It is one thing to write good content for headlines, but body content can be more challenging. Not only is body content about 100 times longer, it is also more challenging to keep a reader's attention. A typical website page contains between 600 and 1,000 words, which is about a full page on a Word doc. Anything less than that and it feels like too little, and more than that and it is more than most people will read.

First, you need to look at base pages on your site. Base pages offer content that more than likely doesn’t change and will show up in search engines for the most difficult terms. Some examples of these pages includes product information, about us, faq, testimonials, upcoming events, employee profiles, and press releases.

Supplemental pages are the pages on your site that support your core pages. They are relevant, but wouldn’t be considered primary to the site message. They will show up in search engines for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are keywords that are three or more words long and tend to be searched less often, yet are still valuable to your site. They may be in the form of pages or stories, blog posts, or even from user-generated content such as forums.

The goal of supplemental pages is to become a trusted site that provides both education and entertainment to your visitors. Be creative. Not only will it contribute to the natural SEO of your site, but it provides value to your customers. Remember that most visitors are skimming, not reading. They’ll stop and read only if they see something interesting, so make it easy for them to skim your content. Here are some techniques to use:

- Use the first sentence of each paragraph like a mini-headline to draw the reader’s attention.

- Make use of bullets when making a list since that makes things easier to follow and draws the reader’s attention.

- Break up your content with sub-headlines. An tag would do the trick. Make logical breaks in content, based on what you are writing about, in that section.

- Make use of bold key words or key ideas in the paragraphs.

- Throughout your written content, carefully sprinkle images that communicate your idea.

Another way to draw your reader in is to give them options at the bottom of each content page. Maybe that is a call to action like, “Buy our Moon pies today!”, or simply links to other, related content on your site.

Check back Wednesday and we will look at keywords and search engine optimizing your content.