WordPress Tips

Perhaps you are building a new website for a new business. Or, perhaps you are evaluating your existing website for an upgrade. Either way, you need to have a plan for your website content, which can be written copy, charts, videos, images, and downloadable files.

Making sure that you have the right content for your users takes a little planning and strategy that includes the following steps.

Determine Your Target Audience

Either determine your target audience or reassess your audience if your website is established. Understanding, or at least identifying who you are speaking to will help provide clarity as you plan the remainder of your content.

This will also allow you to determine whether or not the information is clear and necessary. It may help to develop primary, secondary, and even tertiary audiences to make sure that you take into account all of your visitors and their individual needs.

Use Sitemaps as Copy Blueprints

If you compare creating a website to building a house, your sitemap is like the architect’s blueprint. Without it, you might plan a house that doesn’t have enough bathrooms or closets.
Start by thinking of the broader objectives of the content before delving into the details. Can one page convey everything needed, or do you need subpages to give more detail? Short, succinct page titles do better in navigations than long phrases.

Use Storytelling Instead of ‘Storyselling’

If you are a startup or SME, it may be tempting to use your website as a chance to “tell your story.” Instead, it should tell the stories of others who have benefitted from using your products or services. Be specific about how your product or service provides benefits or offers solutions to pain points. Use language that is familiar to your target audience, not industry-specific terminology.

Appeal to their problems by explaining your product or service as a solution. Provide clear benefits in easy-to-read bullets instead of verbose paragraphs. Making your content user-centered meets users’ needs and tells their story instead of just yours.

Write for SEO and Humans

SEO is important. However, with AI, Google and other search engines now identify redundancy and relevancy. Don’t become too focused on injecting your key search terms so many times that the content becomes unreadable. By naturally including your terms throughout the copy on the site, you ensure that once someone gets there, you don’t sound like a robot.

Also, by using “semantic keywords” you can develop a variety of words that provide the same meaning around your core keywords. For instance, if you are a divorce lawyer, don’t say “divorce lawyer” every few words. Instead, use related terms like “family law” or “child custody.”

Make the Copy Action Oriented

Encourage people to take action once they read your copy. This is more than a CTA. Whether you want them to call you, message you for more information, or buy a product online, tell them what their next step is at the end of your copy. Providing an email address or links to your contact page gives them an easy action to take while your business is still top of mind.

Give the Copy Visual Appeal

Break up the text up with more than just bullet points. Add supporting images, charts, or illustrations. Also, because most people will not read all of your copy but will scan through instead, separate it using larger pull quotes or testimonials, as well as bulleted lists. In addition, keep your paragraphs short and use sub-headings to divide sections.

Keep a Regular Schedule and Meet Deadlines

Although it’s easier than ever to edit your own website copy with WordPress, this can be the enemy of completing and launching your new website. You will need to set concrete deadlines to make sure your project stays on track. Grouping content creation activities into relevant chunks ensures that you complete tasks on time.

Starting with the about section helps set the tone for your copy and assists in determining what key differentiators to focus on throughout the site. Save the smaller, less copy-heavy pages like contact and locations for the end.

Planning your website content doesn’t have to be as burdensome as it may seem. By investing time in pre-planning and strategy, the process can be much easier.