5 tips for more effective content for your website
Updated: Nov 24, 2020
When building your website for the first time or undergoing an overhaul, one of the first items on the checklist is to determine what content your website will include. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, keeping content clear and concise is key. However, there are many different types of content that can be used on a website, all with different purposes. One common mistake small businesses make is relying solely on text to fill their website. Text is an obvious critical component to any great website, but there are absolutely other content types and ways to enhance that text that will make your website more effective at attracting visitors and converting them into paying customers.
Here are 5 tips to make sure the content on your website is as engaging and effective as possible:
Use Videos
Videos are a highly engaging website content medium that is being utilized by more businesses every day. Videos are able to give information in just a couple minutes (or less) that would take much more time to consume via text. Hubspot estimates that one minute of video is worth a whopping 1.8 MILLION words! And in today’s age of online video consumption, Wordstream reports that 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video. People are looking to collect as much information on your business as they can, in as little time as possible. If your audience is looking to consume more video content to learn about your business, which according to Hubspot, they are, AND they consume that content more thoroughly than other mediums, you should be taking part in that strategy!
Use Whiteboard Animations
Whiteboard animations are really a subset of video content, but one that has its own very effective niche. Whiteboard animations are exactly what they sound like. They’re digital whiteboards that have the look of someone drawing out the content that you are trying to convey in a visual manner. (Think of when your high school science teacher used to draw how atoms were structured - much easier to understand with an associated visual!) Whiteboard animations are usually simpler, more direct explanations of how something works and are particularly useful when you want to outline something complicated in a structured, visual way to make it much easier to understand.
Whiteboard animations are particularly great because they allow you to draft the content and style of the videos and use some free or low-cost tools to turn them into animated videos ready to put on your website. Whiteboard animations allow you to place written content along visual images and designs to clearly describe your value for very little cost. Win win!
Place Social Media Links and Buttons
Any small business website should be accompanied by a few main social media channels that act as other properties that show your business’s (and your) personality. It’s well known that social media is a great tool for businesses, but how do you use your website to actually help drive the effectiveness and return of your social media efforts? Two easy ways to use social media links and buttons to make your website more effective are:
Directing traffic to your social media channels: by directing traffic to your social media channels, you can take users to a place that will give them more updated information on your business, including content you think they should consume. They can learn a lot about what your business has been up to lately by browsing through your channels. Think of them as a natural extension of your website!
Placing social media buttons so the user can share content on their channels: if your visitors find content that is highly informative, they may want to get that content out to their networks. Without easy social sharing buttons, they’ll have to slog through a process that they’ll most likely abandon. Make it easy for them to share that content by placing easy share buttons and if they do, you’ll be increasing the reach of your business using someone else’s social profile. It’s hard to get better than that!
Linking to Internal Pages
If someone discovers your website and lands on a page (like a blog post) that has great information, getting them to explore more of your website before leaving could be the difference between turning them into a customer or having them leave your site as a simple visitor. Content on your website should always give opportunities for a visitor to continue exploring by having internal links - or links that will direct that visitor to another page within your site.
Internal linking makes it easy for your visitors to explore content that might be related to the topic they’re currently interested in, see your products or services that can help solve their problem, or promote new content that you think that visitor will find interesting. As we’ve described in a previous blog post, making sure your content is concise helps visitors consume it quickly so they can consume more in each session. Internal linking is a great way to get them to explore additional content. See what we did there!?
Publish Customer Stories and Testimonials
When someone comes to your website to look for information on how your business can help them, they expect that you are going to promote yourself as the solution to their problem. Businesses do this in varying levels of effectiveness, but if it’s expected by consumers, how do you stand out? By letting your customers show potential buyers how great you are.
Customer success stories and testimonials can be critical to having potential buyers believe that you are as valuable as you say you are. Customer story/testimonial content should be designed to share a problem that your website visitors probably have themselves and how someone that is like them found benefit from working with your business to solve that problem. According to Big Commerce, 72% of potential online buyers say that positive testimonials make them trust a business more. When someone comes to your site and might not know who you are or if you can help them, those positive testimonials can create quick trust to make that person more interested in working with your business.
Pro tip: If you are able to collect a few customer stories or testimonials, they can be used not only on your website, but on your social channels, sales materials, email campaigns, and more. Use testimonial content on every marketing medium you can!
The hardest part of trying to incorporate the above tips into your website is how to actually build a technical structure and attractive design to use them all effectively. Luckily, the Moby team is here to help! Reach out to Moby today and one of our consultants will help come up with some great ideas on how to not only take advantage of the tips above, but also how to create a professional, personalized website to make your business stand out!