Writing for the Web: 7 Tips for Successful Web Content

Did you know that content marketing drives three times more leads than traditional marketing? If you want to see success with your content, you must know the best practices for writing for the web. By learning how to write for the Internet, you can create better content for your audience that builds user trust, which can lead to brand-new, loyal customers and sales.

In this post, we’ll provide you with seven tips for writing for the web and cover must-follow web writing principles that’ll help your company create stellar content that earns shares, comments, and more. If you need professional help developing and writing content for your site, call us today at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to use our content marketing services. You can also take advantage of our AI SEO content services to help your in-house team write A-plus content!

7 tips for writing for the web

If you want to become an expert at writing for the web in a way that both users and search engines love, follow our best practices below!

Writing for the web tip 1: Get to know your audience

Before you create any content on your site, it’s crucial that you understand your audience. Your audience reads your content. You want to ensure that your content resonates with them.

Your target audience focuses on customers interested in your products or services. You can look at who buys your products or uses your services to understand the characteristics of your audience. It’s essential to learn your audience’s demographic information, hobbies, interests, challenges, and more.

When you know your audience, you know how to reach them with your content. You’ll understand what your audience wants from your business and create content that resonates with them. It’s also important to know your audience so you can use a language and tone that resonates with them.

You want to appear relevant to your audience and appeal to them. Using their language and tone of speaking makes you more relatable to your audience. If you want to follow best practices for writing for the web, start by establishing your target audience.

It will help guide you through creating compelling content.

Writing for the web tip 2: Optimize your content for SEO

One of the most critical web writing principles is optimizing your content for search engine optimization (SEO). If you want people to find your content, you must optimize it to appear in search results on places like Google or Bing. Let’s look at some content optimization best practices for writing for the web:

• Find keywords and integrate them into your site: Keywords trigger your website to appear in relevant search results. You’ll want to choose long-tail keywords, which contain three or more words, to help your content appear in the right search results. When it comes to writing for the web, you’ll want to integrate keywords into your pages to help your audience find your content.
• Link internally: Internal linking helps keep readers on your site longer, which can improve your site’s ranking and allow more people to find your content. When you link to other relevant pages on your website, you provide your audience with more information and help them get familiar with your brand.
• Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions: Title tags and meta descriptions are essential for every page on your site. Google uses these features to rank your page in relevant search results. Make sure you use keywords in your tags and make descriptive title tags and meta descriptions.

  These are just a few best practices you can use to help your content become SEO-friendly. By optimizing your content for SEO, your business can create better and more accessible content for the web.

Writing for the web tip 3: Keep sentences and paragraphs short

When you’re writing for the web, it’s essential that you make your content digestible for your audience. You can quickly lose your audience’s interest by having content that appears dense. When you’re writing website content, you’ll want to vary between short and long sentences.

Use mostly short sentences to get straight to the point. It helps you avoid adding fluff or making content confusing. You can still use longer sentences, but make sure they aren’t run-on sentences.

If your sentences are too long, you risk losing your audience’s attention. They may forget how the sentence started or the context of the paragraph. Short sentences are more readable and easier to understand.

As for your paragraphs, it’s best to keep them to 2-3 sentences. If you have paragraphs that are 6-8 sentences long, it will make your page appear dense and overwhelming. Your audience won’t want to read your content because it will be intimidating.

By creating small paragraphs, you make your content easy to read and follow. Your audience can easily read or skim your content. Formatting your content into short paragraphs provides your audience with a better experience.

Writing for the web tip 4: Integrate lists and headings to maximize readability

When you’re writing website content, it’s essential that you make it easy to read.

Aside from creating smaller paragraphs and sentences, there are other ways to create more readable content:

• Bulleted lists: Bulleted lists are great for breaking up content on your page. They create an easy way for your audience to grab relevant information without having to read through paragraphs of text. If your audience skims your content, they’re more likely to stop and read a bulleted list.
• Numbered lists: Numbered lists are great for improving readability. Your audience can quickly skim through your article and get the gist of it by reading your numbered list. It’s a great way to help your audience get a summary of your content if they don’t have time to read everything.
• Headings: Headings break up text on your page. These headings also keep your page organized and help your audience understand the flow of your page. It also makes it easy for your readers to skim your page and get the information they need.
• Font size and style: Your font must be big enough to make your content readable. You’ll want to start with a 16-point font and make it larger as needed. Choose a font that is clear and easy to read.

  If you want to succeed with writing website content, you must make your content easy to read. Creating readable content will help you continue to drive users to your page.

Writing for the web tip 5: Use the inverted pyramid method

When you’re creating content and writing new pages, it’s essential that you share your most important information first. Your audience has a short attention span and may leave your site before reading all your content. People spend an average of 37 seconds on an article.

With the inverted pyramid method, you put your most valuable and important information first. Many companies make the mistake of saving their most important point until the end. They try to build up hype to their most crucial point to keep people on the page longer.

The truth is that the opposite happens. If you don’t put your most important information first, you don’t motivate your audience to stay on your page. Your audience is less likely to stay on your page because they can’t find the information they need.

For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about spring cleaning. When you start, think about what your audience expects to see from your content. You want to put the most critical information first.

In this case, the first part of your article may provide your audience with a spring cleaning checklist, followed by a section that details how to clean each room in your house. The last part of your article could focus on essential cleaners you must get for spring cleaning. If someone didn’t have time to spend reading your article, they could quickly look at the beginning of the article, grab the cleaning list, and go.

You’ll still get brand exposure, and these users can always go back to your article for more information. Use the inverted pyramid method to succeed at writing for the web. This method will ensure that you provide your audience with the most critical information first and entice them to keep reading.

Writing for the web tip 6: Limit jargon

When creating content, you want to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Slang is one of the most common ways to show you’re an authority in your industry. Many companies overuse jargon in their content, though, which can push people away. It’s essential that you use jargon enough to show you’re knowledgeable in your field.

You also want to make sure that you’re not using jargon so often that your audience can’t understand your content. Only use jargon when necessary. You may want to consider explaining terms as you use them, too.

When you discuss certain words, you can use them more often because your audience will have a basic understanding of the terms. By limiting your jargon, you’ll create content that is easier for your audience to understand. It’s a crucial best practice for writing for the web when it comes to publishing user-friendly content.

If you want to produce the best content, check out our free PDF that includes more than 130 different business jargon fixes!

Writing for the web tip 7: Edit your content

When you create new pages and content for your site, it’s essential that you review your content. You want to post error-free pages on your website. By editing your content, you’ll provide your audience with clean copy.

It’s essential that you don’t edit your content immediately after writing it. You’ll miss errors because the information is still fresh in your mind. It’s best to wait for a few hours and edit it or have someone else look over it for you.

If you want to edit right away, use a program like Grammarly to help you find and fix any grammatical or spelling mistakes. While it won’t help you fact-check the actual information in your article, it will help you produce a clean piece of copy. Edit your content when writing for the web, and you’ll produce a quality piece every time.

Need help writing for the web?

When you’re creating website content for the web, it’s essential that you follow best practices to help you succeed. With writing for the web, you want to ensure that you’re putting out quality content for your audience. At WebFX, we have over 28 years of experience with content marketing and content writing.

Our team of over 500 experts will bring their knowledge and expertise to help you write for the web. Our SEO AI content services or SEO copywriting services will help you create SEO-friendly content that drives results for your business. We’ll optimize your content to help make it web-friendly.

With our program MarketingCloudFX, we can review existing content and provide optimization recommendations or even create outlines for future content. To learn more about how our SEO AI content services, as well as content marketing services, help your business create web-friendly content, contact us online, or call us at 888-601-5359 to chat with an experienced strategist!