Your small business website is the first impression you make to a potential customer. What first impression are you sending? Web design and flashy images catch the viewer’s attention, but website content is what will keep them on the site, build loyalty and ultimately make the sale.
If your website isn’t performing well or if you have a high bounce rate, it may be time to revive your website content. The blog post will break down four tips from our content marketers about updating website content.
1. Your customer is the star – you’re the supporting actor.
A common mistake that small business owners make is jumping right to a sales pitch. The moment a website visitor lands on their home page, they are hit with flashing sales lingo and a long list of products and prices. Some business owners think they have just a few seconds to make a sale, so they squish a lot of information at the top of their page to increase purchases.
But that’s an approach that treats the visitor like a cash register. Customers are not transactions. They’re people. Innately, people value trust, and they distrust salesy lingo.
Write what your customers need to hear, not just what you want to say. Your customers have a problem that only your business can solve. They’re the star of the show. You’re the tap dancer in the background – helping make them really shine.
2. Structure your content using bite-sized chunks, headers and white space.
Reviving content for better website optimization is more than just what you’re saying to your audience. It’s also about how you’re saying it. Imagine if we deleted all the subheaders and graphics in this blog post and made it one solid block of content. Would you even finish reading it? Most likely not. People are busy, and people don’t have time to read a blog post.
They scan them.
Most likely, you scanned this post to determine if it was worth your time to read. You may have read the four tips and honed in on one particular tip that resonated with you. Steller website content appeals to this type of reading, breaking up blocks up content into “chunks” that are separated by header tags. Not only does this help your reader, it also helps improve SEO!
You know what also encourages visitors to stay and read your content? White space. Imagine a crowded beach over spring break. People are in your personal space. You can’t find your umbrella, and you just wish for some peace and quiet. White space gives your reader the impression of a private beach – restful, peaceful, stress-free content.
3. Write about topics that assist and educate your audience.
You may think your small business website is all about making money for your company. But that’s actually not really what your website is for. Your website is for making loyal customers. Loyal customers are a lot better than just making an instant sale. They stick around for the long term, rave about your business to their friends and keep purchasing your other products or services in the future.
Free, educational content. That’s how you create loyal customers. Give your audience valuable content to solve their problems before ever asking them to hand over their credit cards. A company blog is the best way to distribute great content. Updating website content regularly with blogs and e-books makes Google happy, which will improve SEO and increase website traffic. It also builds credibility with your readers.
4. Refresh old content on a regular basis.
If you already have a company blog with a successful readership, don’t forget about your old website content. It’s important to go back to your old blogs and refresh them with the latest data and trends. People are more likely to click on a blog post published in the current year rather than one from 2017. Technology changes so quickly, it’s possible that your information isn’t true anymore, and that would damage your credibility.
Every few months, set aside some time to revisit your old blog content and republish with new, updated content.
Conclusion
If you made it to the end of this blog post, you’re in a small percentage. But that’s okay! We designed this content so that readers can scan to find the most important content to them, and that’s still a win for us. Content Marketing Institute says, “There is no question that emphasizing quality over quantity will yield better performance over time.” Quality content, quality readers, quality customers – that’s what we’re all after!
