by Pamela | Oct 1, 2012 | Content Marketing, Website Content
The Value of Original Content
As the saying goes, “content is king.” While this saying is an Internet marketing cliche, it continues to be true. The Internet is a crowded place and your articles and blog posts can help you get noticed. When loaded with useful, relevant, and informative original content, your website or blog becomes as unique as your business.
Benefits of Original Content
Website content gives you a voice and it positions you as someone who knows what you’re doing. When you consistently deliver high quality, original content, you are also sending a subtle message that you are passionate about what you do and that you care. Not only can your website content do all of the above, it can also attract traffic to your website.
However, generating unique articles, blog posts, webpages, newsletters, social media posts, and special reports requires skill and commitment. It’s easy to lose focus or procrastinate. Use these tips to stay focused:
- Do a little every day – Adding content to your website or on article directories doesn’t need to be an all or nothing task. Schedule 30 to 60 minutes each day and do something. It could be writing an article or blog post, adding a couple of questions to your FAQs page, adding a bio section to your About Us page, and so on.
- Mix it up – If you dislike writing articles, sitting down to write one every day wouldn’t work for you in the long run. However, if you mix it up by posting tips one day, adding a photo or infographic the next, embedding a video the next, and writing just one article each week, you may find that adding content to your website is easier and more fun than you thought.
- Create a simple content plan – Figure out what type of content to work on each business day and identify several core categories. Add these tasks to your work calendar and cross them off as you go. By the end of your first month, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve accomplished.
- Get help – Who says you have to do it all yourself? Outsource some or all of the content writing.
by Pamela | Sep 25, 2012 | Article Marketing, Video Blog
What Goes into a Web Article?
Have you ever wondered what #Web articles have in common? While they can take a variety of forms, cover any number of topics, and vary in length, most Web articles share a basic anatomy consisting of:
- A short summary used to entice readers to keep reading, or in the case of a teaser, click to “read more.”
- A keyword-rich title. For example, the keyword for this particular Web article is “Web article.” Thus, the title includes the keyword.
- An introduction. Introductions don’t need to be terribly long as you can see in the first paragraph of this Web article. Without the intro, you wouldn’t necessarily know what to expect, and this page would probably look like a list.
- Bold headings. Headings help users scan the article.
- Short paragraphs. This type of writing is read on computers and tablets. It’s hard to read large blocks of text on these devices so short paragraphs are commonly used.
- Bullet lists. Bullet points help to break up the text.
- A few sub-topics. Though Web articles can certainly dig deep into topics, they tend to be fairly narrowly focused on one topic with just a few sub-topics. For instance, in this article, we’re focusing on the anatomy of a Web article but will also go into why you should include these basic elements in your articles. We’ll also end with a short call to action in the conclusion.
- A conclusion. Conclusions wrap up what’s been said. They can include a call to action if the article is intended to prompt readers to do something. In this case, the call to action is going to be a short pitch along the lines of “if you need help, contact us.”
Why Include These Basic Elements in Your Web Articles?
Most of these elements are designed with the reader in mind such as introductions, bold headings, short paragraphs, focused content, bullet points, and an ending with or without a call to action. They’re logical, and they help the reader scan through the text on a mobile device or PC. This format has evolved over time and is hailed by usability experts.
These basic elements can also help with search engine optimization. For example, including your keywords in the title, headings, and throughout the body helps search engines to understand what your Web article is all about.
Professional Web Article Writing Service
Writing Web articles isn’t rocket science, but there is an art to it. Plus, it takes time. If you need help writing an article for your website or an article directory, contact us.
