Creating interesting, original content is one of the most important steps you can take to make your brand shine online, and it’s something that anyone can learn to do with a bit of practice. Okay, maybe a lot of practice, but I promise it’s worth the effort. The content that fills your website is your chance to share your expertise, engage your audience, and inspire them to action. Fortunately, there’s plenty of content creation and website design help available if you know where to look, starting right here! Read on for seven tips for creating great website content from Emphasize Design of Calgary, compiled by yours truly.
Content Creation 101: Seven Tips for Creating Great Website Content
- Hire a Reliable Writer – Hiring the right writer will make it much easier to keep up with the demands of content creation, and maintain a consistent level of quality. In addition to helping you create content, an experienced writer or marketing team can help you identify the content topics that matter most to your audience. Asking employees to create content “on the side” will not be good for their time management, or the quality of the content they produce.
- Be Original – Content is a valuable commodity, and the people who post it often make a significant investment in order to do so. In other words, they don’t take too kindly to plagiarism. It’s always best to create your own original content, and then link to authoritative sources that back up what you have to say. The person who created the content will appreciate the recognition, and you won’t have to worry about being accused of plagiarism. Plus, original content is great for SEO.
- Have a Plan – Creating content without an overall plan is a sure way to lose time, and miss opportunities to engage your audience. Releasing content on a judiciously planned schedule is one of the best ways to keep your audience coming back for more, and makes it much easier to budget the time that you will need to consistently produce quality content. This is true whether you’re creating the content yourself, or hiring someone else to do it.
- FAQs Pages – Short for frequently asked questions, FAQs pages are among the most popular types of pages when done right. The trick is providing answers to the questions that customers are actually asking, and that requires some research. Ask your frontline employees which questions they hear most from customers, and build your FAQs pages accordingly.
- About Us – The “about us” page is one of the most important parts of any business website, but it is all too frequently overlooked by businesses. Use your about us page to tell the story of your business and the people who work there. Including photos of employees is an excellent option for introducing website visitors to your staff in a genuine way.
- Organize Content Effectively – One of the first things you’ll learn when creating content online is that readers prefer the opportunity to skim for the specific information they came to see. Make it easier for readers to digest your content by using lists, adding informative subheadings, and presenting text in bite-sized chunks rather than long paragraphs. Organization is especially important for mobile content, because people will be consuming the content from a smaller screen.
- When in Doubt – Test it out. A/B testing is a simple method for generating feedback, learning what you’re doing right, and figuring out how you can improve your content. Testing requires minimal resources, though you will want to find some non-employees who fit the demographics most likely to consume your content. A/B testing ultimately saves time and money, because it allows you to test ideas before investing the resources required to see them through.
Before we wrap things up, I’ve got one bonus tip… try to have some fun! The most authentic content is usually the most engaging content, so there’s nothing wrong with showing a bit of personality. You may even find that it helps you enjoy the process, almost as much as you enjoy the payoff that comes from filling your website with great stuff to read.
Content Creation Services By Emphasize Design of Calgary
Need a hand with content development, website design, or online marketing? Emphasize Design of Calgary is here to help, with website design services built to suit every budget, and a portfolio of clients we are proud to represent.
