Why Blogging is Different from Your Website

If you have a business, you obviously need a website. Gone are the days when the Internet was only an insignificant part of your continual quest for new clients or customers. Now, in addition to a solid site that describes your business and serves as a customer magnet, you should consider a blog. While the uninitiated may think that websites and blogs are two names for the same thing, they couldn't be further mistaken.

Websites

A website is really your virtual store, and it’s a formal structure that was built basically for one-way communication. It’s an area where you can display your products and services and is a great place to promote all aspects of your business. When people go to your site, they expect an atmosphere of buying, selling and promotion. They want to easily access what you have available, and they want to be directed to an area where they can seamlessly purchase the items they want.

If your customers have questions, they want to quickly access the FAQ section where all of their concerns will be addressed. They want your contact information and will most likely use email rather than the phone.

Many times, Internet transactions are impersonal since there is rarely human interaction between your staff and your customers. While a live chat system may be one way to add some human interaction to the website buying experience, the customers who use the system may still not feel they are actually interacting with a human being. Many customers, however do desire a quick and impersonal way to purchase a product, and a website can be the perfect place for it.

Corporate Blogs

While the content on a website is usually static and infrequently updated, your blog will be the opposite. The purpose of your blog is to supply your regular and potential customers with useful and interesting content that won’t be found on your website. While website copy is usually formal, the prose on your blog need not be.

A blog is a place to educate your customers and supply them with sometimes tangential information that relates to the business you are in. While a website that sells auto insurance won’t walk you through the process of a drunken driving arrest and conviction, the company’s blog will do exactly that. A good blog achieves interactivity and educates your reader, while at the same time providing a greater array of information about you, your products, and your business. Since your blog does not directly sell anything, there is no pressure to buy placed upon your readers, and they can get to know you and your business on a more relaxed level. While a great website sells product, an excellent blog only attempts to carefully nudge potentials customers to that site. While websites are usually overhauled and revamped at infrequent intervals, blogs are constantly updated. Readers can subscribe to them and can receive notification that new content has been added.

When a customer enters a brick and mortar store, a good salesperson will greet them, ask about their day, and try to educate them about the offerings of the store. The excellent sales person may explain his or her own experiences with the store’s products and may offer personal opinions concerning the quality of one line vs. another. The selling comes later.

Think of your blog as your good salesperson.  Through it, you can provide interesting and informative content that relates to your business and products. You can build customer relationships and help get those potential customers to visit your website, where you can then use the power of your site to sell merchandise and services.

5 Web Content Writing Best Practices You May be Missing

Your website is composed of web pages, and your web content writing is just as important as what goes into your business blog or on a press release or any other type of marketing. First, folks can't comment on your static web pages, so it can take a while before mistakes or bad web content writing practices are caught. Second, you're probably talking about your products, services, or business in those pages, so their quality is crucial to a good online presence. Therefore best practices ought to be incorporated into your web content, no matter how unimportant a particular page may seem. Here are five web content writing best practices you may be missing:

A Goal

A goal isn't a web content writing best practice because the page lacks purpose without a goal (although that's true). A goal is a web content writing best practice because the goal defines what's on the page and what it communicates to its target audience (the content does have a target audience, right?). What do you want this particular web page to do? Educate? Convert? Build SEO? All three? Define the goal, and writing the web content will be that much easier.

Headings and Subheadings

Headings and subheadings apply to more than blog posts! If your product pages, the About Us page, and any other page doesn't have the formatting that makes it easy for people to scan and to digest, then web visitors will be turned off like with any other piece of content. Include those headings and subheadings, and lists and bullet points where appropriate. Your web page will look more organized, reflecting well on your business.

Keep it Conversational

Yes, these web pages are about you and your products/services for a change, but that doesn't mean that it's the time for industry jargon. You still need to come across as personable and understandable, as with these pages you are much closer to the sale than with other pieces of content. Although these web visitors may be more familiar with the industry jargon, you don't want to risk confusing the reader or appearing condescending.

Length

When it comes to web content writing best practices, the proper length for your web page is 250-500 words. This is very different from what's considered a good length for a blog post and other pieces of content marketing because a web page is designed to present what's absolutely necessary about the topic. You don't necessarily need 800+ words about your company history or about a particular product, and most web visitors don't want a written lecture. However, it's tough to engage anyone with anything shorter than 250 words.

A Call-to-Action

The call-to-action doesn't necessarily have to be in the text, say at the very bottom acting as a conclusion. It could be included in the sidebar, or as a something on its own after the text like in this blog post. The point is, you ought to have a CTA somewhere so your web visitor can have a next step, something actionable to do once finished reading your page or after visiting the page.

If your current web content doesn't follow these five best practices, then make sure to do some web content rewriting and to commit to these best practices from here on out. Web content writing is one of the few places where if you didn't do it right the first time, you do want to go back and make the improvements.