10 Tips on Starting Web Content Writing from Professionals

Ok, so as the first line of the content I must bring you some researched stats or tell you how you can learn web content writing easily so that you feel curious and read further. So, are you feeling curious?

If you are looking to dive into the pool of web content writing or even if you are already inside the pool and thinking of measuring its depths, you must know, that the pool’s a lot deep. But you don’t have to worry about that now.

When I started web content writing a while ago, I did not have any idea how deeper it’s gonna get. And with time I did realise that the thing sounds a lot easier than in real.

But am I telling you all this to scare you off? Naah (or maybe a bit). I will tell you the reason later in the article.

For now, we will start with the basics such as catching attention with the first line.

I have researched through various professional and trustable sources and enlisted the top 10 principles that a starting or new web content writer should know.

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#1 Get a Clear Purpose

Now, this has to be the first ever thing to be done before starting writing content.

Because if you do not have a purpose for writing a piece of content, it won’t get anywhere.

Defining a purpose helps you carve the content better. The objective of content should add up to supporting the goal of the business/website.

The objective could be selling a product/service, driving traffic, generating leads or it could just to create a brand image.

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#2 Defining Your Target Audience

Now that you know why to write the content, the next thing is to know whom to write the content?

Your target audience could be the ones who will be benefitted from your product/service. Or the ones who will be interested in learning the information you are sharing through blogs.

You can add more specifications and use tools to get a better image of your target audience.

To learn the complete process, read: How to Define Your Target Market in 7 Easy Steps!.

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#3 Using the “Inverted Pyramid” Model

People reading blogs on the internet have a quite shorter span of attention.

Many of them even decide whether to read the further article or not by only reading the first line of it.

So, as per the inverted pyramid model, you have to put the most important knowledge on the top. And start writing the content in the decreasing order of the importance of the information.

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#4 Generating Curiosity from the First Line

I know, the point has become obvious till now but still, I can’t leave it.

Readers decide to stay or leave the page in just a few seconds. So, you got to make sure that you hook them up from the very first line of the content.

It can be important stats, a one-line story, a question, a fact, a news headline or anything else that you believe will be able to generate the hunger in the reader to know more.

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#5 Looks Matter Too

No, I’m not a college student wearing costly clothes explaining to people that looks matter. But it does in the case of the content.

The layout of the content does help in keeping readers on to your page. If you just offer them a wall of plain text, I’m pretty sure most of them will leave right away.

Now to make the page scannable you should include:

• Headings
• Subheadings
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• White space (between paragraphs)
• and Graphics

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#6 The Reader is Your Friend

Try to talk with the reader just as you do with a friend. This helps you create a bond between the reader and your brand, you can do it using,

Active Voice: Active voice makes the sentence look more friendly and personal. Whereas passive voice should be used to give the sentence a formal touch.

Talking directly: Use of the first-person pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘You’ and ‘We’ makes it look like you’re talking directly to the reader and is preferred too.

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#7 Write for a Kid

Now, this idea came up as the result of much research done by various regions around the globe. They found out that the average reading level of literate people can be considered around 7th to 8th-grade level.

This made content writers write in a simpler language that an average 8th standard student could read and understand. This is also called Layman’s terms.

Now, how can you do that? By making sure that you,

• Use short sentences
• Use fewer adverbs and adjectives
• Use simpler words
• And offer examples for clarity

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#8 Avoid Grammer mistakes

This shouldn’t even be a thing to mention in the first place but still in any case. The user coming to your site would not expect you to do spelling, grammar or punctuation errors.

Doing such mistakes can make readers leave your site and make a bad impression on your brand image.

To avoid any mistakes, you can use tools or chrome extensions such as Grammarly. It can help you identify and solve any errors that have passed under your nose.

To learn more chrome extensions that professional content writers use read: 5+ Mind-blowing Chrome Extensions for Content Writing You Must Have.

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#9 Use Graphics

Research has shown clearly that humans remember 80% of what they see and do and just 20% of what they read.

So, it’s pretty clear that the use of graphics such as images, infographics, charts, graphs, or video will not only make the page more scannable. But will also make the readers remember your name.

If you’re not even into graphic designing at all, you can simply use tools such as Canva or Piktochart. They make the process of designing too easy even for a non-designer. Confession time, I too have been using these tools personally to create graphics all this while 🙂

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#10 Tell Users What to Do Next

Remember the first principle we learned, to know the goal. We will use that knowledge here too.

CTAs (call-to-actions) must not be missed at any cost. Now which type of CTAs you would add? These will help you meet your goal.

If you want to drive traffic, you will add a call-to-action to your relevant blog pages. If you want to sell a product/service, you will add a CTA to your product or testimonials page. And so on.

Just remember not to leave the reader on its own at the end of the copy. Give him some direction to follow. Add a clear CTA using power words like “Join,” “Sign Up,” “Get a Quote,” “Read More,” “Subscribe,” and “Learn More”.

Now if you’re gonna write web content, the next thing that I believe you would need is a web content writing checklist. It helps you make sure that you have gotten everything checked. We have combined the industry knowledge to enlist a checklist for you.

Read: The Ultimate Web Content Writing Checklist for SEO.

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The Bottom Line

Remember I said that this pool is too deep.

Yes, but its depth is not of theoretical knowledge. Even in future, there won’t be too much of new suggestions on how to write specifically. Most of them will eventually turn around to end up on the above-mentioned principles.

The actual depth of web content writing is based on practical knowledge. You cannot learn web writing by just reading blogs. You can surely take tips but you have to get out there and start writing.

With time you will learn things that no one can teach you theoretically. And that is the actual depth of web content writing.

I hope you would have found all the info you were looking for. If not then the comment box is wide open for you, or you can mail us your query at [email protected] We will be more than happy to help you out.

Also, Thank You For Reading Along. It means a lot to us.