Guide to creating quality website content (full sample)
An example of my editing and proofreading services.
It can be useful to understand exactly how my proofreading and editing services can help you. Below, you’ll find an article that I copy edited and proofread to give you an idea of how I can enhance your content. Please have a read, and if you like the content then please get in touch or get a quote.
About this content
Great content is essential to the success of your website. This article explores some simple steps you can take to enhance your content. It includes advice on meeting the needs of your audience, getting their attention, being relevant and timely, and encouraging people to share. The article is written in an easy to understand way that lets you quickly create content that works.
Editing services provided
The success of your website depends on clear, relevant, useful content meeting the needs of your audience. It's the main factor search engines use when ranking websites, and good content will keep your visitors coming back. The best content:
Meets your audience's needs.
Grabs their attention.
Is easy to read and understand.
Stays relevant and timely.
Encourages people to share it.
Informs, educates, entertains, or inspires.
Great content meets the needs of your audience
Think about why visitors are coming to your website and what you offer. Provide clear, useful content to meet their needs, solve a problem, or provide help. Good content should inform, educate, entertain, or inspire your readers.
You need to get and hold your visitors’ attention
With so many competing websites, it's important to grab your visitors’ attention. Good design can guide your readers to your best content. Combine this with clear headings, a logical structure, and concise text to add value for your audience.
Ensure your content is easy to read and understand
Always create content with your audience in mind, and never assume they have the same level of knowledge as you. Your words should be easy to read and understand, so they're accessible to every visitor.
Keep your content relevant and timely
The best content is "evergreen." This means it's relevant whether a visitor is reading it now or a year or two in the future. It's important to update your website regularly and schedule new articles to publish. One of the signals search engines use is recency, so publishing often will help your search engine results.
Encourage people to share your content
After search engines, social media is the main way many websites get traffic. Make sure every page on your website has social media sharing buttons for the most popular social networks. A good headline and thumbnail image can increase the chances of your content getting shared.
Always include a privacy policy and terms
If you offer products or services to your customers, make sure you have comprehensive terms and conditions in place. Every website should also have a privacy policy explaining how you collect and use data from your visitors.
Inform, educate, entertain, or inspire.
One of the ways to create compelling content is to ask the question, "Will this inform, educate, entertain, or inspire my audience?" Good content should always achieve one of these goals, great content might achieve two or more.
Informative content
This type of content shares advice and information with your visitors. It's designed to increase knowledge and helps your audience explore different topics. This type of content often includes news, research, places, resources, products, services, and tools.
Educational content
Educational content often takes the form of "how to" guides and tutorials. It's designed to help people learn new skills and achieve specific tasks. This type of content often includes support articles, knowledge bases, online courses, and reviews.
Entertaining content
This type of content helps your visitors pass the time in an interesting and fulfilling way. Quizzes, games, humor, stories, videos, memes, and apps are all good examples of entertaining content.
Inspirational content
Finally, inspiring content often creates some type of emotional change in your visitor. This type of content is the most difficult to write, but it's also responsible for some of the most popular and shared stories. Inspiring content often takes the form of personal stories, opinion pieces, and creative writing.
It's worth spending time and resources to source and create great content. Search engines scan your content so they can show the most relevant websites to their visitors. Regularly publishing high-quality content is one of the best ways to get good rankings in search results. This will drive more visitors to your website.
Content originally written by Paul Maplesden, a freelance writer, and edited by me.