How to create effective web content
A website is only as good as what it is made of, its content. Creating engaging, and satisfying content is the secret to making your website a success.
Effective web content is the stuff that makes your users come back, again and again. Whether you are selling shoes, renting houses or collecting donations, you need to meet the needs of your users.
Understanding what your users want
To understand what needs your users have, you need to listen to them, because only they can tell you what they want. There are some easy steps you can take to listen to your users.
3 easy steps to understand your users:
Step 1: Listen to the social web
TIP: need help?cxpartners can help you to understand your user requirements so you can better meet their needs.An increasing number of websites are using social media such as Twitter to effectively communicate with their users, and create a dialogue. This open approach enables users to give direct feedback when it suits them, and also gives you the opportunity of responding.
Even if you don’t want to actively appear on Twitter, you can search for your brand name on there and see what people are saying about you.
Listen to what your users are saying about youRegularly checking social sites like this can unearth rich information on how your customers, and users are perceiving you. It will also show you what value people have found on your website – lots of positive links back to you is what you want to be seeing here. Forums such as Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert are brilliant resources for honest, open customer feedback.
Step 2: Tap in to your staff knowledge
If your company has a call centre, you are already sitting on a wealth of knowledge about your audience. Arranging to visit the call centre and chatting to staff there about the calls they receive can teach you a lot about your audience, what they need and what makes them happy.
A basic set of questions to ask call centre, or other customer facing staff, should include:
- ‘What problems do customers/users have with the website?’
- ‘What reasons do customers/users give for the problems they are having?’
- ‘What are the most common questions customers/users have?’
You will need to supplement these questions with ones that fit with your business, but they are a good place to start.
Step 3: What is working well already?
Check your website analytics stats to see what pages are working best for you. Look for pages that receive a lot of links to them from other sites, and try to work out why this is. What makes the content on these pages more desirable, more interesting or more valuable to your users? Use this information as a starting point to inform other, new content on your site.
If you follow these three steps, you will build up a picture of what your users want, and how you can provide this content on your website.
Copywriting counts
The most important aspect of great content is the quality of the copy. A common problem I see on many sites is poorly written copy undermining an otherwise great site. It is worth taking a critical look at the copy across your site to determine if it needs a freshen up.
There is a myth that people don’t read online – they do, but they don’t always concentrate, don’t always read everything, and sometimes only read a few words here and there. When people don’t read everything, it’s important to make sure they can still get the gist of the information.
The format that copy is presented in needs to be conducive to reading. Using short paragraphs and simple, straightforward language can improve an article’s readability rapidly. By breaking up the copy with indicative headings, you can help lead your user’s eye through the article and encourage them to read on.
Making reading online easy for your users is crucial to make sure they will want to come back and visit you again.
Find and develop your niche
Have a think about the types of site you go back to again and again. Why is this? There are so many websites out there, why do you choose to visit some time and time again?
Popular websites tend to do the following:
- Demonstrate expertise
- Share knowledge
- Make user’s lives easier in some way (e.g: quick checkout, free postage, reliable etc)
- Write for their audience and not themselves
Having a niche makes doing the above a lot easier because you will attract users who are already engaged or interested in that area. For instance, if you belong to a firm producing and selling security cameras, it makes sense to share your expertise in security and surveillance by developing content that meets users needs – such as how to install security cameras, where best to install them, how to look after them etc. This does mean sharing your ‘secrets’, but people, your users, will thank you for it.
Tone of voice
The tone that you write in will either attract people, or repel them. Your users care about themselves, and what you can do for them. They don’t really care about you and your business – so you need to write with that in mind.
Users get bored of selfish contentTalk directly to your users, and avoid referring to yourself, e.g: ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’. Frankly, nobody likes listening to a know-it-all!
Ann Holland’s ‘Which Test Won’ site has an example A – B test showing how the tone of voice used, and easier to read formatting, improved a site’s conversions by 16%, in her post Prose Vs Bullets Test Results.
Content is king
There are many other steps you can take to improve the quality of the content on your website, but I think the ones I have shared with you here give you a good place to start. If you work through them and make updates to your site you should start to see changes in the way your users interact with you. I’d love to hear how you get on, good luck!
About the author
Bonny is passionate about creating great user journeys that improve conversion rates. She is an advocate of ethical SEO, and loves measuring website stats. Bonny spends her free time sewing, designing fabric and drawing silly pictures. Email Bonny, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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Hi Bonny,
Very interesting article, and if I may say so, extremely well written.