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How Important is the Content on Your Website?

So you've invested a significant amount of time and money in a website for your company or organization and everything looks great. The design and layout follows your brand guidelines, your website is responsive and works well across multiple platforms, and it is easy to navigate through the page structure. The problem is that there isn't content on any of the pages. Don't panic, there are a few things we'll discuss that will help the process of developing content become much easier.

Website content differs significantly depending on what you're trying to achieve. For instance, an e-commerce website will often have much less text and almost complete emphasis on the products attempting to be sold. Of course there will be a description of the items, but for the most part people have accessed the website for a purpose; to browse and/or purchase a particular product they are interested in. On the other hand, what if your website is providing information to potential clients or stakeholders? This is where content gets trickier.

Generally speaking, people aren't spending as much time reading through pages on websites as in the past (for purposes of this article I'm not speaking about news outlets). Meaning, it isn't as important to write paragraph after paragraph of information describing something. Really the focus should be on simple explanations, supplementary photos, coupled with a method for people to get in touch with you. Now you've done two things; you've created interest through your content and you've provided an option to further the discussion. Yes, I understand many people want their website to do the work for them; however, you need to remember that there isn't any one on one interaction on a website and people can leave just as quickly as they entered. The idea is to get to the point and get people to engage in the information you are supplying.

One thing people fail to understand is that your content is a major contributor to your position within search engines. Not only should you have embedded tags and descriptions throughout the pages within your website, but your content should be in line with that information. Let's face it, everyone wants exposure on the web, but if you want to be found by specific keywords and fail to have any information regarding that within your content, then you can't expect your website to be located at the top within the millions of websites available on the Internet.

The last item worth discussing is how often you should be updating your content. Again this varies significantly from website to website, but most of the information will remain the same over time. Take this website for example, since launch the only things that have changed are the addition of projects and articles. The rest of the information is still relevant and hasn't needed any adjustments. The main thing to think about is whether or not your website has had an acceptable amount of traffic and has given you potential business. If not, then this is when you should definitely revise your content. Ultimately, you should make changes when necessary; it doesn't have to be a daily routine.

The main points to take from this article is that your content should be concise and to the point, it should cover the areas of information that you want to drive traffic to your website, and if necessary, you should be adding or improving content if you aren't achieving your desired results. Although the process can be time consuming and frustrating, creating content is arguably the most important aspect of any website.