8 Simple Tips to Create Effective Content for Your Website

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The content you put out on your website is essentially your hook to talk to your target audience. If you want them to bite line and sinker, creating compelling and authentic content is essential. Anybody can write, the saying goes – but writing well is an art as well as a skill. Ask any content marketing agency! Run-of-the-mill content simply doesn’t work in the world of content marketing anymore: people gravitate to what stands out.

While you know your business best, of course, and might think you are best placed to write for it, partnering with a content marketing agency can help you find unique ways to make your content stand out from all the noise.

  1. Figure out why you’re writing.

Before you get the quills and ink out, content marketing agencies will attest to the fact that creating effective content involves a clear goal. When you know why you’re writing – to inform people, to sell a service, to get more sign-ups on your shiny new newsletter – what to write becomes much clearer. Any good content marketing agency can tell you that your content isn’t going to do you much good if it isn’t clearly and decisively advancing your business goals.

  • Figure out who you’re writing for.

Once you chart out the why, it’s time to think about who you’re writing for. You’ll only be able to write effective content for your website if you know who your target audience is. After all, you can’t talk to teenagers and entrepreneurs in the same language! A content marketing agency can help you narrow down the exact segment of people you should be gearing your content toward.

To understand your users, you must think about how they found you and what they’re looking for.

  • Create compelling introductions.

The first impression is the last impression, as the saying goes, and content writing is no different. You have only a handful of sentences to grab your users’ attention – make the most of it with a punchy introduction. Many content marketing agencies suggest that interesting data points, questions, and even quick stories make for great introductions to keep readers interested in what happens next.

  • Format and structure your content well.

While writing well is obviously the biggest part of creating effective content for your website, ensuring it’s formatted to maximize readability – especially across mobile and tablet devices – is crucial. A content marketing agency keeps a close eye on all these factors.

According to one survey, 63% of all organic traffic comes from search engines on mobile phones. It’s important to ensure they can get to and read your content! When people are looking for information quickly, they, well, read quickly. Content marketing agencies consider it essential; therefore, that content is formatted for quick reading, including using bullet points, clear subheadings, and bold and italicized text for emphasis.

  • Write clearly and concisely.

Nobody wants to read jargon-filled writing about the topic they’re passionate about. While the desire to sound knowledgeable and authoritative can lead you to think that technical language is absolutely necessary in good content – in fact, some content marketing agencies recommend this as well – this isn’t always the case.

Any good content marketing agency with industry experience will show you that the simpler and more straightforward you keep the language of your writing, the more people will understand what you’re saying and even return for more content in the future.

  • Remember the human reading your content.

It can be tempting to gear your content to search engines so they can find you easily and rank you well. Some content marketing agencies take this approach from the get-go. However, truly effective content puts its readers first and approaches them warmly and authentically.

For instance, even this article doesn’t give you a cut-and-dry academic guide to good writing. We’re engaging in conversation with you! Any good content marketing agency worth its salt can help you ensure you hit all the right notes to evoke a sense of warmth and familiarity with your audience.

  • Ensure your content is grammatically correct.

This is a fairly self-evident piece of advice, but you’d be surprised by how often it’s overlooked or relegated to the side lines. Simple mistakes like grammar, punctuation, and spelling are easy to avoid or correct.

According to content marketing agencies, messy and avoidable grammatical errors make businesses look unprofessional and can very quickly put people off from wanting to do business with you.

Other than the question of professionalism, it’s also a simple matter of paying attention to detail. Why lose out on customers by making silly errors?

  • Keep your content current and updated.

According to many content marketing agencies, people often assume once their content is written and up on their website, their work is done. However, creating effective content is not just a matter of belting out words and posting them on the internet.

As the world keeps changing and new information in your niche emerges, it’s important to ensure that your content reflects these changes too.

Expert content marketing agencies warn that not keeping your content current and updated runs the rather serious risk of being deemed outdated and irrelevant by both users and search engines alike.

The Upshot

According to content marketing agencies, creating effective content for your website is absolutely crucial to your presence on the internet. It acts as your introduction as well as your calling card on the internet. A lot goes on in terms of technical know-how as well as writing and research in the world of content creation. When you partner with a content marketing agency like AdLift, you get the best guidance in the industry to help you create compelling content for your website. That said, a few basic principles of effective content writing remain constant, the chief among which is putting the user first.