Here's a presentation for co-workers at the Wimbledon Tech Campus. It covers the basics of writing great website copy for your small business. It's based on my experience as a freelance writer and content creator for healthcare. But the principles are universal and apply to any type of website.

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Great website content
Wimbletech Bytes / 27 November 2015
Colleen Shannon
Freelance Writer & Editor
www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Your copy checklist
ü Customer relevance
ü Clear message and call to action
ü Effective architecture – site, page, words
ü The basics – for respect and trust
ü Spelling
ü Grammar
ü Punctuation
ü SEO – should follow naturally
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Customer relevance
Understand your audience (your customers!) Get this right and
the rest will follow.
n Who are they?
n How do they talk?
n What matters to them?
n How can you help?
You will naturally start using strong terms for SEO, to attract the
customers you want most.
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Clear message and call to action
n What do you want to say?
n Sum it up for yourself in one sentence
n If you can’t – your message is not strong enough
n Then refine and add detail by going up to two, three, four, five
sentences.
n What do you want your customer to do?
n One action to underpin all of your content
n Benefits
n Evidence
n Reassurance / excitement
n Clear visual cue
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Clear architecture
What they must know
Supporting
evidence
Deep
detail
Proposition, benefits,
call to action
Testimonials, features,
data, case studies
More info for sceptics
and enthusiasts
Increasing
detail
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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The basics: common mistakes
n Too many capital letters
n Start of a sentence
n A name
n That’s it!!! No other use for capitals
n Using commas incorrectly
n Pointless apostrophes
n Lack of subject / verb agreement
n Long sentences
n 20 – 40 words max
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Checking the basics
n Don’t go it alone – have someone check
n Pay a professional
n Society for Editors and Proofreaders: www.sfep.org.uk
n Teachers and graduate students (in English or other humanities)
can be good at this, if you are on a budget
n Ask a capable colleague or friend
n Use online tools
n Oxford Dictionaries Online
n Plain English Campaign
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk

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Your website is your shop window
n Choose your words with care
n Present them beautifully
n Check them for cracks or blemishes before putting them on
display
n Keep them polished and glittering
© Colleen Shannon 2015 www.healthcarewriting.co.uk