Showing the Work Behind an Answer

Two versions of the same answer

The first says that a job like this usually takes a day.

The second says it usually takes a day, that the longest one took three because the original work had been done badly, and shows a photograph of what was found.

Both contain the same answer. Only the second contains any reason to believe it.

A reader comparing three suppliers can find the first version on all three sites and the second on one, which is where the decision gets made.

What counts as showing the work

• A photograph of the actual thing.
• A measurement or a reading.
• A range across jobs, not one figure.
• The exception and what caused it.
• What you checked before concluding.
• A case where the usual answer was wrong.

The last is the strongest and the least used. Somebody who describes a time their own expectation was wrong is demonstrating that the expectation comes from experience rather than from repetition.

Ranges beat single figures

A specific technique that costs nothing and reads very differently.

Saying it costs about eight hundred dollars is an assertion.

Saying that the last dozen ranged from six to eleven hundred, with most around eight, and that access was what moved it, is derived from something.

The second is also more useful, since a reader can place their own situation within the range rather than discovering later that they are an exception.

It requires you to have looked at your own records, which takes ten minutes and is the actual work here.

Most businesses have never looked, and their published figure is a memory of a typical job rather than a number.

Photographs of the middle, not the end

Since finished-work photographs are decoration and process photographs are evidence.

A completed installation shows that you can install something. A photograph of what was behind the wall shows that you know what you are talking about.

Failed parts, corrosion, incorrect previous work, and readings on a meter all do the same job.

They are also easy to take, because the moment you notice something worth photographing is the moment you are looking at it.

Keep them with a note of what they show, since an unlabelled photograph of a component is useless three months later.

Those photographs are the ones that end up in the pages people remember.

A worked example

A page answering how long a system lasts said that with proper maintenance it should last fifteen to twenty years.

Every competitor said something similar.

It was rewritten to say what they had actually seen: that the ones they replace are mostly between twelve and eighteen years old, that the oldest working one they service is from 1998, and that the ones failing early almost always share one installation fault, with a photograph of it.

The answer had not changed. The page now contained four things nobody else had.

It began ranking for the question and, more usefully, enquiries started arriving from people quoting the installation fault and asking whether theirs had it.

Say what you do not know

Which reads as evidence rather than as weakness.

Where the honest answer is that it varies unpredictably, say so and say what determines it.

Where you have only done a handful, say so rather than implying volume you do not have.

Where two things are commonly claimed and you are not sure which is right, saying that is more credible than picking one confidently.

A page that is confident about everything reads as marketing, and a page that is confident about most things and uncertain about one reads as somebody thinking.

Where the material comes from

Because this is a records problem rather than a writing one.

The ranges come from your own invoices and job records, which most businesses have and never analyse.

The photographs come from a habit of taking them when something is interesting rather than only when something is finished.

The exceptions come from remembering the jobs that went differently, which is easier if somebody writes a line about them at the time.

None of it requires research and all of it requires a small habit that nobody has because nobody asked for it.

Start by looking at the last twenty jobs of one type, which will produce a range and probably an exception worth writing about.

Keep it proportionate

Since evidence can be overdone into something unreadable.

One or two supporting details per claim is enough, and a page bristling with figures becomes as hard to read as one with none.

The evidence should sit alongside the answer rather than in front of it, so a reader who accepts the claim can move on.

And the plain answer still has to be there, stated simply, since a reader who wanted a number and gets a discussion has been failed differently.

Answer, then show why, then move on.

It also makes the page harder to copy

A practical side benefit worth knowing.

Generic pages get copied, reworded, and republished by competitors and by anybody assembling a site quickly.

A page built on your own figures, your own photographs, and a case from your own work cannot be lifted without becoming obviously false.

Somebody copying it would be claiming your range, your oldest installation, and your photograph, which is a different act from rewording a general description.

That is not a reason to do it, and it is a reason the effort keeps returning value while a generic page's advantage erodes as others publish the same thing.

The counter-case

Some claims do not need supporting.

Ordinary factual statements about what you offer, where you work, and what your hours are require no evidence and would look strange with it.

There are also fields where publishing specific case details raises confidentiality problems, and a general statement is the only responsible option.

And a business with genuinely little experience should not manufacture evidence of it, which is a reason to write about something else rather than to write it badly.

Support the claims a reader would reasonably doubt, leave the rest plain, and start with the ranges you already have in your records.

What to do

1. Find a claim a competitor also makes.
2. Look at your last twenty jobs of that type.
3. Publish the range, not one figure.
4. Name what moves it.
5. Add a photograph of the middle of a job.
6. Describe the exception and its cause.
7. Say plainly what you do not know.

Step two is where the material comes from, and it is ten minutes with records you already keep rather than anything that needs writing.

Writing beyond your knowledge is covered in writing about something you half understand.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.