What does a good web text look like?

Example of a good web text

We regularly get asked by clients: “how do I write a good web text?”. This article can be used as a guide for writing an easily findable text.

Better findability with a good text

Google places emphasis on sites that have something to offer the visitor, so not on websites with texts written only for findability. The adjustments Google has made to its search engine are aimed at ranking texts written specifically for search engines lower. Texts that are informative and written for the visitor are ranked higher in the search results, making your business easier to find.

Structure and layout of good web texts

It’s important to maintain the same structure for every web page. This matters both for the visitor (usability) and for Google. Google’s robots index web pages in a certain way, and the easier you make it for Google, the faster Google indexes your pages.

A web page should as standard have the points below.

1. Main title (H1)
You start the page with a main topic, in this case ‘Example of a good web text’. You place this title in heading 1, or in HTML code <h1>. Every page has 1 main topic. Google reads the main title first. That’s why it’s important to mention the most important keywords in the title. Also make sure the most important keywords come as far towards the front of the title as possible.

2. Introduction
Next, you start the page with a short introductory text for the piece. This is usually a summary of the entire piece in about 4 sentences. Use the keywords in the first 100 words of the introduction (first paragraph). Again the rule applies: the further towards the front, the better.

3. Subheadings
After that, the rest of the piece continues, divided into paragraphs. You build up the various sub-topics, which again consist of paragraphs, with sub-headings. A page contains several sub-headings. These are the sub-topics that apply to the main topic. The sub-headings should be written in heading 2, or <h2> in HTML. With paragraphs you go deeper into the subject the relevant page is about. This contributes not only to the readability of the web page, but also to its findability. Google’s robots, after all, first read the main title and then the subheadings. Do keep in mind that the higher the number after the heading (H2, H3, H4), the less value the heading has for Google. An H2 is therefore always more powerful than an H3.

4. Images
Make the web texts more attractive to read by adding images, infographics, videos and so on to the page. People are visually oriented, meaning an image always gets the focus. Google also thinks a text written for a visitor should always be accompanied by an image. Shrink the images so the page’s load speed doesn’t suffer, and give the image a proper file name with the keywords. Also add the keywords in the so-called alt text. This directly optimises the images for Google Images. With a CMS you can easily do this yourself.

5. Internal links
Make use of a number of internal links. Make sure you always link to relevant pages. This guides the visitor, as it were, through the website, and also passes on the authority of the web page to the other web page.

6. Call to action
Every website or every web page has a specific goal. On a page, you should try to guide the visitor as much as possible. It should, after all, be clear what the visitor should do after reading the text. So always add a call to action to a web text. A call to action (CTA) doesn’t just aim to get the visitor to buy products, it asks for an action from the visitor. Examples of this are: getting in touch, requesting more information, requesting a quote, watching a video, downloading a PDF, signing up and adding a product to the shopping cart.

General tips for a good SEO web text

If you write the web page according to the ‘rules’ above, you’ll already get a long way. However, there are still a number of general important points that have to do with the findability of your page:

1. Quality over quantity
Google keeps getting smarter and can therefore easily spot texts that offer no added value for the reader, but are written solely to score higher in Google.

2. Web page appearance
Google doesn’t just look at the content of the web page, but also at how the web page looks, because Google can nowadays index all the JavaScript and CSS of websites.

3. Enrich your web texts
Make the pages more attractive to read; you can do this by adding images, videos, infographics etc. to the text. Also make sure there’s enough white space in the text. This looks and reads more pleasantly. So don’t make paragraphs longer than about 6 to 8 lines.

4. Refresh old content
A web text should always be up to date, so the text stays relevant. So make sure you refresh your texts regularly.

5. Attractive meta description
Write an attractive meta description for the web text. This description is, after all, shown in the search engines’ search results.

6. Avoiding duplicate content
When you have duplicate content on your website, Google indexes the duplicate result little or not at all.

7. Long search terms
Long keywords bring in specific visitors and less competition. What’s more, 70% of all Google searches consist of long keywords.

8. Working keywords in
Mention the most important keywords in the first 100 words of the web text.

9. Synonyms of keywords
Web pages shouldn’t be stuffed with the same keywords, so use synonyms of the keyword.

10. Search-friendly URLs
Make sure you have friendly URLs like www.domainname.nl/services/websites instead of www.domainname.nl/15/4/category/6. So make sure the URL is clear and tidy and contains the most important keywords.

Tips for writing text

People often find it hard to come up with a topic to write about. Our advice is: stick to your field of expertise and share your knowledge. This is easy for you to write, and it produces texts the visitor gets something out of, which in turn means they’re found well. Do watch out here that you don’t use too much jargon, since your information could otherwise still be unclear to your visitors.

Besides that, be unique in your texts. When you literally copy texts from other websites, you get penalised by Google. Google sees, after all, who (or which website) is the original author of the text and marks your text as a copy. This drops you in the search results, and in the worst case Google can remove your website from the search results entirely!

Summary

Below you’ll find a bullet-point summary of our most important tips:

• Clear (tree) structure, with 1 main topic per page
• Various sub-headings that all relate to the main topic
• At least 1 image provided with a so-called alt text (alternative text)
• A few links in the page to pages within the website relevant to the topic
• Never copy text from other sites!