How to write website content
The first four posts in this series have covered a lot of ground. Why your site isn't showing up on Google. What SEO content writing actually is. Who you're writing for. Why visitors arrive and leave without getting in touch.
If you've read them, you probably have a clearer picture of what's going on.
This post is about what you can actually do about it.
The truth is, you need to be ready to commit some time to your website - it's not a one-time fix. It's not complicated, but because it needs you to hold your customer's perspective clearly in mind while writing, it involves thought, research, testing and iteration.
If you've been reading this series, you've got your customer profile. You know what they've gone to Google to find. That's your starting point. Here's the process.
Don't write your website content first - start with the search term
Most people sit down to write a page or a post and start from what they want to say. Then, if they're thinking about SEO, they look for a keyword to attach to it afterwards.
Start with what your customer is actually searching for. That's the question your content needs to answer. Once you know that question, the writing has a job - and you can test whether it's doing it well.
How to find the right search term? Here are some genuinely free options that don't involve a trial or a signup:
Google Autocomplete - start typing your service and see what Google suggests
The "People also ask" section in Google search results
You're looking for the phrase that best matches what your customer types when they have the problem you solve - at Easy keyword difficulty if possible, or Medium at a push, with some search volume behind it. If your site is new and doesn't yet have much search traffic, a keyword with a Hard difficulty rating is not the place to start.
One search term per page. Trying to target multiple keywords on the same page dilutes the signal you're sending to Google and usually means the content tries to do too many things at once.
Should you add a page or a blog post?
If you're wondering, "what's the difference?", read on...
A page is for content that's central and permanent to your business. Your services, your process, your about section, your FAQ, your contact details - these belong on pages. They describe what you do and help people who are close to a decision find what they need.
A blog post is for content that answers a question. Not a question about your business specifically, but a question your customer might type into Google at any point in their journey - including before they've heard of you. Blog posts build authority over time, targeting people who are looking for information but aren't ready to buy yet - and who will
remember you when they are.
The distinction matters for SEO because Google treats them differently. A service page targeting "accountant in Truro" behaves differently from a blog post targeting "can I do my own accounts for a limited company." Both are useful. Both can rank. But they do different things, and confusing the two - putting permanent service information in a blog post, or trying to answer informational questions on a services page - tends to mean neither works as well as it should.
Not every business needs a blog. If your customers are searching for your service directly and you have strong pages targeting those terms, that might be enough. A blog becomes valuable when there are questions people ask before they're ready to hire you and you can be the one answering them - or if you have seasonal news and updates worth sharing.
One job per page
Every piece of content on your site should have a purpose.
A services page should help someone understand what you offer and move them toward enquiring.
An about page should build enough trust that someone who's already interested becomes more confident.
A blog post should answer the question it promised to answer in the headline.
Pages that try to do everything - explain the service, show the portfolio, answer FAQs, and collect an email address all at once - tend to do nothing well.
When you sit down to write or rewrite a page, write the job of that page at the top in one sentence - you can delete it later, but keep it in mind when you're writing and if, when you review, you find what you've written doesn't serve that job, it probably belongs somewhere else.
Structure it around the reader's journey, not yours
The order in which you understand your own business is not the order in which your customer needs to receive information.
You know your background, your process, your credentials, your values. Your customer arrives knowing none of this - and they're not yet sure they want to. How you write your website content needs to pursuade them, very quickly, that they've arrived at the right place: that you understand their problem and have a solution that might work for them.
A page that earns attention usually moves in this order:
First, establish relevance. In the first two sentences, make it clear what this page is for and who it's for. If someone landed here from a search, they need to know immediately that they've found what they were looking for.
Then, build the case. Explain what you do, how it works, why it's the right approach - in terms that mean something to your reader, not just to you. Examples, case studies, and specific outcomes do this better than general claims.
Then, address what makes them hesitate. Price, timeline, whether this is right for their size of business, what happens if it doesn't work out - whatever the common doubts are in your category, name them and answer them. Clients who feel their concerns have been anticipated are more likely to get in touch. Finally, give them a clear next step -
a call to action, usually a prominent link to book, enquire, or get in touch.
Your headline is the most important line on the page
Most people write their headline first, as a working title, and never revisit it. This is worth changing.
Your headline - the H1 at the top of the page - is the single most important piece of text on that page for SEO. It's the clearest signal you send to Google, Bing, and other search engines about what the page is for. It's also what someone sees in the search results when deciding whether to click.
It should contain your target search term, or something very close to it. It should make the subject of the page immediately clear. And it should give someone a reason to read on - either because it names their problem, promises an answer, or frames the content in a way that's relevant to where they are right now.
Revisit and rewrite your headline once the content is done. By that point, you know exactly what the page delivers - and you can write a headline that makes that clear.
The call to action isn't a footnote
Most websites treat the call to action as a formality. Something to put at the bottom of the page. "Get in touch." "Contact us." Done.
The challenge is that "get in touch" is a big ask for someone who's just found you. It assumes they're ready to talk, but most of them aren't.
Think about where a reader at this page is likely to be in their decision. If they've arrived from a search and they're still figuring out their options, sending them straight to a contact form might be too much. A link to a relevant case study, a pricing FAQ, or a "here's how it works" page keeps them moving without asking for a commitment they're not ready for.
If they're a return visitor who knows what you do and is ready to act, the contact form is exactly right - and it should be easy to find.
Match the call to action to the reader, not to what's convenient for you to offer.
How to know if it's working
Once a page is live, give it time - new content typically takes a few weeks to be indexed and ranked, and realistically it will take two to three months before any clear patterns emerge. At that point, start checking two things.
Google Search Console shows you which search terms people are using to find each page, and roughly where you're ranking for them:
If you're appearing for the right terms and people are clicking, the page is doing its job.
If you're appearing but nobody's clicking, the headline or meta description might need work.
If you're not appearing at all, the search term targeting or the content itself might need revisiting.
Time on page, available in your analytics, tells you whether people who arrive are actually reading. A very short time on a page usually means the content didn't match what they were expecting - they arrived and left straight away.
Tracking exactly how users found you is harder to do automatically, so it's worth adding a simple dropdown to your contact, registration, or signup form asking where they heard about you. Over time, a pattern will emerge - and you'll start to see which pages are working hard and which need revisiting.
This isn't a one-time exercise. The businesses that get the most from their content treat it as an ongoing process: checking what's working, updating what isn't, and adding new content as their understanding of their customer improves.
A note on doing this yourself
Everything in this series is something you can do yourself. The principles aren't complicated, the basic tools are free, and the investment is time rather than money.
What's hard is doing it consistently across a whole site on a weekly or monthly basis, staying in your customer's head while you write, and keeping it up as your business evolves. Most small business owners find they can manage some of it. Getting it right across everything - the pages, the blog, the structure, the calls to action, and the data and feedback - is the challenge, especially when you are also trying to run your business.
If you'd like someone to do that properly, from the strategy through to the words on the page, it's part of what I do at Diopatra - as a one-off setup or as ongoing support embedded in your team. Contact me for .