Assembling Content for Your New Website

There are multiple steps to building a website, and many of them are better done by a professional developer, but one step is critical, and it must be done by the website owner: assembling content. You can hire the best website designer you can find, but without the content that is specific to your business, there is no website. Here we will talk about what content your website must have as well as content your website should have if you want it to be as successful as possible.

Assembling Content: Three Must-have Pages

If you’ve been using the web for any length of time for shopping or even browsing, you can guess what those three essential pages are: a home page, an about page, and a contact page.

Home page – A large percentage of your customers will interact with this page, and it may be the first page that they see, so you should make it good. The home page should tell your audience what your unique service proposition is: what your company is, what it does, and why you are different from your competition. If you have never sat down to seriously consider what those things are exactly, you need to in order to create content for this page. You don’t have to use many paragraphs of text to express it, but you do have to make it clear what your company is. This should also be reflected in your website’s tagline and in its branding and marketing.

About page – The about page is a very frequently visited page and should include background information about your company, how it came to be, and who your leadership and your employees are. It’s a great place to post a photograph of any and/or all of the above. About pages can be boring, but it’s much better if they’re not. Use yours to show your company’s “personality” and connect a name with actual faces. Don’t be afraid to use humor here. It can be effective in drawing people in and making them want to do business with you.

Contact page – This is where you make it incredibly easy for your customers or clients to find you wherever you are. Include your physical location, your telephone number, and your email address. You should have a contact form and include a map to reference. Also include your Google My Business listing and any social media profiles your company has.

Assembling Content: Landing Pages

In addition to the necessary home, about, and contact pages, your website should have individual landing pages for every service or product that your company offers. If you push all of your services or products onto one page, you are missing opportunities for sales because of the way search engines index content. Some of your website’s visitors will find you via your home page, but a fully optimized website invites them to use multiple entry points in the form of those individual landing pages.

There is no limit to the number of landing pages you can create, and each one can act as an invitation to your customers if the SEO is done correctly. If your business offers many products or services, you should have a dedicated landing page for each product or service that explains why and how it solves the customer’s problem.

If there are other unique things about your company, you should take the time to create pages to highlight them over time. Some of this information can be included in individual pages and some would be better highlighted on a company blog. Adding content over time after the website goes live is an excellent way to keep a website fresh, to show your customers your company is growing and active, and to rank higher in search engine listings.

One question website developers often get is: “How long will it take to create my website?” There are a number of answers to this question based on how customized you would like your website to be, and sometimes there are delays in the process. One of the best ways you can be sure to speed up the website build, however, is assembling content and getting it to the developer as soon as they ask for it. That includes copy for the pages listed above, photos, or other information. The developer cannot craft the site without this, and if you delay in providing it, the build stalls.

If you have any questions about building a website, we would be more than happy to talk to you about it. Please contact Tom at 616-426-9303.