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How to Optimize Your Product Description Copywriting for Conversions

December 31, 2020March 21, 2017 by Adam Oakley

If you run an e-commerce site where you sell things online, you know just how important your product description copywriting is. Unfortunately, many marketers miss the bar when it comes to crafting product descriptions that actually sell and return on their copy investment. If you think about a product description objectively, it’s clear that they’re the first experience customers have with your product or service. While it’s one thing if a customer can pick up your product and feel it in person, selling takes on an entirely new flavor if that physical contact is impossible. When the magic of incredibly good product description copy happens, that’s like the Holy Grail of online content – a visitor reads and buys, over and over. Your investment comes back 100x. If you’re interested in learning how to overhaul your product descriptions and boost both their SEO and customer appeal, read on! 5 Typical Product Description Copywriting Mistakes You Should Never Make While product descriptions may seem simple, they’re some of the most common things that marketers mess up. With that in mind, here are the five most common mistakes new and experienced marketers alike tend to make with product descriptions: 1. Falling Victim to Bland Copy If you think about it, product descriptions are meant to get people excited about your products. Copy that doesn’t excite won’t inspire conversions. Being too dull or boring will sink your ship quickly. The best product descriptions include some degree of enthusiasm and urgency that makes people want to buy your products right now. While this is not to say that you should be overly salesy, it is to say that getting excited about your product and letting that show through your descriptions is an excellent idea. Check out how Dollar Shave Club brings the fun into their descriptions, with phrases like “butter up” to describe applying their shaving cream: 2. Not Providing Enough Information If a customer can’t pick up your product, try it on, and feel it for themselves, it is essential to give them as much information as possible to ensure that they have what they need to make their purchasing decision. Unfortunately, one of the most common mistakes marketers make is to offer the bare minimum of information in their descriptions. If you look at clothing websites like Backcountry, you’ll see examples of detailed, in-depth product descriptions that leave nothing to the imagination. Backcountry incorporates lengthy user reviews on the page along with their very detailed product description, answering every question you could probably have on the subject, for example with this Patagonia men’s sweater jacket: Instead of providing a skeletal, textual product description, these companies offer images, videos, and real-life measurements of their models so people can get an idea of how to size the clothing they’re purchasing. Follow this model to make your product descriptions as valuable as possible. 3. Sloppy Writing One of the deadly sins of online writing, product descriptions included, is to be sloppy with your grammar or facts in your language. Because product descriptions aren’t quite as glamorous as other forms of content, like blogs or social media, they often get overlooked. That’s a dangerous mistake since product descriptions are some of the most critical forms of content on your website. Plus, the facts within the descriptions can make or break the sale. Overlook them, and you risk creating sloppy material that alienates customers and may even cost you some sales. Treat your product descriptions as a high priority form of content. Draft them, and then go back to re-write and edit them. The more attention you pay to your product descriptions, the better they’ll turn out in the end. 4. Not Including All the Critical Details As a general rule, a product description is not the place to assume that your customers know anything about your product. Instead, it is a place to give them all the information they need to be educated about your products, goods, or service. Provide as much information as you have about the product, including background information. For example, if you are a company that sells baby carriers, you might provide information about the baby carrier, and how different women in different cultures wear them. From there, you can transition to talking about the fabric of your baby carrier, its various carrying options, and how much weight it can safely carry. While most marketers assume this kind of information is overkill, it’s critical to help inform your customers at every turn. Look how Tula does this with their baby carriers. They even bold the phrases that most parents will probably look for when selecting the best baby carrier to purchase, like positioning, baby weight limits, and key ergonomic and comfort phrases: How To Write A Product Description That Sells: 6 Actionable Tips Whether you’re a new e-commerce company just getting started, or you’re looking to improve your existing product descriptions, these guidelines will help. 1. Know Your Audience The first and most critical step in any good writing is to know who you’re talking to. You have to understand the audience for each product description before you write them. Who is going to be buying this product? Is it a mom with a toddler? Is it a person looking for inexpensive cleaning solutions? Is it a teenager? Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to target your product descriptions accordingly, and ensure that each one you write speaks directly to the customers who will be interested in the product. 2. Get Comprehensive As we discussed above, the more complete your product descriptions are, the better. Keep in mind, though, that there is a right way and a wrong way to be comprehensive. Consider one of the critical lessons of selling anything: don’t talk about the features, talk about the benefits. This applies to your product descriptions just like it would any other form of online content. Instead of telling your clients what your product does, tell them how it will help them. How will it make their … Read more

Death of the Fold: Why Content Writers Don’t Have to Worry About Scroll Time

December 31, 2020January 30, 2017 by Adam Oakley

You’ve likely heard of the phrase “above the fold,” if you’re even slightly into internet marketing and copywriting. According to collective wisdom, we’re supposed to top-load the content that appears “above the fold” if we want to succeed. If you’re unfamiliar with the term “fold,” it essentially means the place that a reader would have to scroll to see more content or the bottom of the visible page. For years, this has been a battle cry in the world of SEO, and it’s one that’s rung loudly with writers, web designers, and others. But what if that call is wrong? What if “the fold” has fallen out of vogue and, today, it’s nothing more than a myth that you don’t need to worry about quite so much. Today, we’re going to dig into this, and help you understand why “above the fold” could be a dead term. Read on. What “Above the Fold” Content Looks Like Whether you know it or not, you’ve seen above the fold content. You can find it on virtually any small software company’s website. It looks like this: On the FreshBooks website, which sells small business accounting software, the viewer gets a visual, a headline, a few sentences of text, and a call-to-action button – all without having even to touch their mouse. That’s it. You can’t scroll down. Let me take this moment to say that there’s not anything wrong with this layout. The website is visually appealing, uncluttered, and compelling. That said, though, there is something wrong with the intense declaration that every call to action on every web page in every industry must exist above the fold. This has been going on for a few years – this insistence that everything should be above the fold. In fact, Kissmetrics explored it in a 2012 article: Kissmetrics question to their audience is: “What if the premise is wrong? What if calls to action below the precise work better?” Let’s explore why that may or may not be true, by today’s standards. Death of the Fold: The Real Benefit of a Below-the-Fold CTA CTAs tucked into the bottom of pages may perform as well if not better than their above-the-fold counterparts. In fact, a page with a CTA tucked into the bottom footer of the page out-converted (by 20%) a page with a prominent CTA positioned above-the-fold (Unbounce). While it may seem contradictory that a CTA tucked down low on a page (where presumably nobody would see) it could out-perform a CTA placed in the most prominent portion of a page, it’s true. I know, it seems even more unbelievable when you consider that the majority (80%) of people read headlines, while only 20% click through to read body content. So, what’s this fascination with below-the-fold content? The answer comes down to a few things and, surprisingly, the fold isn’t one of them. At the end of the day, the all-powerful fold is just a technicality in the content conversion process. Here’s why: users are happy to keep scrolling to reach your CTA, if the material they see above the fold interests them enough. In other words, the conversion rates of above- versus below-the-fold content has less to do with the actual position of the CTA than it does the quality of the content on the page. In other words, readers will keep going if they feel motivated to do so, and this has nothing to do with the position of the CTA. Instead, it has to do with how motivational your content is and how much it drives your reader toward your CTA. According to the aforementioned Kissmetrics article: “Higher conversion rates have nothing to do with whether the button is above the fold, and everything to do with whether the button is below the right amount of good copy.” How Much Copy is Enough Copy? Now that you know why the fold is a myth let’s talk about how much copy you need to provide your readers with “good copy.” Of course, there’s no one-size-fits all rule for this, and the answer depends on your various audience segments. Assuming you’re dealing with calls-to-action on landing pages or websites, here’s how you should arrange your content to appeal to each different audience segment: 1. Leads who are ready to buy. These people get it. They know what you’re offering, and they know why. They also know they want it. They’ve read enough of your content to feel compelled by it and convert at the highest rate if you stick your CTA at the top of the page. 2. Information-gathering prospects. These leads are relatively familiar with your company, and they just need a bit of a nudge to hop in and convert. For best results, give them a bit of educational text and a prominent CTA. This isn’t so much about positioning your CTA above the fold as it is ensuring that the content you offer them is prominent and educational enough to convince them to dive in with your company. 3. New leads. If you have someone who is brand-new to your landing page or product, you’re going to need to do more legwork. This will mean that your CTA coincidentally falls below the fold, although, again, this has less to do with placement than it does the amount of content you’re offering before the CTA. To hook these readers, give them a solid value proposition, well-written educational copy, and a precise definition of benefits, costs, etc. A compelling CTA at the end of all of this will help seal the deal. Why Scrolling Isn’t so Bad After All Today, people scroll almost intuitively. Think about it: we scroll in everything we do. We scroll through the contacts on our phones, our text messages, our music libraries. We scroll through books and magazines on our Kindles and scroll down product pages to locate what we’re looking for online. Scrolling is second-nature, and people aren’t nearly as afraid of it as they once were. Because of this, people aren’t automatically turned off if … Read more

10 Deadly, No-Good Scenarios That Could Happen If You DIY All Your Web Copy By Yourself

December 31, 2020December 27, 2016 by Adam Oakley

DIY web copy: it’s not the worst thing in the world to do yourself, right? I mean, half the DIY projects on Pinterest that are in the intermediate-advanced level would be 10x harder, right? Actually, you might be surprised. Do-it-yourself web copy is a fate that befalls many business owners, but it can be seriously dangerous if DIY’ed without thought, skill, or care. Worse than you know. (Cue the Addams Family Values theme song…) While there are plenty of people out there who are perfectly capable of creating their own online web copy, there are many who don’t know how to do it, or who think they can handle it all by themselves and realize in the middle of a publishing schedule that they can’t. Don’t get lost in one of these scenarios: keep reading to find out why (and when) the DIY line for web copy stops. Save yourself, before it’s too late! (/end cue) 10 Deadly Scenarios that Could Happen to YOU If You DIY Your Web Copy Don’t make the same mistakes others have done (RIP, copy that never converted a single soul). Read our ten deadly scenarios that could happen to you if you DIY your own web copy: 1. You could die I’m not kidding. DIY-ing your web content can be deadly! It’s deathly exhausting, and, if you don’t call for help, you may soon find yourself buried beneath a pile of papers, fingers stuck to the keyboards, struggling for breath. 30% of marketers spend between 1-5 hours each week on social media content creation, for example, and people who don’t ask for help can quickly find themselves overwhelmed and overworked. With this in mind, save your content and your life by asking for help from a team of skilled writers. Not only will your content come out better, but you may save your sanity in the process. 2. Or, Google could kill you If you don’t kill yourself first (literally and figuratively) from all the hard work of content writing, Google is a pretty all-powerful internet entity, and you don’t want to get on their bad side. Unfortunately, this is easy to do when you DIY your web content. Simple things that can easily get missed: citing low-quality sources, plagiarizing content, or simply writing badly can land you in hot water with the Google Gods. Write and publish bad content, Google doesn’t want you showing well in their search engine. Death–by robots. Just another way that DIY-ing your web content can be dangerous, and it’s one that every professional writer everywhere wants to save you from. 3. Die the death of bad writing This is one of the most real threats of DIY-ing your online content – you could just suck at it. And here’s the really terrifying part: you don’t even need to be a bad writer to suck at it! Online writing is complex, and few people (aside from those people who are professionally trained in the industry) know how to do it well every time. While writing badly may not seem that awful, it can have a big, ugly impact on your rankings, and could actually cause bad thing #1 and #2 on this list to happen to you! 4. Miss out on good keywords, and thus, you die (exist online without traffic) Did you know that optimizing content for online writing is vitally important? That means picking, finding, and researching the best keywords for your copy, the ones that actually have a shot at being included–long-tails, to be specific. If you did, the chances are good that you don’t actually know how to optimize your online content. This is one of the worst sins of DIY content, and it’s also one of the easiest to avoid. Have a professional writer do it for you, and avoid this deadly and embarrassing scenario. 5. The world could end as you know it There’s so much low-quality on the web already that I would not be surprised to see the poor interwebs simply stop spinning one of these days, so weighed down it is by all of the crappy content in existence. Don’t be the one that pushes it over the edge! A professional writer can give you high-quality, professional material. Copy that won’t make the world as we know it come to a screeching halt. 6. You could plagiarize something, and thus, die Even if you’re not copying and pasting someone’s site, plagiarism (duplication of someone else’s content) happens. It happens in the form of copied meta descriptions, paraphrased content that sticks too close to its original source, and non-cited quotes and copied material. Plagiarized content has devastating effects on your Google ranking, and more, so it’s critical to avoid it entirely. Besides Google, if someone catches wind that you “copied” your content off someone else, the reputation results are dire. Don’t let these fates befall you! 7. You could lose readers, and die Writing boring, flabby, or icky content at any point? Any existing reader you had will leave and, when they do, you’re going to wish they hadn’t – there goes the lifeblood of your online content (the real, alive, human reader). Keep them around by writing better content from the get-go, with the help of a professional writer. It will save you time and money and will boost the effectiveness of your content across the board. 8. Stagnation in topic areas you know (death from boredom) If you’re DIY-ing your content, but you’re in a rush, you’re not pushing yourself to get better. That means stagnation of the worst kind–content that gets repetitive, boring, and useless. With this in mind, skip the sad effort altogether and outsource your content to a reliable writer. They’ll make it great again and you’ll get to succeed in the other areas of your business! 9. You could make an embarrassing typo, and die a grammar convict’s death Ever seen someone picked apart online for a typo? It’s happened – even to major brands. You wouldn’t want to make the mistake of typing “pubic” rather than “public” throughout … Read more

10 Top Skills Every Modern Web Page Writer Needs to Have

June 19, 2024October 12, 2016 by Adam Oakley

When it comes to web page writing, there are several skills that every writer creating these pages needs to have. Because so much scrutiny is placed on websites today–between Google’s high standards and the short attention span of modern readers–it’s critical for the modern web page writer to have key skillsets. Web page writers need to be adaptable, quick to learn, and flexible enough to embrace mistakes and synthesize something new from them. I wrote today’s guide to share with you the top skills every web writer should have to succeed today. Let’s get into it! [bctt tweet=”Got web page writing skills? @JuliaEMcCoy shares us the top 10 skills every modern web page writer should have.” username=”ExpWriters”] Defining a Web Page Writer A web page writer is a specialized type of content writer who writes online web pages for companies in various industries. While this writer may also create blog posts, articles, social media content, and ebooks, he or she specializes in web pages, which is hard since web pages have become an increasingly more demanding form of content in recent years. Web Writers Have an Important Role Last year, Google released its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and, earlier this year, they updated them. The guidelines span 145 pages and were designed to help Google’s flesh-and-blood search quality. Evaluators determine what a good web page was and what wasn’t. Within these guidelines, Google introduced two acronyms meant to help evaluators do exactly that: EAT and YMYL. What is EAT? EAT stands for “expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness” and is used to describe the three things web pages need to be considered quality. One of the main reasons that web page writers are so important is that they possess the expertise to produce these three things in on-page content, which many novice or non-specialized writers do not. Because web page writers understand Google’s complex standards and ranking factors, they’re the best possible person to create web page content that will adhere to it. What about YMYL? Secondly, YMYL. YMYL stands for “your money or your life” and is used to describe web pages that contain critical information that can have an adverse impact on a reader’s health, wealth, or safety if transmitted wrong. Examples of these pages include financial advice, medical advice, pages on divorce law, or tax information. In the case of YMYL pages, it’s critical to hire a knowledgeable, experienced writer who can create a spot-on web page that uses facts, statistics, and stable sources to make a point. In addition to the fact that pages like this are less likely to be dinged or down-ranked by Google, they’re also better equipped to serve the target audience well. Read more about the EAT and YMYL standards, in my guide. 10 Skills Web Page Writers Need to Have in 2016 & Beyond With these things in mind, it’s easy to see why expert web page writers are so critical to the health and wellbeing of online content. In addition to keeping a site owner out of trouble with Google, these skilled writers also possess the capabilities to write quality web pages that deliver flawless information. 1. Adaptability As a web page writer, you write about topics for various industries, from auto care to finance, and it’s essential for these writers to be flexible and adaptable enough to shift their voice, perspective, and tone. Within this adaptability comes the ability to speak directly to very different audiences, understand different points of view, and morph correctly into the writer various industries need for their online content. 2. Attention to detail Being a web page writer is a very detailed job. In addition to staying on top of Google’s various changes (some of which are minuscule), a web page writer must also be able to track small changes and alterations in text and understand the many places in which a tiny shift will make a big difference. This goes for things like spelling and grammar just as much as it does more complex issues like tone and voice. When a web page writer pays incredible attention to detail, everyone benefits. [bctt tweet=”In addition to staying on top of Google’s various changes (some of which are minuscule), a web page writer must also be able to track small changes and alterations in text… – @JuliaEMcCoy on the top #webpagewriter skills.” username=”ExpWriters”] 3. Research skills Writing good web page copy often requires heavy research, and if a writer doesn’t know how to do this, the entire ship begins to sink. By understanding how to locate and vet sources and how to integrate facts and statistics through a piece of content, a web page copywriter can create beautiful, unique, high-quality online content that benefits the company and its customers. 4. Precision Web page copy must be precise – both regarding the information within the content and the way it’s presented. Readers are more than willing to walk away from long, rambling content that lacks a point or definitive direction, and it’s the web page writer’s job to keep them enthralled by using precise language and short, succinct sentences. Without this skill, web page copy that should be flawless rapidly becomes chunky, ugly, and difficult to wade through. 5. Multi-tasking skills It’s not uncommon for a web page copywriter to have several different pieces of content in the works at one time, for several different companies. Without a healthy set of multitasking skills, it’s likely that these things will get confused and muddled. Instead, a web page writer needs to be able to categorize different jobs mentally and physically. One voice for one job, another voice for a separate job. What’s more, a web page copywriter must also be able to research, write, and edit all at once, if that’s what the workload requires. 6. Technical know-how A web page writer is part SEO, webmaster, and editor, all in one. During the process of developing web copy, it’s not at all uncommon for the writer to also be called upon to resolve minor web issues … Read more

10 Indispensable Reasons Why You Need Professional Web Copywriting Services

June 19, 2024August 31, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Let’s face it – some things just require skill. You wouldn’t hire a carpenter to give you a root canal, would you? Nor would you head to a sandwich shop for auto body work. Some professional skills are best left to professionals and trying to outsource them to anything less results in a poor job (at best) and a complete disaster (at worst). This is as true for web copywriting services as it is for anything else—perhaps even more so. When it comes to your online content, nothing but the best will (and should) do, and there are dozens of great reasons to hire professional web copywriting services. A lot of this has to do with Google and their current standards. Read on to learn more. [bctt tweet=”Let’s face it – some things just require skill. You wouldn’t hire a carpenter to give you a root canal. Nor would you head to a sandwich shop for auto body work. Don’t hire a non-writer to write your content. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] The Real Reasons Businesses Need Professional Web Copywriting Services Why do you need web copywriting services? Let me count the ways… First of all, Google doesn’t exactly love hack jobs pretending to be copywriters. Last year, the search engine released a document called the “Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.” The original document was 160 pages (it’s since been updated to 146), and it dispersed all sorts of useful information about how Google’s quality evaluators were to assign rankings to websites. One of the most important things the guidelines laid out, though, is the need for professional web copywriting services. Shocked? Stay with us. In the original version of the guidelines, Google went to great pains to define two critical acronyms: EAT and YMYL. Here’s what you need to know: EAT EAT stands for “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.” According to Google’s guidelines, high-quality pages have high levels of EAT. Low-quality pages don’t. According to section 4.5 of the guidelines themselves, “High-quality pages and websites need enough expertise to be authoritative and trustworthy on their topic.” While Google stops here to clarify that “expert” pages can cover topics ranging from fashion and gossip to specialty pages, it’s clear that the search engine wants to see authoritative, quality content – no matter the topic. How do you get quality content? You hire expert web copywriting services. You see, great content is about more than just knowledge. It’s also about structure, formatting, SEO, and linking. By hiring web copywriting services that specialize in your given industry, you get all of the knowledge required for a high-EAT page, combined with the technical know-how that’s needed to rank well. Talk about a winning combination. YMYL YMYL stands for “Your money or your life.” This acronym is a lot like EAT in that it defines what good pages should have, but it’s also different because it talks about a particular subset of pages. You see, YMYL pages are those that, according to the guidelines, “could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or financial stability of users.” Examples of these pages include the following: Financial or shopping pages: Any website that allows customers to make purchases or pay their bills online is a YMYL page Pages that provide financial information: Any page that offers financial advice on topics ranging from investments, retirement, or taxes is a YMYL page Pages that provide medical information: Any page that provides information about drugs, diseases, mental health and well-being, or nutrition is considered by Google to be a YMYL page Pages that provide legal information: Pages that offer legal advice or information on critical things like divorce proceedings, child custody, or immigration are YMYL pages Any page that may impact the health, safety, or wellbeing of people: Other pages may be considered YMYL pages if the content within them has a significant impact on people. Consider the example of a car repair website, for instance, which tells consumers how to replace their car’s brakes. If written poorly, this page could have a negative impact on the safety of the people reading it. When it comes to YMYL pages, professional web copywriting services are especially needed. Because Google pays extra attention to these pages, it’s critical to get them right, and hiring a team of expert copywriters, editors, and SEOs is a great place to start. [bctt tweet=”According to Google, high-quality content should have EAT and YMYL. Know more about these two critical acronyms in this post on why you should hire web #copywritingservices” username=”ExpWriters”] 10 Good Reasons to Hire Professional Web Copywriting Services Still not sold on the need for professional web copywriting services? Here are ten solid reasons to jump onboard. 1. Hiring a team of professionals means you’ll save time Content marketing is a time-consuming business! When you look at social media alone, the statistics are staggering: 64% of marketers spend 6 hours each week on social media, 41% spend 11 hours or more, and 19% spend upwards of 20 hours each week on their social media accounts! With these numbers in mind, it’s not difficult to see how hiring professional web copywriting services can free up lots of time, energy, and resources. By turning content creation, distribution, and SEO over to a skilled professional, you allow yourself to reclaim critical time to focus on other things – like running your company. This, in turn, improves everything about the way your business operates and ensures that your social, blog, and on-page content isn’t suffering for lack of time. 2. Professional web copywriting services take a third-party approach As paradoxical as it may seem, many companies have a difficult time explaining their services. When you hire professional web copywriting services, though, this problem is a thing of the past. A team of skilled copywriters can evaluate your mission statement and services and craft an intelligible, comprehensive, and compelling statement about what it is that you do and why customers need it. This, in turn, creates more interesting content and prevents you from getting stuck in that odd, “I don’t want to toot my horn” place. 3. Expert … Read more

A Guide for the Web Content Writer: How To Create Content Up To Flesch–Kincaid Readability Standards

December 31, 2020August 30, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Have you heard of the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests? If you answered “no”, hold onto your chair. We’re about to tell you something that will change (read: improve) the way you create as a web content writer, forever. First, we all know that writing great copy means writing simple copy, right? Copy that delivers the point without delving into complicated language or convoluted sentences, to be clear. For some people, though, this is a tall order. Fortunately, the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests are here to help you determine how readable your content truly is and what you can do to improve it. Read on to learn more about these nifty tests and how they can revolutionize your content writing experience forever as a web content writer. A Guide for the Web Content Writer: Defining the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test The Flesch-Kincaid readability tests were named after a talented Mr. J. Peter Kincaid and his team of developers. The tests were originally developed under contract with the US Navy and were designed to assess the difficulty of understanding in technical manuals around the year 1978. Within a few years, the tests became the standard within the Department of Defense and quickly spread throughout government. What do the tests test for though? Essentially, the tests break text down into two parts (word length and sentence length) and then evaluate both parts for readability. Ideally, all parts of a piece of content should be written at a ninth-grade reading level. This ensures that the content will be easy for virtually everyone to understand and ensures that technical manuals, insurance policies and medical documents are not out of reach of the common reader. There are two parts of the Flesch-Kincaid readability tests: Flesch reading ease test Flesch-Kincaid grade level test They both measure word and sentence length and their results relate conversely to one another. For example, if a piece of text has a high Reading Ease score, it should have a low grade level score. The Flesch Reading Ease Test When a piece is evaluated with the Flesch reading-ease test, the higher the score, the better. The formula for this test is as follows: 206.835 – 1.015 (total words/total sentences) – 84.6 (total syllables/total words). The score breakdown is as follows: 0-30.0: understood easily by university graduates 0-70.0: easily understood by 15-15 year-old students 0-100.0: easily understood by most 11 year-old students Reader’s Digest, for example, is a 65 on the readability index while Time is a 52. The highest possible readability score is around 120 and consists of easy words, monosyllable words and sentences like “the dog chased the frog.” The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Test These tests are popular in the education field and present a piece of text based upon its readability for a US grade level. This makes it easy for adults to judge immediately the difficulty or ease of a piece and to ascertain its suitability for certain groups. Additionally, this test helps ascertain how many years of education a person needs to have in order to read a piece of content. The formula for this test is as follows: 0.39 (total words/total sentences) + 11.8 (total syllables/total words) – 15.59 A Content Writer Guide for Better Flesch-Kincaid Readability: 4 Tips Now that you understand what the tests are, it’s time to talk about how you can be a content writer that adheres to these formulas. This is important because, when content is simple to read, it’s more likely to grab a reader and maintain interest. Additionally, all great business writing is simple, clear, and to-the-point. This cuts away the amount of muck a reader has to wade through and makes it easy to cut to the heart of the content. To write great content that gets good scores on the readability tests, follow these 4 tips: 1. Keep sentences per paragraph low Nobody wants to wade into a never-ending paragraph by a wordy content writer. In addition to being ugly, these paragraphs are tough to read and, as such, they’ll earn you a low readability score. To keep readability up, break your text into nice, neat paragraphs rather than huge blocks of content. 2. Keep words per sentence low Run-ons, begone! To keep your readability score high, use no more than 25 words per sentence you write. This keeps our subject clear and makes your writing easy to read. This also allows you to separate your thoughts and allow your readers to breathe before you leap between ideas. 3. Keep character per word counts low Unless you’re writing a technical piece, keep your words simple. For example, use “went” instead of “intended to go to.” This makes your text more readable and inherently makes it easier for readers to discern the meaning of. 4. Do away with passive voice Passive voice is the silent enemy of writers everywhere. In addition to being annoying, it makes writing confusing. “The apple was being eaten” doesn’t make nearly as much sense as “Sam ate the apple.” Keep your writing clear by writing in active rather than passive voice. Testing your readability If you write in Microsoft Word, you’ve already got a valuable readability evaluator you probably didn’t even know about. How cool is that?! To tap into it, run the typical “spelling & grammar” check from your toolbar: From here, click the “options” button at the bottom of your screen and check the box that says “show readability statistics:” This will magically give you all of the stats you need to boost your readability score: including sentence-per-paragraph, words-per-sentence and characters-per-word sentence. It will also give you your passive sentence percentage and both your Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade level scores. How Readability Affects SEO By now, we all know that good SEO means great content. Specifically, content that is easy for search engines and people to locate and read. And, since simple content allows readers to scan quickly and find answers, it’s generally preferred by SEO. So, it makes sense: writing that falls within desirable Flesch-Kincaid scores can be more … Read more

Out with the Old: Why & How to Do a New Year Website Content Audit

August 28, 2022December 15, 2015 by Adam Oakley

As we head into the New Year, it’s likely that you’ll be making resolutions. These resolutions often apply to our home and personal life, but they seldom apply to our online marketing and content writing or production. Auditing your online content is one of the best ways to start afresh, with the groundwork for new and better online marketing, in the New Year. It’s a lot like out with the old. You can’t really bring in the new unless you get the old, outdated, and unnecessary stuff out, right? As you head into the New Year, focused on starting fresh and doing away with the old things that aren’t serving you any longer, don’t let your website be the last thing on your list. Let’s talk about doing a website audit, what it is, and how you can do it as you prepare to enter 2016 strong. Here’s what you need to know about a website content audit. What is a Website Content Audit? A site content audit is the process by which you comb through your site, correct errors, locate outdated content, and replace it with something stronger. There are many benefits of a content audit, including identifying which pages need editing or updating, identifying which pages need to be consolidated due to repetitive topics, identifying which pages need to be removed from the site entirely and how doing this can help your page’s SEO rank, identifying which content needs to be prioritized based on metrics like conversions and visits, locating your content gaps and making a plan for how to fill them, determining which pages are ranking for which keywords, and identifying new content marketing opportunities. When content audits are conducted regularly, they can improve the overall quality of your site and ensure that your content is up to date, relevant, valuable, and targeted for your customers and site goals. What We Found When We Did An Audit Recently, our team did a content audit on our own site. Our content audit service is done by our team Content Strategists, whom I train—in updated SEO, our favorite tools and current best practices. The SEMrush Site Audit tool, one of the best audit tools we rely on in conducting website audits, gave us a list of missing or problematic content, including missing alt tags: And which links were broken: Besides other issues we fixed. Some of the duplicate hits didn’t apply: the sign-up page was “duplicate” to the sign-in page, which can’t be helped—it’s just a login screen. With the more manual part of our audit, we found several outdated posts, including: Blogs that mentioned products that we no longer sold Seasonal content that contained dates in the headers, i.e. “5 Tips for Better Content in 2014” Poorly SEO optimized content We made a list of all these items and have now revised and fixed these errors. Our content is more evergreen, applies more to the reader coming across it at a later date, and doesn’t contain misleading product information anymore. We’ve also improved SEO scores across the board. Moz: Audits are Beneficial According to Moz, SEO specialist Rick Ramos (of Inflow) conducted a content audit for Phases Design Studio in 2013. During the audit, Ramos developed a plan to remove many of the old, irrelevant, or stale blog posts from the site’s sitemap. He also used 301 redirect codes to point the traffic from old landing pages to newer, evergreen landing pages that were updated more frequently. Finally, he updated and refreshed many of the site’s pages. After their website content audit, Phases Design Studio started seeing eight times the amount of leads they typically saw in a month. How did Ramos manage to produce these results? The answer is simple: by updating content to make it more relevant and useful to readers. Website Content Audit 101 If you want to produce results like Ramos did during his audit, you’re in luck. You can complete your own content audit without being a tech guru. Simply follow these steps: Step One: Develop a Spreadsheet During a content audit, a spreadsheet is needed to keep your information organized as well as to provide a platform you can return to at any point in the audit. A spreadsheet also allows you to track what you’re doing and collaborate with other content specialists who may want to participate in the audit. For an example, consider this template from Moz. If you’re relatively new to website content audits, you’ll be fine to begin in Google Docs, although many content specialists move their spreadsheets to Excel as they begin doing larger and larger content audits. As a general rule, the main columns you want in your spreadsheet are as follows: URL Date audited Title Description Content Keyword Alt Tags Last Updates Internal Links Step Two: List the Pages of Your Site In order to perform your content audit adequately, you’ll need a complete list of each page on your site. The easiest way to do this is to use Google Analytics. Specifically, you’ll want to navigate to the “all pages” section by selecting “behavior,” “site content,” “all pages.” For more detail on how to complete this step, consult this QuickSprout guide. This step allows you to view a list of your site’s most-visited pages. This is an important step because it allows you to focus your audit efforts on your most popular pages and to ensure that you’re reaping results as soon as possible. Step Three: Review Your Information This part gets a little tricky because it varies depending upon which CMS you use. Since we’re partial to WordPress, this guide will offer instructions for WordPress users. Even if you don’t use WordPress, though, you’ll be able to edit these items nonetheless. As you move through your page information, you’ll want to review each of the following sections: URL and Page Title: For each page on your site, your title should meet a few criteria. First, it should be no more than 65 … Read more

How to Use Humor in Your Web Copy (The Right Way)

January 1, 2021September 17, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Humor is like common sense, it doesn’t grow in everybody’s garden. Some people have a good sense of humor while others don’t. And some have a dark sense of humor that will make you choke. Humor is highly subjective, yet it appeals to our want to have fun, laugh, and be happy, which is why it’s such an awesome tool to leverage in web copy—if it’s leveraged the right way. Our Want for Laughs People love to laugh. Every year just about every last one of us tune into the Super Bowl, whether we’re avid football fans or not. For the friends and spouses who don’t much care for football, the commercials are what they live for. Year and year the Super Bowl broadcast has provided a spotlight for amazing commercials sprinkled with just the right amount of humor. There’s no mistaking our want, and need, for comedy. Adding Humor to Web Copy Inserting humor into a televised ad is far easier than infusing our web copy. Let’s face it; getting humor across in writing is tough. Writing is all about tone, and since body language isn’t present, one slip in tone or word choice can result in the exact opposite: an insult. According to a recently published article by Jillian Richardson via Contently, although making humorous content is a great idea, “it takes a lot of hard work to earn actual laughs.” For example, Kmart tried their hand at being funny by placing GIFs in real life in one of their latest commercials. The idea isn’t bad. I mean, they are trying to be trendy. But the execution isn’t stellar. In fact, most viewers find the commercial annoying. (Thank goodness for the mute button on the remote!) In contrast to Kmart’s attempt at humor, let’s look at an abstract means of awareness brought to us by The Australian Metro. The transportation organization has landed over 82 million YouTube views for what is, in its most basic form, a public safety video designed to make people more aware of the dangers of trains. In this pithy video, you will see a rather ingenious mixture of adorable characters, catchy lyrics, and a dark sense of humor. At the end of the day, people don’t want to share another “Look Both Ways before Crossing the Tracks” article. They want to get this tune, “Dumb Ways to Die,” stuck in everyone’s head! How to Bring Visual Humor into Context There is no denying that humor is a powerful marketing tool. But how can you take it off the screen and bring it into context in your web copy? Here are six tips to help you make your readers giggle, chuckle, and laugh out loud: Know your audience. As is the case with all marketing copy, the greatest success comes from knowing what makes your audience tick. Humor works best when it hinges on something everyone can relate to. Stay true to your brand. Whether it’s a silly video or a funny tweet, be true to your brand by staying consistent and relevant. If you veer too far from the image you project, even the most hilarious comment will fail. Be obvious. When you write the punch line, it needs to be instantly obvious. If your reader has to reread to get the joke, it’s not going to have the desired impact. Do not offend. If you know your audience well, then chances are you’ll be capable of steering clear of anything offensive. After writing a humorous piece, always evaluate it from someone else’s perspective. Be sensitive to race, gender, and culture. Test market. You know how marketers preach about test marketing a campaign idea before going full bore? The same thing applies to humor. Seek opinions. Find a few trusted staff or audience members, and ask their opinion about a humorous piece before you publish. Hire a funny person. Funny is hard. Sometimes the best solution is to hire a pro, a writer who has experience weaving humor into content and knows how to create humor in your niche. Funny is a tough act. If it weren’t, we’d all be stand-up comics. Since we’re not, don’t be afraid to seek professional help. Funny Anecdotes and Stories One of the most effective ways to infuse your content with humor is to use funny anecdotes and stories. This is one of the best kinds of humor because it’s something people relate to and it’s conducive to writing. It also establishes an emotional connection, something that makes content irresistible. But once you’ve begun to wield the power of humor, the trick is to wield it responsibly: Be strategic. Do not scatter punch lines willy-nilly throughout your content. Instead, use humor with strategy, whether it’s to hook the reader at the beginning or drive home the point at the end. Use it frugally. Humor is like candy; it tastes great, but too much will make you sick. As you infuse some sweet laughs into your content, use this new confection frugally. Limit the humor to selective references. The purpose of humor in content is to make a point in a creative way, not come across as an entertainer. Keep it focused. Be sure the humorous parts of your content are on topic. You don’t want them to detract or distract from the main point. Queue the laughter. It sounds like a sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience, but there’s nothing wrong with letting your readers know it’s okay to laugh. Find subtle ways to let them know that you are laughing and it’s fine for them to join in. As business owners, marketers, and writers, it’s up to us to use the tools at our disposal to hook and keep our readers. Humor is a fantastic way to touch and connect with your audience. As the old saying goes, “If you can’t get your audience to open their mouths to laugh, you can’t get them to open their hearts to learn.” And that … Read more

Long Web Content is Still the Winner, Says Search Engine Journal

January 1, 2021September 12, 2014 by Adam Oakley

The content length debate is one that never goes away, though it does seem to die down every now and then. Once upon a time, many content creators were afraid to write long content because they believed that people wouldn’t read it. Long content is still the winner and it is what will bring and keep people on your site, according to a recent Search Engine Journal article. While it is true that people skim your online content that does not mean they aren’t reading it. We will be referencing this article throughout this post to explain just why longer content is the winner over short pieces. Is Longer Content Really The Best? When someone talks about long content, many of us possibly think that long content is not a winner and people simply will not finish in-depth pieces. Going back to the Slate article, it is titled, “You Won’t Finish This Article.” Regardless of what Slate says, Search Engine Journal has compiled a list of research that shows just how important longer content is. Long content is going to help you rank significantly because Google takes several things into consideration when ranking your site, not just keywords and quality. (Although, quality is one of the most important things, so do not forget to write quality material!) Why Is Longer Content The Winner? It is always a good idea to have information that backs up something such as this, and the Search Engine Journal article referenced earlier gives this information. There are several examples showing that longer content is the best to aim for when writing your web content and blogs, but people are still avoiding it. Let’s take a look at a few things that will be impacted if you write longer content and avoid posting shorter content: 1. People Are Going To Read An Article That Is Longer. In an article by SerpIQ, the researchers point out that longer content will bring more people to your site than a short article. The reason for this is pretty simple and something many people overlook. Think about when you search on Google for an answer to the question, sometimes you are just wondering how tall a celebrity is or what their next project will be, but other times you need information on how to install a sink or why you should write longer content. When you search for those things, you will want to read something that is actually a long piece instead of a short 500-word article. Why? Because, you know that you will get answers in a longer content piece than a shorter one. This is true of your visitors, clients, and readers as well. If someone searches for a question, he or she might only go to your site if you give a lengthy article in answer to the question. 2. Longer Posts Generate More Traffic. The Search Engine Journal article points out that because of people looking for longer content to answer their questions, your longer pieces are more likely to generate traffic. Generating traffic is something you want to do because that could mean more clients and revenue. You will be able to bring in more people with high-quality content and you will have content that establishes you as an authority in your field. This is important for every business, and you can capture this by writing lengthy content. You might be publishing short content that is high quality and should establish you as an authority, but you will find that many people might consider you more of an authority if you have long pieces on the different topics you write about. 3. People Will Stay On Your Site Longer. You will also find that people stay on your site much longer than they would if you only wrote short content. The reason for this is pretty obvious; it takes longer for someone to read a 2,000-word post than it does to read a 500-word post. When it comes to helping your site rank, having people who stay on your site longer is something that Google’s algorithms take into consideration and will combine it with other elements such as the ever-important quality content to determine your rank. Your lengthy content will take customers a bit of time to read through, but it will also make them more likely to look around your site after they have finished reading. This can help your ranks, but can also help bring in great revenue because those who are on your site longer might be more willing to make a purchase from you. 4. Longer Content Can Lead To More Social Media Shares. While people may only seem to share Grumpy Cat or some sort of—brace yourselves—Game of Thrones “Winter Is Coming” meme, many people also like to share content they find interesting. Sometimes they might share short content, but many times, an article that gets shared is one that provides the reader with useful information. All you have to do is click on the link of a certain article shared by a friend and you will most likely see that it is quite lengthy. If you want your content to get shared, you should try writing a few lengthier pieces that provide people with value and information, according to Meltwater.com. Always make sure you break up your long content, though, making it easier for people to skim. Bold sub-headers are a great way to break it up easily while still providing people with great longer content. How Can You Write Long Content? Now that you know longer content is still a winner and how it can factor into helping rank your site, you might be wondering just how to write it. This can be difficult for many people, especially if your market is a niche market. Here are a few handy suggestions that you can use to write longer content and give clients something that they will appreciate: 1. Create Lists And Flesh Them Out. Lists are … Read more

Successful Web Content: What Reading Levels Should You Aim for?

June 19, 2024April 11, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Are you speaking to your readers on their level, or are you going over (or under) their heads? Without understanding what grade level to write online content in for different target audiences, your words will not have the hoped-for impact. Instead, your readers will get bored, confused, annoyed, or all three – exactly what you don’t want to happen. What’s the Most Common Reading Level for Adults? Before we dive into what reading levels to write your online content in, we need to establish a base of knowledge. First off, what is the reading level of an average adult? While adult reading levels vary, it’s helpful to know the average – especially if you don’t know your own audience’s level yet. According to a rigorous literacy study, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) published by the National Center for Education Statistics, the average prose adult literacy level is basic to intermediate. In 2003, 29% of American adults tested at a basic level. Another 44% of adults tested at an intermediate level. When you have “prose literacy,” you have the skills and knowledge you need to comprehend, use, and search information from continuous texts (e.g. novels, textbooks, papers, essays, and other long works). Having basic prose literacy means a person has the skills to perform simple literary activities. For example, they can read and understand short texts and simple documents and locate easy-to-find information to solve simple problems. Having intermediate prose literacy means a person can perform literary activities that are moderately challenging. They have higher-level reading and analysis skills and can sift through denser texts to find meaning and solve problems. So, what are the equivalent reading grade levels? Let’s begin with one startling fact: 50% of American adults are unable to read a book written at an 8th-grade level. (That’s not to say they can’t read it, period. They can probably read some words and some sentences, but the larger ideas and themes won’t connect. That’s because the continuum of reading comprehension will be interrupted and fragmented.) When we compare prose literacy levels with a system like the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Levels, they match up how you’d expect: Most adults fall in the “average” range, which spans from 6th to 12th-grade reading levels. In other words, most adults can read books like Harry Potter or Jurassic Park and understand them without any problems. So, if you haven’t figured out your audience’s average reading level, a good base to start from with your content is indeed on the lower end of average – about an 8th-grade reading level. [bctt tweet=”Improving your content’s readability is beyond writing what works for the majority. Here’s @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide on how you can find the right grade level to write your online content in. ✍” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Know What Grade Level to Write Online Content in for Maximum Readability So, now you know the average reading grade level for most adults. But, what about YOUR audience? Your brand audience may have a reading level on par with most adults, or it could differ a lot. Here’s how to know what grade level to write online content in for YOUR specific set of readers. 1. Match Your Content to Your Audience Before you do anything else, get to know your audience. You have to find out who these people are to know the best reading level to write in FOR them. Find out details like: Their level of education Their profession and job description Their interests and hobbies Matching your content to your audience is essential for your words to make an impact. Dumb it down too much, and you risk insulting their intelligence or boring them. Make it too high-brow or intellectual/formal, and you risk losing them from confusion or incomprehension. No matter the audience you’re writing for, hitting the right balance is tricky. However, the better you know them, the better off you’ll be. 2. Use Your Audience’s Vocabulary Vocabulary and word choice are two big factors that determine reading grade level. For example, does your audience prefer well-worded content? Or do they need it simple and clear? It’s the difference between using words like “elementary” vs. “basic,” or “intellectual” vs. “smart” in your content. Another thing: Will your audience understand your use of technical industry terms, or do you need to simplify those words for general understanding? E.g., if you run a marketing agency for small businesses, you wouldn’t want to use marketing jargon in your content – that’s your expertise, not your clients’. If you DO need to use specialized terms like “brand awareness” or “marketing segments,” for example, you’d need to define or explain them. The best way forward here is to always use your audience’s vocabulary: Research what they say and how they say it – this is easily done by analyzing at their social media profiles, posts, and comments. You can also check Quora and Answer the Public for how they word questions about your topic area. 3. Remember You’re Writing for the Web No matter who makes up your target audience, you must always remember you’re writing content for the web. People read and interact with electronic text differently than they do with printed text. This table from Writing Cooperative shows what I mean: With printed text, the average reader will read from top to bottom. There’s no skipping around. With online text, the average reader will read it piece-meal or skip around. They’ll scroll until something catches their eye or skim the headings of a content piece rather than read it through 100%. A study from Sumo backs this up. They discovered the average online reader will only read about 20% of your blog or article. This is a frustrating reality of online writing, but not all hope is lost. There are actions you can take to encourage your readers to read ALL of your words on a page. [bctt tweet=”How do you know the right reading grade level for your audience? First of all, … Read more