Why Content Is King!

...and probably always will be.

​Is your website actively pulling in leads, or are hosting fees making it a dead-weight around your neck?

If you’re running a business in 2016 you probably see the value in having a company website. It’s a shopfront that’s open 24/7, letting potential customers know about you, your services, and unique points of difference.

But what is your website saying about you? I talk with many business owners whose eyes glaze over at the mention of keywords, SEO and quality content. In some cases these business owners wrote the content themselves, or asked the graphic designer who built their website to write something for them. These websites are usually hard to find, difficult to read, and don’t give customers the best first impression of your business.

Your customers, and search engines like Google are similar in many ways. They want to find you. They want to know where you are, what you do and how you do it. With that in mind, here are five tips for creating outstanding web content. 

Be Original

• Don’t copy and paste large chunks of text from your competitors. That’s plagiarism. If someone is looking to use your services, odds are they’re shopping around and looking at your competitors too. They’ll see you’ve copied content in a heartbeat.

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• Google doesn’t like identical content either, so don’t put the same text on all your web pages and company social media. The Google Bots which help the search engine find websites treat copied content as spam and send your website straight to the bottom of the rankings. That makes it very difficult for people to find you.

Use Keywords

• If you’re a local electrician based in Christchurch, you don’t want to be fielding calls from Nelson or Tauranga, or have people asking about services you don’t provide. Keywords tell people and Google where you are and what you do. Carrying on the analogy, you would make sure your website says “Christchurch,” “electrician” and “electrical” a few times so when people type “Christchurch electrician” into Google it knows where to look.

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• Be natural and don’t overdo it. To boost their chances of getting found, some people used to overload their site with keywords. For example, “We are Christchurch based electricians working in Christchurch electrical services as Master Electricians around Christchurch.” It doesn’t read well for customers, and Google now treats overloaded content as spam. 

​Answer Questions

• You’re not really selling a product or service. You’re solving a problem for someone. Think about what you do from your customers’ point of view. What’s important to them? It may be worth asking a few of your customers why they chose your business. You need to answer your customer’s questions and spell out why they should contact you.

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• It’s tough to get it just right. You want to provide enough information to answer their questions, but not too much that you give everything away or make them lose interest. Ask a friend or colleague to read over what you’ve written, and start editing when they lose interest or aren’t sure what you mean.

​Drive Action

• Each page of your website should end with a command of some kind. What would you like your customer to do next? Tell them which pages to visit and make it easy for them to get there. Lead them through your website so they learn more about you and what you do, building trust and confidence until they make contact.

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• How would you like potential customers to contact you? Be sure to tell them! Whether it’s writing an email, picking up the phone or visiting you in store, pick one action and be clear about it.

Arresting Images

• Have you visited a website that had no photos at all? It doesn’t make you want to stay and read everything. Big, bright images relevant to your business and industry help tell people what you do and make them stay longer on your website. Stock photos are better than no photos, and original photos of your team, premises, products and services are better still. They build trust and confidence with potential customers by giving them a better idea of what to expect before going to your store, or before you arrive at their house.

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• Each photo can be worth a thousand words. Google can’t “see” images the way we can, so it needs to be told what’s in the photo. Before uploading to your website, name the photo by writing a short description of what’s in it. It adds to the keyword quota of your content, helping Google connect you with your customers.

Google’s algorithms and how it decides what’s relevant and what’s spam is constantly changing. One day businesses thought they could get to the top of the rankings by overloading with keywords, and the next they get sent to the bottom of the pile.

While I can’t predict the future, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that there is no substitute for original, relevant, keyword rich content. It tells Google and your customers everything they need to know to drive action and get the leads your business is looking for. Until search engines and people stop reading websites altogether, it’s safe to say when it comes to getting your business in front of your customers, content is king and probably always will be.
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If your website isn’t pulling its weight, or you think it could read better, contact Inform PR for a no-obligations meeting.