Web content writing is different from traditional story writing.
Readers go to them and even pay for books and magazines.
We, web content writers, have to attract visitors and make them read. A reader will leave within seconds if your copy isn’t persuasive.
Even if you are an experienced web writer, there is always room for improvement.
I assure you, these 10 web content writing tactics will prove useful in making your work more attractive and persuasive.

Ask These 6 Questions Before You Start Writing

Before you start writing, you need to get straight answers to 6 questions, which students of journalism refer to as five W’s and H of journalism.

It is the first of the content writing tactics I use when discussing the work requirements with a client.

I believe these 6 answers will build a strong foundation for your article on which you can build an empire.

 

1.      What Message Do You Want to Convey?

Your content or message is dependent on the topic. If you are uncertain about the topic then you won’t be able to convey your message correctly.

If you are given an article with the topic ‘Content Writing’, you will need a few questions answered to get your focus straight.

• Do I write ‘Content Writing Tips’?
• Do I need to focus on ‘Content Writing as a Career?
• Should I write a ‘Content Writing Guide for Beginners’?

There could be many more similar possibilities. You will get your answers from the person you are writing for.

For example, I have written this article to inform my readers of the ‘Best Content Writing Tactics’ that they can implement in their own work.

 

2.      Why are You Writing This?

As a writer, you are probably writing for passion or money, but this question is about the objective of that particular article.

A good writer can change the viewpoint of readers as per his/her will.

What goals do you plan to achieve with the article? Are you trying to get your writers to buy something or do you want them to like a particular thing?

For example, my goal of writing this article was simply ‘to share my knowledge’ which may also ‘attract potential clients’ for my firm.

 

3.      Who is Your Audience?

It is important to know WHO your audience is so you can write accordingly.

• There could be an audience who would want to know the technical details about something and, on the other hand, there could be an audience that just wants the answer and reasoning in simple words.

For example, I wrote this article, Web Content Writing Tactics, for ‘professional content writers’.

This is the reason why I am discussing every minor detail as I expect my audience to read this article from a technical point of view.

 

4.      Where Will It Be Published?

I always first visit the website that I am writing for. This gives me a clearer idea of how I should develop that article. Other things you should also know in this regard are:

1. Which countries will view this article?
2. Will it be viewed on mobile, tablets, or computers?
3. Should the article be written in any context?

For example, I know this article will be published on the Blog of Globex Writing Solutions and viewed worldwide on all types of devices.

 

5.      How Should You Structure the Content?

A professional writer should know how he/she should structure the content. Structured content determines how a reader will find, view, and use information in your article. Flannery Jefferson has brilliantly explained the importance of content structure in this article.

For example, this article is structured for a ‘blog post’.

 

6.      When Will It Be Published?

Timing is especially important when you are writing a news or event article. You may end up using dates in the article which may give an impression of outdated research in the future.

For example, this is an informational article that will be useful even in 2025. On the other hand, I would be careful if I was discussing some news related to web content writing.

 

Draft an Outline

Drafting an outline is the second of the content writing tactics I use after asking the discussed six questions.

It would be a good practice to conduct a pre-search on the topic and create a rough structure of the article.

It will help you understand where to start the article, which way to go, and how to end it.

This ensures that the article is well-structured, and sharing this draft with the client demolishes every uncertainty that you might have about the topic.

For example, I have shared a complete outline of this article at the beginning of this webpage. That outline also gave you a vivid idea of what you will find here.

 

Write Drunk, Edit Sober!

‘Write drunk and Edit Sober’ is a famous quote misattributed to Hemingway. Despite the controversy, I found this to be very useful among the content writing tactics.

Let me be very clear, I am not asking you to literally get drunk before you start writing.

It’s just a figure of speech. You need to get so involved in your work that you would have no awareness of your surroundings. Even this may be impossible for many of us.

Here’s what you should deduce from this quote.

1. Don’t use backspace when writing. Ignore the typographical and grammatical mistakes and simply keep typing. If you stop in the middle of making a point, you will break your motion and lose the original focus.

 

2. You can proofread and edit the entire article later, however, be extra attentive when looking for mistakes and correcting them. How you proofread and edit your writing will determine the quality of your work.

Most Important Information Comes First

In order to engage a visitor, we must have him stay first. This is the reason why I always write the most important piece of information first. This tip among web content writing tactics is known as Inverted Pyramid in journalism.

1. We have to let the visitor know that he will find the information on this page that he is looking for. This content writing tactic assures that visitor will at least have a look at the article.

 

2. Next, share the most relevant information first. This will build visitors’ trust that the information shared in the article is useful.

 

He will read the rest of the content with surety that the writer knows what he/ she is talking about.

 

Never Share a Disputable Statement in the Start

It will create doubt in the reader’s mind about your ability to write on the matter even if you were right.

For example, how would you have reacted if the first heading of this article would state ‘PROOFREADING IS USELESS’.

There is a strong possibility you would get the impression that the writer may not be qualified enough to guide us. I would only able to prove that point if I could get you to read its content but you would still have doubts.

I can make any controversial statement and get you to calmly read it only after I have won your trust with the best point I have got.

It would increase the Bounce Rate of the website if visitors leave your page without scrolling and spending a proper amount of time. A high bounce rate can damage the ranking of the website.

 

Make Article Self-Explanatory

A web article should be as apparent as possible. Web visitors don’t read your article, they scan it. It was concluded in a study by Nielsen Norman Group, that hardly 16% of people read web article word-by-word.

In another research by the same group, it was revealed that people read/scan web pages in F shaped pattern. So putting the most important information first is a good idea and you need to structure article in a way that visitor doesn’t have to put any effort.

There are a few web content writing tactics you can use to make the information in an article more obvious.

 

1.      Write For a 12-Year-Old

Write like your reader is a 12-year-old kid. It will make your copy easy to understand and more catchy. Here are some tips you can follow to attain this goal.

1. Use easy vocabulary
2. Write short and easy sentences

• Explain with examples

 

2.      Write Short Paragraphs

Lengthy paragraphs are boring and scary. I can tell from my personal experience that no one reads big paragraphs.

Short paragraphs easily catch attention and take less effort to understand. Visit any article on Neil Patel’s blog and you won’t find any paragraph exceeding 4 lines.

Short paragraphs on Neil Patel’s article

3.      Write for a Lazy Person

One of the easiest content writing tactics is to think of your web visitors as lazy people. Write articles considering you have to feed information to a person who is too indolent to read.

You can make a good copy if you practice above mentioned two tips. To make it even better, the following would also make the best content writing techniques for this case.

1. Cut unnecessary words
2. Don’t use passive tense

• Address reader directly using second person pronouns (You, Your)

1. Avoid idioms and jargons

 

Enhance the Visual Appeal

Web visitors will never be attracted to your article, no matter how good of a writer you are, unless you create a visual impression.

To overcome this problem, web writers should have an understanding of the platform they are writing for. They should look for relevant graphics and videos to add in the article, however, make sure those graphics won’t cause a copyright issue.

Here are the best tips for content writing with a great visual impression.

1. Use images and embed videos at the right places in the article
2. Replace paragraphs with bullet points and lists

• Use sub-headings (H3, H4) inside headings (H2)

1. Try different font sizes.
2. Apply Italic, bold text, and CAPS for highlighting.
3. Add quotes with different styles

 

Content Writing Tactics for SEO

Search Engine Optimization is an essential need for web writing. Applying On-Page SEO to web articles makes it easier for them rank.

SEO makes it easy for Google and other search engines to understand the nature of the article. Your article will appear among the top results if search engines find your web content most suited against the searched keyword.

I would suggest you use these best content writing tips for SEO.

 

1.      Use Inbound Links

Inbound links refer to other web pages of the same platform that you are writing for. You should link to other articles that your visitors may find interesting.

This is one of the most effective SEO friendly content writing tips to increase ranking and get traffic on other articles of your website.

 

2.      Outbound Links with High DA

Outbound links are links to other websites. Linking to other websites gives the impression that you are providing sources and references to the information you have shared.

You should make sure that you are linking to a good website that has a high Domain Authority.

It can significantly harm the ranking of your website if you link to sites that may contain spam.

 

3.      Right Keyword Density

SEO articles are based on specific keywords that people search on Google. Using the right amount of those keywords makes your article SEO friendly.

On the contrary, stuffing and, overuse of the same keywords do more harm than good.

 

4.      Use H2 and H3 Headers

Proper use of H2 and H3 tags show that your web article is properly structured. Just like other SEO content writing tactics, wrong use of headers can also degrade your article.

You should use H3 headings only inside an H2 heading and, likewise, use H4 headings inside H3 heading.

H1 heading is only used for the title of the article. It is a common mistake to apply a heading tag to emphasize a sentence.

 

5.      Include Images with Alt Text

Including good quality images and infographics inside articles is a good content writing tactic. You should also add Alt Text in images to make them SEO friendly.

Alt Text shows in place of an image when it fails to load. Furthermore, adding caption and description of images also enhances their credibility.

 

Content Writing Tactics with Tools

Writing is not a task that a software can do. It requires research and creativity that a machine can never develop. That being said, programmed tools can, at least, help us minimize mistakes and save time.

To err is human, but no such proverb exists for software.

There is a number of tools available to help writers do their job more efficiently. For example, it wouldn’t be a very bad idea to check for any plagiarism issue after completing your article.

Here are 4 tools that might prove useful to you.

 

1.      Grammarly

This tool provides the best content writing tips for beginners and it has much to offer to senior writers. Grammarly is a tool that identifies spelling and grammatical mistakes, detects plagiarism and suggests how it could have been better.

Grammarly will show you two types of improvements in addition to plagiarism detection.

 

1. First, you will see critical issues marked in red. These could be spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes that Grammarly checks against more than 250 rules.

 

2. Second are the suggestions that Grammarly refers to as ‘Advanced Issues’. It identifies how sentence structures and vocabulary could have been better. You will need to purchase its premium to utilize this feature.

This tool, in particular, helps in proofreading the article. I always find some mistakes that I had overlooked when proofreading an article.

You can use this program using two methods.

1. One is to install its software in your computer and integrate it with your typing software.

 

2. Another way is to install its extension on your browser. It will automatically identify all the mistakes that you will type in that browser.

 

2.      Yoast Content Analysis

Yoast content analysis is useful for both SEO analysis and content assessment. It most certainly displays one of the best content writing tips for SEO.

Simply visit the Real-Time Content Analysis Page of Yoast and paste your article there. It will show you why this is one of my most favorite content writing tactics.

You will see three different colors to show the status of every suggestion.

1. Red color refers to a strong urge to change something.
2. Orange color suggests that it’s better to the change highlighted area.
3. Green light refers to a great job on your side.

 

In Content Assessment:

It will give you a few tips on how to be a good content writer. Yoast will highlight the points that should be improved and praise the rightly executed tactics. For example, it will exhibit:

1. If you have used enough transition words.
2. If all paragraphs and sentences are of proper size.
3. Flesch Reading Ease test score of your writing.
4. Percentage of passive voice sentences in the article.
5. If you have used the same words to start too many consecutive sentences.
6. If subheadings contain too much content than recommended of maximum 300 words.

SEO Friendly Content Writing Tips:

The most strong suit of Yoast is its ability to identify SEO friendliness of an article.

1. First of all, you will find if the article’s title and meta description is SEO friendly and has an accurate viewable length.
   1. It also shows you a snippet preview of title, slug, and meta description. This snippet displays how it will look in Google’s search results when viewed from different devices.

1. It assures that you have used at least 1 outbound and 1 inbound link in the article.

 

3. You will learn if you have used the right keyword density. Moreover, if the focus keyword is used in all suggested places.

 

3.      SEMrush Writing Assistant

SEMrush offers a number of SEO tools. SEMrush Writing Assistant gives suggestions from an SEO point of view.

1. It shows you an overall score on the quality of an article. Some writers have shown concern on its score efficiency but, overall, it provides some useful recommendations.

 

2. You will learn if your language is too basic or too technical for an expert or general audience. It is easier to increase readability with its help.

 

3. You can create a template based on the keywords you are targeting. This gets you a more accurate assessment of your article.

 

For example, I used one article in two different templates. One template was based on my targeted keywords. The other one was a general demo template – and you can see the result difference yourself in the image below.

4. SEMrush will show you suggested keywords for your article. It will even find you the competitor sites on your target keywords.

You will find many other similar features in SEMrush to complete your content writing tactics.

It has a limitation of only 1 template per month in the free version. You can use it directly on the SEMrush website or use its add-on for Google Docs.

 

4.      MozBar

MozBar is not going to help you write better. It is an SEO toolbar that shows you instant metrics of the opened webpage.

These metrics also include the Domain Authority of the website.

As discussed above, you should use outbound links referring to high-authority websites. With MozBar, you will know better about the site you plan to link.

MozBar Showing Domain Authority of Facebook

Do Not Underestimate the Title!

It was also mentioned by Neil Patel in one of his articles that good titles are very important- we often underestimate the power of the title. A visitor will, without a doubt, read the title whether he continues to the content or not.

When you search a query on Google, how do you decide which link to open?

I believe, your answer is ‘by reading the title’ – like the rest of us.

According to Ted Nicholas, a famous copywriting expert, 73% of visitors make the buying decision on the title.

You need to make sure that your title is persuasive and descriptive. It should not, in any way, be misleading.

A misleading title will result in increasing the bounce rate of the website.

He won’t wait to see what you offer. If a visitor feels that your content and title are not consistent – he is gone.

How to Make a Great SEO Title

1. Do proper research on the topic.
2. See how you can outsmart your competitors with the title.
3. Be unique, creative, persuasive, and descriptive.
4. Put target keywords first.
5. Check your title length. Yoast Content Analysis is quite useful here.
6. Select the most suited format.

Here is a great article to help you write the perfect SEO title.

 

Correctly Address Your Audience

Is there a correct way to address the audience?

They are just readers. What, do they want respect now?

No, it’s not about respect. It’s about making them feel comfortable.

They may not realize how they are being addressed, but they will feel it somewhere in the back of their head. The more comfortable they are, the more time they will spend on your site.

Here’s how you can make the reader trust you and feel comfortable.

 

1.      Write for a single person

“You all have come to the right place. I have got an offer that none of you can say NO to.”

Actually, I don’t have an offer for you. But I do have a suggestion.

Please, don’t write like the sentence above.

 

Addressing your audience as one person will make your content engaging and more believable.We are talking about building trust and making the reader comfortable. Don’t address him/her as plural.

• This creates a personal connection between the writer and the reader.

 

2.      Use the Word “You” More

Experienced copywriters suggest that using the word ‘you’ makes your buyer excited and captivates them.

The word “you” has a friendly tone in it. Refer to your readers like they are a single person and write the way you naturally speak.

This word also makes you sound less boring and more human.

 

3.      Use Carewords

I read a useful quote on Writers Digest.

“Write to express, not impress.”

We try to sound more technical and fancy than we are.

That’s wrong!

Find your own voice and use carewords instead of scientific words.

That leads us to the question, what exactly are carewords?

“Carewords are the familiar words that help your visitor confirm they are in the right place.”

Think like you are a visitor on one of your articles in order to choose its best carewords.

What words would assure a visitor that he is in the right place?

For example, you came here for the best content writing tactics. It would make you more comfortable reading words like ‘rank on top’, ‘persuasive copy’, and ‘more views’.

 

These were the 10 best content creation tips for 2019 that every web content writer needs for survival. All of these tips are based on personal experience and authentic research.

Do you use any content writing tactics that I have missed out? Or, do you have a question? Please, let me know in the comments below.