Stop Writing for Search Engines
Remember the days when you were battling to cram as many keywords related to your writing piece that you could because that was the only way you knew how to get more traffic? Well, while this may have helped get a higher search engine rating for a short period of time, it probably didn’t help you much in the long run.
Customers who come to your website aren’t typically looking for dull posts that seem forced. Most people want to read something that they feel was well constructed and thought out. Fitting the phrase ‘property management’ into a single article 20 times may have felt like an accomplishment to you but for readers, that was just downright annoying. A website needs variety and a constant flow of new and exciting ideas. That is, if you expect these people to have a reason to come back.
Thanks to recent search engine updates, such as Google’s Penguin last year, search engines are going above and beyond in order to locate true quality writing and get rid of all the spam that was taking over the web for quite some time. Write something unique, creative, thought-provoking and informative and continue to do so, and your site will do much better than if you were to throw blog and article posts together just to get something out there. You may not think so, but customers notice when you care about them versus when you are just there to make a dollar.
Avoid Being Overly Professional
In school, you may have been taught to write in a professional manner, but the rules of the web are a bit different these days. Yes, having correct spelling, grammar and punctuation is important but not every website has to equal ‘perfection’. Sometimes it’s much more beneficial to add in personal touches and write more as you would speak. People on the web are generally in a hurry. They don’t have time to look up the definitions of much of the words you’ve put together on a page.Writing a piece that is overly complicated may show your expertise and education level, but this can actually greatly reduce your target audience. This is why it’s so important to know who you’re writing for before getting started. On the internet, you don’t have to stick with the rules of writing, such as never starting a sentence with the words ‘because’ or ‘and’. You may have heard the phrase, ‘content is king’ but we believe creative content is king. There is an abundance of information on the web and if you can’t stand out, your great product or service could be bypassed simply because you blend in with too many other websites. Risks may be scary, but try your best to embrace them. You never know where your journey may lead you.
Don’t Bore Your Audience
Be honest. You’re surfing the web in search of information for a project. Two search results capture your attention, so you open both links in new tabs. The first one offers a to-the-point instruction guide, with photographs and explanation videos. The second result is a two page, black and white written paper. Which site are you probably going to use to take notes? Most people won’t say the latter.While the second page may technically be more informative and offer a more in-depth explanation of the topic, the first page is more appealing. Colors and different textures play a huge role in website popularity. While simplicity is important, being too simple isn’t a good thing. Finding that perfect balance can be tough, but a great place to begin is through creating content that is to the point. 300 to 500 words is bite size enough to not intimidate readers, where 1,000 words can make people’s head spin.
Remember, not everyone is a visual learner, but not everyone likes to read drawn-out text, either. You know your audience better than anyone; however making use of colors, bolded titles, italicized text and highlighting may be the difference between keeping a new customer and having them turn towards someone who can offer them what they are looking for within a few seconds of stopping by the site. The choice is yours.
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