Don’t Write Your Website Content for Humans or Bots!

We’ve told you previously to “write for humans, not search bots”. Now we’re backtracking. We say DON’T write for humans or bots!

That’s right, you’re not writing for humans or bots. So, who the hell are we writing for?

You’re probably visualising a dog with glasses and a tie using its laptop or phone to read your website. Clearly this isn’t the case. Firstly, a dog doesn’t own a phone or laptop, and secondly, dogs can’t read!

We are still writing web content for real life people, but we’re adjusting to their search objective and browsing attitude.

There needs be method in your writing

If you’re a site owner, you’ll have had to write copy for your website at some point. Whether you enjoyed it or not is another thing, but there must always be method behind your work.

What’s your approach to writing site content? Do you write it with an idea of who you’re writing for? Or do you just get on with it and write it because you have to?

Target audience can cause mistakes

When we write, we aim to appeal to a particular person. You may know who your target audience is for your business, but it’s a whole new ball game when you consider your typical user online.

People’s attitude online is entirely different when compared to communicating with someone face to face or in print.

Think of potential users as wild animals

This is a fantastic example of how to treat your potential site users. It was Jakob Nielsen who said website visitors are like wild animals (source: Information Foraging by Jakob Nielsen). They’re on your website for one reason and one reason only, to find information, a service or a product they crave.

Much like a hungry wild beast searching for prey, they won’t waste time with their victim. They will go for something which is easy pickings!

Content is prey ready to be consumed by the predator

You should think of your website content as prey. It’s ready to be consumed and it can be caught the easy or hard way — you need to be aiming for easy ingestion!

Writing for NORMAL humans is outdated

Decisions are made about websites and their content in seconds. Information on your website must be clear, concise and easily readable. You can achieve this through writing for readers who scan rather than read.

Normal humans like to read. But when someone is browsing the internet, they’re not a normal human, they’re more like a machine looking for information or a solution.

But people do read differently

Although many people are not willing to read bulks of content, you have some people who will read content because they like to. Like me. As a content writer, I like to read content and spot mistakes. Weird I know, but that’s just what I do.

Although everyone has their own online reading habits, your content needs to be simple and to the point. Just because some people like me might like reading, it doesn’t mean we want to read masses of content. If we did, we’d buy a book or grab a newspaper.

Struggling for time with your website’s content?

If you are struggling for time with your site’s content, then we would be more than happy to help!

If you would like to talk some more about your website and its content, drop us an email to tom@tjcreative.co.uk.