Gerry McGovern’s book “Killer Web Content” is a great guide to putting together and managing the written content for your website. I’ve just finished reading it and will be recommending it to all my clients. Two key themes run through it, writing the words your customer is looking for and getting rid of dead, filler and dated content.
Writing the words your customer is looking for.
Customers are looking for the words that they care about and are familiar with, a concept that Gerry McGovern calls “Care Words”. For example, if looking to fly, visitors to your website will be looking for the words “Cheap Flights” not “Low Fares” as many marketers would have used in the past. The book recommends some excellent techniques for discovering, testing and using care words. Writing titles, summaries and body copy making good use of these will help search engines and ensure that your visitors remains on your site as they have found what they are looking for (to misquote a U2 song!).
Get rid of the dead, filler and dated content
In one example given, of a large website, 99% of the people visiting the website visited 1% of the content, and 35% of content had never been read! The content that is rarely or never read is the dead and filler content, when a visitor comes across this it will more than likely drive them away to another site.
Writing the right content
The book suggests that you follow the six Cs whenever you sit down to write content:
- Who Cares?
- Is it Compelling?
- Is it Clear?
- Is it Complete?
- Is it Concise?
- Is it Correct?
Most importantly:
- Never be a “putter upper”, just adding content to your website because you can and it’s at hand.
- Thoroughly edit any content you do add, preferably using a third party as a fresh pair of eyes.
- Test all content, monitor your webstats to see if it’s working.
- Regularly read through your website, removing or editing content that is out of date or incorrect.
Improve your website content now
The book includes many other useful hints and tips for writing for your website as well as thoughts on blogs and search engines. Why not buy a copy of “Killer Web Content” now on Amazon and get your website working more effectively for you?