No one wants to read the same things over and over again. Plus, if you say the same things that everyone else is saying, it’s going to be hard to differentiate yourself online. That’s why it’s important to be original.

You’re a small business owner. That means that you have expertise and perspective that a lot of people don’t have. Write about what you know, and use your own experience to bring value to your readers.

That being said, being original isn’t always easy when there are so many other people creating content in your industry. If you can’t be original in the subject of your piece, add to the existing conversation by going deeper or covering a different aspect.

People need to be able to connect with what they’re reading. That connection is part of what keeps them on the page and entices them to visit more pages and keep learning more.

But, in order to build a connection with your readers, you need to be able to relate with them. While your content should be professional, it’s a mistake to be too dry or robotic when writing website content.

Let your personality shine through your writing, bring levity to your content with humor and share personal stories and experiences. This is the kind of content that people relate to.

You don’t have to be Earnest Hemmingway in order to write great content for your website. In fact, simple and straightforward are very good things when it comes to website content.

However, just because you want your content to be easily relatable doesn’t mean that it’s OK to publish sloppy content. It’s always important to edit your work before you publish it for the world to see.

If possible, ask someone else to read your content. Sometimes, a second pair of eyes can catch things that you might miss. Also, consider using an editing tool, like Grammarly, to help you catch and correct grammar and spelling mistakes.

Most of the people who will visit your website and read your content will be doing so using their smartphone or tablet instead of a desktop or laptop computer. How you format your content can play a huge role in the kind of experience you provide your mobile readers.

Long paragraphs look fine on a computer but can look like a wall of text on a phone or tablet. Break up paragraphs and keep them short.

You also want to make your content scannable. That means organizing content into lists and bullet points, as well as adding headlines that give readers a summary of the body of the text.

Not only is website content a critical tool for readers who want to learn more about who you are and what you have to offer, it also gives Google clues as to which keywords are relevant to your site.

Using the right keywords throughout your site — including titles, headlines, image tags, etc.) is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO). However, you should only use keywords when you can do so naturally.

If you force keywords into your content too frequently, it can come across to readers (and to Google) as spammy. That’s why it’s so essential that keywords are used naturally or not at all.

As I mentioned, you want to create content that your readers can relate to. But, people aren’t all the same, and they don’t all want or need the same thing, nor do they all connect with the same kind of content.

Instead of writing for everyone, effective content creation is writing with specific readers in mind. In order to do that, you need to know what your readers like, what they’re looking for and, in essence, who they are.

Think about how old your readers are, where they live and what kind of problems they might be facing. By knowing who your readers are, you can create more tailored, effective content for them.

Every business needs to have a consistent voice. It’s part of what makes your brand unique, and it keeps your message consistent across all of your content, be it on your website, blog, social media posts, etc.

Your brand’s voice is essentially the who behind all of your content. And, even though you might deliver the message in different ways depending on the situation, the who behind your message doesn’t change, and neither should your voice.

Your voice consists of all of the aspects of your content that never change, like the turns of phrase you like to use, how you structure your sentence and paragraphs, specific verbiage you use or don’t use and more.

Tone and voice are often used interchangeably, but they are actually quite different. If voice is the who behind your content, tone is more like the how and the way you say things.

While your voice should always be consistent, your tone can and should change depending on the message, where it’s published, who your readers are and more. Think of the way you sound when you’re with a client vs. how you sound when you’re with your kids or friends.

Your brand’s tone should also reflect the situation. On social media, it might be lighter and more humorous, and when addressing a customer concern, it might be more conciliatory and empathetic.

Website content writers often feel like they’re between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, it’s a mistake to assume that your readers know things they might not, but on the other hand, you also don’t want to overexplain or “dumb it down.”

Instead of making either one of these mistakes, give readers what they need to know for the subject at hand, and let them know where they can go to learn more.

You can include links to previous blogs or articles you’ve written, products or services that can help and even outside resources. Just make sure that any time you link to an outside source that it will open in a new tab.

When most people think of website content, they think of the text. But, the truth is that website content goes far beyond text, and you can help to make your site stand out by incorporating different types of content.

In addition to formatting your text properly, you also want to break it up with images, video and other types of visual content.

While the text on your website may contain the important information your visitors need, what makes them stick around and read it is your visual content.