You might not be aware of it, unless you tend to do a lot of reading online, but did you know that when a person visits a website, they take all of 3-10 seconds to decide if it’s worth their time or not? It’s true! Not only does it have to do with the design of your website and the function of it (or lack of) but a big deciding point is the content on the website itself. I know for me personally, I tend to be kind of snotty when it comes to content on a site I visit. Even if I do a search on Google for something and it’s on the first page of the results or even the first spot – if I visit it and the content is not good; bad grammar, bad spelling, irrelevant or doesn’t make sense at all, I tend to close it out, and find a new site to visit. When it comes to your website, content IS important and it will either make you or break you. Here are a few things you need to consider when it comes to your website, or any content for that matter; blogs, social posts, forum posts, even emails!
The Base of Your Content
As mentioned above, it doesn’t matter if it’s a website homepage, blog, article or anything else where content (words) is present, the quality and relevancy does matter.
Homepages: This is a very important part of your website, because it’s the first thing that they will see when they visit your website. Your website doesn’t need to be ultra-busy – you don’t need a lot of fancy images, or videos to fill the space. Instead, use 1-2 quality images, and use great content that is written correctly to get your point across. A lot of people think the about us page should be where you place all of the who, what, where, when why info. But, I think the home page is just as good a spot because it gives visitors an idea, right off the bat, as to what you do, how you can help them, and what you offer.
Blog: If you have a regular blog or a blog on your website, make sure that ALL the content (even the keywords) are edited correctly. Make sure that your content actually makes sense – it’s really easy to get the ball rolling and then lose it and start skipping subjects, jumping from one idea to the next, etc… Make sure it’s all organized in a concise manner so that anyone, a newbie or an advanced user can read it, make sense of it, and understand what you are writing about! Make sure you are also using titles, not too long, not too short. Too short in my opinion is three words on the other hand, too long is a title that is spilling into a new line.
Articles: Some people just can’t or shouldn’t write and that’s okay. That’s why there are services out there for you. If you can’t write or have no idea what to write about, consider hiring a writer to write articles and blogs for you. If you do not want to deal with the hastle of looking for a writer, coming up with ideas for the writer and then dealing with the content once it is written you should consider hiring an SEO specialist who can take care of this for you. Find a quality writer that has the criteria you want i.e.; writes in third person, is from the UK, has experience in selling (or buying for that matter!) women’s luxury shoes, etc. Its good idea to try and find someone in your specific location so that they can write FOR those people in your area. For example, in the US we spell it color. But, UK people tend to spell it colour. This can confuse your readers if you and they are in the UK and its spelled the US way.
Relevant Content Matters
Content on any foundation is like a pet; you can’t just have a pet and not take care of it. You need to feed it, take care of it, take it for walks, play with it, train it, etc. Content is the same way. Don’t expect to write 5 blogs in a 1 year span and expect people to keep coming back to read it again. Your content needs to be fresh, new, and it definitely needs to be relevant. For example, take some of those Google Algorithms for example. If you have a SEO blog where you help people with SEO services and you have blogs that are entirely about Google Update Vince – you are NOT up to date! In fact, Vince was an update in 2009! Keep your content current and up to date to what has been happening last year, this year and perhaps next year. Not 6 years ago.
