We all have many reasons to write content for our websites – or hire a content creation company to do it for us.
Perhaps ranking for a certain long-tail keyword is the goal. Or the goal may be to fill a void in a certain subject area. Even more, content can also answer reader’s questions or you can develop good content for distribution through social media channels.
Thinking of these kinds of reasons can make web copywriters lose sight of another purpose of a webpage beyond just filling up space…and that purpose is whether a webpage should be pushing or pulling.
If you’re working on a landing page or article or some other content on your site, you have to determine if your goal is to draw new readers and/or get existing visitors to keep coming back (pulling) or is the goal to “push” readers to take some sort of action.
In detail, the differences between the two are pretty stark.
Pages written to pull someone in are a gift of sorts to your readers according to Nick Usborne’s Web Content Café post. Their purpose is to welcome and inform readers…content is great for search engines and social media and generally provide “how to” answers to reader’s questions.
Pages written to push someone have a much different tone and are more for driving someone to take action. They’ve usually already seen and been informed by other content on your site and are nearing the point of purchase. Copy for these pages is more persuasive as you’re trying to close the sale or click.
At this point, you may be asking – aren’t all pages a bit of both?
That is possible. In fact, every page should include a little push at the end because you don’t want someone just to land on a page, read it and leave your site.
But be aware of whether the primary purpose of your content is to push or pull…don’t just write things for the search engines to eat up. Are you trying to pull a new reader in? Or are you trying to get an existing reader to take action?
Be aware of the difference and write pages with this in mind.