still considered as a powerful title.

This headline is effective because it asks readers a thought-provoking query and engages them. It prompts readers to find out what exactly ‘these’ mistakes are, thus involving them in the process. The importance of the headline lies in the fact that it makes users curious, encouraging them to read the article.

The headline uses human psychology intelligently. No one likes to make mistakes. Therefore, if any one comes across a title such as the above, the person will automatically try to find out what mistakes the author has highlighted.

Headline that Starts with ‘How To’

A famous example of this type of headline is ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’? Dale Carnegie used this title in his popular self-help book.

This title earned great popularity because it solved one of the basic requirements of most people, i.e. influencing others. Similar to the above example, this headline also utilizes human psychology cleverly. After all, who would not like to know the secret of influencing others?

This headline highlights the benefits (win friends and influence people) and avoids pointing out the process (talking in a particular way, offering positive feedback) that one may have to go through for enjoying the benefit. This strategy lures people successfully because they want to know how they can influence others.

Headline with a Direct Statement

Consider the headline ‘The most affordable website design solutions you will ever find’.

This headline highlights a direct statement and is perfect for companies who want to present a powerful feature. The title is clear, direct, and does not make the reader guess anything.

The ‘Benefit’ Headline

This headline tries to present the benefits before the readers. A good example can be ‘How to lose 2 inches in 1 week’?

This headline emphasizes the benefit that the user can enjoy. To create the benefit headline, find out your unique selling point and incorporate it in your headline.

To assure the customer, you can use the phrase ‘money back guarantee’ as your sub-heading.

Opt for the ‘Command’ Headline

As compared to other headlines, a command headline is more aggressive. Consider the example-‘Utilize your time better by writing powerful headlines’. It is a powerful title because it urges people to act.

Headline that Uses ‘Who Else’

‘Who else wants to shed some weight?’ can be a good example of such a headline. By using the term ‘who else’ in the title, the writer creates the notion that others have already availed the benefit.

This headline also taps human psychology perfectly. Humans are more likely to consider an option (a weight loss program or a new product), when they know that others have also tried it.

Writing attractive headlines is critical for drawing attention of the people. However, remember that your title should match the body of the article. If you do not progress logically from the title to the body, your readers may feel deceived. Therefore, offer good information in the title and enjoy higher traffic.

Despite what its detractors might say, fact remains that several thousands of Press Releases are shared by social media users in sites like Facebook and Twitter. There are reasons for web users preferring press releases over other forms of content.

• Web users, including social media users, often get distracted by vast labyrinth of information thrown by search results. They often face a problem of finding out content that is authentic and useful. Press releases are viewed as de facto statements of events relating to an organization and hence they carry some amount of credibility.
• Well crafted press releases convey relevant information in a brief package. Users need not go through long pages to get the gist of a matter.
• Press releases usually do not come with bindings like copyright and sharing restrictions. They are meant to be distributed.

Web solutions services need to be aware of salient characteristics of effective press release to cater to users. They need to compose press releases to suit requirements of web users. It is also necessary to be aware of how web users want information to be delivered to them.

• Press releases should feature elements that can be indexed by search engines easily. They can contain keywords and compelling visuals along with a landing page that can be shared across popular social media sites.
• Web users can access information in various ways. Therefore, SEO professionals can think of presenting a press release in various web friendly formats. For instance, content about any event or product can be distributed online in various ways. A webinar can be turned into a podcast or blog post. A Press release can also be used in similar ways.
• Not all web users have the same habits as far as content sharing is concerned. Some may prefer podcast while some others are hooked to media based content found in online media sharing sites.

It is important for a content writer framing press release or sharing it online through various modes to know what outcomes he wants to generate from target users. This, of course, depends on type of content used in a press release.

• Press releases can also turn out to be effective means of lead generation for businesses at times. This is owing to the fact that they can be shared quickly. They can reach out to various segments of users too.

Press releases come in handy when an organization wants to widen its target audience and reach out to more people outside its customer base fast.

The pricing factor alone does not determine the fate of an online business, but the services it offers as well. Offering only web content writing services will not help you increase your client base. If you really want to increase your profit margin and attract new clients, you should offer website design and development services as well.

When you start offering web design, development and content writing solutions under one roof, clients will be more interested to hire you. You will become their one-stop solution for all web related needs. Consequently, you will get more clients and increase your profit margin.

Here are some of the advantages of offering content writing services with web design:

• When you design a website for a client, he lays out certain specifications before you, according to which you are required to design his website. For instance, a web page may require a heavy footer, long left-side navigation and a number of ads on the right-side, and a video file in the middle of the page – all of which ultimately leaves little space, or need, for content.

As a designer who is already aware of just how much space is available for content, you can advise your content writing team to write minimum content for that specific page, thus saving them time and effort. Content compliments the design as the designer and content writer works cohesively. Because you are working with the client from the early stages of the project, you know everything about the client’s business and can write suitable content to complement their brand image.

When you offer only content writing services, you may have to churn out a lot of words, which ultimately gets slashed to accommodate design.

• The possibility of a project delay is less when you handle content assignments with design. You don’t need to wait for a third-party service provider to deliver content. As the design progresses, your content writers can supply content for each page to help the project complete faster.
• Good quality content helps increase conversion rate of websites. If your company provides good content, you can be assured that the client will hire you when he needs to update the content of his site, or add new articles in his blog, etc.

If you offer keyword rich content to the client, his website will rank high in search results and he will be pleased with your work. This will improve your reputation as a quality web development company.

Your home or landing page is ideally where you have talked most about your product or service with the intended purpose of a positive action from your visitor. Given below are 12 useful content writing tips that will help you write an effective, result-oriented landing page.

1. Headline – Make sure your headline matches the source text your visitor has clicked to land on your site. An exact match, or even a close match between your landing page headline and ad copy will tell the customer he has come to the right site, and keep him oriented.
2. Call to Action – You must tell the visitor what you expect him to do. Your landing page should have a defined call-to-action graphic or linked text that urges the visitor to act upon it.
3. Writing in Seconds – Visitors aren’t exactly bothered about your company or the products or services you provide. What they really want to know when they come to your site is how your site will benefit them. Address your visitors in your landing page content as ‘you’ and ‘your’ and refer to yourself as ‘I’ or ‘we’. This also builds interactivity.
4. Writing Style – Your landing page content should be business-like, clear and easily understood by visitors. You must write to precisely communicate an idea to your audience, not showcase your grasp of the English language, or creativity.
   
5. Long or Short Copy? – Both work depending on your end product. If you are selling a product or service, a long copy is generally more useful in cash generation. For a free newsletter subscription, a short copy suffices. Whatever you write, just make sure it is motivating and gets you the result you desire.
6. Set Clear Goals – Your body content should be a logical extension of your headline. Your content should focus on the products you are selling. Any ancillary services wastes time, distracts the viewer, and is of little use.
7. Focus from the Start – The most important features of your product/service should precede paragraphs and bullets. Most visitors will only scan through your page content, and they should be able to do so quickly but without missing out points which talk about your business. Also, readers have a tendency to read the starts and ends before reading the actual body content. The most critical points about your product/service should therefore be at the top and bottom than in the middle.
8. Short First Paras – The first paragraph should not be more than one or two lines. A short first para means it’s easier for your readers to follow your remaining copy. Also, at no point of time should your paragraphs exceed four or five lines.
9. Content Above or Below the Fold? – The natural tendency of users is to scroll. So ideally, it doesn’t matter if your opening paragraphs trail below the fold. Of course, some things like the banner, menu and headline and sub-headline should be above-the-fold, including the opening paragraph. It helps catch reader attention.
10. Keep Your Landing Page Clean – Remove extra elements like navigation bars, links, and extra images from your landing page. Your readers should only focus on your web content copy and any supportive images that reinforce the idea you are trying to convey.
11. Don’t Need? Don’t Ask – Your landing page isn’t a market survey form. Don’t ask for information you will not need to complete a sale. Too many questions irritate the user. Besides, it’s a waste of time.
12. Test – A site, which works on assumption, isn’t too far from its doom. You might be the best web designer/developer in town, but you are still human, and humans err. Test your landing page before making it available to visitors. Interactive elements whose sole purpose is to engage visitors must be tested to ensure they are working. You don’t want to lose out on business because of broken links or forms that don’t work, do you?

A nightmare for all content writers is their content getting plagiarized or copied by someone else. Actually writers can’t do much to prevent their content being copied after it has been written and uploaded on a web page. What writers can do is write content in a style that is matchless and be alert during the content writing process, thus diminishing the chances of their content being plagiarized.

A professional content writing company has the right expertise to check plagiarism. Their content writing team consists of experienced writers who know the ways to creating fresh, unique content that won’t be easy to plagiarize. Here’s how.

• Give Your Writing a Personal Touch: The best way to stop others plagiarizing your content is by adding a personal flavor to your articles. It is better to pen your ideas or thoughts in the first person. You would be churning out excellent articles if you are able to support the factual information with some personal experiences, research work, and personal interviews with experts, etc.

For instance, if you are a web developer, you can share some of the best techniques that you have employed while designing a website. It would not be so easy for plagiarists to copy your codes without understanding them. Remember, technical jargon is difficult to copy or replicate.

• Create Original Ideas: Be original and come up with fresh ideas while you are writing on a topic. You need to think first and then pen down your thoughts. If your content is just a repetition of an entire lump of information from another source, no one will like to read it. Ensure that you read between the lines. Read up information from other sources and deduce facts, writing with original ideas. Form rational opinion of the things you read from other sources and pen them down.

• Write Lengthy Content: Usually, plagiarists do not have the patience to copy content which reaches 800 words, edit it and get it published. Plagiarists have the tendency to copy shorter content.

• Focus on a Matured Audience: Write your content for a learned and mature audience instead of the multitude. Remember, there are less chances of your content being plagiarized by a mature audience, first because they are industry professionals and second, because they are probably equally as good as you in providing niche-specific information. Experts don’t copy; plagiarists do!

• Do not Paraphrase: It is a common practice of plagiarists to copy paragraphs after paragraphs from an original source and replacing the content with the over-use of synonyms. Such form of plagiarism can be avoided by writing up in a unique style and doing your own analysis of the information available. Write slightly longer content, something around 700-1000 words, with examples, images, personal experiences, ideas, experiments, etc, in between factual matter.

You can take information from other sources but say a strict ‘no’ to directly replicating interpretations of other writers. Remember that content creation is all about writing on original ideas. Doing a sound and extensive research on topics reduces chances of plagiarism.

There is no use denying the importance of content behind the success of a website. Attractive and relevant information is what the web users look for in a website. A website with eye catching graphic design may turn out to be a dud if it does not have compelling content. Therefore, web developers from professional web development companies need to focus on the quality of content in a website along with design aspects including Flash design etc. The content writers writing for the web users need to focus on the needs of the target readers when they develop the content. This is even more applicable for business content development, which requires extraordinary writing ability coupled with in-depth knowledge about the business and industry. A content developer assigned with the task of content writing for a business website needs to keep certain aspects in mind when he develops the content for the client website.

• Success in business content writing depends largely on the understanding of the need of the target audience. Different types of businesses can have separate target users. For instance, the web users visiting an insurance website would be different from those who visit a website selling children’s products. The writing style needs to be suited as per the mindset and liking of the target readers. Sometimes the writers may need to focus on the quality of products made by a client and in some cases they need to clarify the services of clients and their values in enhancing the user’s lifestyles.

• It would be wrong for the business content writers to use complex vocabulary and jargons. The web users prefer reading simplified and crisply written content. The writers should write the content in a way that the users find it helpful. Instead of focusing on how great the products of the companies are, the writers should try stressing on how they can benefit the readers and resolve their needs easily.

• The presentation of the content in a website is also of utmost importance. The content should be presented in a webpage with enough room for images and white space. The viewers should never get an impression that the Web Pages suffer from information cramming. The quality of the content in a business website also needs to be thoroughly evaluated. A professional looking business website has no place for proof reading and grammatical error in the content. The content writers should be aware of the commonplace grammatical mistakes that lessen the value of writing. Before publishing the website content should undergo a through scrutiny for any kind of spelling, punctuation and other errors.

• The business content should be informative and the writers need to be aware about using accurate and up to date information. For instance, while comparing the products of a client with others a content writing professional needs to refer to relevant sources and present credible data. Using links from renowned and authentic sites convinces the readers and enhances the search engine ranking of the business websites to an extent.

A challenging aspect of content writing and web design is creating enticing headlines. Whether you are writing a blog post or an article, title is the first thing that grabs attention. In fact, studies have proved that headlines play a crucial role in stimulating interest of the people and encourage them to read the entire text.

A women’s magazine, for example, had published an article with an interesting title-‘The Child who won the Hearts of all’. The emotional appeal of the title was so powerful that it created a strong buzz and encouraged people to read the article.

Here are few ways you can come up with catchy headlines.

Do not use cliches

While creating a good headline, remember that people will not read your blog or article unless they find any interesting information in them. Therefore, the first step is to convince the readers that your article is different from others. Avoiding clichéd terms such as ‘number one’ and ‘top quality’ is recommended. Creativity and imagination can help you write a great title.

Consider the situation

Opinions regarding whether a writer should use creative titles or direct ones, vary. While some believe that flowery words in the title can attract attention, others think that direct headlines create a positive image amongst the visitors.

It can be added here that as a content writer, while creating headlines, one should consider the purpose of the article as well. An example will make this point clearer…

Let us assume that you are writing an article about discounts offered by a clothing company. In such a situation, you can opt for a direct title, such as ’50% discount offered by XYZ’. On the other hand, if you are writing an article about the latest style trends, a creative title will add an interesting touch.

Short titles are powerful

Studies reveal that Internet users have short attention span and long titles can discourage them from reading the entire article. Incorporating seven or fewer words in the headlines and titles can be a good idea. If you think that you require few more words to explain the concept, put them into the sub-heading.

Have an honest approach

Deliver what you promise in the article/blog. Avoid writing an interesting headline, followed by an article or blog that is unrelated to the title. Remember that misleading the visitors can negatively affect your reputation and credibility as a writer.

Ask a question

A simple way of creating interesting title is to ask a question. It will even serve the purpose of stimulating interest of the readers. There are high chances that the visitors will read articles that contain titles such as ‘How to make your Kid Eat Healthy Food?’ or ‘Where can you find the Best Piano Removalists’?

Use humor with caution

Writing humorous titles can be a good way of grabbing attention of the visitors. It even makes your title different from others. However, use humor carefully. Avoid offending anyone and opt for detailed research before coming up with humorous titles.

Unless you write an informative or entertaining article, a great headline will not be of any use. Therefore, pay attention to the body of the text. Use bulleted list to highlight the main points, avoid spelling and grammatical errors, and finally, provide valuable information to engage the readers.