By Pat Giammarco, our new partner with PWG Marketing
Content is the lifeblood of your website. Visitors to your site are looking to gain something from viewing your website: blogs, articles, and ideas. All of these elements work together to convey your message and define your brand.
But, let’s face it, not all content is created equal.
Good content is interesting, actionable, well-written, and properly formatted.
Bad content is, well, bad.
Keep It Interesting
Content should be interesting. It should be useful and answer questions or address your readers needs. Higher user engagement how long a person stays on your site after clicking a link from a search engine helps improve your site’s page rank. More importantly: interesting content gives a user a reason to stick around and to return.
Ask yourself why someone would read your content. What would keep them hooked and spending time on your site? These are questions that you must answer when creating content for your website. Users want real information that provides something they need, not generic filler material.
Action Is Important
Content should always contain a call to action. The most important reason to write something is to get people to do something, such as make a purchase, change an opinion, or simply continue reading. Does your content tell your reader what you want them to do?
If you’re writing about a product that you’re selling, the article should contain a link to purchase that product. If you’re promoting an event, you should tell the reader how to buy a ticket to attend. You also may feature articles and blogs that aren’t for promotional purposes. Sometimes, a persuasive article may serve to encourage the user to continue reading at another source.
Spelling and Grammar Matter
Good content is well written. Content must be free from errors, readable, and easy to understand. Spelling mistakes and confusing sentences can turn readers away, even if the ideas are great. Readers won’t accept your webpage as expert content if they have to wade through comma splices and poor spelling to make sense of it.
Proper writing may not be an easy task for everyone, but spending a few extra dollars for professional writing or editing will be better for your business than pushing through with bad content.
Keep It Organized
All of your content should be properly formatted for readability and labeled with an easy-to-understand and informative title. Titles should be more than cursory labels; they need to tell your readers exactly what information they can expect to get for consuming your content.
Once visitors begin reading your page, they need to stay engaged. Break up your content into smaller blocks of text organized by a common idea. Massive, repetitive paragraphs are off-putting and give readers a reason to leave your page and search elsewhere for information. Subheadings and bulleted or numbered lists are irreplaceable tools that can take a wall of text and divide it into a user-friendly, welcoming copy.
Your website needs exceptional material to keep visitors excited and coming back for more. We can provide expertly crafted content and strategies that will get you found, engage your audience, and convert visitors into paying customers. Contact us today for a free online content audit.
