Catherine Every shares her step-by-step process on how to write good web copy. Her presentation touches on how to decide on the structure of your website, how to research keywords and guidance on how to write great copy for your website.
We like working with Catherine on web projects as she understands how good copy can engage a reader and stimulate them into action.
Notes
What we are going to cover
- Deciding on the structure of your website
- Researching your keywords
- Writing for the web
Deciding on the structure of your website
- What do you want your website to do?
- What will your visitors want?
- Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
- Consult Google Analytics
- Get help from the real world
- Look at the biggest trends
Put the two sides together
Think about what pages will be needed to provide all the information
Organise your pages
- Categorise your pages
- Put them in a logical order
- Name them compellingly
Think in detail about each page
What information needs to be on the page?
Research your keywords
- Brainstorm all the words and phrases associated with your business and what you do
- Ask your customers for their input
- Refine your list of keywords
- If I was my customer, would I type this into Google to find me?
- Enter each word or phrase into Google
- See if your competitors are there
- Google Keyword Planner: https://ads.google.com/intl/en_uk/home/tools/keyword-planner/
- AnswerThePublic: https://answerthepublic.com
- Think quality not quantity
- Use keywords in the page headings
- Use keywords in the sub-headings
- Use keywords in the text
- Use tools to refine your keyword usage
Writing for the web
- Visit the BBC News website
- Help your readers by making the content skimmable
- Use sub-headings
- Use short sentences
- Use short paragraphs
- Use bullet points
- 1 in 7 adults in England have literacy levels at or below those expected of a nine to 11-year-old
- Average sentence length and comprehension:
- At less than eight words, comprehension is 100%
- At 14 words, comprehension is more than 90%
- At 43 words, comprehension is less than 10%
- Talk to an individual reader
- Attract your readers with tailored Meta Descriptions and Meta Titles
Proofreading Tips
- Leave as much time as you can between writing and proof reading
- Use the Microsoft Word Read Aloud facility
- Use grammarly.com
- Get a colleague to read it
- Read once for structure
- Read once for spelling and grammar
