The key to creating engaging website content

Cast your mind back to the late 90s and visualise a website.

I’m seeing lilac backgrounds, stickman GIFs, and more text than any eyeball could ever handle. Thankfully, websites have grown up since then and we have become more aware of what constitutes good design and useful content.

No longer do we want to replicate entire books in a digital format – the words we use on our websites are carefully chosen and well crafted. Digital content has a clear purpose to entertain, inform and engage – and it needs to do this faster than an escaping Pokemon Go character. As the human attention span becomes increasingly shorter, you want your visitors to come to your website and find the information they need without any hassle.

Types of digital content can vary from blog posts to website copy to 140 character tweets and they each have their own set of ‘rules’. Every month theories about how long a blog post should be, where to place keywords, or what trending hashtags to use change, however, the fundamental keys to good content remain the same.

Keep it interesting

We’ve all been stuck talking to that person at the dinner party who goes on and on about their specialist interest in fly larvae. You feel yourself tune out and all you want to do is run away and find someone else to talk to.

The same rules apply for digital content – keep your visitors interested, engaged and entertained and they will want to read what you have to say.

By understanding what your customers want and need to know and delivering this information in an exciting way, they will be more likely to hang out with you rather than finding someone else to talk to.

Express yourself

Your website is your opportunity to show the world who you are and what you do best, so add some personality to your words to really set yourself apart. Get creative and use words that mean something to you and that truly reflect your brand’s values. This will make you easily recognisable and different from all of your competitors.

Don’t waffle

Great word, waffle. Don't you think? Anyway...

Keep it short and get to the point. No one has time to read long paragraphs that eventually lead to your sales pitch. Enough said.

If you’ve said it somewhere else, don’t say it again

So you have a 60-page brochure that you’re really proud of and you think it would be a good idea to copy and paste it onto your website. WRONG.

Sorry to disappoint you, but customers don’t want to read the same information twice.

Take that genius copy and re-write it to be website specific. Adapt it to suit the layout of your website and to bring key items to the forefront. That way not only will you have a fantastic brochure, but a seriously informative and useful website, too.

Update regularly

While core website content may not need to be regularly changed, blogs, news and social media posts should be kept fresh and up to date. We’ve all seen websites where the news page was last updated in 2004. By posting new content that is relevant and interesting, visitors will be more likely to return to your website to find out the latest.

So there you have it – maybe these word things aren't so hard after all! Remember to keep it simple and check for mistakes because no one like's a misused apostrophe.

If you have any questions or need help crafting some creative copy for your website, please get in touch.