What is good website content?
What real estate is to the real world, good website content is to the internet. Just as your physical business needs people to know it exists, so does your website.
The internet is one big interconnected city where everyone is constantly looking for something to learn or something to do.
By creating content around your area of expertise or the problems your business solves, you are signalling to other people online that your website is the location to solve their problems. Here we will explore why website content is important and how to do it well.
In this article:
What is website content?
Website content is everything you see published on a website. It can be in the form of text, image, audio, video, or a combination of any of these. Virtually any creative element is considered content.
What is the purpose of website content?
Content is what connects your business as an entity to your potential customers. Without content, your business is invisible online. Thus, the purpose of website content is to represent your business or you as a person.
However, from a customer-centric point of view, content has only one purpose – serving the customer.
If you are a business, your content should help make your customer more aware of their problems and help them solve them. In addition, by creating value for them through the content, you demonstrate that you are trustworthy and are interested in more than just your benefit.
What is considered good website content?
Good content is easily discoverable, helpful, engaging, and original.
Good website content is discoverable
First of all, people need to be able to find your content. The art of sharing your content with other people is known as digital marketing. This is a vast umbrella term, and you should probably choose one or two channels to distribute your content. This might be through blog posts, SEO, email marketing, social media, or paid ads. However, this is normally a lot of work, which content writers, SEO writers, and copywriters can help you with.
Good content is helpful
Secondly, your content should be helpful. If you are a business, you exist to solve problems, and so does your content. You should educate your audience through content and help them become more aware so that they can make an informed decision to make a purchase.
Good content is engaging
Thirdly, your content should be engaging and exciting. For example, a technical manual about chemistry might be helpful, but it’s not something that most people can stomach reading through. Thus, apart from educating, you also need to make your content easy to consume. For example, include more images, use larger font sizes, and write smaller articles.
Good content is original
Fourthly, your content should be original. No one likes a cheater – neither Google nor real-world people. You can always take someone else’s work and build upon it and improve it, so long as you give credit to the original producer. Or you can borrow ideas from multiple sources and make them your own.
Common mistakes people do when creating content
Lack of purpose
One of the most common mistakes that people commit when creating website content is not having a plan before starting. Without a plan, content often does not have a purpose, nor does it lead anywhere. It does not serve any business goal nor create value for your customers. Thus, if not properly guided, content is closer to art than business.
Lack of boundaries
It is effortless to start creating content on the wrong foot by spreading yourself thin over a vast topic. Even worse, you could try to tackle multiple significant issues at once. However, if you try to be the jack of all trades, not only will you not be a master of none, but your competitors will offer better, more in-depth content than yours in every niche that you try to compete.
One of the secrets to effective website content creation is to tackle small topics one at a time and slowly build up authority about a given subject. Only then can you pursue more significant issues and compete with the bigger businesses.
Lack of business consideration
The third cardinal sin of creating content for your business website is not thinking about how you will make money from the start. This is the same as having an idea about a business without doing any research beforehand. Does such a service exist, is anyone interested in it, and are competitors already doing it too well? Content should beg the same questions.
Bonus: Opportunity Costs of Content
Content can be expensive and hard to create. Creating content well requires a lot of expertise and can set you back financially. That’s why you always need to know how much the content you are creating is worth to you and what business goals it is helping you accomplish.
Naturally, you should prioritize content that solves your most critical business goals or helps you remove a bottleneck from your business. It’s always a good idea to start small and give yourself room for experimentation. However, small does not mean meaningless or insignificant. It simply means you are allowing yourself to grow, despite not having a perfect start.
Final Thoughts on Website Content
Website Content is the lifeblood of any online business. It represents your business in front of customers but also brings value to them as it provides them with information and helps them solve their problems. Every online business needs content but must seriously consider what kind of content they will create and how they will promote it for the biggest effect.
