Now that you’ve decided to build a website for your business, there are many things to consider. As a professional web design company, one of the most frequent questions that I am asked is how much content should be included on the website. Content is generally the biggest hold up in the website design process. While most businesses are able to tell someone who asks them what their company does they generally do not have the ability to sit down and write the content for their website. If they do sit down and start writing the content, most of the time they either write too much or too little. Here are a few good rules of thumb when writing your website content.
- Use your search key words and key phrases in your content. The search engine spiders look further than just your Meta Tags and Meta Description. They are crawling your content as well. It is important before you start writing your content to determine what your search key words and phrases are so that you can include them in your page content.
- Going “below the fold.” The old newspaper quote can still apply to websites. Having too much information on any page can hurt your website. Most people will not read information “below the fold” or that’s more than a few paragraphs down. Limit your content on your website to important information. If they need more information, this gives them a reason to contact your directly.
- Irrelevant content can hurt your website. Sure, you want to make sure that you have enough content for people to read on your website but you don’t want to fill up space with information that is not relevant to what you do either.
- Lists should only be used when necessary. The best websites have information that is provided in a conversational manner. If you have to use lists, use them sparingly or try to incorporate explanations.
- Provide just enough information to peak their interest. You want to make sure that you don’t provide so much information that they have no reason to call, unless you are running an online store. The purpose of an eCommerce site is to be user friendly enough for people to make purchases without having to contact the site owner. Informational sites providing information on companies that offer services should provide enough information to peak the prospects interest. Your website is a marketing tool but should not be relied on solely to close the deal. You want prospective customers to reach out to you so that you have the ability to sell them.
The best thing to do, when building a brand new website, is to contact a local professional web design company. Most companies can also help with your content by providing copy writing services. They can review your content to make sure that it is organized and provides all of the right key words and key phrases for your Search Engine Optimization.
There are also other companies that only provide copy writing, or content writing, services. These companies can help you put information together for your website. When looking at all of your options, keep in mind, however, that the best person to provide content for your website is you. No one knows your business better than you do.
