The Formulas Freelance Copywriters Employ When Creating Web Content
By Angelique van Engelen |
What is it exactly that copywriters DO when they produce new text for a site
makeover? You often see the advertisements; a designer is looking for a
freelance web writer who is going to create content around a number of keywords.
There’s not a lot more information about the process. What are the tricks of the
trade and how do you get value for money when hiring a freelance
writer?
When you discuss a site makeover with a copywriter, be prepared
to answer a lot of questions. Any writer needs to know the answers to at least
these questions before he can meaningfully go to town on your
content;
What is the site’s line of business?
Who is
targeted?
How does the client want their web content to reflect their
goals?
What is the number of pages of the site?
What is the site’s
current conversion ratio?
What have site owners done in the past to
change this?
What are the conversion ratio targets?
Is the
corporate identity still in tact?
What is the identity now and what are
the reasons for the change?
Most copywriters have their own style in
creating creative text. But note that not every copywriter is necessarily a
website copy writer. Everybody goes about content some way or another, but
generally people tend to focus on a number of aspects that are wider than merely
writing some text and mentioning a number of keywords.
I have developed
this strategy for writing successful content for my clients; I will sit down and
spell out what I call the ’vital communication factors’ of a website. The main
points of sale of a business website. Or the general idea behind a general
interest website. Or the philosophy, reason for being of an entity other than a
business, general interest.
It is around these vital factors, that I will
begin to create the skeleton of links and click throughs, or the navigational
path. Weaving the text into the navigation is the next stage. I tend to assign
some weightings to all the internal hyperlinks, which mirror their importance to
the website’s vital points before I write the text.
The hyperlinks of any
website can be roughly divided in four categories with no real distinctions but
which you need to employ using a rule of thumb:
a) Clix generating click
throughs (brand awareness)*
b) Clix generating repeat visits by internal
referral
(e.g. bookmarks, newsletter signups, brochures);
c) Clix
generating traffic (agreements for inbound
links, online marketing for third
parties);
d) Clix generating sales
*Do not confuse our use of the term
“click throughs” with click
throughs as in the pay per click concept. Pay per
click is all about inbound
traffic into a site. Here, I am discussing the
internal navigational path.
Once I have the idea of a website’s structure
along these lines, I start floating into the writing stage and as I go along, I
tend to keep a continuous check that the profile of the content and links
actually match up with the vital points.
Each website is unique of course
and to categorise the links into four categories very rigidly does not make
sense. For instance, a link to an article that has also been published elsewhere
on the web creates both inbound traffic and repeat visit value and possibly also
a click through.
It makes sense to assess each link and construct content
around it on using common sense. In this process, I tend to take into account a
number of factors, including the navigational path, design possibilities and
optimal content size.
Although most sites differ, the links making up
the navigational path are generally quite similar in their relation to the vital
points; click throughs are generally way less closely related to a site’s vital
points than for instance sales clicks. Or at least when you build up your sales
idea right, the ultimate click will be entirely logically connected with your
business concept. As for the middle two categories, they generally are somewhere
in the middle in relation to vital points too.
There is not a lot else
to writing good website content, apart from gloating over the results with your
clients a few months later!
About the
Author
Angelique van Engelen writes for www.contentClix.com and runs an international blogspot
http://clixyPlays.blogspot.com. You can contact her on Clixy@contentClix.com
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