How To Make Your Website’s Content Stand Out From The Rest

The digital world is inundated with content, much of it all the same. Anyone with at least a little knowledge of digital marketing knows that having content on your website is essential for a successful business. High-quality content will not only appeal to search engine algorithms and bring traffic to your site, but it will also capture the interest of visitors. It can entice them to stay on your site longer, read more of your content, and – hopefully – lead them to invest in your products or services.

So how are you supposed to create this stellar content? There are a few key elements that make a piece of content better than their counterparts. Let’s take a look at what these characteristics are and how you can work them into your content.

Make The Content Valuable

While having a knack for writing and a passion for the subject matter are certainly important in creating great content, the words should also provide your audience with value. It won’t matter if you write the best prose in your life if it’s not immediately apparent to your readers that they will benefit from spending some time with your piece.

The first step in providing value is knowing what it is that your audience wants. You should cater your content to your customer demographics so that it resonates with them and offers value they can apply in real life. For instance, a home improvement business could write informative how-tos or DIY guides for their customers to follow at home.

No matter what you write, be sure to have a plan before you dive in. One study found that about 73% of companies have specifically crafted content strategies, meaning that your company will need one as well in order to keep up. To determine what content your audience might be looking for, consider these questions when you plan out your content:

• Who are we writing to/for?
• What questions or problems do our customers typically have?
• What resources and information are at our disposal that can benefit or interest our readers?
• What kind of content is currently trending in our industry and what can we contribute to the conversation?

These questions should lead you to topics that your target audience will find engaging and valuable. Once you know what you’re writing, you can get into the nitty-gritty of content marketing.

Craft a Catchy Headline

The headline of an article or blog post is just as important as the content itself. Statistics from Copyblogger indicate that although 80% of people will read your headlines, just 20% of them will read the rest of your content. Your headline should capture a reader’s attention, but not give them too much information. The audience should be left wondering so that they continue reading the content.

A trusty rule of writing headlines is to stay around the six-word mark and not exceed ten. If your headline goes over that, you’re more likely to lose a reader’s interest before they can actually make it to your content.

Your headline should also identify the problem you thought of while strategizing your content and offer a solution. Headlines that include “How To” or a number of tips or strategies are a great route for this problem-solving formula. As these are popular formats, just be sure that it is unique when compared to other headlines that will be floating around the internet.

Optimize Your Content For Users Too

Most people in digital marketing know that they need to optimize their website content for search engines. They do this by including targeted keywords in their copy, titles, meta-descriptions, and tags as well as following other effective SEO practices. However, your content should be optimized for user-friendliness as well. It won’t matter that you hold the first spot on the results page if readers don’t want to stay on your page.

Start optimizing your content for your audience by including a call to action at the end of every blog post and piece of promotional content. Readers will be looking for direction after they read a piece of content and a great call to action is exactly the solution they need to their overarching question or problem. Posting content regularly will also help build trust with readers, as they will see that you are invested in continuously providing for your customers. Search engines will also notice that you post regularly and rank you higher for that.

Great content isn’t just about the words on a page, but about the design of it as well. Be sure to use high-quality images with alt text descriptions that include your targeted keyword. The image should be relevant to the blog post and interesting to your readers. Your website’s overall design should be streamlined, easy to navigate, and have a short loading time as well. This ease will appeal to your readers and keep them on your page for longer.

Creating excellent content for your website is a deceivingly simple task. You need to strike just the right balance between value and aesthetic while also playing mind-reader with your audience to discover what they need. By achieving this balance, however, you will be one step closer to giving your business a website that can truly make it better.