Three Mistakes You May Be Making When Writing Content For Your Website or Blog

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There are some common mistakes people make when writing for their website. Here are three common ones.

1. Writing for your peers instead of your clients.

I once noticed a feeling of unease when writing a blog post. I kept thinking about a particular colleague whose intellect I admired and that if they read it, they would think I was being simplistic and 'dumbing it down'.

I had to force myself to remember who I was talking to. Writing for colleagues is very different to writing for potential clients, so unless your business is actually providing a service to your colleagues, you may want to review your writing style, to see if some of this confusion has snuck in.

Here is another way in which this can play out.

2. Being overly meticulous and comprehensive

As a professional, you have a great depth of knowledge. That's why you're the expert.

Your purpose when writing for your website, is to engage potential clients and to take them on a journey with you. Your message needs to reach people at the exact stage of their (search) journey right now.

It is also why a content strategy is important. You need different pieces of content for people with different levels of understanding and at different stages of 'need'.

Less is More.

Showing how much you know, is rarely appropriate in one piece of content. Unless it is a Pillar article and part of that particular strategy - but that will be a topic for another post (See? I just did it. I left something out).

Let go of that nagging feeling about a colleague reading your work. You are not writing for them.

3. Industry Jargon & Terminology

You may be so involved in your area of expertise, that you don't even notice that you are using words that mere mortals don’t understand. Your clients will be engaged and motivated to learn, but not if you start by using words they don't understand.

People don't like to feel stupid.

Use words your clients use themselves and understand. These may not even be the 'technically correct' terms. For example, many people who want a website, refer to 'getting a web page'. What they actually want is a website, but they call it a web page.

Are you aware of any common but 'technically incorrect' words which your clients use when talking to you?

You may think that certain things are obvious to everyone.

For example, I could assume that everyone knows what SEO (search engine optimisation) means.

Even if you had heard this term before (quite likely), your level of understanding what this means will be different to somebody else. Some may have a minimal level of understanding while others' may be advanced.

Tip: When you are using industry terms, add a brief explanation to help convey the meaning. You don't need to go into detail - just enough to add to the understanding.

For example, if I was talking about SEO and images, I could say “one of the many factors which impact Search Engine Optimisation (a series of best practice activities to help you show up online), is the naming of images to contain relevant keywords”.

The section in brackets is the brief explanation of SEO, and then I make my point. Effective writing needs to be easily digested. In fact, (can you believe?) it is recommended that effective copywriting be targeted to the 6th-7th grade reading level.

Don't underestimate this task. Putting something complex into simple language is in itself an important skill.

Want to test your writing level for yourself? There is a great online app called Hemmingway which will test the readability level of your posts and make suggestions.

According to Hemmingway, this blog post is rated at Grade 6 reading level.

Have fun with it. I did.