Are you going through an overhaul of your current website or starting a completely new build with our team? Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of writing (or coming up with) the content? Hey, it’s hard to talk about yourself sometimes, especially when it comes to a passion project like your business. Here are four suggestions to help you break through that humble writer’s block:
#1: Free Write First, Organize Later
Label a piece of paper with the page title at hand (home, about, services, etc.) and then just go to town. Jot down everything stream-of-conscious style, similar to a traditional brainstorming meeting. Nothing is off the table and don’t worry about how it sounds at this point. Just get it out of your brain and onto paper. Think about why you started this business, what qualifies you to provide your products or services, what makes you different from competitors, and so on.
Now, just take a look at that full sheet of content! You can organize those thoughts into a more narrative format that tells your story or explains what you do in a more concise manner! Use a highlighter to go through your notes and highlight the lines that stand out to you most.
Feeling stuck after seeing the amount of content you have to work with? Try Idea #2 below!
#2: Ask for a Prompt
An experienced web team knows what looks and works best across a content management system (CMS) and web page layouts. This means we can provide you with direction on what kind of content you should have on each of your web pages if you’re feeling unsure. A prompt will include page-specific leading questions and character counts so you know the exact amount of content needed. The goal of this prompt is to guide you through the organization of those thoughts from your free write and will help you fine tune the phrasing to be both on-brand and on-strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX).
#3: Jazz Up Your Old Web Copy
Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to when you’re going through a website overhaul. Sometimes your copy is spot-on and simply needs to be jazzed up a bit to meet new layout and/or character count requirements. If this is the case, reference your website’s current content and put a shine on it. Think about any frequently asked questions, or things that patrons say they didn’t know about your business. Remember to always write as though you’re an outsider discovering your business for the first time.
Idea #4: Lean on a Copywriter
When in doubt, hire a pro copywriter. It just so happens that we have one in-house! Keep in mind that writing for the web is as strategic of an activity as it is creative. Novelists can live in the land of creativity because people aren’t using search engines to find their content. People ARE using search engines to look for your products and services. Search engines pick up on your phrasing and place you in the search engine results accordingly, ranked based on authority and depth of information in relation to the search query. When you work with a skilled copywriter, all you have to do is provide a few bullet points of information about your business for each page.
Give us a shout with any questions!