Most websites have a combination of owner-generated content and user-generated content. The core content on most website is written content, but web content also includes images, videos and much more.
Owner-generated content is created by the website owner. This can include:
User-Generated content is created by people who use the website. This can include:
eCommerce websites have additional types of owner-generated content, including
Articles for the web can be any length, but as a helpful guide, a short article is typically 350 – 500 words. A Mid length article could be 1000 – 1500 words, and a longer article is 1500 to 2500 words or more.
A few years ago, 800 words was considered a good length for a web page article, but these days the best articles for SEO ranking are generally over 2,000 words.
But… it’s never just about ‘length’. Long articles that are irrelevant, unhelpful and trashy will never get read by humans and will never rank well in Google.
Focus the article on a topic of interest to your website visitors and customers. Focus on the relevant keywords which are the words and phrases these people are likely to search for in Google to find information on this topic.
Quality is far more important than quantity, and a mix of words, images and videos is often the best. It’s good to include questions and answers relevant to the topic of the article.
Don’t be frightened to have long articles, but make sure they are helpful and well written.
When you prepare content for your website, it’s important to be honest and objective including your strengths, abilities and experience. Focus on what makes you special. What differentiates your business from others in the marketplace? How can you explain it quickly? And how can you prove it?
Here are some questions to help you get started.
What language style and tone of voice is right for your website?
What style is authentic for your company?
What style will engage your audience?
If you had to describe the style of language you want, what words would you use?
What tone of voice will work best for your business and your target audience?
Define the purpose of each piece of content. Clearly explain the purpose to the writer. Once the content is written, review it carefully to decide if the content is going to meet the purpose.
There are plenty of different ways to define your audience – including by age, interests, gender, and location. For simplicity, here’s how Google segments Target Audience.
Typical Gender of Audience: % Male % Female
Age Groups: % in each Age group
The Age groups are 18-24, 25-34, 35-44 , 45-54, 55-64 and 65+.
Also think of which devices your audience will use to access your website. These days, most people use their mobile phone so your content needs to be easily accessible, consumable and engaging on a mobile phone.
Concise Digital has a professional team of content writers available to create great content for you. We can write a single blog post article or we can prepare every page for your website.
If you want to draft the content yourself, we can carefully proof-read and edit your work. It’s often a good approach that helps you share your expertise. It can save you time and money for us to tidy up a new blog post that you write yourself.
Our team is ready to help you, whether as your regular in-house writing team or with ad hoc casual help whenever you need it.
Good writing for the web is all about creating unique, original and engaging content that is valuable for your customers and easily found in Google. Of course, good writing does take some time. Please use this guide to get realistic estimates of the likely times involved for different work.
For small sites, we can produce the starter content for your Home page, About Us page, Services pages, Contact Page and your Privacy Policy page. This typically takes around 8 hours, including the initial interview with you.
Web Pages | Range of Hours |
---|---|
Create New Page for website on Topic or Product | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours |
Research and Create New Page for website on Topic or Product | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours plus 1 hour Research |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours plus 2 hour Research |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours plus 2 – 3 hours Research |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours plus 3 – 5 hours Research |
Update existing page on website | |
Minor updates | 1/2 hr – 1 hr |
Major re-write | 2 – 5 hrs (Often treated as New page) |
Add new content to expand existing page on website | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours plus 2 – 3 hours Research |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words WITH RESEARCH | 5 – 8 hours plus 3 – 5 hours Research |
Multiple Pages for New Website | Varies – Depends if Different Topics or Similar Topics for pages |
Multiple Pages for Website Upgrade | Varies – Depends if Different Topics or Similar Topics for pages |
BLOG POSTS / NEWS STORIES Single Page Blog post or News story | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours |
Single Page Blog post or News story WITH RESEARCH | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours plus 1 hour Research |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours plus 2 hour Research |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours plus 2 – 3 hours Research |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours plus 3 – 5 hours Research |
ECOMMERCE STORE | |
eCommerce Category / Collections content | 2 – 5 hours |
eCommerce Shopping Process – for conversion rate optimisation | 2 – 6 hours |
eCommerce Product Descriptions (new, for each product) | |
Short: 350 to 500 words | 2 – 3 hours |
Basic: 500 to 1,000 words | 2 – 4 hours |
Mid length: 1000 – 1500 words | 3 – 5 hours |
Longer (best for SEO): 2000 – 2500 words | 5 – 8 hours |
eCommerce Cart & Checkout Sales content | 2 – 6 hours |
eCommerce Shipping, Returns, Guarantee content | 1 – 3 hours per page |
OTHER CONTENT | |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) content | Depends on content supplied. 2 – 4 hours per 10 FAQs |
Privacy Policy & Legal | 2 – 4 hours per page |
Newsletter Preparation | 3 – 8 hours plus Interview & Research Time |
Case Study Snapshot (400 – 600 words) | 6 – 8 hours plus Interview & Research Time |
Case Study Article (1500-2000 words) | 8 – 12 hours plus Interview & Research Time |
1/2 hr to 3 hours | |
Infographic | Varies – depends on content supplied. |
Times can vary substantially depending on content supplied. |