How To Write Awesome Content For Your Website

Creating content takes a lot of effort, therefore it is important that it is effective. You don’t want to waste time, money and energy, creating content that isn’t fit for purpose.

What is content creation for, depends on the channel you will publish to. Creating content for different channels varies. Here we will concentrate on how to write awesome content for your website.

All content serves one purpose, to connect with your audience. Thus, create content with a purpose, or why also are you creating it? If you cannot answer the question “Why are we creating this content?” Then that content is probably not needed or necessary.

What Is Content Creation For A Website?

Content creation is the process of planning and creating content that is relevant, useful, effective and accessible for an audience.

Wikipedia describes content creation as “the contribution of information to any media and most especially to digital media for an end-user/audience in specific contexts”.

The secret to SEO success is awesome content. It must be relevant content that should answer a question, solve a problem or provide valuable information.

Awesome content is:

• Useful and consistent.
• Clear and concise.
• User centered.
• Relevant.

How to create content for a blog that people want to read, can be a challenge.

But, creating effective and meaningful content, is essential for business to survive. Those that do it really well, will thrive.

Although this guide will focus on written content, and how to write awesome content for your website, it is important to remember that videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. are all content.

Why Is Content Important?

These are the main reasons why creating quality content is important:

• Content will allow your readers and visitors to get the information they need, to make an informed decision.
• Provides value to readers: The value you provide, will depend on the topic and the piece of content you provide. Content that provides value could be educational resources, articles and guides. If your content allows visitors to achieve and complete specific tasks, it provides value.
• Build trust: Consistently creating high-quality content, that is helpful to your audience, will build trust. What people think about your content (or brand) will determine whether they recommend and share it with friends and family.
• Attracts and engages prospects: Use content to start to establish your reputation with potential users and customers. If you educate them, rather than just selling to them, you are providing value. This shows potential customers that you know what you are talking about.
• Serve existing customers: Identify opportunities to add greater value to your content, with the purpose of retaining and growing your audience.
• Quality content can drive more traffic, leads and conversions. Content that is helpful to your audience, can improve the ROI from your content.
• Meet the expectations of your target audience. Information is at our fingertips these days, so if possible, your content should surpass the expectations of your audience.

But why are people searching?

Search Intent

Search intent, or user intent, is the “Why” behind a search query. So it is what a user is looking for. There are 4 types of search intent:

• Informational intent: the visitor is looking for precise information on a topic or an answer to solve a problem. It could be about the weather in Greenland, or which vegetables can be eaten raw. Informational searches will often include words like “how to…”, “guide to…”, “what is ..”, “best way to..”.
• Navigational intent: people want to visit a specific web page or company, like Microsoft. So they already know where they want to go. Thus, make sure your website can be found when somebody searches for your company name.
• Transactional intent: The visitor is ready to take action and sign up for a service or make a purchase. When people are searching with transactional intent, they want to buy something now. Usually it means they already know what they want, they just want to find the best deal. Keywords with transactional intent will often include words like “buy”, “discount”, “product name”.
• Commercial investigation: people use the web to do research on something to buy. They also have transactional intent, but are first doing research about the available choices. For instance “What is the most energy efficient fridge?”

So before you start writing what is content creation for, decide whether it is providing information, or are you trying to sell something.

Udemy has several great courses on how to write content for a blog. You might find this link helpful to explore courses on how to create content for a blog.

Types Of Content

What is content creation for a website, is different to recording videos for YouTube.

Content pillar topics are the foundation of your blog. A pillar page acts as a central point for discussing a broad topic. These are the types of content you can create:

• Engagement: content that is supposed to start a conversation eg. you own opinion on a subject.
• Evergreen: content that is based around the key terms for your blog. You can update and refer back to it for years to come.
• Events: content around a particular event or occurrence, like a big industry event or news.

Before you start writing, check your competition on page 1 of search engines. Research competitor performance and keep an eye on what your competitors are creating and succeeding with.

To generate content ideas, look at questions that are searched for every day. Look at Quora and Google and find problems and questions that people have, and try to answer those in your posts.

Target low competition questions and create content around that.

Planning Your Content

There are certain things you need to know about what is content creation for a website. So, ask yourself these questions while planning your content:

• Who is your target audience or persona? It is important to understand the people you are creating content for. You may have personas to drive this, or customer research to refer to. Make sure you understand your audience, in order for the content you create, to be helpful, relevant and to resonate.
• What is your audience looking for. Which audience or groups of customers will this content help?
• Is this content evergreen or timely?
• What stage of the buyer’s journey will this content speak to?
• How does this content fit into the bigger scheme of my content strategy?
• How much time and money can I invest in this piece of content?
• Will I need additional resources or assistance to complete my content? This could be a videographer for a video or a designer to create infographics.

Once you have your plan in place, you can start on how to write content for a blog.

How To Write Awesome Content For Your Website

The ideas and plans you have made, will form the basis of what is content creation for a website. When you start writing, use the inverted pyramid technique.

So, start with your main message or primary piece of information. Present vital concepts upfront for readers who scan, and deeper content follows for those that read past the fold.

Use these tips how to create content for a blog, to improve the user experience.

• Do keyword research.
• Use headings to separate sections.
• Make use of bullet points and lists.
• Include visuals like images, infographics and videos, to make it look attractive.
• Make use of white space to make it easier on the eye.
• Include internal and external links.
• Before you hit “Publish”, check for typos and grammatical errors.

Let’s have a closer look at some of these tips on improving what is content creation for a website.

Keyword Research

Decide on the keywords you want to rank for and do keyword research. I use a combination of Jaaxy, Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic and you can read about them in this post: What is the best keyword tool for free.

Incorporate your keyword in the title, meta description, headers, alt tags for images and roughly every 500 pages within the post.

Use long-tail keywords that consist of 3 words or more.

Headers

Make your blog posts easy to read by using section headings and bulleted lists.

Use H1 for the titles, then H2, which could be the question, then H3 could be the answers.

Links

Remember to include internal and external links in your posts. Google loves it. There should be at least 1 internal link and 1 external link.

• Internal links are links on your website that lead to other relevant pages on your website. It also keeps a visitor engaged on your website for longer and can show Google there is value.
• External links can be to an authoritative page or more research material. Wikipedia is always a good source for an external link.
• Backlinks are links that other websites link into your blog. It takes time to build backlinks and is a sign of trust that another website regards you as an authority.

If you are just starting blogging and this is your very first post, you will not yet have other posts to add an internal link. So create a few more blog posts and then link the new post to an older post, and visa versa.

So go back to your older posts and link to a newer one. Evidence suggests that linking to high value resources, can improve your ranking.

Images

Nobody likes looking at pages that are just blocks of text, so add images. Images make your content look more visually appealing and improves the user experience. It can also help you to rank higher on search results.

Images need to be relevant to the content, so don’t add a pretty picture of you dog, if you are writing about sustainable footwear. Use high resolution images that will load faster.

Add alt tags to images. Give as much information about the image, as possible, as it will tell Google what the image is about.

This will be read to visually impaired visitors. It helps to rank higher in Google Image Search.

Incorporate your keyword in the alt description, so it is another opportunity to use your keyword.

Email Lists

Start building your email list right from the start. Email lets you communicate directly with your subscribers. List building is a great way to amplify your content.

An email service provider or autoresponder allows you to send emails, build and maintain your subscriber list, and check reports and analytics.

It will also help you to keep your list healthy and out of the spam folder. There are many options available, but personally I use AWeber.

You can read the full review on AWeber here.

The great thing with AWeber is that it is free to start, essential when you have a tight budget when you start. It stays free until you have 500 subscribers. At that point you should be making money from your blog to take out a paid plan.

And remember, you can always switch later. But it is important to start your list building early as it is a vital part of what is content creation for a website.

Before You Hit Publish

Before you publish your awesome content, use this checklist:

• Proofread your content. Mistakes do happen, so proofread your post, or use an app like Grammarly. I use the Wealthy Affiliate platform, where a tool for checking spelling, punctuation and grammar, is built in. It will also tell me if 3 consecutive sentences start with the same word.
• Write in plain English: Plain English is about understanding who your audience is and what they want. It is not about simplifying your writing or stifling your creativity. But it is writing in a way that speaks clearly and concisely to your audience.
• Read your content aloud: When you read your content out loud, you will hear what it actually sounds like. Don’t worry if you feel uncomfortable at first. Your tone might be more formal that you want it to be. If it doesn’t sound the way you want it to come across, you might need to refine it.
• If you use guest writers and other content creators, you need to have a content style guide. This will help them to create content in the style of your brand or company.
• Make sure your content is accessible.

More Tips On How To Write Awesome Content For Your Website

Here is some more practical advice on how to write content for a blog:

• Create quality blog posts. It is a good idea to publish as many posts as possible, but without sacrificing quality.
• Aim to create a post every second day, and as you learn more, upscale it. Quality content that is posted regularly, and answers the reader’s questions, will bring you visitors.
• To become a successful blogger, you need to be consistent in publishing content.
• Don’t forget your target audience.
• Don’t plagiarize!
• Set goals to keep you focused. It is essential to plan your day, to reach your goal and beat procrastination.
• Create an editorial calendar so that you can regularly add new posts to your site. An editorial calendar will keep you organized and stick to a regular publishing schedule. It can help you keep track of what you are publishing and where you will publish. If you are working with a team, it will also establish who will publish it.
• Blogging is like any other business. It takes time to succeed and you need to put in the effort and time required.
• Use social media to promote your content. I use Missinglettr and you can read the review on them here.

Remember, blogging is also a helping tool for your audience. So your content must be something that they need. Or it must solve a problem or answer a question for them.

That way you build trust and your audience will invest in your recommendations.

Final Thoughts On What Is Content Creation For A Website

If you are creating content, you also want to factor in search engine optimization (SEO). You might find this post on What is Website Search Engine Optimization, helpful.

When you create content that is unique and truly provides value to your readers, you can position yourself as an expert.

If you want people to return to your blog, you must build trust and thought leadership. Growing your business through content, is a long term strategy.

Remember that creating content is a living process. If you realize the format you have decided on is not right, then take a step back. The process should be fluid and may need adjusting as you create your content.

Use the knowledge you gain with each piece of content you create, to start your next awesome piece of content.

If you have any questions or comments about how to write awesome content for your website, please leave them below.