As an Account Rep and resident content writer I often get asked by clients and peers what makes good content for a site. There are several things to consider when you are working on content for a new site or even an existing site that you may have. Having the best content is really going to help drive traffic to your site.
You should consider how your content will affect your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Many times a client will write content that doesn’t contain enough buzzwords or searchable items. You want to make sure that the content you have written is seen by search engines as relevant to the terms you are trying to show up for later on. Fortunately Studio98 has extensive SEO experience through handling the SEO for our own company as well as our clients, so this is an area that we can help with.
Often a client comes to me and feels that their content is lacking depth and that there should be more of it to really communicate. With website content you want to keep the items brief, easy to read, simple to digest and easy to understand. Remember we live in an instant gratification world of Memes, Twitter word count restrictions, and hashtags. You want to make sure the content on your website engages the audience but doesn’t become so lengthy that they don’t want to read the whole thing.
Having too much jargon or industry-related terms on your site can turn away the common user. One of the main goals my clients are trying to accomplish is to make sure their site is understood by almost everyone. Many times in trying to reach big companies with your website, you are actually dealing with the assistant who has been given the task of finding a business based on simple and specific criteria or key words. You want to make sure that your content has those key words but is still digestible enough to understand by someone who is not an expert in your field. Once you are contacted by a potential client then you can get into the real nitty-gritty of the jargon if needed.
This is where my expertise as an Account Rep and the expertise of my developers comes in super handy. I spend all day every day working and designing websites and I can advise you on how to make your content look amazing and be easy to manage. There is definitely a wrong way and a right way to do this.
Even if you are just writing a history of your company or about something that is industry specific. Your content is really selling the visitor on your business or product/service. Think of writing content as talking to a brand-new client about what your business does. I’m sure that you are excited about what you do and if you write your content in the same way you talk to your clients, it will show in the way you explain things. Content on a site is like a conversation over the web.
When writing content on a site you want to make sure that all of your I’s are dotted and your T’s are crossed. Make sure to re-read what you have written. The best way to do this is read the content out loud and have someone listen to you. It will surprise you what little errors you pick up. You sometimes think faster than you can accurately type or write and reviewing helps to make sure it all came out the same way you wanted it to. Your content may not be perfect every time but at least make sure that what you have written makes sense.
If you keep these things in mind and most importantly have fun with what you are writing about, your content will fill out a design perfectly and really bring your site together. Content may seem like a daunting task but really it is just you typing out and putting on a website everything that excites you about your business.