Good Website Content-Why It's Your Most Valuable Asset

By Brian Cotsen

• What do you want to achieve?
• How do website visitors see your content?
• Visitors scan
• Visitors use the 'F' movement
• Visitors are impatient
• Keyword = content!
• One idea per page.
• Give visitors eyes a rest - use white space
• Build trust.
• Content for search engines
• Sum it up. -------------------------------------------------

What do you want to achieve?

• Why does your business website exist?
• What do you want visitors to do when they land on your website?

If you answered "to impress people" or "for fun" then you may have the wrong attitude towards your on line business website.

If you answered "to turn my visitors into customers" then you're spot on.

Good website content is all about turning those curious website visitors into feverish customers. Ones that buy, sign-up, click through your affiliate links/ adsense or what ever it is that you want them to do.

Good website content gets those visitors to TAKE ACTION

Getting visitors to your website is one problem... once they're there, getting them to 'take action' is quite another.

Website browsers read and react quite differently to written words presented to them on the screen to those in a brochure or magazine.

Good website content is created by understanding the way humans read off a computer screen. Understand this and you can win them over and achieve your goals...get them to take a desired action!

Visitors Scan - good website content writers know that visitors quickly scan the screen to find key bits of information. They don't read every word.

• Use subheadings for impact, to draw attention to the main point of the following paragraph.
• Use bulleted lists to deliver information in small chunks.
• Avoid mixing figures and words e.g It was found that 357, 000, that's 78%, of all visitors to London said the Tower of London was the best attraction. Better to have said "Most visitors voted 'The Tower' their 'top' attraction" - See how much more punchy that was.

Visitors use the 'F' movement

• Visitors scan the top & left column first, then move across to the right.
• Most read or noticed - Top left section.
• Least read or noticed - Bottom right.

Put important content or sign-ups 'top left' of the page.

Visitors are impatient - Good website content is:

• Brief.... enough said?

Don't use long words, flowery language or rambling sentences - you'll loose your audience because they loose concentration.

Keyword Rich - Good website content is 'Keyword focussed' Every page of your website should be built using a keyword... right? Good website content starts with your keywords, the ones that those visitors used in the search to find you. Using those same keywords will help you to connect with those visitors - empathise with them.

• Don't over use the keyword, it will disrupt the flow of your text.
• Aim for a density of 3-5% use.
• Find variations that use the keywords in different combinations.

Keep it focussed - One idea per page

• Website visitors will only focus on one new idea per page - keep it focussed.

Good content is 'Empty'

Blank areas of a page? What nothing at all? Yes it's known as 'white space' though it doesn't have to be white. Remember that reading from a screen is tiring. Often those poor visitors are bombarded by busy, visually noisy screens with too much going on. This causes them to feel bamboozled and switch off from the information in front of them. Think how nice it is to visit 'Googles' home page. Just one thing right in the centre of all that white space.

• Give the text or content room.
• Give the visitors eye's a rest... they'll be able to focus on the information on screen.

Good website content builds trust:

• Well researched.
• Accurate in it's facts and information.
• Deliver on their promises.

No readers are impressed by factual errors or poorly researched articles. If you want those first time website visitors to become regular visitors and customers... this should be your goal.

Think of Amazon, Google or Yahoo. Love them or loath them but they all deliver the goods that their users want.

Make sure you over deliver with your good website content.

So much for humans! Good website content pleases the search engines too.

• Headlines and 'H' tags
• Keywords/ keyword phrases
• Title tags
• Description tags
• Keyword rich content
• Relevant text rich links to other relevant pages

Don't forget those search engines that visit your website to read the content, they'll reward you and the website if the content is good (notice I used website, good and content in a different order).

So lets sum it all up - Good website content is:

• Brief - Scanable
• Positioned well - 'F' movement
• Keyword rich
• Focussed - One idea per page
• Empty - white space
• Accurate - Build trust
• Tight & Neatly punctuated.
• Crisp & punchy
• Remember those search engines

When you've finished writing get someone, who doesn't know your subject, to read it through.

• Does it make sense?
• Did it hold their interest?

So no excuses - make sure every page has good website content to keep turn those website visitors into feverish customers.

Seven Secrets For A Better Website

Have you ever wondered why it is that some web sites enjoy super success while many others fail miserably? Below are seven secrets to help you make YOUR site one of the winners!

1. SPEED

Several studies indicate, that you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. If your site is slow to open, your customer will likely lose patience and close the window. And that means bye.. bye..to your site! Worse..no sale.

Solution: Avoid having too much animation in your site. Compress the image files and host your site with a good hosting company.

2. Website Design

Remember you have only 10 to 30 seconds to capture visitor's attention. So website design is very important. Most people judge something on their first look! When visitors come to your site, they will see the reflection of YOU. Be certain they will like what they see.

Make your site comfortable to look at. Be consistent with the feel and design. Don't use bright colors that jolt the eye and senses. Use a text that is easy to read. Better yet, put a really great picture of yourself on your site. Let your visitors know who they are dealing with, and show them that there is a real human behind the website!

Did my picture capture your attention the first time you visited my website? I hope so. I hope you could see that I was a real, geniune, caring person that you would feel comfortable doing business with. :-)

3. Focus Your Site

Make sure to focus your website on the intended goal. This will help you to target your market easily. For example, if you are interested in a car selling business, most of the contents of your site will naturally be about cars. For instance, your topics could be; My Car Collection, Tips for Buying A Good Car, Millenium Cars, The Secrets of Washing a Car, etc..! :-)

Car Lovers will enjoy visiting your site, because you give them exciting information about a topic they are personally interested in.

When you have laser focus, and great contents, this will create happy customers coming back to your site again and again. This makes it possible for you to repeatedly offer them new sales items to purchase from your site!

Don't clutter your site with too many unrelated products. When you have more than one or two unrelated products, make a unique page for each instead of putting them all on the same page. And do it with some style and thought. Your customers will not appreciate feeling that they have been tricked with an unworthy product.

4. Keywords Density

Many site owners ignore or are ignorant about the importance of Keywords. I have found sites which don't have any keywords at all. This is death for a website! A Good keyword density will help your site listing in search engines!

Remember, 90% of web surfers find what they want by typing in the search engines. So design your site to maximize the placement. Focus on your keywords. Utilize the meta tags keywords, description and title.

If you have no idea what I am talking about or if you don't know how to use HTML code, please, find someone who does or purchase a few good books (I can suggest one or two). I know this may sound terribly confusing but it is one of the most crucial things needed to build a better more successful website.

5. Simple Navigation

Make your site navigation easy. If the customers find it hard navigating your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere. So, limit the choices, and make the sales process uncomplicated.

6. Make Payment Easy

If you sell a product, offer your customer a variety of payment methods. If your site does not offer a credit card, you are hurting your business...get one right now. You can set up a merchant account such as ClickBank, or use one of the many credit card clearing companies. Take checks online. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by cash, check, or money order. and provide them with a guarantee.

Make the payment process obvious, easy to access and intuitive to use.

7. Credibility Is Vital

Your professional website design will not sell, if the customers don't trust you! So, provide legitimate contact information online. Your email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax number, if applicable. If you are reluctant to give this information to your customers, why should they trust, or buy from you?

Having your own domain name is also very vital for your credibilty. It will make you look more professional. Choose a domain name that easy to remember and suitable for your business.

Putting testimonials from happy customers is one of the best way to improve your credibilty. When the customer can read what other people say about your service, they will be more inclined to trust you!

Applying the seven secrets above probably will not make your site become as famous as Amazon or Yahoo overnight! But..If they are applied correctly and included into an overall website design and marketing campaign, you will see great improvement to your site's traffic and sales!

By Anne Ahira