To be honest, writing your website content is probably going to be different from anything else you’ll ever write. The content must be engaging, brief, informative, and it must all communicate what you offer and why it’s beneficial to the customer. Sounds hard, right? It is, and that’s why many companies miss the mark on web content. Don’t worry, though, you can follow these six tips to take your content to the next level.

1. Pay attention to your titles and descriptions

The importance of good titles should not be underestimated. They are responsible for how often your site shows up in search results, and under what searches they will appear. Titles should be informative and should communicate the benefits of whatever topic they are about. Also don’t forget about your meta descriptions! Meta descriptions are the short summarization below a title that displays on Google. Now let’s show an example of a good and bad meta description for a website. We’ll call it “Lou’s Tuxedo Rentals.”

Here’s what not to do:

“Lou’s is located at 1234 Michigan Avenue. They are a family-run company that has been around since 1965. Lou’s carries tuxedos for rent and for purchase.”

Instead, focus on the benefits to the customer. You have limited space to do so.

“Located in Chicago since 1965, Lou’s provides unmatched customer service and carries all of the most modern styles of tuxedos for less.”

2. Don’t be too self-serving

No one wants to read all about your brand changing the world (unless it really does), or how you are so amazing that no one/company can survive without you and your product. Would you want to read that? Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and definitely don’t lie to customers—it is in writing, after all. Focus on being honest and transparent; there is far too much competition out there not to be completely authentic to you customers.

3. Be strategic with your keyword placement

This is a common mistake that many companies make. They find out about SEO and scramble to load their websites with keywords that will help their Google rankings. Nope. Don’t do that. You need to take a step back and be smart about where you place keywords and define what those keywords are. Of course you should use them, but use them correctly. And, if Googlebot finds out you’re putting in keywords all over your website’s content, you’ll be SEO-punished.

4. Tailor your voice to your target market

Your website’s content should have a streamlined voice throughout. Your voice should encompass who you are as a brand. So, if you don’t know that yet, it’s time to figure it out. If you sell tractors, then you want to speak the lingo and talk in a laid-back fashion. If you are selling high-end glassware, then speak eloquently and use proper grammar. Also, don’t forget about the age group and level of expertise most of your customers fall into, as you don’t want to confuse them. If your copy is easy to read, people will read more of it.

5. Your content should be original

Each section of your website should serve a purpose. There should be no copy-pasting from the web (BIG no-no) or from other sections of your site. Not only will this hurt you in SEO, but you’ll look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. Spend the necessary time researching and writing valuable, useful content that will inform your customers, answer their questions, and propose reasons why your product or service is necessary for them. If you can’t write it yourself, hire someone who can. This is important stuff.

6. Make sure you have enough content

We come across many clients who don’t know that they have this problem: their text to HTML ratio is too low. This just means they don’t have enough content on their site in relation to its code. Ideally, you want to be in the range of 25 to 70%. When you go higher than that, Google can mark your site as spam. Of course, you want the content to be relevant and useful to your brand. No fluff content, seriously. When you are lower than 20%, Google gets sad. Focus on fattening up your company page, services page, tour page, case studies page, etc. Think about different questions you have when you visit websites, or information you wished websites provided. Be proactive and add that information to your site. Chances are, someone else had the same questions.

By following these six simple tips, your web content can come back to life, your SEO ranking will increase, and your customers will be much happier to see more information. Now get to writin’!