Even after many years of working on websites, it’s always a joy to discover a website that contains great content.
Not only are such websites a pleasure to use and read, but when I do find websites like this, I remember them for all the right reasons and come back to them time and time again.
But what is great content and how can you make sure that your website content makes the grade?
Great content is content that is produced and maintained with your customer or target audience firmly in mind. It delivers what it promises in an engaging and informative way – and uses the right language.
Here are three ways to transform your web content:
1) Take your readers’ pulse
In other words find out what your readers want and deliver it. Know why visitors come to your website and what they are looking for. Have they found what they are looking for? What is their overall experience of using your website?
Invest time and energy in finding out the answers to these crucial questions because without these key pieces of information, you will be doing the online equivalent of whistling in the wind.
2) Thrill with relevant content
Once you’ve done your visitor research, you should have all you need to draw up a checklist of the type of content your visitors want.
Your next task is to deliver that content. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to sign up for a web analytics tool and activate it by adding the tracking code to your web pages.
Web page analytics will give you great insights into what is working and what isn’t. I use Google Analytics; it’s quick and easy to install and use, and it’s free.
3) Step away from the norm
Don’t use the same tried and tested formula day in day out, year in year out. Keep on top of web content trends and inject something new for your web visitors to use and enjoy.
Do your readers like audio content or video content? Could your weekly plain text newsletter format be missing the mark?
By trying out new tools and ways of presenting your information, you’ll be giving your website visitors more choice, and greater choice often translates into wider appeal – and therefore more traffic.
Post written by DEBBIE THOMAS on 1 September 2011.