A few Simple things you can do to Improve your Website Content

From time to time I offer to do a quick review on the content of a business website to see if I can suggest some simple improvements. Here’s a list of some of the more common issues I encounter with website content which you might find helpful as a basis for looking at your own site.

1. Keyword Strategy

Don’t be put off, this is simpler than you might think.

In an ideal world it should be obvious to me which keywords you have selected to build your website content around. I’d see them in the navigation, the main page headings, throughout the body text and in the Meta title and description tags in the HTML (more about those in a bit). The point being that if I can work out what terms you want your site to be found for, so can Google.

All too often there isn’t a clear-headed and consistent approach to keywords.

Keywords should also be based on the things your customers search for. An example: I recently looked at a site for a medical diagnostic system that was new to the country. Optimising the content for something that nobody has heard of would be pointless (but was, to an extent, what they had done) as it would never be used in a search. Things that people would search for (eg conditions and symptoms) were buried deep in the content and site structure.

This isn’t just about Google. If your website content uses keywords that people use in searches you are also moving your content towards focusing on the areas where they are looking for help.

I could go on to talk about structuring your website content around your customers’ behaviour and interests, but that is a bit more fundamental and I’m trying to focus on simple things here.

Tip 1: do some keyword research and place the keywords in places Google expects to find them.

2. Internal Links

Internal hyperlinks are valuable for 2 reasons. First, they help people find their way around your site and to navigate from one page to another; second, they help Google understand what your site is all about and improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Typical issues are that internal links are missing altogether or that the anchor text (the words that contain the link) do not include the main keywords (see above).

Tip 2: Add internal links (without overdoing it) and use keywords in the anchor text.

3. Slabs of Content

We all know that people scan-read webpages and that big slabs of featureless copy tend to get ignored. Yet I still often see just this. There is no problem with having a lot of content on your pages. In fact Google often prefers to see quite a lot of content compared to loads of pages containing very little. But break it up into smaller paragraphs. Use sub-headings and bullet points to emphasize the main benefits and arguments you want to put across.

Tip 3: Break up your content. Pick out key points in sub-headings, bold text or bullet points.

4. Calls to Action

I often find that people leave website visitors high and dry at the end of a page of content. What do you expect to happen and what do you want your visitors to do next? Every page should have a call to action – something that you ask your visitors to do next. If you don’t automatically know what this is then it’s likely that you haven’t planned your content properly or understood the purpose of your website or that particular page.

In most cases it seems to be an oversight – but a pretty important one!

Tip 4: Include a clear call to action on each page of your site (including sub-pages).

5. Social Media

Social media is all about being social. So why hide your social media follow buttons in the footer where nobody will find them? This is another common issue. Your web designer might think they look better that way and tell you that putting them prominently at the top of the pages will upset the appearance of your site – too bad. Make it as easy as possible for people to stay engaged with you through your social networks. Similar arguments apply for social media share buttons throughout your site if you want people to share your content.

Tip 5: Check whether your social media follow buttons are easy to find

6. Meta Tags

OK, a little more technical here but most website content management systems give you a relatively easy way to edit these. If you right-click anywhere on your web page you should get a drop-down menu with an option that says ‘View page Source’. If you click on that you will see the HTML code for that page. In there somewhere you will find the title and description tags that should look something like this:

<title>Copywriting and Content Marketing, South West England</title>

<meta name=”description” content=”Website content that works for SEO and humans. Get found, engage, convert. B2B marketing for SMEs in Devon, Somerset and UK wide.”/>

What you might find is a title tag that is fairly meaningless and a description tag that is missing altogether or happens to be the first few words from your content.  What you should have is carefully written tags containing your main keywords. This matters for SEO but it also matters when it comes to what happens when you show up in search results pages.

Here’s how Google displays those tags on the results page:

Ask yourself whether somebody would be tempted to click through from your page descriptions.

Tip 6: Check your page titles and descriptions. Include keywords and make them friendly. Try to keep to 70 characters for titles and 160 characters for descriptions.

Making your website work as effectively as possible for your business should take a lot of time and effort. In reality it can always be improved and do a better job of converting visitors into customers. But making sure you have some of these basics in place will set you well on the way.

 

Richard Hussey, Copywriter and Content Marketing Specialist

Need help with your website content? Call me on 01823 674167 or email richard@rshcopywriting.co.uk.gridhosted.co.uk

 

 

 

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