Web Content is so important. Website is just a Container!
Your business depends on your website and its content. The public judges your organization by its website. It's the face you show the world. Without high quality content, your website is pointless. In this article I will explain to you how to boost your web content value.
I. Answer these 6 Wh questions!
When I was a student in university, my teacher in “Operating Systems” course told me: “before starting to solve any problem answer these 6 Wh questions: What? Who? When? Which? Where? Why?” And now I understand that I can use this technique in web content management:
- What is the problem?
- Who is your audience?
- When do you want to publish your content?
- Which needs must be satisfied?
- Where do you want to publish your content?
- Why do you think your solution will work?
For instance, An ISP uses the following picture to introduce its services:
According to the 4th Wh question “Which needs must be satisfied?” I believe that the above picture doesn’t answer question. Create content that allows the site visitors to get the information they want quickly and efficiently.
In the other side, AT&T one of the most famous internet service providers in the world, uses the following content to clearly introduce its high quality internet services:
II. Develop your writing skills
Writing doesn’t easy to an inexperienced writer. Help yourself to write by reading other people’s work and asking “could I use that idea for my business?” Also help yourself to write by getting feedback from your audience. Usually if a customer has a problem the other customers may have the same problem.
Go to conferences and networking sessions to generating ideas. Talking to people in your area can help you to develop your skills.
III. You cannot edit every document by yourself!
A web content manager cannot edit all the documents on the website. It’s a wrong mindset if your company expects you to edit every document! Reports, marketing copy, online publications, press releases, etc. All you can do is customize them to be a valuable content.
IV. Search Engines are Tracking your content
Read and search about “Landing Page”, “Google Panda”, “Inbound Links” and other terminologies in Search Engine Optimization.
For instance, “Landing Page” refers to a web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine result or an online advertisement. It also can refer to any page on your website. It simply means that when visitors click on a link, they expect to see the page which follows that link. For example, a company uses the following picture on its website to show the success in a festival:
But when you click on the picture, you will lead to another page which contains the business offers:
If your Landing Page is not a continuation of the conversation that you started with your link, you will lose your website visitors and your rank in search engine results will down.
V. Use pictures
Pictures help you to make your content more understandable. But sometimes I visit the websites which use pictures in a wrong way. For example, a PAP Company uses the following picture to motivate its visitors to join company:
The above picture shows a man who is working too hard! And he seems in a very bad situation. I never like to work as this man. How about you!?
VI. Use Call to Action
Let’s say you are providing a special offer for your customers. And you motivated your web visitors by a good content. Don’t leave your motivated customers alone! Look at the following picture and see how VIRGIN MOBILE Company uses Call to Action in order to turn the traffic into the money:
Writing your calls to action well is important.
Remember, The content of your website needs to be updated on a continous process in order to keep it valuable. It is a continuous process.
About me:
I have a BS in Computer Engineering “Software field” from Azad University.
In 2010, I started in an automotive company. My responsibilities included technical
negotiations and meetings with special customers and also coordinating with other
departments for development of the projects. It was a chance for me to switch to professional usage of INTERNET and DATA collection. As my research, the websites of all automotive companies have lack of rich contents and topics.
In March 2012, I conducted a study on the websites of PAPs in Iran. It means that even the PAPs which are the INTERET leaders suffer from the same problem that is the WEB contents value.