“Content is king” – how many times have you heard that when researching website design and search engine optimization best practices? In today’s search engine-driven world, a website’s content is more than just an online brochure. It’s a magnet attracting the attention of search engines. It’s a virtual sales person drawing customers into your website and convincing them to complete an online purchase or lead form. It’s an informational tool, sharing important facts and details about your business, products or services with the world. It’s such an important component of good internet marketing that there’s even a new term for using content to drive traffic to websites: content marketing.
Yet many business owners treat their website’s contents like an after though. They write the text last, concentrating on the design first, or they take text they’ve written for their sales brochures or proposals and slap it up on a web page. That kind of content isn’t effective in the online world.
Instead of making these faux pas, use the following website content do’s and don’ts to spruce up your website content and make it work for, not against you.
Website Content – Things to DO
- DO use keywords that are highly relevant to your business and the web page you’re creating.
- DO keep your web page text between 250 and 500 words. Anything longer and it’s easy to lose someone’s attention.
- DO keep in mind the benefits of how your products or services help customers solve a problem, and write them into your website content. People buy from the BENEFITS.
- DO format your text for onscreen reading. Break up big chunks of text into smaller paragraphs.Use bold headlines, subheadings and bullet points.
- DO use hyperlinks on a page to draw readers to related information within your website instead of spelling out the link.
- DO make the links off of an actual word related to the page they’ll follow the link to, rather than to words like “click here”.
- DO think like a customer when deciding which pages belong on your website. What information do they need quickly? What questions do they ask frequently?
- DO uses only ORIGINAL text that you have written. Just because something is on the web doesn’t mean it’s up for grabs. Even if you cite the author, you can’t just copy something you see.
- DO add relevant, original articles and web pages that will help your customers solve their problems or answer their questions.
- DO make sure the call to action is clear and prominent. What action do you want customers to take on your website – call your hotline, fill out a lead form, buy a product? Make sure you ask them to do it and give them a clear path to follow in order to take that action.
Website Content – Don’ts
- DON’T just upload your existing brochures or sales collateral to your website and call it a day. Websites are a lot more sophisticated than that nowadays, and your site will look silly and amateurish if you rely on this outdated method of building websites.
- DON’T write tons of text without breaking it up into short, succinct paragraphs. People read differently online and tend to scan text, so short blocks work better than big blocks of text.
- DON’T copy text from another website, article you read online, blog post or newspaper article or book. Not only is it illegal and can land you in a lot of hot water (even if you state where it came from), search engines will mark your website down if they see a lot of duplicate text. Search engines love originality!
The Best Thing to Do for Your Website Content: Hire a Professional Writer
Web Design of Palm Beach works with a skilled internet copywriter who offers great service and affordable rates. Ask us about how you can hire a professional writer to help you improve your website; you’d be surprised at what a difference it can make! We also offer affordable, reliable website hosting, website design, search engine optimization consulting and much, much more. Call us at 561.262.5886 to learn more or speak with a web design expert today.