Creating Great Website Content: Write Like You Speak
Writing Good Content Usually Means Keeping It “Real”
More often than not, I must coach new clients to help them get their website content whipped into shape. This just happened with one of my clients whom I’ll call “Sue”. Though Sue is a pretty good writer I could see many areas where, with a few tweaks and improvements, she’d do a much better job at “talking to” and really relating to the visitors that will land on her website.
In many instances, I found her content rather stiff and boring. It didn’t get me too excited about her really great products. Since I so often see this mistake in my client’s website content, I thought I’d touch upon it in today’s post.
Project Your Unique Speaking Style Into Your Written Words!
If you were standing face-to-face with a customer, you would certainly know how to talk to them; how to explain the benefits of your products or services; why, you’d even be able to answer any objections or concerns they’d raise, right? Sure you would.
Well then, since the content on our sites is really our only way to communicate to a potential client … do you understand how to effectively translate the spoken words (your conversation) into great written words? Is your content written in very much of the same tone and demeanor as it would be if you were actually speaking face-to-face with the person? I highly suggest that it should be.
You know, I often am complimented on the way I write. Whether on my hobbyist websites, business websites, or right here on my blog, I tend to use the same tone and attitude with the written words that I would be using if we were chatting. I do my darndest to impart “Claudia” into all aspects of my written words.
I receive compliments because there is genuineness to what I write. I’m not stiff in the way I say things. Think about this … don’t you find it easier to read content where the person writing it seems to be letting the words flow from their mouths, rather than stiffly from their “heads”?
Loosen Up and Keep It Real
I just want to remind you today to loosen up a bit when you write content. Try to pretend you are in the room with your visitor, having a friendly conversation.
As example, if you knew me personally you’d probably say that I use lots of hand gestures, facial expressions and voice inflections when I communicate. We’d call that “demonstrative”. I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being “dry”. But that’s OK, that’s me. 
Thusly, I use a lot of punctuation and italics and such that perhaps you don’t normally see in other people’s online content. But I do this for a reason … I’m trying to get my verbal style of speaking and communicating across to the person reading my posts or articles.
Remember … I did tell you my readers really like my style. So for me, my approach works.
And along with this, I try very hard to type those words out as close as I can to the way I’d be verbalizing it. Yes, this often can be hard, and yes it may take those of you heeding this advice some extra time, but I guarantee if you try the “natural” approach to your writing, you will get the hang of it in not too much time.
Sue caught on quickly, and when she sent me back her tweaked content, it was dramatically improved. I was able to tell her that now she sounded like she was writing in a style and language that I knew her prospective customers would truly relate to!
So, as I said in the beginning of this post … as much as it makes sense and is possible … write it just like you’d say it!
How Many Words Should A Page Have For High SEO Rankings?
Is There a “Best Length” SEO Guideline When Writing Content?
I have had more than one SEO client ask me how many words there must be for each page of content they write for their site. I do understand their concern that providing informative content is part of building a successful website or blog, but quite honestly there really isn’t a specific number of words that determines good or poor search engine rankings.
As a matter of fact, I’ve seen it advised in more than one place that for top rankings, page length really should be between 400 and 600 words (give or take a little, depending on whose erroneous information you read). Or, I’ve seen it stated to never ever write less than 250 words. None of this information is correct!
The Search Engine Spiders Don’t Give a Hoot About the Number of Words on Your Page
You can absolutely positively 100% trust that there are not a specific number of words that your pages or blog posts need to contain in order for your site to have the ability to rank highly and to obtain high quality targeted search engine traffic.
The search engines get smarter and smarter every month, and with that comes the understanding that the number of words on a page does NOT determine it’s value from a ranking standpoint. But, the number of words you write does matter to your visitors. Are you providing the information they came to your site hoping to find?
If you are addressing the topic at hand and provide a thorough, well written page of content pertaining to the topic, then whether you’ve written 200 words or 1,200 words is totally OK as long as what … ? Right … as long as you provide targeted, keyword focused information. Your visitors were searching for this information, and you ought to be providing excellent content for those visitors.
How about some help to narrow down the keywords you ought to be weaving into your content? I suggest you try this free-to-use keyword tool from Wordtracker.
Your pages can be as long or as short as you feel appropriate in order to say what you want to convey to your visitor. Every page or post is different, and in that respect each has a different purpose. Quite honestly, the number of words on a page is not a search engine issue at all, but really a marketing issue.
So, do your best to always over-deliver quality content on every page you write. The search engine spiders know that each page is unique unto itself. If I may use a bit of poetic license here, I can tell you that as far as the spiders are concerned … “bean counters they are not!”
