Introduction
Having a website is a must for all businesses in today’s day and age, regardless of the size, scale or nature of their operations. It is imperative for both online and as well as offline businesses to have websites in today’s day and age. But the sixty-four-dollar question is, how do you go about making a website.
Before getting to the different tips and tricks of making a killer website, you should know the audience for whom you are making the website. It is because the best websites are customer-centric and they are designed to provide the information the visitors seek in an organized manner.
An organized and user-friendly website makes it easy for visitors to complete the actions that they have in mind, whether it is buying products or subscribing to newsletters. With that being said, here are 15 tried and tested tips for creating a killer website content. Let’s get started!
1.Clear Navigation:
The first tip is to organize the pages of your website in categories that have been logically named. Further, you need to use standard terms on your menu. Try to simplify the experience as much as you can and you will reap the rewards for your efforts. You need to simplify things because people in today’s day and age have very little patience and attention spans.
So if your website is too complex for them, they will surely ditch it for greener pastures and you are almost certain to have a very high bounce rate. Your focus should always be on making things simple for the visitors and you should try to do all you can to help your visitors achieve the goal of coming to your website as easily and quickly as possible.
2. Conversational English:
Keep things simple and for that purpose use conversational English. Don’t try to make life difficult for the visitors by using language which is complex and full of jargon. Instead, write copy as though you’re directly speaking to the visitor. Use a friendly and informal tone and use the second person for writing the copy. The easier your copy is for readers to understand, the higher will be the level of engagement and hence conversions.
3. Use Best SEO Practices:
There is no point in having an expertly designed website which no one can find. Hence you need to optimize your website to the best SEO practices by hiring a digital marketing service provider. If and when you do so, you will see that your website will get a lot of visibility. You should use a digital marketing agency for SEO because if and when it is done right, it provides a huge return on investment.
4. Provide Necessary Information:
People searching the web are most looking for answers and thus it is imperative for you to provide them the facts they are looking for because if you don’t they will move to other options in the search results. Share relevant information on your website and be as transparent as you can be. There is no problem, even if you go a little overboard in sharing information. It is common knowledge and has been proven by many studies that information-rich websites are very effective in converting visitors into prospects.
5. Unique Landing Pages:
Having everyone come to the home page of your website is not always the best strategy. Hence, you might need to adopt a more targeted approach to create landing pages that cater to specific subjects. People looking for specific topics should land on your page dedicated to that topic and not the home page. If and when executed well, landing pages deliver a much higher conversion rate than home pages.
6. Use Pictures to Tell Your Story:
Stock photos look fine but they are often perceived as too generic and are not considered as effective as real photos. Hence it is advised to use real photos for products and people. This is because people want to see what they’re buying and whom they’re buying it from and you can leverage this behavioral trait of the masses by using real photos to tell your story.
7. Keep It Up to Date:
You should put all of your efforts into ensuring that your website is up to date at all times. If visitors find that your content isn’t current, then you are sure to lose some semblance of credibility. Hence, it is imperative on your part to constantly update your site by adding relevant information and removing obsolete information.
8. Simple Forms:
It is good if you have decided to include a form on your website, but you should be careful to ensure that you ask the fewest questions possible in such forms. You might have a form on your Contact or Quote page, but regardless of its location, try to make sure that it is simple and easy. Everyone hates completing all the fields and if you are asking for too much information, then there are high chances that the visitors may not trust you with the information that you’re requesting.
9. Call to Action On Every Page:
You need to tell visitors what you like them to do next and one way of doing so is by including a call to action on every page. You need to lead them towards making a purchase or contacting you. For better results, you are advised to align the call to action with the mindset of your audience.
10. Make It Perfect:
When it comes to website content you should always strive for perfection. Try your best not to make silly grammatical mistakes as that they make you come across as an amateur. To make sure your work is perfect you need to review it continuously. If and when it is possible, you can also hire the services of a professional copywriter for better output.
11. Simple Layout:
Keeping with the agenda of simplifying the agenda for the visitors, it is imperative that you have a simple layout for your website. If your website is currently cluttered, then make sure to declutter it as much as is possible. Keep things simple so that visitors are easily able to find what they need.
12. Make It Easy to Contact You:
It is important that you make it easy for people to find you and for that purpose you need to put your contact information in multiple places. You can also place your footer on every page making it easy for people to find it. No matter where you place it, it should always be one click away from the visitor. If you make reaching out to you tough, the majority of the visitors won’t bother and you’ll end up losing them.
13. Trust-Building Content:
On your website, you need to include content that builds trust. You can use you About Us page to write about the company’s history and achievements. You should also make a page for your case studies and testimonials. Further, another page can be made to link out to your reviews on different review sites. Tell people why your company is qualified to provide its products or services.
14. Keep It Simple and Short:
The internet users in today’s day and age are characterized by very little patience and even fewer attention spans. Hence to catch the attention of your readers and retain it, your sentences should be of 35 words or lesser than that. If and when you create content that is easy to read, you will have a wider audience.
Use adverbs and adjectives as less as possible and focus majorly on nouns and verbs. As far as the choice of words is concerned, it is advisable to go for simplicity and ditch complexity as it is not going to find you any favors with your readers.
15. Scan Able Text:
Make sure that the copy you write or get written by someone is easy to skim. This is because people have very little time these days and need to find what they are looking for, as easily as possible. Most readers just scan a page to find information that is most relevant to them and if they aren’t able to do so, they ditch that site for other sites.
One way of making the text easily scan-able is by making the use of bulleted or numerical lists instead of text-heavy paragraphs. Further, you can also use white space to make the text more legible and easy to read. If it is possible, divide the content into sections with suitable sub-heads, as it will considerably improve the readability of the text. The sub-headers help readers in easily navigating through the page and it also becomes easy for search engines to find your content.
The Bottom Line
We live in the digital age which is characterized by information overload and people have too many options. People also have alarmingly low attention spans and that’s why it is imperative for you to put your best foot forward to get their attention and retain it. You need to make your website content as simple and straightforward as is possible.
