How to Create Great Content for Your Website
Content creation is high on the list of marketing activities for many businesses these days. But creating great content isn’t just down to good writing. Different channels require different types of content, and websites are the same.
SEMrush’s latest State of Content Marketing: 2023 Global Report highlights the importance of content generation as part of any marketing strategy. The report revealed that:
44% of marketers agreed that improving the quality and value of their content has led to success
42% said that updating existing content has boosted their content marketing value
But the quality of your content is also a priority, which 53% of marketers confirmed is a key focus for them in 2023.
Why is content creation important?
Content creation is one of the key ways to reach and engage with your target audience. Your content should give your audience free information that is useful, informative, and answers their queries. With good content, you can attract potential customers, retain existing customers and reach new markets. The key benefits of implementing a content creation strategy include:-
● Ensure your content consistently supports your strategic goals.
● To improve your ROI.
● To ensure all stakeholders are on the same page.
● To help ensure all content published is consistent with the brand and is of high quality.
● To help identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where adjustments are needed.
The importance of good website content
A website is becoming one of the most important tools for companies in generating growth. In today’s digital environment, a website is the business’s ‘shop window’. High-quality, informative, and engaging content on a website goes a long way to attracting the right audience, i.e. your target audience, to your business.
As well as boosting online visibility, it helps your visitor find answers to their queries and discover the resources they are looking for. Plus, they are more likely to share that content with others.
You could have the simplest website design, but if the content is high-quality and delivers what the user wants, it can beat many of your competition’s websites. Some of the main benefits of good website content are:
● Improves search engine optimisation (SEO).
● Builds trust and brand reputation.
● Establishes your brand’s tone of voice.
● Increases lead generation.
● Boosts online visibility.
● Delivers value for your visitors.
● Generates more sales.
● Produces evergreen content (content with a long life span).
● Boosts shareability.
● Enhances website usability.
● Differentiates you from your competitors.
Website content is not the same as other forms of content; it has to wear many hats. It is also the first interaction with your potential customers and, as such, it has just a few seconds to grab their attention. But it must be informative and useful and persuade your visitors to act – buy, subscribe, share, comment, or click. So, how do you create great content for your website?
Top tips for creating great website content
Tip 1 – Define your audience
There’s no point in writing content for everybody because not everybody is interested in what you offer. So, define your audience to create website content that targets them. This also boosts SEO in that you are providing content that search engines will be able to identify and rank according to a user’s search query.
Most search requests are quite specific, so you need to create content that is most likely to match those requests. For example; conduct some market research, create customer profiles, and use market segments, such as geographical areas.
Tip 2 – What are you aiming for?
Ask yourself, what you want to achieve with your content, and what your main aim is. For example, do you want to promote your services and sell your products, build your brand reputation, establish your business as an authority in the industry, provide online resources, attract new customers and/or retain existing customers, or encourage subscribers? You may have a different aim, or combine several, but it’s important to know what you’re aiming for.
Tip 3 – Decide on your USPs
Write a list of your products or services USPs (Unique Selling Points). Then set out why these USPs differentiate you from your competitors. There are four main USP categories – quality, convenience, price, and differentiation. So, for example:
● Do you promote quality over quantity? Are the materials you use better quality than those of your competitors?
● Are your prices more competitive?
● Do you offer more in terms of a package?
● Is your customer service/support better than your competitors?
● Do your products or services add more benefits to your customers?
Tip 4 – Brand tone of voice
What’s your business’s style and tone of voice? Is it formal and professional, such as the legal sector? Or are you wanting to be more friendly and approachable? Or it could be a balance of both. Whatever you decide, ensure you stick to it across your brand’s online channels, like social media.
Tip 5 – Calls to action
Hubspot recently reported that CTAs in blogs generated a 121% increase in conversions. So, think about your call to action (CTA) buttons; what do you want your reader to do when they get to your page (other than visit more pages!)? For example, download a free white paper or e-book, subscribe to a newsletter, book an appointment, buy a product or service – make a list. This will also help significantly with your website design.
While you’re thinking about your CTAs, here’s another statistic to consider – personalised CTAs convert 42% more visitors than generic or vague CTAs. Try to stick with action words, like ‘join now’, ‘shop now’, ‘subscribe’, ‘discover’ and ‘add to cart’.
Tip 6 – Use persuasive language
When creating the content, use language that creates a sense of urgency, provokes an emotion (preferably positive!), and inspires your visitor to act. Action words are much more likely to generate feelings of needing to act now rather than “I’ll do it later”. This applies to our CTAs, too. For example, go with ‘Start now!’, ‘Learn More’, ‘Download Free’, ‘Book Now’, or ‘Join Up Today’.
Tip 7 – SEO!
Optimising your content for searches, particularly local SEO, not only ensures your business is easier to find online but also makes the search engine bots happier. Why local SEO? Well, out of the 3.5 billion daily searches on Google, 1.6 billion include local intent. That’s 46% of all searches including a location. So, if you’re not taking advantage of local SEO tools, you’re potentially missing out on ranking on nearly half of all Google searches.
Use a keyword planner or search tool to identify the most popular keywords and phrases relevant to your products or services. Once you know the most used keyword search terms, you can add them to your content and link them with a location for local SEO. However, be careful not to overload your content with them.
Make sure you optimise your meta tags and meta descriptions – this is the text that describes the content on a web page, or any other form of content – by using the most used keywords and locations to optimise for local search terms and locations.
Tip 8 – Use a linking strategy
Backlinks are one of Google’s top three ranking criteria, and generally, the more backlinks on a page, the more organic traffic it is likely to gain via Google. Developing a linking strategy to build high-quality backlinks on your website is a great way to increase its credibility and authority. By creating a variety of online content, like infographics, videos, blogs, and articles that can be shared, you are building a ‘content library’ that other authoritative sites can link with. But make sure all your links are high quality, or they could have the opposite effect.
Tip 9 – Keep it simple
There’s much to be said for simplicity, particularly regarding website content. The average time a user will stay on any one page on a website is 54 seconds, whatever the industry. So, you have just 54 seconds to tell them as much as possible about your business, your products or services, and why they should buy from you.
The longer it takes a visitor to find what they’re looking for, the more likely they’ll give up and go elsewhere. Make the content not only visually appealing but easy to read, with short and concise sentences and paragraphs, and ensure they can find the information quickly.
There is one other ‘must’ when it comes to your website content or any other form of content, for that matter. Make sure it is thoroughly proofread before it is published. Nothing is more off-putting to a visitor than a page of content riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
It’seeze Web Design Watford offers affordable website packages for start-ups and small businesses. We create professional, cost-effective, mobile-friendly websites bespoke to your company, incorporating our easy-to-use website editor with ongoing expert local support. Our high-quality, simple-to-manage yet engaging websites and content are fully SEO-optimised for local searches. Call us today to create the website of your dreams and turn your business into a success.
Tagged as: Content for websites
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