Julianna
Whether you write your web content yourself or someone else crafts your copy for you, there are many things to consider – two of the most important are getting your message across clearly and making that message work for you as part of your search engine optimization strategy.
We mentioned some tips for search engine optimization last week, and one of the topics often touched on is keywords in your web content. While this is a good starting point, and a very important thing to consider, quality content goes well beyond keywords. From creating meaningful links to clearly named page titles, writing good content is definitely an art. Today we’ll focus on links and headlines, as these two small things can make a big impact.
A recent article by Molt:n Core has one of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen in awhile – when you are writing for search engines, write for human beings. This may seem like a nonsensical thing to say, but even the best writers can get bogged down in beautiful language, and web copy must be useful and clearly convey your message, otherwise it doesn’t matter how well written it is.
By human beings, I mean humans that also don’t know a lot of slang or puns or wordplay. If your site is about travelling to Asia, write a headline that involves “travelling to Asia”, not about “the diversity of the mysterious Far East”. Sure you can still use evocative words in your copy but make sure that your headlines are clear and concise.
Headlines and links are two of the best places to ensure you are optimizing your content. How many times have you seen the words “click here” on a web site, and while you invariably do “click there” you’re probably more confident when the link is labelled clearly. Same link, but your customer and the search engine will be able to find your extensive services better with a labelled link.
With headlines, try to keep them concise and catchy, but most importantly focus on making them functional. While a witty headline is a wonderful thing (and as a writer I will tell you it’s often a difficult thing to achieve), your best bet is to explain exactly what your page or paragraph is about. This not only helps a customer coming to your site find the right information, but will also allow search engine spiders to find you and classify your site properly.
On a related note, A List Apart has a wonderful article this month on designing and branding your website to best communicate with your customers. Read Human-to-Human Design.