Five ways to improve your web content

According to the industry blog Social Media B2B, it costs twice as much to generate a lead through outbound marketing as it does through inbound marketing. Since great online content plays a key role in inbound marketing, making your site's content as good as possible can have a direct impact on your bottom line.

Whether you're getting ready to write a new blog post or want to improve content that's already on your website, here are five proven tips for maximizing the quality of web content >>>

Craft killer titles

Popular bloggers like Brian Clark of Copyblogger recommend following the 50/50 Rule of Headlines.

This rule states that you should spend the same amount of time writing a blog post's title as you do writing the post itself. Although that may seem excessive, and it's not a rule you absolutely have to follow, it does demonstrate the amount of effort great copywriters put into their titles.

Even if you adjust to more of a 90/10 split, simply spending a little more time to come up with something great can increase the number of search engine and direct visitors your posts attract.

Engage with readers

If someone not only takes the time to read one of your blog posts, but also leaves a comment on it, be sure to respond to their comment. The same is true for other online channels. If you receive a reply to your email newsletter, send a response back.

Even if your message is as simple as "thanks for your input," it will show that potential customer that what they wrote was read by an actual person.

Lose the formality

The last thing you want to do is publish online content that's filled with errors and misspellings. But that doesn't mean the content on your site should resemble a quarterly report.

Since you want to publish blog posts and other content that truly connects with visitors to your site, don't be afraid to write in a conversational tone. You'll be very happy with the results you get from writing like a human instead of a corporate drone.

Looks matter

Research verified by The Associated Press found that the average attention span of an Internet user is eight seconds.

If you want visitors to stick around longer and actually read your content, you have to ensure that its format doesn't scare them off.

Whether it's an article, FAQ page or blog post, be sure that your content is in an easy to read font, makes use of relevant images, utilizes plenty of white space and has subheadings that break up larger blocks of text.

Always provide value

If you only remember one tip from this post, make it this one.

As you're writing or revising a piece of content, be sure you can easily identify the value it provides to readers. If you're unable to do that, it just means you have a little more work to do before it's ready to publish!

Publishing great online content does take effort.

But as long as you remember to craft killer titles, engage with readers, lose the formality, take design into account and always provide value, you'll be very happy with the positive impact your web content has on your inbound marketing efforts.

About the author

Jesse Galt is a freelancer who writes about a wide range of topics, including how to be first on Google and ways for small businesses to market themselves on social media.