Good website content does two jobs at once: it satisfies someone searching, and it moves them towards contacting you. Most business writing fails at both by trying to sound impressive instead of being useful.

One page, one job

Before writing a word, finish this sentence: this page exists to help someone who wants ___ to ___. If you cannot, the page will wander. Pages that try to cover three services rank for none of them.

The structure that works for a service page

  1. Headline stating the service and the place or audience
  2. Opening paragraph that names the problem in the reader's own words
  3. What is included, as a scannable list
  4. How it works, as numbered steps
  5. Price signal, even if it is only a starting figure
  6. Proof — an example, a result, a testimonial
  7. Objections answered as short questions
  8. One clear call to action

Notice how little of that is about you. Roughly ninety per cent should be about the reader's situation.

How to sound like a person

  • Write the way you would explain it on the phone, then tidy it
  • Short sentences. Vary the length so it does not read like a list
  • Cut "we are passionate about", "cutting edge", "bespoke solutions", "in today's digital landscape"
  • Use "you" far more often than "we"
  • Give real numbers instead of vague claims

Read it aloud. Anywhere you stumble, a reader stumbles too.

Writing for search without writing for robots

Put the main phrase in the title, the first heading, the opening sentence, and the URL. Then stop thinking about it. Cover the related questions as subheadings, because that is how you match the way people actually search, and it is what "semantic SEO" amounts to in practice.

Length should be determined by the question. A pricing question might need 600 words. A complete beginner's guide might need 2,000. Padding to hit a word count is obvious to readers and does nothing for rankings.

Formatting is part of the writing

Nobody reads a wall of text on a phone. Break every three or four sentences. Use descriptive subheadings so a skimmer can navigate. Bold the sentence that matters most in a long section. Use lists for anything genuinely list-shaped and prose for everything else.

Common mistakes

  • Burying the answer under three paragraphs of preamble
  • Talking about your company history before the reader knows what you sell
  • No call to action, or six competing ones
  • Duplicating the same copy across location pages
  • Never updating it — a page with a 2021 date and old prices costs you trust

Keep it alive

Revisit your important pages twice a year. Update prices, add a new example, answer the new questions customers have started asking. Refreshing an existing page that already ranks is usually a better use of an hour than publishing a new one.