In these increasingly challenging times, people are looking for answers when they search online. In 2019, Google processed over 3.5 billion searches per day and the total for 2020 is certain to be higher. One of the easiest ways to tap into search traffic is to have great content on your website.
Content writing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to keep your site up-to-date, relevant, and in demand. Well-crafted text, specifically written for the web, can make or break the success of your website. So how can well-crafted messaging fail? If the propositions behind the words don’t engage or resonate well with prospects. And that’s the difference between well-crafted content and great website content.
You may think that talking about how your business is so terrific and unique will sell well. But if you tell prospects you’re the #1 insurance broker in Sydney, the benefit is really only implied – so that’s a fail. What should be written is why you are number 1. Who rated you #1? What were the reasons? And how many reviews back this up? So content should clearly cover what a prospect specifically gets – their benefit.
It’s the same for SEO content writing. This is the process of placing the right keywords and phrases in the right places to create sentences that are meaningful as quality content and can boost your search engine result rankings. Common problems and popular questions should be addressed by your content.
Some lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic are here to stay. Two words stand out – ‘trust’ and ‘engagement’. Today, it’s even more important to build two-way engagement (online and off) between product and service providers with customers and prospects. Communication needs to be timely, useful, accurate, engaging, and hopefully, a little uplifting as well. As there’s more than enough bad news out there already.
Here are five reasons why terrific content writing in 2020 and beyond can really make a difference:
1. Improve your company’s search ranking
Quality written content can propel your website into the first page of a Google or Bing search. Yet this relies on the copywriter you hire, or yourself, doing the homework first. What are the most in-demand search terms for your industry? What do prospects want solved? How do they want to buy? Matching compelling content to popular search criteria using Google Keyword Planner allows a business to align product or service propositions to customer needs. Professionally-written content is more likely to rank higher on a search than well-meaning DIY content and this influences how many people visit your site. Do you ever bother to look at page-2 results?
2. Enhance the user experience
User experience (UX) is an important aspect of modern web design. Not only does it influence how your customers engage with your business, it affects Google website rankings too. That’s because Google’s algorithm can now interpret whether a website delivers a great user experience – or not. Good UX, like good content, has clear benefits, like better search ranking, the delivery of relevant content to prospects at different stages of the sales funnel, and positioning a brand as trustworthy. By choosing your keywords carefully based on what your target audience is interested in, optimised content can really improve UX.
3. Assist your prospects to move through the sales-funnel
Inbound marketing has largely replaced old-fashioned sales reps. Producing valuable content and interesting articles for your target audience can help move prospects through the five stages of the sales funnel – Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Engagement and Purchase. For this to occur, your content needs to engage visitors with products and topics they want to know more about. If you’re unsure of what your customers want from your website content, a great way to understand what your audience is interested in is to develop buyer personas – and there are helpful templates for that too. Then you can go about creating content that is aligned to the needs of site visitors, at their particular stage of the sales funnel journey.
4. Effectively promote products and services onsite
Great content can raise the chance of closing a sale online. If your site is eCommerce enabled, getting the content right is even more critical. They’re looking and can buy online if they’re hooked. Maybe it’s almost dinner time and they’re hungry? Perhaps their insurance needs to be renewed by midnight tonight? Descriptive and engaging text that answers their needs can help make a sale straight away. A lot of people also check out websites before they go into a bricks & mortar retail store. A GE Capital 2019 report found that 81% of retail outlet shoppers do online research before actually buying a product. So, for a showcase site, having great content will help get a sale later on.
5. Help position your business as a credible and trusted source
Recent SEO research confirms what web writing practitioners already know. Key landing pages such as Home, About and Services, should have a minimum word-count of 350, in order for Google to deem the page credible. What about blogs? The ideal length should be 2,100-2,400 words based on HubSpot data of their 50 most-read blogs of 2019. Yet 16 of their top 50 were under 1,500 words – and this piece runs for 925 words. The only hard rule is that to be effective, any kind of written content needs to be substantial enough to provide an informative, valuable read. If it’s appealing, factual, and relevant to the reader, this helps make the organisation that provides it more trusted and credible. And that’s always great for business.
Need a hand with your next project?
If you need assistance to develop content strategies or need content written, get in touch with Orion. Our content team is highly experienced and specialise in producing thoughtful, audience-driven content that delivers great outcomes for clients – to enhance engagement, sell products, and/or build your brand.
