What Makes Good Website Content Effective?
Consider: does this question keep you up at night? Do you wonder how your website content measures up? We’ve written about this topic before in What Is Good Content? But that article was more like a hands-on how-to with specific tips and general guidelines.
This article, in contrast, describes the actual attributes of what makes good website content. You need to know the destination before you step onto the path. As George Harrison sang, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” But that’s not how you arrive at good website content.
What Bad Website Content Looks Like
To learn what makes good website content, you first have to learn to recognize bad website content. Then the difference becomes as clear as the finest crystal. Based on the numerous examples that are unfortunately still live on the internet, bad website content:
- Tries to sell visitors products or services before building any trust
- Jabbers on and on about what the business does and how great it is without proof
- Works hard to connect to too many different audiences at the same time
- Uses words like “I,” “we” and “our,” without once saying anything about “you”
- Relies on too little content, just photos or videos, or provides huge blocks of dense text
Competition for eyeballs is fierce. Attention spans are short. If your website doesn’t serve your visitors, your visitors won’t stick around long enough to learn what makes your company great.
What Makes Good Website Content
Effective website content, on the other hand, does certain things very well. Regardless of the website design you use — although a modern design supports the content and tells readers that you keep up to date with IT trends — what makes good website content is that it:
- Identifies its audience right away
- Answers questions that people are asking or searching for
- Builds rapport by providing valuable information for free
- Builds trust by doing what it says it will do — the opposite of “clickbait”
- Solves a problem its visitors have or have had
- Uses engaging language that’s directed outwardly, toward your visitors
You have to put some thought into your website content. It’s not the same as writing a brochure. Your website may be your digital storefront, open 24 hours a day, but if all you’re touting are your sales, you’ll become known for being different because you’re cheap. Is that your competitive advantage? Sure, it works for WalMart, but is that really your business model? Is that model you’re trying to follow?
Your Website Isn’t About Your Company
As counterintuitive as it seems, your website doesn’t serve your company; it has to serve your audience, your visitors. A book without readers ultimately fails. A business without customers must also. Your customers keep you in business, so honor them by gearing your website to their needs, their questions and their priorities.
That, in a nutshell, is the essence of what makes good website content. You can measure website traffic and conversion rates until you’re blue. Instead, examine your website from your visitors’ point of view. And then ask yourself if it satisfies the criteria above for good content.
And when you’re ready to make an adjustment toward a website that not only attracts new visitors, but also converts those visitors into new customers, contact Ray Access. With world renowned quality at affordable prices, Ray Access delivers content that’s not only thoroughly researched and guaranteed original, but is also professionally edited, often multiple times.