Web copywriting is the main way people access information on the internet, and good web development requires an approach to content suitable to the internet.

For all the opportunities the web opens up for flashy scripts and interactive content, the key to SEO is still the words you use. Copywriting remains the key to a successful website. Good copywriting is essential if you want to rank highly on Google and company. Here are four tips to bear in mind when creating user friendly web content.

1. Effective Copywriting: Keep your aims in view

Have your web development goals in mind with every section of copywriting. This may sound obvious, but it is easy to let your copywriting go off track if you don't keep in mind what you want to achieve. This is an important habit with any form of copywriting, but especially when copywriting for web, where keywords and space are important. It will also help you cut down on the amount of editing and proofreading you have to do at the end.

2. SEO and your target audience

Copywriting for SEO doesn't have to be daunting. Before you start copywriting, identify your target audience and how you intend to reach them. Do some research on what your competitors are doing: how are they reaching out to the audience you want to target? What copywriting angles and social media streams are they using? Remember to write for people and not for search engines! User-friendly content is the key to SEO.

3. Short is beautiful

It has been proven that people have a shorter attention span for writing on the internet than on the printed page. Readers expect instant information and studies have shown an average reader spends less than five seconds per 100 words of web copywriting. The majority of your carefully crafted copywriting will not be read at all! The onus is on you to keep your copywriting short and easily scannable.

You will want to use a variety of snappy section headings to allow people to digest your key points in a hurry. Using your lt;h2rt;- lt;h6rt; tags for subtitles is good for SEO. !

4. Loving your limitations

Every platform has it's constraints when it comes to writing copy. The most obvious example is Twitter which limits you to 140 characters per message. These limits may be frustrating , but they do make you think creatively about your content.

Find out more about our professional web content copywriting services.

Students at a disadvantage

To do well at university, academic writing needs to be clear, concise and grammatically correct. Even though they may have a profound technical grasp of their subject, foreign students face a challenge when tackling written dissertations, as up to 10% of marks are dependent on grammar, spelling and correct punctuation.

Unfortunately, many students trust applications such as Microsoft Word's spell check to pick up errors in their written work. While these are good for minor errors, they are not designed to proofread work and are therefore of limited value when putting together an academic thesis.

Using a Professional Student Proofreading Service.

Student proofreading services can be a huge help to students for whom English is a second language. A professional proofreader can help students avoid common pitfalls, allowing the student to focus their on the task at hand.

As a student from overseas studying in the UK, your priority is to do as well as you can at your course. Using a student proofreading service isn't cheating. The proofreader will not write your dissertation for you. What they will do is comprehensively check your work after you've written it; in order that your written work can shine with its full potential.

Find out more about how our affordable student proofreading service can place you on a level playing field with your classmates who have been speaking English their whole lives.

Link your social media profiles

Your website should be the hub for all your SEO & social media marketing activity. By interlinking your social media profiles together, all pointing to your website, you encourage visitors to extend the way they interact with your brand into different platforms. The relationship you develop with your readers will increase the chance of them converting into customers.

Using a number of interlinked platforms helps widen your net and reach new audiences, speaking to new readers on their own terms.

The objective of any SEO & social media strategy is to deliver visitors to your website and encourage them to convert, NOT to disperse visitors off into the Twittersphere. Don't let prominent social media icons steal the focus on your website. Keep them there, but keep them discrete.

Social Media Marketing: The Cornerstone of SEO

The core of a successful SEO approach is packing your website full of useful, original content and then to market it appropriately. This is what divides a decent, well thought out SEO strategy from the web spamming that gives the industry a bad name. The importance of copywriting in SEO cannot be ignored.

Having a network of interconnected social media profiles greatly assists you in the all-important task of SEO and publicity. Not only do each of your social media shares create SEO friendly inbound links and so potentially drive more traffic to your website, but search engines are taking more and more notice of the weight your brand carries on social media when working out the rankings. Social media marketing has now replaced website directory submissions as the cornerstone of SEO.

Take advantage of the SEO opportunities offered by each social media platform. They are all different, and some allow you to post more information than others. It is a good idea to have a number of brand profiles of differing lengths all containing the same core message. It pays to have ready some photos and logos of varying size and file format. This puts you in a strong position to quickly establish yourself on new social media platforms you sign up to.

Read more about our range of SEO and social media marketing services.

So far this move applies only to mobile devices, but could have far reaching implications for web development as a whole. HTML5 looks set to become the undisputed future platform for internet video. Other competitors to Flash, such as Microsoft's Silverlight, seem to have gone the same way, retired into a quiet obscurity.

Many are predicting that Adobe will call a halt to Flash development for desktop computers within the next twelve months.

This is good news for web development and for all who look forward to a standard internet video-platform. With Adobe's formidable talents behind HTML5 video, we can hope that many of Flash's fine features will be incorporated into HTML5.

Adobe's Danny Winnokur had this to say on the matter:

"We will design new features in Flash for a smooth transition to HTML5 as the standards evolve so developers can confidently invest knowing their skills will continue to be leveraged."

I shall look forward to this.

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