The 6 W’s of Content (And Website isn’t One of Them)
One thing I remember from grade school writing classes are the 5 (make that 6) W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why and the runner-up, How? I recall completing my required essays and asking myself, did I answer these questions?
When it comes to writing your website content, the same questions apply. So harken back to your elementary years and ask yourself:
- Who is my company?
- What do we do or what do we sell?
- Where are we? (Digital or brick and mortar)
- When are we operating or open for business?
- Why do we do what we do? (Mission, purpose, story, etc.)
- And How? How can people get in touch with us, how can they buy, or how do we do what we do, if important.
If you are answering these questions in a straightforward, easy to find manner, then you are providing your visitors with the information they need. If they are not directly communicated on your homepage then they should be easy to find.
Let’s dig.
Let’s go a little bit deeper and answer those questions about who your CLIENT or CUSTOMER is. These questions will help you create a better strategy and understand your audience.
- Who is my audience and target client? Who is visiting my site?
- What does my customer need from me? What solution do I provide them?
- Where or when does my service or product fall into their own processes or daily lives (depending on B2B or B2C)?
- Why should our client choose us? Why are we better than our competition?
- How can I or do I meet their needs? How can I get my visitor’s business?
More tips…
Some other tips from my essay writing days that are good to still consider:
- Do not start all your sentences with the same word. For example, We do that… We do this… We don’t…
- Do not be too wordy. Guide your reader with a call to action.
- The word “that” is almost always unnecessary.
- Use active language (instead of passive).
- And not so much a grammar tool but an SEO tool, think about the keywords people will use to search your business and try to include them as much as possible without being redundant or sounding silly.
