Your website content is of prime importance. 

How your content is written plays a big role in determining whether a client stays on your site and digs further, or if they’ll take notes (or not!) and browse somewhere else (and potentially never come back).  MOST websites today make the cardinal error of talking about themselves and the products and services they offer, as oppose to putting their clients first and relating their services through the heart and minds of what their clients want.  Because the written word is absent of tone, cadence and inflection, the method of appealing to solutions a client is looking for must be done in a very specific and credible way.

 

Online Success

To be successful online, there are three elements to digital success.  They are:

1. Your Website
2. Your Content
3. Your Marketing Plan

In this article, we’re going to concentrate on your digital content.  We’ve included links to visit articles covering your website and your marketing plan at the end of this article.

 

Elements of Success

For your content to be successful in advertising your business, your content must be:

1. Engaging
2. Useful
3. Keyworded
4. Have good Imagery
5. Searchable; and,
6. Accessible

Let’s go over these six successful content aspects.

 

Engaging

If your content engaging?  When browsing websites, have you ever noticed that some websites keep you browsing and interested longer vs other websites that are unintuitive to navigate, don’t relate to what you’re looking for, don’t answer your questions or even worse, annoy you in the process of trying to find what you want?  Websites that aren’t engaging through thoughtful planning and client research are usually destined to cost their owners a lot of money because they’ll have trouble converting prospects into clients.  Making sure your content is engaging is something only an experienced professional advertiser / marketer should be trusted to do effectively – believe it!

 

Useful

Is your content useful?  Does your visitor obtain something useful from browsing your content?  Did they find something that would make them want to come back, bookmark your website or immediately make the decision to buy?  One of the biggest mistakes in client acquisition is the propensity to hunt clients and ignore the fishing or farming principals of client acquisition.  Hunting clients means focusing on closing the deal immediately or as soon as possible and ignoring the longer term strategy of having your clients getting to know and trust you over time.  If your content is useful to your intended audience, your audience will find you useful.  When your audience asks a question or begins interacting with you, your audience has grown into a lead.  Leads become prospects, and prospects turn into customers and clients.  Never underestimate the power of useful content.

 

Keyworded

Have you keyworded your site?  Do you know what keywording is?  Keywording is a three-step process:

1. Writing out the content for your site with the points that you know your customers appreciate and relate to.
2. Use web tools to uncover trends in searches. Find out what words are people using to search for you (and your competitors) products and services. Make a list of the most popular search terms.  (Note:  This is done with specialized tools used by digital marketing firms).
3. Mildly rewrite your content incorporating and injecting the most popular search terms. This will ensure better organic search results for your business, and also ensure more economical pay-per-click auction prices for your content since it will be more relevant for what people are searching for.

Keywording your site pays for itself in spades over time!

 

Imagery

There is extensive research on the use of imagery in content for the purposes of advertising and publicity.  This research covers what works and what doesn’t.  You’ve heard the cliché:  “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  In the web world it’s even more relevant, and it’s more accurate to say “(A picture is worth a thousand words) x (The engagement of your copy)”.  Copy is the text that’s included in your website. The text you’re reading right now is known as “Copy”.  Proper imagery makes your carefully written copy come to life.

Imagery includes photography, infographics, videography, color schemes, shadows, textures, hues, saturations and contrasts.  Imagery also includes the general layout of your site. 

Never underestimate the power of good photography over stock images.  Always consider that hundreds, thousands or millions of eyes will form their impressions on the imagery you choose.

Always choose good imagery.

 

Searchable

Site searchability is essential in the on-demand world we live in today.  We discussed keywords earlier and their importance of finding your content on search engine result pages.  But what about within your website?  Can someone come to your website and quickly find and locate something they’re searching for?  And when they search for something, are the results provided relevant and easily laid out so that they’re useful to the visitor?

Most small business websites fail in this very important feature.

Make sure your content is searchable and locatable on the web.  Make sure your content is searchable and locatable on your website.

 

Accessible

Is your website accessible?  Accessibility is a huge factor in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPS).  Accessible content means it’s consistent with US “Section 508 compliance rules”.  Section 508 and WCAG (Web Content Accessibillity Guidelines) allow for hearing and visually impaired persons to be able to consume your content using accessibility devices.  Accessibility devices include screen readers for the visually impaired and scripted text over video for hearing impaired persons.  WCAG and 508 guidelines also include button sizes, image labels, colour contrasts between text and backgrounds, tab ordering and many other aspects to reach WCAG and 508 guidelines.

Accessibility makes a world of difference for those who need assistance navigating the web.  Adhering to WCAG and 508 compliance is rewarded by your customer base and through search engine results as search engines rate WGAC and 508 compliance as a positive signal for better search engine results.

 

Summation

In this article you’ve learned about the six most important considerations affecting your website content and its impact in favourable indexing and getting discovered online. 

 

Thank You!

Thanks for reading this “Three Ingredients To Digital Success – Your Content” article on considerations regarding the content on your website.  If you want more information on strengthening your digital presence, feel free to visit:

1. Three Ingredients To Digital Success – Your Website (Part 1 of 3); and,
2. Three Ingredients To Digital Success – Your Marketing (Part 3 of 3)

If you found this article useful or helpful, please feel free to drop a line or share this on social media.  If you have questions about your own website or are unhappy with your online performance and wish to grow your business faster, please feel free to reach out to us.  You can schedule an appointment below.

Thanks again and have a great day!