Your website is composed of web pages, and your web content writing is just as important as what goes into your business blog or on a press release or any other type of marketing. First, folks can't comment on your static web pages, so it can take a while before mistakes or bad web content writing practices are caught. Second, you're probably talking about your products, services, or business in those pages, so their quality is crucial to a good online presence. Therefore best practices ought to be incorporated into your web content, no matter how unimportant a particular page may seem. Here are five web content writing best practices you may be missing:
A Goal
A goal isn't a web content writing best practice because the page lacks purpose without a goal (although that's true). A goal is a web content writing best practice because the goal defines what's on the page and what it communicates to its target audience (the content does have a target audience, right?). What do you want this particular web page to do? Educate? Convert? Build SEO? All three? Define the goal, and writing the web content will be that much easier.
Headings and Subheadings
Headings and subheadings apply to more than blog posts! If your product pages, the About Us page, and any other page doesn't have the formatting that makes it easy for people to scan and to digest, then web visitors will be turned off like with any other piece of content. Include those headings and subheadings, and lists and bullet points where appropriate. Your web page will look more organized, reflecting well on your business.
Keep it Conversational
Yes, these web pages are about you and your products/services for a change, but that doesn't mean that it's the time for industry jargon. You still need to come across as personable and understandable, as with these pages you are much closer to the sale than with other pieces of content. Although these web visitors may be more familiar with the industry jargon, you don't want to risk confusing the reader or appearing condescending.
Length
When it comes to web content writing best practices, the proper length for your web page is 250-500 words. This is very different from what's considered a good length for a blog post and other pieces of content marketing because a web page is designed to present what's absolutely necessary about the topic. You don't necessarily need 800+ words about your company history or about a particular product, and most web visitors don't want a written lecture. However, it's tough to engage anyone with anything shorter than 250 words.
A Call-to-Action
The call-to-action doesn't necessarily have to be in the text, say at the very bottom acting as a conclusion. It could be included in the sidebar, or as a something on its own after the text like in this blog post. The point is, you ought to have a CTA somewhere so your web visitor can have a next step, something actionable to do once finished reading your page or after visiting the page.
If your current web content doesn't follow these five best practices, then make sure to do some web content rewriting and to commit to these best practices from here on out. Web content writing is one of the few places where if you didn't do it right the first time, you do want to go back and make the improvements.