Creating website content may be a tedious task for business owners, but is essential in having a big influence online and for acquiring the utmost potential for search engine traffic, both geared towards the success of your company.
Here you will learn some of the points to consider when publishing content on your website, the best ways to do it, and what must be avoided. Beforehand, know that there is a myriad of content you can utilize which can greatly benefit your online business in becoming highly successful.
Types of Content
1. Written Text or Articles
This is the most commonly published type of content, with a majority of website owners adding helpful articles of about 400-1000 words into blogs infused on their website. The topics revolve around relevant information which most likely comes with photos of the products or services being offered, usually written by the site owner and administrators.
2. Images
Visual elements including images, pictures, illustrations, cartoons, photography and info-graphics which are your own or are permitted to use can attract more visitors and keep them engaged in your website.
3. Videos
People simply love watching videos, and it is evident as videos are most popular in search engines. It is significantly more powerful than text based articles as the visual factor elicits a higher level of engagement and trust from the viewers. Keep it short, ideally under 5 minutes, and packed with useful information.
4. Audio
This format may be comprised of audio books, music, sound files, and webinars which many people also prefer.
5. Podcasts
Podcasts are recorded interviews that can be downloaded and listened to anywhere, hence providing one compelling way of building your audience, targeting listeners rather than readers which have a higher possibility of being return customers.
6. Interactive Features
People are more likely to come back and are drawn to sites with interactive content, like playing games they can enjoy.
7. Documents
Having downloadable content in the form of documents like PDF, PowerPoint presentations, or spreadsheets allow your visitors to keep a copy for themselves, maybe for reading at a later time, sharing with family and friends, or printing out. This is an effortless way of spreading your content with the possibility of gaining new customers and making your business and website widely recognized.
8. Software
Websites that offer free software that is easily downloaded entice more visitors and usually have a high number of return customers.
9. Tools
With many people looking for answers to their problems, tools such as calculators, translators, conversions, measurements, and any other form that is free to use prove quite effective is gaining more visitors.
To sum it up, there are numerous ways you can make your website unique in your own way by becoming creative with the content you incorporate in it rather than just plain, boring text. An interesting and highly valuable website filled with lots of great, useful content will keep users coming back.
The Importance of Content
Now that we have outlined the types of content, we can proceed with gaining a better understanding of what to do, how to execute it effectively and in the best manner, and what not to do.
Business owners can be hyped up at the start, then they go ahead and publish one or two articles with great content, then tend to stop and forget about it and go on with promotions and marketing and go about other things for the success of their website. Eventually, the online business fails, and why do you think? No, not because of an unattractive layout, their website actually looks great! No, not due to the very competitive market, nor an inefficient host.
Mainly, the reason why most business websites fail is due to not giving attention to the importance of having sufficient content. They overlooked or ignored it due to being too busy, not having enough time, being overwhelmed by the seemingly difficult task, and giving up easily.
It is quite understandable that as a business owner, you will surely be busy, but it is a wise investment to allot time for adding content. Having a number of engaging content means a higher number of visitors, higher traffic, higher sales, and higher success rate. Your website needs content just like a garden needs tending to flourish and bloom. All the time and effort you spend for your entire business, and your website will not be put to waste once you become successful.
Content Marketing
Publishing content is not limited to what people would like and share, but is a form of marketing and building the trust and confidence of people into acquiring your products and services, and developing a business relationship with them.
Brainstorming Content Ideas
Some may not have an idea on how to start and what to write. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think like them, what questions would you ask, whether in the store, over the phone or through email. Turn the answers into great content, one that addresses their concerns, implies that you are an expert, and is a highly relevant and interesting presentation. Those who sell physical products such as e-commerce site owners, you may invest in short videos highlighting product reviews. Your content may cover marketplace news, answers to FAQs, tutorials and how-to’s, comparisons, interviews, service demonstrations, and more. It may be difficult in the beginning, but once you get used to it, ideas will just flow naturally.
Consistent Content
Frequently publishing great content holds the true power that makes up a successful website. A fresh, recurring theme is more favorable than what seems untouched when customers visit your site again. The perfect blogging interval would be everyday up to every second day. It may not seem practical, but you will realize that it can actually fit in your routine if you want it to, or consider having someone handle it for you, which is worth it for it will surely pay off in time. People will keep coming back for more and possibly share your content to social media sites, and bring you more traffic. Search engines would crawl and index your site faster with fresh new content, altogether letting you create a bigger footprint online and offline. Remember though, that quality still comes first before quantity.
What to Avoid
It’s a common mistake to take shortcuts in the process of coming up with content and adding it to your website. No spinning, scraping of content, utterly short useless articles, keyword stuffing, writing solely for SEO purposes, and hiring someone who has no idea of the subject matter. Once you come up with original, high quality work, it’s also important to prevent theft by branding your content.
Don’t settle with one type or one source. Diversify your content by making use of the different types of content. Don’t just post it whenever you can, but also consider the time when you have a higher chance of reaching your audience. Don’t be lazy, yet be vigorous, consistent and keep going until you reach the top! This is how you can distinguish yourself from competition who do not accept the importance of valuable and consistent content in their website.
