Web writing and relevance: getting results

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Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Relevance is everything on the Web. A Web site’s users are on the site because they want something, and they think that the site can provide it.

The site also exists because it has a purpose that’s relevant: to the owner’s needs. So whenever I accept a Web writing gig, one of the first things I ask my client is: “What response do you want?”

The response is vital. The response to the piece of writing may be to make a purchase, or to sign up for a newsletter, or to complete a questionnaire, or to make a phone call. Unless you know the desired response, your writing can’t be effective.

As a Web writer, my aim, and yours, is to write copy that’s relevant to the site’s users, so that the copy gets the response that the site’s owner wants.

Web copy or Web content?

Traditionally Web writing is divided into two forms: Web sales copy, which is designed to persuade the reader to do something, and Web content, which is designed to inform the reader.

Your Web writing clients are used to thinking of Web copy in terms of response and results. But few clients think of Web content as requiring a response, but of course it does. Commercial Web content is also Web copy - it must persuade a reader to do something. That response could to bookmark the site, or to click on an ad because they want to buy, or explore the rest of the site and make a purchase.

Ask the “what response?” question even if you’re writing straight Web content

The Web’s becoming more and more competitive. Even six months ago, a content-heavy site would get results just because it had a lot of content. Not any more. Google’s supplemental index penalizes sites for lack of relevance, so 95 per cent of a site’s pages may go straight into the supplemental index because they’re deemed not to be relevant to Web surfers’ search queries.

If you remember to as the “what response?” question, you can create Web content that’s relevant, and which will get the required response. You’ll help your Web writing clients, and you’ll help yourself too, because your clients will want you to write for them again.

Writing For The Web gives you a competitive edge

My ebook “Writing For The Web” gives you a competitive edge in your Web writing. Get started today developing your own lucrative Web writing career.

[tags]Web writing, writing, how to write, writers, copy, content, online writing[/tags]