Malphurs Interactive works under the belief that great organizations deserve innovative and inspirational interactive media solutions. After all, invention is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.

Writing Effective Content

July 19, 2011

In order for a website to be successful the content must speak to the needs of the audience that will be looking into the services provided. Is there an equal amount of time and effort that goes into the development of effective content as it does the user interface? Many times, the content ends up being an afterthought. A huge amount of effort is put into the look, feel and user interface.

Recently, I came across a great list of errors to avoid when writing content for a website. The 5 mistakes are outlined in the Five Copywriting Errors That Can Ruin A Company’s Website by Brad Shorr. The five listed here are:

1) Writing Inwardly

- Focusing on a product’s features instead of the benefits to the end-user.

2) Burying the Lead

- Having the most important information buried within the content (i.e. – not using any techniques to ensure the content stands out).

3) Mediocre Meta Material

- Weak meta title (This describes the subject matter of the site and is very important to search engines.)

- Weak meta descriptions (These are snippets of text displayed under search results; they are of little or no importance to SEO, but are important to conversions.)

4) Saying Too Much

- Overloading the audience with too much information

- Not allowing room to develop curiosity

- Not leaving room for the imagination

5) Weak (or No) Calls to Action

- “Calls to action” are used to direct a reader on what to do with information and/or how to move forward WITH action. The best starting place is identifying what your “Call to Action” is. Then, build from there.

Each one of these errors dissuades your audience from taking advantage of what your website has to offer. Time and consideration should be focused into each of the above points in order to write content that communicates more effectively. The goal is to inspire your audience to use you to meet their needs.

Which leads me to ask you the question: In what way can you continue to develop beautiful, feature-rich websites, yet instill them with more effective content?

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