For many businesses, big or small, their website’s content is like the pile of dirty dishes in the sink after a Thanksgiving dinner. It’s something that needs to get done but will get pushed to the wayside until it has to get done. Many people would argue that content is the most important component to a website, and even though business owners know their brand like the back of their hand, it’s hard to put it in words for their audience to understand.
Although hiring a professional copywriter would be ideal for writing the most effective content, sometimes it’s not in the budget for a business’s initial website launch. This leads to the internal marketing department (whether that’s a department or business owner) doing the writing themselves, which can lead to some big mistakes made with their messaging.
If you have or plan to bite the bullet and write your website content, know that mistakes can happen but they can easily be avoided.
Roll up those sleeves and break out your metaphorical dish soap; it’s time to scrub these common content mistakes from your website!
Not Having an Objective
Before writing any website content, you must clearly define your website’s objectives. If you have already written it, review it and make sure it’s hitting your desired objectives. You may need to go more in-depth with this than you think. An example of a strong objective would be something like this:
“I want my visitors to view more than 4 website pages or spend more than 3 minutes on our website. To me, this is a success because it proves they are engaged and find meaning with the content while getting to know my brand.”
It Goes On, and On, and On, and…
We get it. You’re excited about your business and could talk for hours about all the things do you for your customers. Do yourself (and your visitors) a favor and keep your website’s content short, action-driven and to the point. Remember, your website is like a store window front; a typical display window doesn’t have a big, bold sign with stats on how their business has grown every year. Customers have short attention spans, and a long, bulky paragraph of text could send them clicking the back button on their browser.
This doesn’t mean you can’t go in-depth about specific topics; this is where the beautiful, all-mighty blog comes in! A blog serves as an additional resource for your visitors to learn more about certain topics within your industry. Think about it: would you read this entire post if it was on our Copy Writing page? Probably not! Plus, a blog is a great SEO booster for your business. With a blog, you can cut your website content down, blab on and on about your business/industry, and enhance your SEO. What a win-win-win!
Stuffing Keywords
Back in the early days of SEO, people believed they could manipulate their website’s search ranking by adding a particular keyword/phrase in their content a lot. This is known as keyword stuffing, and it’s a BIG website no-no.
If someone wanted to rank high for the term “chocolate ice cream,” this is what keyword-stuffed sentences could look like: We offer the best chocolate ice cream out of all the chocolate ice creams in the area. Our chocolate ice cream is made fresh weekly, and people will travel far to taste our chocolate ice cream. We’ll put your chocolate ice cream in a bowl, in a cone or any other way you enjoy eating chocolate ice cream. Yay, chocolate ice cream!
Keyword-stuffed content sounds spammish, and it honestly makes your business sound robotic and, well, not creditable. Ultimately, don’t do it, as it will tarnish the user experience and your site’s ranking. If you’re trying to write for SEO purposes, keep these tips in mind.
Just like washing the dishes after a Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll feel relief knowing that the hard work you put into your website content will pay off. With clear messaging, your visitors will be able to understand your business’s purpose and better identify your solutions for their needs.
Go ahead, take that famous Thanksgiving Day nap; you deserve it!
To learn more about website content or if you need help with anything else on your website, contact GreenMellen today!
