How to Write Content for A Small Business Website

What is website content?

Website content refers to all the information and media that appears on your website, including text, images, videos, and files like PDFs. For most small businesses, written content explains who you are, what you offer, and why someone should choose you.

Common places that need website content include:

• Home page copy – an overview of your business and services
• Service pages – detailed descriptions of what you offer
• About page – your story, team, or mission
• Blog posts – useful articles that attract and educate potential customers

Why is it important to write content?

Without content, your website will be bland and simply boring. Users will likely go elsewhere to find the answers, products, or services they’re looking for.

Here’s just some of many reasons why original content is important for your business:

Shows your expertise

Clear, helpful content shows that you know what you’re doing. This can be in the form of your services, explaining the process so that users can understand exactly what you do. Or, it can be informational content, like blogs or guides, aiming to help the user.

Builds brand authority

The more valuable, informative content you publish, the more you position your business as an expert in your field. Over time, this builds authority, not just with search engines, but with real people deciding who to contact or buy from.

Answers questions

Your content should answer the questions your customers are already asking:

• What services do you offer?
• How much does it cost?
• How does it work?

By doing this, you reduce the number of hoops the user needs to jump through in order to make a decision.

Sets you apart from competitors

Many small business websites use minimal content on their website. Writing original, thoughtful content gives your business a unique voice, making you different from the rest and resonating with the user.

How to write content for your website: 7 clear steps

1. Define the goal of each page

Before you start writing anything, it’s essential to be clear on what each page is meant to do. Every page on your website should have a purpose which will guide what you say, how you say it, and what you want the visitor to do next.

Every page should aim to answer at least one of the following:

• Is it meant to inform? (like an About or FAQ page)?
• Is it meant to sell or convert? (like a home or service page)
• Is it meant to rank for a keyword? (like a blog post or landing page)?
• Is it meant to build trust? (like testimonials or case studies)?

You also need to understand who you’re writing this content for. Understanding your audience helps you write in the correct tone and choose what to highlight to them. What problem is your target user trying to solve and how can you take them to the next step?

Always have an ideal user in mind that you’re trying to help, as this can greatly benefit the shape of your content.

2. Do basic keyword research

If you want your website pages to show up on Google, you need to understand what your potential customers are searching for. This is where keywords come into play.

A keyword is the phrase someone types into Google. This can be something like “plumber in Brighton” or “dog groomers near me”. By using these types of phrases naturally in your content, Google is more likely to understand what your page is about and show it to the right audience.

At its simplest form, you can find what users are searching for by typing your service into Google Search. This will display suggestions of similar searches, giving you insight into what people are searching for and content you should aim to write.

Other tools include Google’s Keyword Planner and free third party tools like Semrush or Ahrefs. Ideally, you should be looking for keywords that:

• Have decent search volume
• Are relevant to your services
• Serve local users in an area specific to you

It’s really important to have a keyword in mind before writing your content, as this ultimately shapes the page and shows Google the term you’re looking to compete for.

Quick keyword tips:

• Focus each page on one main topic or keyword.
• Include your keyword in the page title and naturally throughout.
• Don’t overuse the keyword. Write how a human would normally write.
• Use related phrases and synonyms. Google knows when terms relate to each other.

3.  Structure the page properly

Once you’ve found your ideal user, decided on a goal, and chosen a keyword, it’s time to lay everything out in a clear, easy-to-read format. A well-structured page will help visitors understand the page whilst it also aids search engines in assessing the content and ranking it properly.

Headings break your content into sections and make it easier to scan. They have a weighting system, meaning heading 1s (H1s) are more important than heading 2s (H2s), and so forth.

• Use one H1 (main heading) at the top – this is usually your page title. This helps Google understand what the page is about.
• Use H2s for main sections (e.g. “Our Services”, “Why Choose Us”)
• Use H3s and H4s for sub-points under those sections if needed

Throughout your content, use short, digestible paragraphs that users can skim read through. Ideally, paragraphs should be no more than 4 lines long, and you should break up walls of text with bullet points and images where necessary.

Lastly, the content needs to tell the users what to do next. You should make this as easy as possible for them to understand, using simple terminology like “get a free quote” or “contact us for a consultation”.

Content checklist:

• One clear H1
• Descriptive H2s for each section
• Short, punchy paragraphs
• Easy-to-scan layout with bullet points
• Clear calls to action
• Logical flow from intro to conclusion

4.  Write for users first

Whilst keywords are important, your content’s main job is to inform users and persuade potential customers. Writing for users first means making your content useful and focused on what your audience actually needs to know.

This means writing in terminology that the user can easily understand. Here’s an example:

Instead of using: “Our company facilitates bespoke digital transformation solutions.”
Try this instead: “We build custom websites that help your business grow.”

Whilst these two sentences are fundamentally trying to achieve the same goal, the latter is much easier to understand and impossible to conflate the meaning of. This ensures the user knows exactly what you do without having to ask.

An old but excellent marketing technique is to focus on your benefits, not your features. Users don’t necessarily buy into features, but instead buy into why it matters to them. Here’s an example:

Feature: “Our websites are all mobile-friendly.”
Benefit: “Our websites look great and work perfectly on all devices, ensuring every customer gets the best experience.”

Many customers may already know the features they want from a service, it’s the benefit that they need help understanding. This makes their life easier when it comes to choosing the right business to work with. Listing these benefits, alongside offering clear next steps, will ensure that customers understand how you operate and why they should choose you.

5. Make your content unique

Websites that copy and paste from others are not going to attract users, as you’ll simply look like other sites that they’ve already chosen not to go with. Writing unique content sets your business apart, shows off your expertise, and builds trust with both users and search engines.

Writing unique and original content means:

• Writing in your own words and from the perspective of your business
• Grounding yourself in the community and referencing your location
• Adding real life explains, such as helping customers or solving problems
• Including your process, like how you work and what to expect
• Using your brand voice – professional or casual, whatever your choice may be

Many websites simply copy or use information from their competitors. However, simply copying content from another website is bad for three reasons:

1. Google can penalise duplicate content.
2. It doesn’t reflect your business appropriately.
3. Users get a bad impression of your business as you don’t put effort into your website.

6.  Optimise for SEO (without overdoing it)

Once your content is written for real people, it’s time to make some adjustments for search engines. SEO helps Google assess what your page is about, and making these changes helps guide them to better understand it.

Use your keyword naturally

This means using your keyword:

• In the page title (what shows in search results)
• The main heading (H1)
• A few times in the body text where appropriate
• In one of two subheadings where appropriate

Tip: Don’t overuse your keyword as Google may penalise the page. If your content sounds unnatural with it, then you’ve gone too far.

Internal links

Linking to other relevant pages on your website in the body of the text helps users and search engines find other, similar content. These should be natural links that make sense from the perspective of someone reading the content.

This gives you a chance to link to relevant services, similar topics, or your contact page. For example, an accountancy website may link to their ‘SME Accountants’ service page from a blog post discussing ‘The Pros and Cons of SMEs’. This is a natural link and makes sense to both the user and search engine.

Tip: Include relevant, natural links to similar topics on your website. Overusing internal links will confuse the user and search engines as both will struggle to find the page’s main links.

Images

Having relevant images on your page not only breaks up content but also has an SEO benefit too. Images on high-performing pages can appear on the Image tab of Google search results for a given term, giving you an extra opportunity for users to find you.

For the best results:

• Choose images that are relevant to the topic
• Give the image file a name that makes sense
• Include an ‘alt text’ description that correctly describes the image
• Ensure the image file size is minimal (100kb – 300kb is best for photos).

Tip: Don’t stuff the alt text with keywords as this does not benefit the reader. Instead, correctly describe the image and include a keyword if plausible.

7. Include strong calls to action

Once someone finishes reading your page, don’t leave them hanging; tell them exactly what to do next. This is where a strong, simple call to action (CTA) comes in.

A CTA guides your visitor toward the next step and makes their job easier in deciding whether to choose your services or products.

Depending on your business and the goals the page, you may CTAs for:

• Setting up contact (e.g. “Get in touch” or “Call us now”.)
• Building trust (e.g. “View our recent projects “ or “See what our customers think”.)
• Make an action (e.g. “Book your consultation” or “Start your project”.)

Ideally, you should place CTAs in strong positions on the page. Aim for a CTA near the top of the page and at the end, ensuring users know what to do next. For longer form content, include a CTA once or twice throughout the content, but don’t overwhelm them as this can diminish their impact.

A good CTA can turn a curious visitor into a paying customer. It doesn’t need to be pushy, it just needs to help the user understand what to do next.