The Guide to Web Writing

Can you imagine the number of pages on the Internet? The first website went online in 1991 and by January 2005, there were approximately 11.5 billion indexable-web pages counted on the internet. The size of the Internet is showing a twofold increase and around 2 billion pages are added to it every year. This implies that approximately 5.5 million web pages are added to the internet everyday! And these are only conservative estimates! Thus, every page on your website competes with other 5 million on a daily basis. Naturally, your page needs to stand out and be counted. The only way you can do this is by providing information in an interesting and readable way.

Writing compelling content is a sure shot to attract visitors to your website. The search engine spiders can be fooled in a variety of ways, but good content is the only foundation on which a good ranking is built on the various search engines.

Keywords are used for site optimization, but they should be used in a meaningful way. Using them repeatedly is a sure way to put off the reader. Remember, if your content is powerful, the reader will return to your website and refer it to his or her friends.

Here are some thumb rules for content writing:

• Remember KISS (keep it short and simple) principle. Your content should be short, simple and unique.
• Update the content on your web site on a regular basis. Nothing repels people like dated and stale content.
• Use keywords in an efficient and effective way and make them stand out (try ‘bold, different font, headlines’ etc.
• Divide your content into small paragraphs and sentences. Use clear titles and sub-headings. Also, make use of small text boxes to highlight content.
• Good visuals complement good content. Use pictures that provide a link to the text on the screen as this will reinforce the content.
• Follow these simple rules when writing your copy and be assured that out of the millions of pages added everyday, your page will stand out.