When writing content for your website, it’s essential to think about plenty of factors. Style, length, keywords, and emotion are key components to consider. However, one often overlooked, and a necessary part of the content writing process is the intent of your copy. Without defining the goal of your content, your website will lack focus and potentially miss the mark when it comes to customer acquisition. What is the main purpose behind your text? What do you want your readers to know? Finding the answer to these questions before you start writing can not only improve the quality of your work but will help you understand what to write and where to begin.
Typically, all content revolves around three primary intents: to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. The informative text is used as an educational tool for your audience. Persuasive copy is used to convince your readers to buy a product or service, or to achieve a particular goal. Entertainment copy is used to evoke emotion out of your viewers. It’s possible for your content to have elements of all three intentions.
What are your long term goals in writing content?
Think about what you would like for your content. What is your motivation behind writing for your business? Consider these long-term goals before you begin writing anything. It’s important not to lose sight of your goals as you continue writing. Blogging is an ongoing process, and it’s easy to lose focus months or even a year after starting to blog.
Let’s take, for example, this blog. At Lafayette Louisiana Website Design, we blog to keep our readers informed and ultimately to drive new traffic and business to our website. We are building trust with our readers. As a source of knowledge, we want our clients to know that we can be trusted and we are up-to-date on all the latest website trends. We hope that with enough trust, we will eventually convert readers into clients.
Why Search Engines are Taking Search Intent Seriously
One of the most significant new ranking factors is the user’s search intent. The intent is if your content is relevant to what they meant to look up, not necessarily what they did look up. It’s important that the user that finds your page is reading what they intended to search. Otherwise, they will not stay around your website very long. You want the right readers for the correct articles with the right intent.
If you’re looking to build your online reputation and links to improve your search ranking, the intent of your copy is essential. To entice other sites to link to your content, it should be informative and entertaining more than persuasive. The shareability of informative or entertainment content is nearly double that of persuasive copy.
Informative Content
Consider what you know the most about your business. Your area of expertise is the perfect source of knowledge to share with your readers. It’s that kind of insider information that will build trust between yourself and your viewers. Even with a wealth of knowledge, it’s essential to do your research before writing an informative text. This research will help you when deciding what to write and give you sources to fall back on should you need help.
Persuasive Content
Often the most challenging copy to write, you need to walk a fine line between selling your services and authentically appealing to your readers. Sometimes your viewers aren’t even in the market to buy the product you are trying to sell. That makes persuasive text especially tricky to write. Many methods produce good results. Focus on using emotion and some information to aid in your goal of selling. Use positive language as well as personalizing your copy to appeal directly to your customers.
Entertaining Content
Typically entertaining content is either funny or sad. Be it a cute story about one of your clients, or a viral video that is making the rounds. It takes practice to write entertaining content effectively. It’s an entirely different writing style to informative or persuasive speech. It’s informal, and it can be challenging for the humor to translate. Use exaggerations and over the top expressions to help lighten your text. Sarcasm and witty humor can also be useful when writing entertaining copy.
Stay Focused!
With these tips in mind, it should be a lot easier to begin writing for a blog or webpage. Focus on your readers intent, your business’s goals, and the style of writing, and you are already ahead of the game. For blog management and content writing, contact Lafayette Louisiana Website Design today! 337 223 3305
