Tips and tricks for effective web content writing

Web Writing: What Does It Involve?

Content Writing: Definition

Web writing involves creating content for a website that meets search engine requirements to ensure visibility. We tend to think that content writing is limited to blog articles. This is an essential skill for your marketing strategy.

FALSE!

Content writing includes:

• Your website pages: From the homepage to the contact page, each must have a very specific objective. Each of them must have its content optimized according to this objective.

• Landing pages: A landing page, also known as a destination page, aims to encourage visitors to fill out a form or click to the next step.

• Your FAQ or support pages: These pages answer questions from visitors and users of your services or products.

• White papers: These are somewhat like a looooong blog article on a specific topic that should address a problem by providing solutions. They can be referenced, even if it's not the rule. As a web writer, this requires you to wear two hats:

1. The Writer: You write high-value web content for your audience to meet their needs.

2. "SEO Expert": Web content writing demands excellent mastery of SEO requirements to ensure your content is visible. You need to know the basics of natural referencing (SEO) and stay informed of various updates to optimize your content effectively.

To summarize: A web writer creates blog articles, landing pages, or content for website pages, which they will meticulously optimize to ensure their web content appears on the first page of Google.

The Web Writer's Mindset

Today, content marketing is essential for an effective company marketing strategy and website referencing. Content writing has become increasingly important, and content is more and more competitive because everyone wants to achieve the top spot. You've probably realized that creating content just for the sake of creating content is pointless. You need to be in a COM-PE-TI-TIVE mindset.

When you write content, you should tell yourself: I want to be in the first position on Google. I need to do better than my competitors.

Now, I see what you're thinking. You're saying: "Okay, but being in the first position takes time."

Think again. If you meticulously optimize your content, you'll see results very quickly. If you doubt it, no worries. Ask Nicolas, Sales Odyssey's head analytics enthusiast—he'll be happy to give you feedback and share some results!

Writing for the Web: Prerequisites for High-Performing Content

If you want your content to stand out, you absolutely must meet these prerequisites.

Have a Good Understanding of Your Target Audience

Regardless of the type of content you create, you must thoroughly understand your target audience. This means you need to define your personas to create quality content. Why? Because all web content must address the reader's problem. This is obvious for writing blog articles, but in reality, it applies to all types of content: your homepage, a landing page for a Google Ads campaign, and even your contact page.

Define Your Objectives

For your content to be the best and rank on the first page of Google, you need to set objectives. Objectives are important for having a precise vision of the results you want to achieve. This will also allow you to challenge yourself and improve your articles if you observe that the results obtained are not as expected. Don't be too ambitious with the objectives you want to achieve. Prefer SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Define Your Performance Indicators

"Objectives" implies KPIs! Web content is like social media: you need to define objectives and track precise performance indicators like article ranking, number of visitors, time spent, etc.

This is essential for observing the results obtained and seeing if you have reached your objectives. It will also allow you to track the progress of your content on Google and any difficulties it encounters in ranking. Based on your observations, you can make improvements to consolidate positions.

For a blog article, for example:

I advise you, in the first few weeks, to monitor its progress on search engines. What I mean by that is tracking the position and page number where your articles appear. If they are not well-positioned on Google, they won't be visible and therefore won't be read by your target audience.

As soon as you observe traffic on your article, I recommend tracking the time spent by your visitor, especially if it's long. This is a very good metric to track to know if people are reading your article or not. You can also track the number of unique visitors and observe progress. If your articles include lead magnets (downloadable content in exchange for personal data), you can compare the number of people who read your article with those who downloaded the document.

SEO Tools for Measuring Performance: Infographic

Of course, to track the performance of your content, you will need to use SEO tools. The most well-known are Google Analytics and Matomo Analytics. Many others exist. To help you use the right tools, we have listed all the SEO tools to use based on your needs.

11 Steps to Optimize Your Editorial Content

All the steps we are about to cover apply to all pages of your website, not just blog articles. You must not neglect any of them if you want to ensure the visibility of your content.

To properly optimize your web content, several elements need to be considered:

1. The background of your pages: keyword definition, URL customization, title tag, meta description. This concerns all the elements you will find in your site's back-office.

2. The optimization of the page itself: the intro (chapô), H1, H2, and H3 tags, keyword variations, ALT tags, and internal linking.

Step 1: Identify the Right Main Keyword

Choosing the right keyword is crucial to give your website pages the best chance of being referenced by search engines and thus being found by users. Make sure to properly define your personas and their issues to identify the right target keyword. To do this, you can use Ubersuggest. This tool allows you to identify the right keywords to include in your content. It also gives you all keyword variations and long-tail searches to use.

Step 2: Include the Keyword in the URL

By definition, the URL is used to find a page of your website on search engines. By including the target keyword in it, search engines will better understand the topic covered, thereby promoting its SEO.

Step 3: Complete the Title Tag

The title tag (not to be confused with the H1 tag) is an HTML tag corresponding to the page title you see appear on the search engine when it generates the results of your query. This tag is very important for your SEO, so you must include your target keyword in it.

Step 4: Fill in the Meta Description

The meta description corresponds to the text you see appear on search engines below the URL. It indicates to the user what will be found on the page. It should not exceed 160 characters and must include the target keyword.

Step 5: Define the H1 Tag

The H1 tag corresponds to the main title within your article. It is important for search engines because it indicates the beginning of your article's structure and strongly contributes to SEO. It must imperatively include your target keyword.

Step 6: Work on Your Page's Introduction

From both a reader's and an SEO perspective, it should not be neglected. Your introduction should be short, impactful, and include your target keyword in the first few lines.

Step 7: Define H2 Tags

The H2 tag corresponds to the second level of headings on your pages and should include the keyword or its variations. It helps indicate the main sections that compose them. This is where structure is important, because in addition to the main sections, you will need to define your sub-sections with the H3 tag.

Step 8: Define H3 Tags

The H3 tag corresponds to the sub-section of your main section (e.g., the small A, B, C of your part 1). Like the other tags, it defines the structure of your web page and contributes to the article's referencing. Take advantage of H3s to add keyword variations.

Step 9: Introduce Variations of Your Keyword in Your Content

The content must include variations of the target keyword to allow users to find it using other terms. Don't hesitate to integrate long-tail keywords.

To identify keyword variations, you can use the following SEO tools:

• Answer The Public: This tool identifies all queries made by internet users in different forms based on the keyword you enter.

• Google suggestions: These provide all searches associated with your initial query.

You can also use the Ubersuggest tool mentioned above. Be careful! The idea is not to keyword stuff but to intelligently introduce other keywords by meeting your audience's needs.

Step 10: Fill in the ALT Tag for Your Images

Including images adds content diversity and boosts its referencing thanks to the ALT tag (alternative text). By including the target keyword (or variations) in the tag, you describe the image to search engine robots, which, once identified, reference it. For those who don't master Adobe Suite software (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), here are 13 free tools to create visuals.

#tips: Video is highly valued by search engines. In addition to providing content diversity, it helps boost your SEO and encourages readers to spend time on your site. To learn more about the topic, we've written an article on why to use video marketing.

Step 11: Work on Internal Linking

Internal linking refers to the links you include in your article to redirect your readers to other pages on your site. Caution! This doesn't mean just inserting a link here and there. Internal linking is extremely important for natural referencing as well as for your readers. When you set up your editorial calendar, you will need to indicate which link appears in your introduction and which links should be present in the body of your article.

It allows your readers to navigate your site more easily and find the information they need without going back through a search engine. It also allows them to progress through their journey by moving from one topic to another. To properly implement your internal linking, we advise you to create a content strategy to have a clear view of your reader's journey and internal linking.

Marketing Content Writing: Summary Diagram

Content Writing Training

What studies should you pursue to become a web writer?

It is possible to get a direct post-baccalaureate education over three years by opting for:

• A BUT (Bachelor of University Technology) in Information-Communication.

• A BUT in Multimedia and Internet Professions.

• Or a Bachelor's degree in Literature or Information and Communication.

It is also possible to continue with a Master's degree in communication or journalism, an IEP (Institute of Political Studies) diploma, or a journalism school. It all depends on the specific position you are aiming for and the level you wish to achieve.

What are the web writing training programs for...

There are many training programs available to become a web writer. For example, you can opt for:

• SEO training: To master the technical aspects of SEO and content optimization.

• Content marketing training: To develop a comprehensive content strategy.

• Copywriting training: To learn persuasive writing techniques that convert.

How much does a web writer earn?

The salary of a web writer can vary significantly based on their experience, skills, and whether they work freelance or as an employee. On average, a junior web writer can expect to earn between €1,800 and €2,500 gross per month. With more experience, this figure can rise to €3,500 or more. For freelancers, rates are usually calculated per word, per article, or per project.