A Simple Approach for Creating Website Content

When building or rebuilding your website, you need to take into account much more than just the design. Your content is what will tell the story of your brand. But creating content can be a time consuming and difficult process for many. In this video, I’ll share a simple approach for creating website content.  

Video Transcript:

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Content is king. That’s something that we’ve heard a lot in this age of internet and blogging and content marketing, social media, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The reality is without content, nobody knows what’s going on, right? That’s how we communicate with each other. It plays an essential role in everything we do, whether it be search, whether it be social, whether it just be customer engagement, the sales process, it doesn’t matter. Content plays a vital role.

Now, just putting content on your website is a bad idea, and a lot of times, people know they need a website, but they start overthinking the whole content process, and they wonder, “What am I supposed to put on there? How am I supposed to engage with people? What do people want to see?” All these questions start flooding our minds, and we just start putting stuff up without organizing our content.

Let’s talk a little bit about how we approach building out content for a website or a project, and then a couple tips along the way on how you can use this when looking at your own site, whether you’re re-designing, refreshing, or getting ready to start a project.

Usually a website has a minimum of five pages. It can go up to thousands and thousands and thousands of pages, and I understand that, so we’re not going to talk about blogging or any of that kind of stuff. We’re just going to talk about the main content on your website.  You’ve got a Home page. You’ve got an “About Us.” You’ve got your products or services pages, like what you do. You’ll have a contact page here. And typically, there’s some sort of, blog page.

So those are your five main sections of your website. Now, this is going to be handled by your blogging, monthly, weekly, daily, whatever you’re going to be doing. Contact us, pretty static. Now, don’t overthink your contact us page, but make it short and simple. The reason I wanted to start here is because I like to start with the easier things first and then work back to the things that are harder.

Now, the things you want on your contact us page … NAP. This is essential for all businesses. This stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. Whether you’re a local company, you’re an international company, a Fortune 500 company, whatever, you need to have your name, address, and phone number on this page. It’s not only going to help your users understand where you are. It’s just basic information that they’re typically looking for when they come to your website. But, you know, it also helps Google understand where you are and your location and that sort of thing.

From a user’s point of view, this is really essential. How many times have you gone to a website where you needed to contact customer support, and you had to dig and dig and dig into that website before you actually found a phone number or a web form that’s going to go to somebody who cares about your problem? You can solve a lot of customer issues by adding this to your website and allowing people to engage with you. And believe it or not, people like web forms, and I think that you should have a web form on your Contact Us page, but a lot of people like talking on the phone, myself in general.

You know, I’m quote-unquote, in the millennial generation, but when it comes to engaging and getting customer service, I like to pick up the phone and talk to a human being because I’ve found that humans can solve problems a lot faster than a web form can, which usually gets put in somebody’s spam box and maybe never even seen.

So your Contact Us page is extremely valuable. Make sure that it’s very easy to use and it’s very easy to point your users into the right direction of where they can contact your business.

Now, when it comes to products and services, we all have names and products and services, and we like to make things … I think “cool” is the right word. I think we’re all trying to be cool, in a sense. The reality is cool only mattered when we were in kindergarten to 12th grade, and it no longer matters today. There’s no such thing as “cool.” It’s all somebody’s opinion.

When it comes to your products and services pages, the biggest mistake I see businesses do is they either put too little information, they try to be too creative, or they don’t put enough information. Now, keep it simple, people. We’re going to use that acronym today. You want to make sure that it’s simple and direct. Users should know right away when they go to your products and services page what you sell, what it does. And that’s all they need to know. They maybe need to have a cost. There’s a lot of thought in the process between pricing, should it be on that page, should it not be on that page. Not going to get into that.

We’re going to talk about basic content. What do you do? What is it? That’s it. People want to know, what is it? What does it do? And you’ve got to keep it simple, and it’s got to be in their language.

Now, if you’re an electronics company or an engineering firm, that’s going to be a little more technical. So you’re probably going to want to have a little more content, like some spec sheets and things of that nature. If you’re in a different industry, let’s say maybe you’re a cupcake store, you don’t have to be too technical about your cupcakes, right? You maybe have a different flavor, different style. If you’re selling to engineers, then maybe you want to have a very technical cupcake, but in most cases, you know, you just want to keep it simple and keep it direct.

That type of content that people can engage with. It’s the basics. Who, what, where, when, why, how. That’s really what we’re talking about right now. So what do you do? And how does it solve their problems or make them feel better?

The About Us page. Give them some company info. Give them some background on who you are. People like doing business with people, and when you allow yourself to be more human, especially on your About Us page, your company page, it allows them to connect with you in a more personal way. This is a way you really get to know your audience, but again, you don’t want to be something that you’re not. If you put your About Us page … Like, for me, I know that I don’t look corporate. I get comments all the time. Some people like the way I look. Some people don’t like the way I look. Honestly, you can have your own opinion. That’s up to you. The reality is, I’m not trying to be somebody I’m not. And if I had a picture of me on my About Us page of me in a suit, in like shiny shoes and then I came into a meeting and looked like this, it would probably confuse a lot of people.

I am who I am. This is who I’ve been for a really long time. And I want my About Us page to look like that. I want people to know who I am as a human being and make those decisions based on me. And the exact same thing for you. If you do wear a suit every day, then be yourself on your About Us page and tell people who you are and why you built your company and why you’re doing what you do and why you’re solving the problems you’re solving. This is where you can get very personal in a very business sense, where you can attach some of that emotion to your company and why you do what you do.

Now, your Home Page. There’s been a big movement in the last couple years to minimize the Home Hage, to put as little amount of content as possible and try to move people off the home page deeper into the website. Now, your home page is like your storefront, and if people come to your storefront and it looks like most of your products are gone or they’re not on the shelves because you have them all in the back because you want people to ask questions and maybe go in the back, it’s probably a bad idea for your store. Because they’re going to think you’re out of stuff. They’re going to think that you don’t have a lot going on.

But if you build a home page that can briefly, succinctly, and purposefully tell your story, and then direct them to the next steps, that’s powerful. This Home Page, you want to tell them who you are, what you do, and why you do it. This is big. Who, what, why.

As you’re probably thinking watching this video right now, this isn’t rocket science, and the reality is, it’s not. But sometimes, we overthink this process, and if we could slow it down, you could say, “This is our company. This is what we do. This is why we do it.” That’s going to tell a story that leads people further into your site. It’s all about telling that story and engaging with you. You’re not standing on your front page welcoming them into your business. But what you can do is start to tell that story through your content that engages them in a way that pushes them to your About Page, to go a little bit deeper, and then pushes them to your Services Page to learn a little bit more of the offerings. And that may even lead them to a Contact page, a demo, whatever the conversion point you have on your website is.

This is a simple outline of creating content for your website. My biggest recommendation to you is do not overthink it. Be honest with yourselves. Be who you are. Create your story, and tell it very straightforward. Make it simple, easy for people to understand, and you’re going to have people that not just engage with your site, but also reach out to you and engage with you as a company. If you’ve got any questions, please comment below, and until next time, Happy Marketing.