This is a guest post from Elizabeth McGee,the owner and editor of Homenotion.com.
Writing content for the web isn’t like writing for most other publications, your web content has to grab the reader’s attention and get specific results.
Whether selling products or posting the latest information to your personal site, you’ll want to develop web content that grabs attention, is interesting and connects with your reader.
Here are a few web content writing tips that I think you’ll find useful…
– Relate to your reader
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a blog post, an article or a sales page, writing for the web means relating to your reader. Start by thinking about who your reader is, what they want to know and then relate to their emotions, wants and needs.
One of the things I learned early as a parent was the idea of relating to my kids feelings. When they had a problem, frustration or even misbehaved I would try to relate to how they were feeling emotionally. This showed them that I understood their sadness, anger, frustration or whatever it was. Showing them that I understood their feelings gave them a sense of connection and they in turn responded in a much more positive manner; even when they misbehaved and had to be punished. It worked every time 
Your readers will respond the same way if you can draw them in by connecting with their emotions and their feelings.
– Be short and to the point
Readers on the web are looking for useful information that they can find quickly. Most people read off a monitor all day long so they appreciate copy that is short, to the point and won’t waste their time.
Write short paragraphs that consist of 2-3 sentences and make each sentence a complete thought that is easy to understand. Don’t be tempted to ramble or lecture on a topic. You’ll lose your reader’s interest.
– Use bullet points
Bullet points automatically draw your eye to important information as well as capture an idea in just a few words. They are ideal because they make it easy to find pertinent information fast. Bullet points can be graphic symbols, numbers or letters. When using bullet keep each point to one line if possible.
– Write conversationally
So many people often say, “I don’t know how to write”. Nonsense! If you can talk you can write. Picture your audience as one person sitting across the table from you. Simply write down the things you would say to that specific person.
One of the things that helped me write more conversationally was to record myself and then transcribe what I recorded onto paper. After writing it down go back and flesh out the copy so that it makes sense and isn’t too wordy.
Simply going through that exercise just once or twice will help you get accustomed to writing in a conversational tone.
– Write content that is unique and fresh
Due to all the duplicate content on the web nowadays, demands have been put on writers to develop content that is unique, fresh and interesting. That doesn’t mean you can’t write about a familiar topic, it just has to be written in a style or manner that readers find interesting and isn’t spread everywhere around the web.
Writing about how to train your dog for example, is far less interesting than if you take a unique approach and write about your own personal dog training experiences. You could even take a dog training poll and post the responses, write a rant or analogy or even write ‘what not to do’ training tips. Readers will find these a lot more interesting and the content won’t be something found everywhere else on the web.
– Keep your content relevant
Keep your content relevant to its title. Content on how to train your cat should not include ideas about how to train your dog. The more relevant and on topic your content is the better, not only for your readers but it’s also what the search engines look for.
– Use Text Links
Make use of good text links. This gives your reader the option of getting more detail if desired. They are also a great web page optimization technique that the search engines love.
For effective use of text links be sure to use keyword based links meaning that the text link uses the primary keywords associated with the page you are linking to.
– Proofread your work
Running your work through the spell checker takes only a few seconds so make it a consistent practice. Also make sure your content flows smoothly and makes sense logically. If your work confuses your reader they won’t stick around to figure it out, they’ll click off.
Always read through your work 2 or 3 times and then have someone else read through it as well, a second pair of eyes has saved me on many an occasion.
Internet home business Coach and Marketing Enthusiast Elizabeth McGee, is the owner and editor of Homenotion.com, an internet home business ideas website complemented by her free marketing tips blog. Grab her free newsletter tips and bonus guides.
