By Mark Smiciklas

In order to retain the attention of prospects and clients visiting your small business website, the content  you present needs to be organized, easy to read and search engine compatible. Writing for the web is different – online reading is not the same as reading from print. Web users, particularly those performing website searches, have limited attention spans – they tend to scan pages for specific information rather than reading every single word of content. 

1. “Clean” Information Layout

Research indicates that the average web user only reads 20% of the content on any given web page. Here are a few ways to design your content so it captures the attention of your visitors:

• Descriptive headings – Let the reader know exactly what’s on the web page by using headings that provide accurate descriptions of the content
• Short paragraphs – present one topic or idea per paragraph to make it easier to scan through a web page
• Bullet points – if some of your web pages present multiple facts within a single section, lay out the content in point form to make it easier for your visitors to “digest” the information
• Bold text – use bolding or capitalization to draw attention to important words/phrases

2. Concise Copy

Avoid the urge to present every detail about your company, product or service. Approach your content from the perspective of your website visitor and (briefly) describe how you can help provide a solution to a problem they might have. When it comes to editing, a good rule of thumb is to take what you’ve written and cut the word count in half!

3. Simple Language

One of the biggest problems with many websites is the amount of gobbledygook that is used. Please try to avoid the use of technical language, industry specific lingo and acronyms. Your visitors will appreciate (and pay attention to) straightforward descriptions of your company, products, services and solutions.

4. Keywords

Take some time to research the keywords that are applicable to your product/service before writing or editing you website content. Keywords are the words or phrases web users type into search engines i.e Google, Yahoo!, etc to find information on the internet. Having the right keywords throughout your site’s content will increase the likelihood of potential customers finding you online.

Google offers a great tool that will help you come up with keywords and provide you with search statistics (how many times the keyword was used in Google searches over a period of time).

5. Great Content

Offering great content will make your website better – An obvious statement, but based on the content on many websites, easier said than done. It’s important to understand the meaning of great content – it’s not content you think is great, it’s content your visitors will find exciting and useful. 

• Write an article that solves a client’s problem
• Write an e-book that helps visitors learn something new
• Start a blog to share your ideas – and invite people to comment
• Publish a white-paper on a topic or trend that is important to your clients/prospects

One last note – offer your content for FREE…making people jump through hoops and exchanging content for email addresses is not the best way to build your brand online. If you offer good content and goodwill, it will pay off in the long run.

Check out a post by David Meerman Scott for more interesting thoughts on the importance of great content.