I’ve already touched on the fact that the design and layout should make the content easy to read and easy for people to pick out the parts of the content they want to focus on and it’s not just layout that helps with this.
Using good visual hierarchy in design is really important. By visual hierarchy I mean using the larger, bolder fonts for the most important headings on the page and then reducing the size and weight of the font as the importance of the title reduces. This really helps when a website visitor is scanning a website for what they want to find. It’s also a good way for the website owner to guide their visitors to looking at the things they want them to look at to make it more likely they’ll want to enquire into their services or buy something.
This links into SEO as well. An H1 tag will be used for the most important title on the page, H2 tags for the next level then H3s etc. Ensuring the things the website owner wants to be known and found for are included in those titles and that they’re written using terminology that people are actually using when searching for this type of business are really important and a big thing to consider when creating website content.
Including images in a design also has an impact on content. As well as telling people “content is key” we also tell them that “images are everything”.
When people first hit a website they’re going to make an initial judgement on whether they want to stay there based on what it looks like. So it has to look good and having high quality, relevant images on it will help hugely with that. But when you add an image to a website you also need to give that image an ALT tag. This will be seen by search engines, so having ALT tags relevant to the content on the page will be another help for SEO. They also help with accessibility because people using text readers can’t see the image but they can have a description read out to them. And search engines really like websites that are good for accessibility.
Here are some other accessibility tips around design and content. Think about the colours you’re using, red text on a green background isn’t a great idea (even at Christmas) if you want everyone to be able to see it. There are other colour combinations that are a poor choice for colour blind people too, so it’s worth doing your research if you’re doing your own designs.
Ensure any text you have over images is actual text and not part of the image otherwise it can’t be seen by text readers or search engines, so that’s also an SEO tip too.
If you are using video content on your website, ensure it has captions. This isn’t just an accessibility tip, just a tip in general really. I don’t tend to turn the volume up on videos and I’m not the only one and so having captions means you’re going to get your information across to a lot more people.
Working around the structure of a page isn’t always easy, even for a skilled copywriter. Unless you write directly into the builder, which is very rare, it can be hard to judge how the content will look on the page. A thousand words of quality content will look great on a document, but if it doesn't match the visuals of the site, how well it reads will be affected.
If you create content that has clear sections and paragraphs, all with relevant headings, it becomes easier to slot it all together. One of the biggest benefits of combining SEO with content creation is that the SEO team will be familiar with the page structure. They’ll then be able to work with the copy team and the client to find that ideal balance.
Working with a web designer like Jude makes this easier too. They’ll work their magic to make the content look its best, while understanding how important the structure is. We copywriters may be solitary creatures when at our desks, but we know that teamwork makes the dream work!
