Writing Web Content

What is the story? Why does anybody want to know about your story? People read web content to find information. They want to know something. And they want to know it quick!

Ask yourself this important question, "Who Cares?" Chances are, someone does. Know your audience. This is probably the most important element of any story. That is why I have decided to discuss this topic first. You the reader, are looking for something.

It is up to me to provide you with the information that you are looking for. If I do not engage you within 5 seconds flat, you will click away. Right?

Then ask yourself, "What does my reader really care about?" I am talking to you, dear reader, my fellow writer, my Hub Buddy. Every word that I choose, better have you in mind, or you will leave me to the hallows of the deep space internet closet. I surely don’t want that to happen. Do you?

Since I am writing about writing web content, to you, I want to inspire you to want to create compelling web content, so I can read your story. If my story doesn’t challenge you to write an interesting story, from beginning to end, then I have failed to accomplish my goal.

I am a goal getter! I am a person with real insights, and real interests. I want you to know that. I want that little voice in the back of your mind to be mine. I want you to hear me ask you, Who? What? When? Where? Why? And when you tell me how to do something, I want to know How?

I want to be engaged. I want to be encouraged. Sometimes, I want to laugh, or cry. Or, I want you to guide me through the process of learning something.

Search engines read your articles too. What do they want to know? They want to know who is interested in reading your article. They are working diligently to pass your article along to the particular person that needs the information that you are providing.

How do they do it? They look for key words that are in your article. They then index these words.

When someone is searching for a subject, the search engine robots crawl around like spiders and find articles with similar words and phrases. They also calculate the readability of your article. They do this by your key word density. They rank your article by key word percentages. The most informative and readable articles are only about 3%, keyword density.

Search engine robots will actually rank your articles lower, if they are key word heavy. They will decide that you are just trying to fool them. They know that reader will not benefit from your article, if it is just a page, with key word after word. Who wants a dull dry list of words? Sometimes less is really more. Try to come up with similar words and phrases that your readers might be looking for, and use them too. Sprinkle your articles with variety and important concepts.

Still with me? Well, that is the point right? I want you to enjoy my article. In order to do this, I am writing about something that I think that you would want to read. I have not simply copied some one’s article, or style. This is my voice. This is my article about writing an article that will be published on the web.

Meanwhile, your voice is in the back of my head, asking me questions. Spiderbots too.

I am trying to give you all of the information that I have, in the space available, in order for you to successfully create an interesting, informative article, for me to read.

Give me your best. Give me something that I don’t already have. Give me creativity. Engage me. Once you have mastered this quality, the rest is history. You will be writing articles, at lightening speed.

Readers look for information in a clear, concise manner. For example,

First, do this. Second, do that.

If you are describing something, find a particular order. You can describe an object, from the inside to the outside, or vice versa. You can describe something from most important, the least important. Let your subject be your guide.

Get this right, and your readers will return to you for advice on other subjects.

Use active voice, when you want to emphasize something. Put your words in action. Your readers will follow.

Don't forget to edit your article. Use your word processor's grammar and spell checker. This is a good starting point, but they are not always as accurate as everyone claims. Read your article before you publish it.

Read it backwards. What? You say. Believe it or not, you can catch a lot of errors this way.

Writing is a process. You may find that your article would be better if you arranged it a little differently.

Happy Writing!