Here, we’re going to look at how to create content for your website. Content is king in Google so you need to get very good at this if you’re going to start climbing the search results.
TRANSCRIPT
Now, the reason this has come about is because we build websites on a very regular basis, and one of the biggest challenges that we have with building websites and with working with our clients is getting clients to think about creating content. So, what I want to do is just to cover some key points to help you learn how to create content for your website efficiently and, more importantly, effectively.
Why you should have great content on your website
You see, having the right content on your website could be the difference between your website just being another run-of-the-mill website or getting a great response from the traffic you drive to it because it says the right things in the right way to the right people that encourages them to take some kind of action, whether that’s to fill in a form, get in touch, or pick up the phone.
So, first of all, what do we mean by content?
Well, content is all about the text and the imagery that you use on your website, whether that’s on pages, on blog posts, on product pages, anywhere. Content, if it’s written or if it’s imagery, it’s all content.
So, that covers quite a lot of ground, really, because you really do need to think about what it is and where and what’s going and what kind of words you’re using, what kind of things you’re going to be writing about.
But, there are a number of key points, and without these key points, your website will be severely lacking in response if people come there. The idea behind good content is to lead people down a path to the point where they eventually become a lead and, from there, hopefully become a customer.
Key questions for your content
So, first things first. Your website needs to answer three key questions when somebody lands there, and I’ve covered this in more detail elsewhere. But, I’m just going to very briefly touch on them now, and that’s who are you, what do you do, and what’s in it for me?
They want to know who you are.
They want to know what you do.
And, more importantly, the most important thing, is what are your going to do for me as a customer?
And if you don’t answer these questions on your website, the response you get will be severely hampered at best. So I put a link to the video where you can find that explanation down below, so you can check that out in a minute.
Check out the “3 Key Things” video here : https://youtu.be/MMDaOqY3l5o
What are your site visitors looking for?
Usually when you visit a website, you’re looking for an answer to a question or a solution to a problem or a remedy for some kind of pain.
So, the first thing you need to do when thinking about content is to think about the problem.
The problem is what you are there to solve, and whether you’re in retail, whether you’re in business-to-business, whether you’re a lawyer, whether you’re a shoe shop, people come to solve a problem.
If they’re looking for shoes, they come to you. They want to see shoes. They want to see a great price. They want to see good presentation. They want you to make it easy for them to buy and easy for them to do business with you.
If you’re a law firm, then people want to come to you to have problems solved. Typically, when somebody’s looking for a lawyer, they’ve got a problem, and so you’ve got to be the folks who pitch yourselves as the problem solvers.
And the problems are usually solved by experts. Are you an expert? And can you get this expertise across in your content? And, yes, to some extent, it’s bragging about yourself and what you do and how good you think you are, but ultimately, when it comes to services, people buy from people they trust. And if they don’t think you’re good at what you do, got no expertise, you got no credibility, it’s going to be difficult for you to establish trust early on.
So, are you the expert? Are you the problem solver? And there’s many ways of doing this, but these are the questions you need to answer.
Is there some pain in the mind of your site visitor?
Another great thing to consider, apart from the problem, is is there any pain? Is there something you can do? Is there a real something that’s just needling at people, real problem?
Can you pick on the pain to solve the problem from an expert point of view? And if you can get this across on your website, then you’re already on the way to becoming a good content creator.
Too many website owners miss out on this. They just talk about who they are and what they can do without talking about what my problem is, without talking about how they can take away my pain, without actually pitching themselves as the expert in this problem and the problem-solving that goes with it. So, can you become the expert who takes away the pain and solves problems?
Once you learn How To Create Content For Your Website you website response rates will increase.
Are you answering questions? Do you have FAQs?
Another big thing that’s missed on many, many websites is FAQs, and this could be all around your topic. And even if you do sell shoes online, people want to know that your shoes are good quality. That’s a question they may ask. They want to know about the shipping fees, etc.? Are you a reputable business? How many happy customers have you got?
How about some reviews?
And that comes back down to reviews, and that could be if you’re a restaurant on TripAdvisor. If you’re a local business, it could be on Google reviews. There’s a wide variety of different reviews.
If you’re good at what you do, you’ve got good reviews, can you put them on your site? I hope you can read that. Have you got good reviews that you can share? Again, it comes back to being able to encourage people to think that you are very good at what you do, and that you are very reputable.
What’s interesting now on Google Places, Google for Business, you can get business-to-business reviews as well. If you can encourage people to go to your Google listing and just give you a good review and you can share those reviews, again, it helps to pitch you as the expert, and those reviews all tie in.
And it all speaks to answering those three questions. Who are you? What do you do? And what’s in it for me as a customer? People want to do business with people they can trust.
So, I would recommend that you get a comprehensive list of frequently-asked questions and highlight them, especially if there’s one that comes up over and over and over again in your marketing, and what you talk to people about, and the questions that people ask if they email in or they phone. If they’re asking the same questions over and over again, it’s obviously a big concern in a large chunk of your market’s mind, so answer these questions. Far too few people have FAQs on their websites. Far too few small businesses answer these kinds of questions even though those questions are there.
So, when you’ve done all of this, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but the key is this: Learning How To Create Content For Your Website isn’t rocket science but you need to be a problem solver. You need to be somebody who fulfills a service. You need to be somebody who’s trustworthy and credible online if people are going to pick up the phone or place an order with you online or send you an email or fill in a form. You need to establish that credibility. You need to answer the questions. You need to pitch yourself as the expert. And you need to be a problem solver rather than just somebody who talks about the problem. Tell people how you’re going to solve the problem for them.
What to do next…
And, finally, and it is a very, very big one and a lot of people miss this. What to do next.
Most websites, and I’m talking more than 60% here, don’t actually tell people what to do next when they come to their website. Is there a really big call to action?
And it really is a call to action whereby you’re telling people what to do next. If you want us to help you, here’s what to do. Most people just assume with their websites that people will know where the phone number is. Oh, it’s on the contact page. No, your contact details need to be on every page if that’s important to you. If you’re an online shop, maybe not. You just want to steer people to go and buy from you or fill in a form to ask for more information or steer people towards the FAQs.
The point is this. When you begin to put all of this lot together, you’ve got your content which is all about problem-solving, pitching you as the expert. You’ve got your FAQs. You’ve got reviews shouting about how good you are. And, then, you’ve got a clear next, your call to action, steering people where to go and what to do.
And, to be honest, if you get all of these things right, and I promise you that it’s not the easiest thing to do, but you can adjust it over time, tweak and improve constantly, when you get all of this put together, you will be above average in your industry. Not only that, your website will be more responsive to clients. And you’ll get a greater response out of your website as a percentage of site visitors than your industry average, as well, because I promise you, two-thirds of people get this wrong. Two-thirds of people miss out some of this across all industries, across all businesses, large and small.
So, you’re not having to reinvent any wheels here. You’re just appealing to human nature. You’re just answering human nature. These questions: Who are you? What do you do? And what’s in it for me as a customer? And what have other people said? And what do I do next?
And if you can get to grips with How To Create Content For Your Website, I promise you your website will perform. You won’t need massive traffic because your website will be geared towards getting a response because you’ll answer all the right questions and do all the right things when somebody arrives.
And if you’ve any questions or comments, write them in the comments below. It would be great to hear from you.
Check out this blog post on “How to find the time to write regular blog posts!” – https://buzzwebsitedesign.com/how-to-find-the-time-to-write-regular-blog-posts/