Writing-for-Websites-and-Social-Media_Students-Handout

WRITING FOR WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Writing for Websites
What is website writing?

This term encompasses different types of writing (copywriting, online articles and blogs,
marketing copywriting).
Web writing describes the method of making content accessible, interactive, engaging,
and informative so that users can find the information they need and enjoy consuming it.
Why the Web is different?
1. Web text is hard to read.

2. Web text is hard to proofread.
3. Website visitors are impatient.
4. Web sites attract different kinds of visitors.
5. Web text is hypertext.
Who are the Web visitors?

1. Viewers and listeners
2. Users
3. Readers
4. Talkers
5. Colleagues
Three Basic Principles

Once you understand the people for whom you’re writing, your text should reflect three
basic principles of Web and workplace writing
A. Orientation
B. Information
C. Action
Guidelines In Web Writing

1. Identify and Understand your Audience
2. Write Concisely
3. Break up paragraphs
4. Use headings and subheadings
5. Use “blurbs” to describe what visitors will find when they click on a link
6. Make action easy
What is a Landing Page and how does it work?

Landing page can be a powerful tool to nurture new customers, educate people about
your products, and drive conversions. While a website’s homepage is typically designed to
provide a general overview of a business, landing pages help you build customer loyalty and
increase sales or signups by focusing on a specific short-term goal. When you create landing
pages for unique campaigns, targeted audiences, events, or promotions, you can provide
people with a clear, direct call to action (CTA) and make it easy for them to join your audience
or buy what you sell.
A landing page is often the first page users see when they visit a website. This page has
one primary goal: to convert visitors into customers or to guide them to the next step. The
content needs to be engaging, concise, and action-driven.
Strategies for Writing Good Landing Pages
 Compelling Headline
 Clear Value Proposition
 Strong Call to Action (CTA
 Visual and Written Balance
Pro Tip:
Teacher: "Use A/B testing to experiment with different versions of your landing page.
Change up the headline, CTA, or images to see which gets the best response."
About Page
The About page is where you connect with your audience. It's less about selling
and more about building trust. This is your chance to share the story behind your brand,
its mission, and its values.
Strategies for Writing About Pages

 Tell a Story
 Highlight Unique Selling Points
 Showcase Your Team
Pro Tip:
Teacher: "Inject personality into your About page, but keep it professional. You want to
appear approachable and credible at the same time."
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. It is a list of questions and answers
related to a specific topic, product, or service that users may have or frequently ask.
The purpose of FAQs is to provide answers to frequent questions, so that users can find
information without having to contact customer support.
It is a common section that is added to any documentation. Whether it is to answer

product or service related questions.
Strategies for Writing FAQs
 Address Common Concerns

 Use Simple Language
 Organize for Easy Navigation
User Experience (UX) and Navigation Considerations
What is User Experience?

User Experience (UX) is the holistic journey users traverse as they use a product. Not
only does it include their direct interactions with the product, but also how it fits in with
their overall task completion process.
What is the difference between UI and UX?

The User Interface is literally what the user sees and interacts within the product: the
buttons, the layout, the navigation, the form fields, etc. Much like the cockpit of a plane
or the buttons on remote control, it is what a user sees, touches and clicks. “UI” can
also sometimes be shorthand for the “look and feel” of a product.
User Experience encompasses a far wider swath of elements than the User Interface,
although UI is definitely contained within this larger definition. The User Experience
includes everything an end-user does related to the product, including how it fits into
their overall workflow and the steps before and after the product is actually in use.
Additionally, the User Experience covers how those interactions will change over time
as the customer’s usage evolves and the product and company change.
 Clear Structure
 Logical Flow
 Simplified Navigation
 Mobile Optimization
Writing for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
What does SEO stand for?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process used to optimize a
website's technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can
become easily findable, more relevant and popular towards user search queries, and as
a consequence, search engines rank them better.
SEO is what you do to rank higher on Google and get more traffic to your site.
Benefits and Importance of SEO
 More customers
 Better reputation
 Higher ROI
Types of SEO
 On-page SEO: Optimizing the quality and structure of the content on a page.
Content quality, keywords, and HTML tags are the key players for on-page SEO.
 Off-page SEO: Getting other sites, and other pages on your site to link to the
page you are trying to optimize. Backlinks, internal linking, and reputation are
your off-page MVPs.
 Technical SEO: Improving your site’s overall performance on search engines..
 Local SEO: Getting your business to rank as high as possible in Google
Maps and on the local results of the SERP. Reviews, listings, and Google
Business profile optimization are most important here.
 Image SEO: A mix of on-page and technical strategies to get images on your
website pages to rank in Google image search.
 Video SEO: A mix of on-page, technical, and off-page strategies to get your
videos to rank in YouTube or Google video results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ensures that your site ranks high on Google
and other search engines. Writing for SEO is about making sure that your content is
optimized for both search engines and human readers.
How does SEO work?

So how does Google determine which pages to surface in the search engine results
page (SERP) for any given query? How does this translate into traffic to your website?
Let’s take a look at how SEO works.
 Google’s search crawlers constantly scan the web, gathering, categorizing, and
storing the billions of web pages out there in its index. When you search for
something and Google pulls up results, it’s pulling from its index, not the web
itself.
 Google uses a complex formula (called an algorithm) to order results based on a
number of criteria (ranking factors—which we’ll get into next) including the quality
of the content, its relevance to the search query, the website (domain) it belongs
to, and more.
 How people interact with results then further indicates to Google the needs that
each page is (or isn’t) satisfying, which also gets factored into the algorithm.
Social Media Writing
What is social media content writing?

Social media content writing is the process of writing content for social
media audiences, usually across multiple major social media platforms. It
can include writing short captions for TikTok or Instagram Reels, long-form
LinkedIn articles, and everything in between.
Writing for social media is different from writing for blogs and websites — it
requires expert knowledge of social platforms and their audiences, trends,
and inside jokes.
Strategies for Writing Engaging Social Media Content
 Just start writing (you will edit later
 Speak the language of social media
 Create Hooks:
 Make your posts accessible
 Use Conversational Tone
 Effective CTAs (Call to Action
 Keep it Short, simple and Scannable
 Use ( the right) pictures to enhance your words
Hashtags, Images, and Video

The right mix of hashtags, images, and videos can dramatically increase your
social media engagement. These elements make your content more discoverable and
engaging.
Hashtags, images, and videos significantly impact the effectiveness of social media
content. Here's how each contributes:
1. Hashtags
 Increased Reach
 Engagement Boost
 Branding & Community Building2. Images
2. Images
 Visual Appeal
 Improved Engagement
 Storytelling
3. Videos.
 Higher Engagement
 Information-Rich
 Viral Potential
Key Takeaways
 Landing Pages should have clear, compelling headlines and CTAs to drive
conversions.
 About Pages tell your story and humanize your brand.
 FAQs reduce friction by addressing common concerns with clear, concise
answers.
 SEO Writing improves your visibility by using relevant keywords, meta
descriptions, and optimized images.
 Make your website easy to navigate with clear structure and mobile optimization
to keep users engaged.
 Use short, engaging content with strong hooks, CTAs, and visual elements
(images, videos, and hashtags) to capture your audience’s attention.
 Tailor your approach for different platforms based on their unique characteristics.

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WRITING FOR WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Writing for Websites

What is website writing?

Why the Web is different?

1. Web text is hard to read.

Who are the Web visitors?

Three Basic Principles

Guidelines In Web Writing

What is a Landing Page and how does it work?

Strategies for Writing About Pages

It is a common section that is added to any documentation. Whether it is to answer

Strategies for Writing FAQs

 Address Common Concerns

What is User Experience?

What is the difference between UI and UX?

Writing for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

What does SEO stand for?

Benefits and Importance of SEO

How does SEO work?

Social Media Writing

What is social media content writing?

Hashtags, Images, and Video

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