The need to create great content for a website cannot be overstated. Creating the initial content for a website should be a stage in a websites development that precedes the actual Website Design and construction.

There’s no getting away from the realities of the internet today; it is content that search engines will use to rank your website in their results, and it is useful content that your visitors need to see. Creating that all important text can be a very daunting task, particularly if you aren’t overly comfortably with writing. There is help at hand though! With this simple five step plan you will soon be creating your own content like a pro.

Step 1 – Research

No matter what the topic of your website, without informative content you will struggle to keep visitors coming back to your pages, and will never reach that elusive page one status on Google. Your first step therefore is to research exactly what you will be writing about. There is no need to spend a long time on this step, for a 500 word piece of writing ten minutes of research should be more than enough to point you in the right direction. Particularly if you take advantage of the following websites:

  • EzineArticles
  • Wikipedia
  • Google

Step 2 – Three main points

As you perform research on your chosen topics, you should be able to pick out three main points that will characterise your own text. Whether you have a notepad by your desk, or a word processor open on your computer, it is essential that you jot down what these three main points will be. From the information that you have just gleaned from your research, it won’t take you long to fill in the gaps and answer the points that you have noted down. Please note that you should never simply steal the points from another piece of writing; instead take the best of each article or website that you find on your chosen subject to create a completely unique piece of content.

Step 3 – Introduction & conclusion

With the bulk of your text containing the three main points detailed above, the introduction and conclusion are all that remain. As you now know what the content will cover, the introduction is your opportunity to entice your reader by giving them a taste of what’s to come. Your conclusion on the other hand should simply wrap up the points that you have detailed.

Step 4 – Proofread

Just because you have fulfilled your ideal word count from the appropriate research conducted in Step 1 does not mean your job is finished. Proofreading is absolutely essential to your content creation success. Don’t ever assume that your word processer will discover every error, as some mistakes can only be spotted by human eyes. Re-read your text at least once to make sure that it makes sense and that it is mistake free.

Step 5 – Remember the golden rule

In any content that you create during your website design, you must always remember the one golden rule:

“Visitors first, search engines second!”

It might be tempting to stuff your sentences to the brim with keywords that the search engines are searching for. But without useful content for your visitors to sink their teeth into, your page views will remain at an all time low.