Website Content: The Lifeblood of Your Website
How to Make a Great Website: Part 6
Welcome to the next episode in our Great Website series. This round we are diving into Content. This going to be a doozy, as we are getting into Contextual Content AND Media Content.
Content truly is the lifeblood of a website. Many elements of a website are static and constant, as they should be. But quality and engaging content are what breathe new life into your website.
Content has so many roles on a website. It represents your brand’s voice, tells your story, and serves as a powerful tool for user engagement, conversions, and SEO. It’s the brand messaging, it’s the core website content, or educational content, and it’s the recurring content like blogs and stories. Let’s get into it.
Content Organization: The Roadmap to Your Website
Before we get into the breakdowns, it’s time to think of how we are going to organize all of our content on the website. Think of your content organization as the roadmap that guides visitors through your website. Your content flow heavily influences the user’s experience, intuitively directing visitors through your content, and leading them towards taking the right actions on the website. The actions that you want them to take and the ones that will solve their query.
Strategically structuring your content can make it more engaging, improve readability, and enhance overall user experience. We’ll explore the importance of white space, visual cues, and the strategic use of the F-pattern layout to guide visitors seamlessly through your site.
One of our regular tasks in a website project is to take a mass of current content from the client and then reshape it, reorganize it, and create an intuitive user experience path to guide website visitors exactly where they need to go.
Maybe I’ve been contemplating content a little too much lately, but content is not only the path, it’s also the sign that tells you which path to follow. It’s the planner and the implementer. I’ll stop with the idioms. Let’s get into all the different types of website content.
Contextual Website Content: The Written Word
First, we’ll take some broad strokes at this, starting with contextual content. Very simply, contextual content is the written, the words, the text. Not so simple is all the different ways contextual website content is used.
Common Forms of Website Media Content
But these are not strictly “text-only” content types. This is where modern media comes in.
Website Media Content: Adding Balance
As we all know, tons of text can get boring and mundane pretty quickly. That’s where media content steps in, offering an essential counterbalance and a rich, multidimensional user experience. Long-form videos, short-form clips, podcasts, and photography breathe life into your website, making your content more relatable and engaging. This blend of media content acts as a powerful tool, breaking through the traditional “wall of text” and offering your audience a more dynamic and engaging browsing experience.
For certain types of businesses, especially those in creative or visual industries, media content isn’t just an add-on; it’s the main course. For instance, a martial arts gym website might leverage photography and videos to showcase techniques, while a local home inspection brand might employ podcasts and short videos for topical discussions. In these cases, media content does more than just supplement text—it tells a compelling story, engages the senses, and, ultimately, drives conversions.
Also, incorporating diverse media content into your website can help reduce bounce rates and increase time spent on the site. When users are presented with compelling visuals, engaging videos, or thought-provoking podcasts, they’re more likely to stay, explore, and engage with your content. By diversifying your content in this way, you can cater to a wider audience, enhance user experience, and increase your website’s effectiveness.
Common Types of Website Media Content
And just like with any content, quality and consistency count when it comes to media. Most great websites have a solid balance of contextual and media. Now let’s get into all of the types of website content.
Brand Messaging: Your Brand’s Voice
Brand messaging is all about formulating a message that effectively conveys your business’s mission and value proposition, clearly and effectively. Brand messaging can have several looks: It can be your story, your customer’s story, your vision, what sets you apart, and how you solve their problem better than anyone. It’s what you say about your business on every channel. On the website, on your brochure, and what you say in person.
Crafting a powerful brand message demands an intimate understanding of your target audience and a clear depiction of your brand’s identity. The message must resonate with your audience and align with your business goals. It involves a careful selection of words, the tone of language, and the feelings those words inspire.
Core Website Content: The Foundation
One of the most basic, fundamental aspects of a website is its core content. Whether it’s the home page, about page, or service pages; each piece of static content serves as an ambassador of your brand’s story and values. And the higher purpose is to show your users that you can solve their problems and answer their questions. The question that led them to your website.
Core content CANNOT just be content for the sake of content. You aren’t filling out a brochure. So many businesses just call this in, and it shows. Take the time to step into your customer’s shoes. What would they want to know? Why should they trust you with their money?
Your core website content needs to be engaging, informative, and problem-solving. It’s so very easy for this content to be dry and a cookie cutter of every other brochure website.
Recurring Content: The Fresh Lifeblood
Your recurring content (aka blog posts, news posts, articles, video blogs, camera reels) is the fresh lifeblood of your website. Breathing new life for both your visitors and the search engines. Regularly updating your site with fresh, quality content is not just recommended anymore, it’s essential. This constant infusion of content engages your audience and bolsters your standing in search engine rankings, drawing more traffic to your site.
Consistent, well-thought-out content showcases your expertise and value. Your visitors can get to know you through your library of post-type content. Trust is everything when it comes to your business. That trust can be built through your regular content.
But remember, the goal isn’t to bombard your audience with a constant stream of sales pitches. Rather, it’s about providing content that is genuinely useful and interesting, which in turn builds trust and strengthens your relationship with your audience.
Funny enough, the same rules apply for impressing Google Search and falling into her favor when it comes time to hand out rankings. Its always warmest under the wing of the dragon. Search engines love regular, informative style content. All of this helps build your authority with Google. Us humans call it trust, the search engine world calls it authority. Simply put the better your authority, the higher you will rank on the search engine results and get found.
Creating and managing a regular stream of content is a challenge. No real other way to put it. I struggle myself. It’s not exactly light work and you can’t just call it in. Quality content takes strategy, forethought, structure, and the ability to wordcraft. Which I lack.
Amazing content Gets Shared. Amazing content Gets Found.
Educational Content: Leveraging Your Knowledge and Authority
Educational content serves as an essential pillar of any comprehensive website strategy. Offering resources such as FAQs, Resources Page, or a Learning Center transforms your website into a go-to hub for industry-specific information. By investing time and resources into creating educational content, you’re providing real value to your audience, giving them reasons to stay on your site longer and return frequently.
This type of content helps establish your brand as an industry authority. When visitors find clear, concise answers to their questions or discover insightful information related to your field on your website, they begin to see your brand as knowledgeable and trustworthy. This enhances your reputation and increases the likelihood that they’ll turn to you when they’re ready to make a purchase.
Lastly, well-structured and written educational content can really add to your SEO efforts. Search engines prioritize content that provides value to users, and in-depth, informative material ticks this box perfectly. By using relevant topical copy strategically in your educational content, you can boost your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), attracting more visitors to your site.
Amazing Content Gets Found.
In this case, Amazing means extremely well-crafted and remarkably informative. It’s no secret that content plays a huge part in SEO. More specifically, how well you rank in the search results. Google loves thick websites. Thick as in the number of pages. Google also loves engaging, captivating content. And last but not least, Google loves consistent, informative content. All of this plays into a solid SEO strategy. Your content health plays right into your Domain Authority, which is the #1 factor when it comes to Search Engine Rankings.
Ultimately, Google wants to know how well you answered the user’s question in the best possible way. The question to which you raised your hand to answer.
Amazing Content Gets Shared
And in this case, Amazing means irresistibly engaging and compellingly relevant. Content that grips our users and hits home for them, that’s what gets shared. Content that engages and relates to our visitors.
And when content gets shared, SEO magic like backlinks and social signals happen. It’s a vicious cycle of WIN when amazing content happens.