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Web Writing Study Note 3: Writing Effective Content

Summary:
In order to write an effective content, we need to know some key elements in the content includes keywords, headings, links, lists, visual, forms and messages. We don’t necessary to put all these elements in every content, but they are very helpful to improve your content structure, to improve users scannability, and to help SEO ranking.
Before we start writing a content, we need to create a plan by defining the page topic, purposes of the content, users’needs, keywords, heading and image. In addition, we also want to show a good direction to tell users where they should go next.
After we finish the content, we will need to review and edit the content. We could ask someone to review it and check typos. Or, we could ask a subject matter expert to check accuracy. Moreover, we need to make sure the tone and voice of our content match the brand style.
Key Study Notes from the Course:
Keywords:
Why are keywords important?
  • help user scan the page
  • good for SEO
Ways to find the keywords:
  • talk to people and see what words they use
  • use analytic tools
  • do competitor research
Where should we put these keywords?
  • put in headings and subheadings
  • put in content
  • put in links
Headings:
Techniques for writing headings:
  • short and concise
  • simple and factual
  • include keywords
  • sentence case
  • no acronyms
  • not a sentence
Lists:
Why are lists useful?
The lists assist in the scanability of the page, and they also allow the users to read content nicely and quickly.
Types of lists:
  • normal bulleted lists
  • number lists
  • alphabetised lists
Rules of lists:
  • simple
  • include keywords
  • keep in one line
  • use lower case
  • no full stop
  • set of ideas
Links:
What should we do for links?
  • get those keywords and link them
  • use “Contact Us” instead of writing the email address
  • Highlight those specific words that they think that users will be attracted to
  • use different color and style for a link
  • no underline
  • should be long enough to be clicked
Visual:
Users are more engaged with visual content because the content is being displayed in an interesting way.
You can put images, diagrams, map, charts, tables, and infographics in your content to make your page attractive.
Forms:
Forms should be nice, short, concise, and quite affirmative.
Forms include headings, labels, drop-down, radio buttons, and call-to-action buttons.
Don’t ask too many information because it will make users feel complex.
Message:
It is important to pay attention to the tones of the message because they reflect the personality of the brand.
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