It is fair enough to admit that planning, accomplishing and developing contents for your website can be a tedious task. It doesn’t matter whether you have over a hundred pages because determining which content to display on your website is pivotal to your overall success. Actually, web content does not only include words but also charts, data, multimedia tools and downloadable files for plus points.
Most website content is developed from brainstorming. The decision-makers or committee members would obviously produce suggestions to include their mission, goals, and objectives on their website. In addition, another would suggest displaying photos that would get the attention of their market.
We could say that these ideas are useful and these suggestions can create web content for your website. However, how can a company be sure that their content is making much sense and not alienate visitors of their website?
Ensuring the better content for your website is essential so that visitors and collaboration with others for your company can not be that hard. An improved planning, strategy and action plan can definitely take you there. Take into consideration these steps for a better content of your website.
Assess your current website content
The initial step in creating content for your website is assessing your current content. It is helpful to check your other existing materials such as brochures to construct which of your content is already accessible. It is also safe to ask these three questions:
- Is the website content still accurate?
- Is there any important information missing?
- Is the content useful to your readers?
Make sure that these details are accurate to help you guarantee there is no obsolete information. Remind yourself that your company has changed since you initiated your website which is why it is crucial to incorporate additional services. Giving a coherent and particular purpose for your content will help in certifying that you are giving your market something of importance to read.
Acknowledge your brand
You cannot talk or plan content ideas for your website if you do not truly fathom your brand and its values. Many companies commit this mistake but it is important to remember that you must know exactly what your company stands for. Know your voice and your allegiances both political and social.
To understand your consortium, you must identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. The most common way of doing this is using the SWOT analysis which works well and allows you to immediately see what contents you must have that are far better than your competitors. Later on, you can situate the opportunities and strengths to your company’s values and initiate a map of your own.
Identify your target market
Before you determine which content to incorporate on your website, you must first establish your website’s target market. This is important so that you will be able to understand or at least identify which audience you are communicating with. Identifying your target market will also provide transparency as you plan the content of your website.
In addition, this will authorize you to measure whether or not your information is coherent or even of importance. Identifying your major and minor audiences is also crucial to ensure that you take into consideration all of your market and their solitary needs.
Homepage as a straightforward summary
Your home page is the common entry to your website. Therefore, it is essential that the contents of your home page must describe how your market can take advantage of your products and services. If they cannot figure out what you have in store for them, they will exit your website without second thoughts!
Use sitemaps or navigation to organize information
Compare creating web content to constructing a building: your sitemap is like an architect’s blueprint. Having no sitemap is like having a building that does not have enough offices or utilities.
Creating a sitemap may sound tedious since you have to identify which contents to put in a specific page. To help you with your aggravation, you can look for multiple software sites and programs that are designed to categorize or assemble different information.
You can begin your sitemap by thinking of the bulk contents before getting into details. Identify if one page can disclose everything your website needs, or if it needs subpages to extract more details. Brief and concise page titles can be of better use in navigations than wordy expressions. Indeed, using sitemaps can systematize and emphasize your website content.
One way to organize your pages is by logically naming categories and using standard terms on your website’s navigation. Your visitors or market do not want to play the guessing game of which page to go.
Display conversational English
Set aside what you have learned from your college English professor. No reader wants to read words or phrases that resonate like a research paper. Never bore your visitors! Write your contents as though the website is speaking directly to your visitor.
It is also helpful if you use sentences in a second person like “we” and “you.” You may also use informal or friendly voice so that your visitors will feel at ease when reading your website. Common words used in a friendly voice will give them a feeling of understanding and that you are with them.
One more thing: as much as possible, avoid writing industry jargon. Make sure to use words that are recognizable and familiar terminologies.
Provide all the necessary and pertinent information
It is obvious that when people are searching the web, they are looking for answers. If your website content does not provide all the facts and information they are searching for, your visitor will disregard your site and move on to the next website with accurate results.
Never worry about sharing too much information. It has been proven that websites with rich information are the most effective and the odds are higher when it comes to website visitors.
Maintain the action in your writing
It is no doubt that you are informed with the term passive voice. However, are you really well informed with what it actually means? Passive voice involves switching the subject and object in your sentence. In fact, using sentences in a passive voice is less exciting than using active voice.
Stick to your subject-verb agreement and make use of unique and exciting verbs in your web content. Writing in an active voice does not necessarily mean your word count will increase, but it will definitely make your web content more appealing and captivating.
Display photos that tell your story
Stocking photos may look pretty, but do they really tell your story to the visitors? If you’re thinking it’s a yes, then you are wrong. Stocked photos are too generic. You can actually use them in some pages on your website to help disperse what otherwise would become a heavy page.
However, when it comes to your people and products, actual photos are better. Make sure your photos will allow your visitors to see what they are looking for and from who they are buying it.
Don’t write and edit at the same time
Ideally, someone else is editing your work. However, if you are responsible for doing both, it would be wiser not to write and edit at the same time. The mind is usually fresh when writing on a blank page and ideas will keep on coming. Writing and editing at the same time takes too much of your time. Fresh ideas will also slip your mind whilst editing. You can always set aside your draft and come back to it later for editing.
With the right discipline, the best website content will be in your hands. Remember that having engaging content is the easiest way to catch the attention of your visitors.
