By now, we’ve drilled into your mind that in order to succeed in today’s global and ever-changing marketplace, you must have an active web presence. According to InternetWorldStats.com, the number of internet users has more than quadrupled since 2000 and that number grows each and every day. In order to reach your target market in such a high traffic environment, you know that your website needs to be clean, clear and responsive with plenty of eye catching graphics.
You must have a presence on multiple social media accounts and regularly update with interesting information. You must be prepared to carry a two-sided dialogue with your potential customers and, as noted multiple times here, you must have regularly post articles and blog posts to ensure a high page rank and drive traffic to your site. However, what you may not yet understand is how to craft your website content in a way that actually yields results.
Contrary to popular belief, you can’t simply slap up a few paragraphs of keyword stuffed nonsense and call it a day. As the importance of an active web presence continues to grow, so does the competition. This means the rules are always changing and today you must stay on top of the best methods for ensuring your websites content actually accomplishes your goals. Here are four of the top tips for creating the most effective website content:
-
Know Your Audience – Every brand has its own personality, and with that personality is a unique voice. Generally, this voice is a reflection of a company’s target consumer. Decades of marketing research has proven that people like to buy things from companies that they can relate to, so you need to ensure your websites content drives home that point. So, whether your company has a more casual and playful tone, such as Google, or a buttoned-up corporate tone, like Merrill Lynch, make sure that voice is both human and reflected within your website content.
-
Use Strategic SEO – We’ve touched on the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in previous posts, but many companies still have a difficult time understanding just how they can use this tool effectively. The best advice for using strategic SEO is to not do anything too unnatural. In other words, don’t awkwardly stuff a keyword phrase a dozen times in two paragraphs of text and expect to rank high. These days, search engines take
into account all sorts of other information, such as organic inbound links, how recently your websites content has been updated and whether or not you have additional types of content other than text, such as videos and photos – which brings us to our next point. -
Include Multimedia – Search engines love photos and videos, and so do readers. An eye catching photo or an interesting video will not only keep people on your site longer, it will keep them interested in what you have to say.
-
Keep it Simple and Interesting –Additionally, keep in mind that the average internet user doesn’t spend more than a few seconds on a page, especially if that page consists of mostly words. Instead of large chunks of difficult-to-digest text, stick to shorter paragraphs separated by subtitles and bullet points. Studies have shown that most people scan rather than read, so it’s important to make your websites content easy to review and easy to remember. After all, memorable content will keep people coming back for more.
What sorts of web content strategies have you used on your site? Do you handle it yourself or outsource to web content developers?
