Content strategy is relatively new to the marketing space, and website content needs will vary based on circumstance, market, brand, and goals. Regardless of the details, the fact remains that a solid content plan is a pillar of any well-rounded digital marketing strategy. Here are five tips for creating good content as well as a few ideas to help make the most of it.
How to Create Good Content for a Website
1. Establish the Goal
What is good content for a website? The answer, while perhaps unhelpful on the surface, is quite simple. Good website content is anything that achieves its goal.
Therefore, before going all in on website content creation, it’s important to slow down and identify exactly what you hope to accomplish with it. Web content marketing can serve any number of purposes, and the way in which you execute your strategy may be impacted by your ultimate goal.
Are you aiming to add content to your site to increase traffic for a particular page? Drive conversions? Expand social media reach? Gain new subscribers? The possibilities are endless, and each piece of content may serve a different purpose. We recommend starting with 2-3 specific goals as you’re building website content. Expand from there as your content begins to serve its intended purposes.
2. Establish a Target Audience
We mention this one quite often. Whether you’re aiming to define your brand, design with user experience (UI) in mind, or choose the right multimedia elements for your website, you can’t be successful until you know who you’re aiming for. Defining a target audience, and ideally a few user personas, is 100% necessary to any marketing effort – determining how to create content for a website, included.
3. Identify the Unique Value
Whether you’re creating static text for your homepage, generating blog articles, or crafting social media posts, always keep in mind that which sets you apart from the rest – and leverage it within each component of your website content plan.
There are plenty of ways to display your unique value. For example, do you save your users time or money? Creatively reference that savings within each blog post. Or is your product beautiful as well as functional? Showcase its aesthetic value in every one of your social media posts.
4. Create a Schedule
After establishing the type of content you plan to generate, it’s time to establish a content schedule. To do this, you’ll want to identify all channels included in your content strategy. Individual social media sites, emails, text messages, and of course your blog are all web-based “locations” where you can place your content.
While the number of available content sharing options may seem enormous, don’t let it overwhelm you. A single blog post can generate many content writing ideas. Website excerpts, several small social media posts per platform, a YouTube video, an email, and an SMS message can all hatch from one piece of “parent” content.
5. Include Evergreen Content
While it is of upmost importance to be relevant and timely, there are certain topics and types of content within every niche that remain evergreen – meaning they remain relevant as time passes. This is key as you determine what content a website should have. Evergreen content is beneficial because it continues to provide significant value to users without additional work on your end.
How to Optimize Your Content
In terms of web content development, it probably goes without saying that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must. Here are a few ways to optimize your content and increase the chances that users find it with a basic web search.
1. Target Keywords
What is website content without target keywords these days, anyway? Make sure to creatively include target keywords in headings, meta data, tags, and of course body copy.
2. Include a Call to Action
A part of your website content management strategy should be to utilize a call to action (CTA) at the end of each piece of content. This may be as basic as “contact us,” or “click here.” Regardless of how simple your CTA, it’s silly to skip it.
3. Post Consistently
Sometimes the type of content needed for websites isn’t nearly as important as the timing of web page content or social content. Sharing high quality content on a consistent basis is an easy way to establish trust, encourage users to come back for more, improve conversions, and build brand awareness, as well as boost SEO.
4. Answer Questions
Creating good content can be easily overthought. If you’re contemplating how to create a website content strategy or how to get content for your website, consider answering user questions. Here’s why: your product or service may serve a purpose, but outside of that how do you keep users engaged? Finding ways to answer questions is one of the best ways to ensure your content hits the mark and users keep coming back for more.
Olive & June, an online retailer for all things manicures, does an excellent job at managing a content-based website. Generally speaking, nail polish and manicure supplies are infrequent purchases. They are commodities that most users will purchase once or twice a year. But because O&J spends time creating quality content that answers customer questions, their users have a reason to keep coming back, even if they don’t intend to buy a thing.
Bonus Tips
It’s not always about how to create good content for websites. It can also be about how to get your content out there, or how to make sure it’s hitting its mark. Here are a few additional tips to help make the most of your online content.
1. Utilize Email
Maintain an up to date customer email database. This will make it easy to get your content in front of a captive audience on a regular basis.
2. Track Performance
A content strategy for the web is part art and part science. Keep an eye on performance metrics to learn what users love, what they don’t, and where they’re getting stuck. This will help you create more of what works without wasting time and money on what doesn’t.
3. Start with What You’ve Got
Before embarking on a brand-new website content strategy, take inventory of what you’ve already created. Spend a little time making sure your current content is up to par before coming up with new ideas.
Creating Good Content Just Got Easier
If creating a content strategy for a website seems like a full-time job, that’s because it can be! There’s a ton to consider and more than a few ways to execute an effective content strategy. Hungry Media would love to help you make the most of yours. Contact us today to discuss taking your content and all of your digital marketing needs to the next level. We can’t wait to meet you!
contributed by Melissa Lucas, senior staff writer
