How to improve your online profile (part 1 of 4)
This is a four part series about how to improve your website's marketability so that potential customers can locate your website.
Without continual growth and progress,
such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
-Benjamin Franklin, American Icon
For this topic, I will use four separate blogs to highlight what it takes to improve your online profile. For this article, I will discuss the importance of good content.
Content
The idea behind good website content is that it should help drive customers to your website and help engage them in what they are reading so that they can ask questions if they have any and perhaps purchase one of your products. There are seven important points that will help you create effective website content(1):
- Keeping the content simple: Even though you are probably well educated in your field, it is important to understand that not every prospective customer will share your understanding of complex and advanced vocabulary, so it is important to write content that anyone can understand. No need to be complex at all in your descriptions.
- Incorporating keywords: There has to be a balance here. You should incorporate the keywords you want the search engines to pick up in your content, but you should not do it too much such that it may turn off the readers. A good rule of thumb to remember is that you should mention the keywords at least once within the page, but you are welcome to mention it more if it flows naturally with what you are writing. But try not to make keywords the main focus of each sentence you are writing. (2)
- Bold Type/Punctuation/Bullet Points: This is pretty self-explanatory as this will grab people’s attention towards certain points that you would like to make. Remember that bullet points are your best friends. They help guide the organization of your points.
- Negative Space/Paragraphs: I know it is tempting to write a lot of stuff, but sometimes, it’s important to look at what you aren’t writing. Make sure you give a good amount of space between your paragraphs and make sure your paragraphs have even margins. Remember, other people have to read this content and should be able to process each paragraph adequately and without a feeling of being lost between paragraphs.
- Headings: These serve two purposes. First of all, they are a way to introduce what you will be talking about in the upcoming paragraph which helps the reader anticipate what will be discussed. The other purpose is that it is a great chance to incorporate keywords as long as they adequately fit what you intend to talk about.
- A style that speaks to the customer: The most important takeaway from this point is to personalize your website so that you are speaking to your customer and not filling your entire page with facts and figures. Sure, those things are great, but you should be writing in a way that makes the customer feel like you are engaging to the customer. Remember, the success of your business depends on the customer, and you will not get the customer unless you speak to them. Make sure your writing style reflects that.
- Change it up: in order to get higher in the search engines, it’s always important to change some of the information on your site every now and then. You can do this by adding a video, change a paragraph, add a news article or blog, or whatever may be appropriate. The search engines will bump your page down the search list if you aren’t keeping your website content fresh.
References
