Slapping little bits of incomplete or unprofessional content on a page is no way to create content for your website. Content is king, so let’s treat it that way!

With so much competition out there on the web, it should be your goal to invest in your development to ensure your content is interesting and well-written. It’s time to look at the big picture so the reader experience comes first. Here are our five favorite content writing tips.

Keep pages on topic

Really narrow each page down to address specific keywords or keyword phrases that would bring searchers to the page. This is a Search Engine Optimization technique that assures organic web traffic. If you have a page about wedding videos, really talk about your keyword phrase “wedding videos”. Use the phrase in the first sentence of your content and mention it where necessary throughout the page without overusing it. Don’t be distracted by photography on this page and don’t go into detail about any other services. Each service should have its own page where you concentrate on a specific keyword.

Keep readers on the page

Eighty percent of readers won’t finish your blog or article. Let’s face it. People tend to skim down the page. Some even go straight to your conclusion from the start. Help them stay on the page longer by keeping your paragraphs tightly written and split ideas with headlines. These headlines are easy to read because they are larger font size than the rest of your copy.

Clearly state your point in the first paragraph and restate it in the final paragraph. Use bullet lists anywhere in between where you can help drive the point of the article home. This means you’ll hit readers who fizzle early and those that skip around.

Write more

There are two takeaways here. The first is that fresh content is critical for frequent indexing by search engines. More content on the page will also help search engines see you as an authority on your subject matter. The second is that adding content to your website regularly will feed your audience and keep them coming back regularly. It will also lower your bounce rate or keep people on the site longer.

Speak to your reader

Avoid industry jargon and technical language when addressing the reader. No one wants to read an overly formal writing style. Write like you are talking to the actual person reading the page.

Get help with grammar

Using spell check is not enough. We know not everyone’s perfect when it comes to grammar usage, so we suggest using two free tools to stay on track. The first is Grammarly’s free grammar checker. This is an online proofreading tool that checks everything from spelling to punctuation and styling. It will even keep you in check when it comes to plagiarism. The second tool is the Hemmingway Editor. It will help you check the reading level of your copy … because did you know you should be writing for an audience at a seventh-grade reading level? This tool will help you simplify sentences and track adverbs, passive voice, and more.

Thanks for reading our content writing tips. We hope this guides you in the right direction to speak to your audience more clearly. We want you to become an authority on your goods and services, so we hope you’ll use these tips going forward. Best of luck!

Calls-to-action (CTA) are important to a successful website, but they are often overlooked. The average website has information about what the business does, contact information, nice photos, and in some cases helpful content, but that’s not enough.

Basic CTA

If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. We’re talking about simple, ground-level calls to action. The most common CTA might say, “If you’re looking for _____, call XXX-XXXX today!” These can be viewed as a final instruction that ends the conversation, so be careful where they are used.

CTAs that do more

A stronger CTA is one that promotes more interaction or continued contact. Here are a few examples.

Download:

Send the visitor or potential customer down the rabbit hole of information on your website. Make your CTA an offer where you request their contact information so that they can download a document or white page on a particular topic you’re an expert on. Require their first name, last name, company, and email address. Knowing this information will help you decide if they are a qualified lead to be converted into a sale.

Once the lead has downloaded your white page, thank them for downloading and offer them more content or the chance to try out your product with a new CTA. A button that says, “Give ____ a try!”, might be just the ticket.

Pop-up question:

Offer to evaluate the reader’s process or give them a free report on what they can do differently. This can come in the form of a pop-up that asks them for their URL, email, or more details. You’ll be able to take a closer look and use the opportunity to sell your services.

Subscribe:

Ask the reader to submit their email address to receive updates or a newsletter directly to their inbox. Be clear on the value of the service.

The deal:

Go in strong and offer a deal for your services right away. Your button could say, “Get unlimited service for $199 $109.” Direct and to the point is one large way to close the sale. You’re ultimately making the prospect feel like they might miss out and we’d hate for them to do that!

Exit CTA:

Use an exit intent pop-up to get the visitor’s attention when it appears they might navigate away from your website. These pop-ups do a really good job anticipating behavior and intervening before it’s too late. Offer the potential client a discount or a coupon to catch them off guard. Some websites even have two buttons … one that says yes to accept the offer and one that says “no thanks” in a guilt-inducing way.

We hope these CTA examples inspire you to ask your website visitors for more. The main point is to get them to do something and become qualified leads. Best wishes on updating your website!

Websites have changed so much over the years. They used to be static. You’d create the site and walk away. Today a website is an ever-changing, living entity. It requires your time for security, theme and plugin updates, backups, and much more.

Your website is vulnerable to downtime, malicious attacks, and even data loss, so we took the time to outline the top three things you should be aware of when it comes to website support.

Hosting

Hosting services are defined as the rental of space on a server to hold the contents of your website. Reliable hosting is the number one concern in building a successful website.

The average e-commerce site takes 7.12 seconds to load in Internet Explorer 9, an average of 7.15 seconds to load in Firefox 7 and an average of 7.5 seconds to load in Google Chrome. (Source: Hosting Facts)

Potential customers and clients expect to be able to visit your site day and night, so dependability is key. Downtime lasting anywhere from seconds to hours and can affect your reputation. It can prevent purchases and stand in the way of converting online traffic into qualified leads.

Excellent customer service from your hosting provider is a must. If hosting issues affect your website at night or on weekends, you need a provider with a quick response time. You also want to look at their uptime track record to ensure maximum dependability. Lastly, ensure the ability to scale. As your business and website grow, make sure your hosting provider can accommodate the traffic growth.

Backups

You need a good backup solution to protect your website. A single backup could stand between you and sure disaster or building a new website from scratch.

About 70% of business people have experienced (or will experience) data loss due to accidental deletion, disk or system failure, viruses, fire or some other disaster. (Source: Carbonite, an online backup service)

While managing your website is easier than ever these days, it doesn’t mean that something won’t go wrong. Simply working on your website could break a feature at any time. If you delete something by accident you could be in a pickle. And don’t forget about malware and other types of attacks.

Because you are always publishing new content, you should utilize daily backups. Backup your website and website database to remote servers each night ensuring that your website can be recovered in the event of a malicious attack or data loss.

Vulnerability Scanning

Website weaknesses and vulnerabilities can give hackers the opportunity to wreak havoc. Most people don’t realize their website has been hacked until it’s too late. Their web browser might alert them to an issue, Google might flag your site as hacked or harmful, or their hosting provider might take the site offline. By then you’re losing customers and sales. It pays to be proactive and not reactive.

Consider vulnerability scanning to quickly identify security issues and test your site routinely to keep it secure. A dependable scanning service will look for SQL injection flaws, cross site scripting vulnerabilities, dangerous backdoors, and more. The monitoring service will tell you when files have changed unexpectedly and watch for downtime while inspecting all of your source code for malware patterns and signatures. It will also block and lockout hacking attempts. If a change occurs to your website, you’ll be the first to know.

Conclusion

Your website is an open door to your business and, ultimately, you need to keep it that way. Whether your business owns a marketing website or e-commerce site, it’s important to protect it from hackers and technical failures. You don’t want to lose services, lose the sale, or risk a damaged reputation.