Loading ...Content plays an important role in search engine optimisation. Without the right content, the site will be assessed more harshly by the search engines, will put off readers and will ultimately lose traffic, the last thing you want during SEO. Finding the right provider for your content can be hard enough. Finding the right tone for content is a concept many companies don’t even think about.
Tone is a way to control a reader’s response to a piece of content on a website. Most companies select a friendly tone by default, but this can prove to be a big mistake.
Your tone options
It’s important to make a choice about your content’s tone, even if you’re sourcing your content from a professional writer. You can talk to us about this at SEO Consult Australia. When selecting the tone for your site’s content, you generally have two options:
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The friendly tone. This tone is quite popular on the net, as contact between the reader and the writer seems more immediate than in printed material. This possibly has to do with the vibrant, changeable nature of information on the net. Content written in this tone tends to refer to the reader as ‘you’ and often refers to the writer as ‘I’ or ‘me’. The overall effect is of a conversation the reader happens to be having with the writer.
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The professional tone. This tone distances the writer from the reader, but also conveys a sense of authority. A piece written in a professional tone rarely uses ‘you’ and never refers to the writer directly.
These two forms of tone can be intermingled with more subtle tones, such as the following:
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The instructional tone. Anyone who has ever spent much time on article hosting sites will be familiar with this type of tone. Instructional tones set things out in a fairly straightforward, factual manner.
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The technical tone. This tone tends to shut out the average reader through the extensive use of industry terms, often using set ways of delivering information. A technical tone can be either friendly or professional, but hard for outsiders to penetrate.
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The personal tone. This kind of tone is achieved when the writer takes everything down to a more personal level. Articles written in this tone often contain personal anecdotes or try to make the reader relate to the subject more closely.
When friendliness doesn’t work
The difficulty with a friendly tone is that sometimes it brings a business too far down in the reader’s estimation. The usual advantage of a friendly tone is that a reader can relate, and feels like they’re talking to a friend. This becomes a disadvantage if your business needs to project an image of authority, stability and trust. In such a case, a friendly tone can come off looking a little suspicious.
If your site needs to retain its authority, a professional tone is your best option. The tone used on your competitors’ websites can prove a good guideline when you need to make this decision.
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Tags: articles, content, Search Engine Optimisation
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