How to Write Content for Your Website

Want to know how to write better - and more engaging - content for your website?

If you’re a small or medium-sized business with a copywriting query or two, get in touch.

Want to know the best way to:

* Write your website's 'About Us' page
* Put together a case study
* Sell your services
* Come up with blog post ideas
* Craft an e-newsletter...

...or anything else, for that matter?

Send me your queries (here via my website Copywriter in West Yorkshire - Lauren Holden or over on Instagram) - and in my new 'Copy Doc*' series, I'll answer them here on LinkedIn. You can be anonymous too, if you like - call it online’s answer to TV's Embarrassing Bodies (but for copywriting issues - and it won't be televised!)

My clinic is always open; there's no need to make an appointment. Just send me a message on here or post a question below - and I'll help you get your head around a host of copywriting challenges.

* For transparency's sake, I'm not a real doctor (neither is this a real clinic); just a Huddersfield copywriter trying to help.

Best (try to) get an appointment with your GP if your knee is giving you gyp again.

Five Ways a Copywriter Can Give Your Business a Boost

I get it; running a company can be tough - and I’m a firm believer that the busier the business, the more the website needs finessing. Yep, really.

Rushed-off-their-feet company owners often contact me and say something along the lines of:

‘I wrote the content on my website myself years ago and it doesn’t at all reflect who we are or what we now do”

The thing is, when you’re so busy working in your business, it can be hard to find time to work on your business.

So, how can a copywriter help? Here are five things we content writers can tick off your to-do list…

Website Content

Website content is the obvious one, isn’t it? Whether you need your full website writing from scratch, or you’d simple like someone to make some tweaks to your existing content, I can help.

I also offer a convenient ‘Content Audit’ service, whereby I take a look at the text on your site and prepare a document with some hints, tips and minor edits.

I use the Comments function in Microsoft Word to leave you some helpful pointers, allowing you to tweak your own content and saving you the money it costs to have a copywriter like me write your website on your behalf. It also gives you an element of control over how your website sounds, which for many businesses is another plus point.

Get in touch if you think this will work for you.

Social Media Copy

Need someone to plan out your social media strategy in full, or post bitesize snippets of content onto your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds? A copywriter can help you do that too.

Taking another task off your plate, social media content outsourcing makes perfect sense for the time-poor business owner.

Printed Literature

No time to create that flyer ahead of a big business event? Or perhaps you’d like some content for a banner ad? Working alongside some trusted graphic designer pals, I can help create printed literature - from flyers and brochures to company merchandise - that works for you.

Email Newsletters

Email marketing may be another task that falls by the wayside when you’re as busy as you are. So, allow a freelance copywriter to relieve you of the burden of creating the content for your weekly email or monthly digital newsletter.

Press Releases

Want to promote your business to the press? I’ve worked in journalism and copywriting, which puts me in a great position to help you get your message across to local and regional news outlets. Chat to me about my press release writing service by clicking the link below.

Need a helping hand with any of the above? Get in touch with me, a Huddersfield copywriter, by saying hello here.

Until next time…

Go On, Tell Me You Do This Too...

Ever spent an age putting together an email - for work or something else - only to fuss and fret about each and every word it contains?

You rewrite it; you change the order of a sentence; you substitute a less 'formal' word for something that sounds more...er...professional. Then you hover over the 'Send' button.

When it comes to writing the language we speak day in, day out, we can all feel a tinge of self-doubt every now and then. I certainly do - and I write for a living, for my clients and here on my freelance Yorkshire copywriter blog.

Whether or not we have a good grasp of grammar and punctuation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to text-based fret. Try as we might, many of us still stress about what we write: whether that WhatsApp message sounded a bit rude, if your email could be misconstrued (I'm a poet and I didn't know it), or if there was er...too much of an...er...interlude between sending that email and getting a reply.

*'Do I sound like a pillock?'
*'Have I just used a word in the wrong context?'
*'Do I come across 'okay', or even 'fun' and 'likeable' on email or text?
* Is my humour a bit ‘out-there’?
*Sh*t, did I spell their name right?!

Ever asked yourself any of the above? In fact, how many of those questions pop into your head before you write the actual thing and hit that blinking 'Send' button.

My advice when you feel like you can't write? Just. Write. Something.

Seriously, just start. Once you've sent your email, don't give it a second thought. Unless you've called your boss a c*ck, it's probably a-okay. So is that text message you want to send to an old flame. Go on; why not...live a little. Unless you’re drunk and he/she is taken. Then maybe leave well alone and get yourself on Tinder.

‘Just Start’ (I bet Nike are sh*tting themselves)

I apply my patented 'just start' principle to everything I'm procrastinating about. There's nothing worse than the feeling of dread that comes with putting something off. So, today - do that thing you've been thinking about doing. Swallow the frog - or whatever it is they say.

Send that email, write that text, start that novel, organise the kitchen cupboards.

You know it'll make you feel better.

The point to this article? I'm not really sure. Other than the fact I've been putting off writing this for well over a week. Now? It's out there in the world - in front of your peepers - and I feel great.

So, take my advice - just start - and you'll feel great too.

Until next time…

The Best Tools for Creating Better Web Content

Have you ever looked at your web content and thought that it could be even better? But you can’t work out how?

Sitting down and looking at your content after reading through it hundreds of times can be a fool’s errand, especially if you wrote it in the first place. It’s easy to start glancing over parts you really should be paying attention to - and before you know it, you’ve made very few amends and the whole afternoon’s gone. We’ve all been there.

Web content is difficult to tackle. The fact that you’ve already got a website packed with up-to-date information and written content is a credit to your planning and motivational skills. Plenty of businesses haven’t looked at theirs since their website was created in 2016. While that might work for them (although spoiler alert - it almost definitely isn’t) you know you need to up your content game.

Luckily for you, there are a few trusty tools you can use to help you create attention-grabbing web content. Grab a notepad, or open up a Word doc, and let’s get started.

Get Some Fresh Ideas!

Thinking of great ideas for web content can be a time-drain if you’re not in the right headspace for it. These apps are perfect for brainstorming when it’s just you, yourself and you at the keyboard.

Ideaflip is an ideas machine that helps you sort out your buzzwords into valuable concepts. Think of it like an interactive doodle pad, where your scribbles can be shared by your whole team.

Get to know Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. You’re not too good for it. Even the greats use this amazing little tool to fashion blog posts out of thin air. Whether you’re having a low-motivation day or you’re just struggling to see how a topic could be flipped a couple more times, this app is a really handy way to quickly get back on track.

Improve Your Style and Sentence Structure with ProWritingAid

If you’d like a bit more feedback on your writing than what Yoast can give you, ProWritingAid is the perfect app for you.

It takes a good look at your writing and suggests improvements, just like your favourite teacher. Unlike your favourite teacher though, instead of using a red Papermate to correct your work, the ProWritingAid app flags errors and suggests improvements that you can instantly change in your document.

 Sort Your Tabs Out With OneTab

Do you ever feel like you’ve got ten thousand tabs open while you search for relevant content online, and you don’t want to let any of them go? But it’s affecting your computer’s performance? And you’re terrified it’ll crash before you’ve had time to take what you need from each of them?

Get started with OneTab and all that terror and glitchy wonkiness goes away.

This useful little app turns all your open tabs into a list of URLs, so you’ve got a workable list to go through and your computer gets to cool down. Everyone’s a winner.

Have you got some different tools you use everyday to help you create sparkling content? I want to hear about them - why not ping me a message?

What Your About Page Says About You

Does your website's 'About' page says exactly what you’ve asked it to say? Usually, about pages are fairly simple. Maybe yours has a couple of paragraphs about your brand's views, morals and expertise. You might also have added an FAQ, or even some Meet The Team snippets. At the very least, your page should have a basic description of your business - basically, who you are, what you do and why you do it.

Some businesses don’t bother to do much more than that. I’m here to tell you that they’re missing out. You most definitely should put in a little more effort into this often-overlooked page.

Your About Page Offers Insight About Who - and What - Your Business Is

How does a customer decide how to choose your business for the products or services they’re looking for?

Millions of hours of research has been done on this exact subject, concerning every level of the sales funnel. What remains true for every customer no matter their stage, is that they want to know more about you before they trust you with their money.

In an age of high competition and easy research, the way your portray your brand can make or break your conversions. If you’re selling a similar product to your competitors at the same reasonable shipping cost and with similar additional extras - for example, customer service, warranties and guarantees - your about page can be how you set yourself apart.

How to Use Your About Page Effectively

It might just be a page on your website, but there are many ways you can utilise the space within it to communicate directly with your customers. Your about page should be considered an important part of the inbound marketing journey, and on top of that, it should represent exactly what your brand priorities are.

Think outside of the box. Instead of writing out a few paragraphs lifted from your employee and brand handbooks, try to match the personality you want your brand to have with the way you share that information.

Some ideas for you:

●     Design up an interactive timeline of your business’ history

●     Add videos and team interviews for more unique insights

●     Tell your story creatively.

How Your About Page Can Inform Your Brand’s Tone of Voice

Tone of voice is a vital part of your brand. It might not be something you’ve considered on its own, but if you choose certain words or phrases to describe what you do in any of your literature on in your web content, that’s your tone of voice shining through.

Basically, the words you choose help to build up a picture of who you are. If you use the words 'professional' and 'experience; in the same paragraph, you begin to build up a picture of your business as an outfit people can trust, Using words like 'care' and 'your needs' gives off a different impression; one that shows your business aims to look after and support your customers or clients.

Using these brand-aware words and phrases in your about page will help to build your image psychologically.

Take a look at these successful brands' about pages and you’ll see what I mean.

Jewson: Leading providers, friendly customer service.

Pampers: Care, protection, love.

Edinburgh Zoo: Connection, conservation, experience, research.

Fancy Some Homework?

After taking a look at those three examples and comparing them, how would you improve them? Using that same constructive criticism, take another look at your own about page. Does it need an update?

Finding the Time to Update Your About Page

Of course, updating and refreshing your web content can be another important task in a long list of jobs you have to tackle this quarter.

Why not outsource to a professional copywriter and web content creator? I have experience with working with businesses of all shapes and sizes and in a huge range of industries. Get in touch to find out how I can help you.