5 quick tips for improving your website content

Don't overthink it

Writing content for your website can sometimes be a nightmare. If you’re stuck wondering about how much content you need, or how frequently you should mention keywords, you’re not alone. The good news is that it’s not such a daunting task when you remember these quick and easy tips.

1. Write compelling website content

Google Webmaster Guidelines suggest that you should make your content compelling. But what does that really mean? Basically, write stuff worth reading. Think about the people that might visit your website and create content that’s useful to them. A good example is an article that talks about the history of a topic, or an interesting side-note that the general public might not know about. How about step-by-step instructions? Another way you can create compelling content is by writing about something that’s in the news.

2. Create unique stuff

If you want people to listen to what you have to say (and come back for more), your pages need to be unique. All too often I see ecommerce sites with the same product descriptions or paragraphs copied from other websites. Search engines frown on that sort of thing and might penalize a site that uses duplicate content. Search engines evaluate content down to the sentence, so make sure that each sentence you publish is your own. Besides, I know you’ve got a unique perspective and unique experience that’s worth sharing. Stick to what you know.

3. Use your keywords

Keywords are the phrases that someone might type into a search engine to find you. It’s usually basic stuff. When looking for vegetarian pizza, I search for “vegetarian pizza” and not “italian pies made of tender mozzarella and spinach.” I’ve seen websites where it looks like the writers went through a lot of trouble creating unique and compelling content, but they’ve excluded their keywords by accident! Don’t let that happen to you. Make sure you remember to sprinkle keywords throughout your site’s content. The general rule is to include one or two keywords per 100 words of content.

4. Write the right amount

Another common mistake people make when creating content is not making enough. Typically a page needs 300-700 words. It can be difficult to write that much in one sitting, but you can always split it up and publish a little at a time. Create a simple outline and add a little to it each day. Another good practice is to design your pages with specific content areas. This breaks up the content blocks and makes your pages easier to read (and easier for you to write). Win-win.

5. Avoid sounding spammy

For most of us, this is self-explanatory. If your content uses broken English, includes too many keywords, or contains duplicate content, search engines might penalize your site and even worse: you’ll alienate your visitors. Google in particular watches for “spammy” content – they have a whole team of people that is constantly on the lookout for sites that fall in this category. The days of cutting corners are over, and you have to do the work if you want to rank.