How to Write Website Content

When writing the text for your website (the 'Content') we suggest you keep it succinct, easy to read, packed full of keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business (see our Keywords Guide), and above all well presented!

You should approach the process as though you were someone who knew nothing about your business and think about what questions that person may have.  

The information in your website should be laid out as simply as possible and the most important information needs to be at the top of the page. You may also want certain information to appear on every page in a side bar box, for example if you have special offers or certain products or services you want to promote.

When writing content for the web you are not only writing it for your users, but for search engines as well!  Also, remember that people reading websites tend to have a short attention span so we recommend short paragraphs of just one or two sentences.

Search engines love content that is full of keywords (the words used to describe your business). There is no point in making the title of your homepage "Welcome to our website" if you are a second hand car salesman. "Second hand car sales" makes much more sense to both the user and search engines.

Make sure you repeat keywords relevant to your business in a grammatically correct manner. You need to strike a fine balance between repeating your keywords enough for search engines to recognise your effort (but without spamming or over-promotion) and still keep the content fresh and interesting to keep your users hooked.

Remember that you should also try to revisit the content on your live website, as making regular updates and keeping your content fresh and up-to-date will also improve your website’s Search Engine Optimisation (download our SEO Guide for more information on this).

When you are ready to start writing your content for your website, you will need to do the following:

1. Make sure you have planned what you are going to use each of your pages for, and that they are organised coherently so you will have easy to use and logical navigation. If you need some advice on how to easily plan your website content, then check out our handy Website Content Plan.

2. When you have planned your pages, send us a list of them so that we can create them for you. We would recommend, at the very least, a Home page and a Contact page. Remember to include which pages will appear on your main menu, and details of how any pages not included in the main menu will navigate.

Larger websites of 20 or more pages may need to be organised into Super Folders or categories to make the navigation as user friendly as possible. Click here for a guide on Super Folders.

3. For each of your pages please send us a separate and clearly titled Word Document containing your page content.

4. If any of the pages are to contain images, then please include the image name and details of where they should be displayed. Then please email over the images separately, as Word actually reduces the size and quality of images that are inserted.

5. Send over each page of content as soon as you have it ready, that way we can work on adding it in for you whilst you are writing the next pages.

If you would prefer to have your website content written by a professional copywriter, who will also be able to optimise your content and give you advice regarding search engines, then please get in touch with us on 02380 633 644 or contact the Support Team via the Toolkit for more information.