Website Workshop ™
Writing for the Web
Memo to: William Shakespeare
Subject: Brevity is not the Soul of Wit Online
Most writers are trained. Trained to set up logical thoughts in an outline format – to be iterative. The basic flow is “I told you this, so I can tell you that.”
When my sons were first writing papers for school, I would have them write an outline and see if they could somehow find their way back to it. Then it was the English teacher’s turn to impart their style. Everyone who writes – learned it basically the same way. Embellishment, originality, style were all good things.
Writing for the web can get there. However, the outline has to change – and it can be done by truly understanding SEO structure. Once you’re there, the rules will be different – but writing for the web in any other format is a waste of time and money. You may say, “just get a draft going.”
That’s great. But that’s not exactly how it works.
Everything starts and ends with relevance – and keywords. Once you’ve done the research to find out what the bots are looking for – and you know what the keywords and phrases are – now it’s time to get to work.
Understanding how the meta tags, title tags, heading tags fit into the communication platform will help determine your outline.
But here’s the catch: you will need to repeat keywords and phrases at least four times per 100 words, according to the experts. Sorry, all of that style and wit will be put to test to create a system that the search engines will not only find – but accelerate to the top of the page.
Design is still key – clearly clean design and functionality are both integral. But how you write for the web will feel different – and look different than what your eighth grade English teacher made you jump through hoops writing.