Figure 1. SourceHow do you make a small business popular?
Any brand has a lot of potential. When you want to expand it, the first idea is to develop a website and make it popular. Once you start building the brand’s online presence, you focus on one issue: how to write content for website.
Content is the main element that attracts audience to your site. It’s a major component of the search engine optimization process. You want to develop content that targets important issues and delivers solutions for your audience.
Sure; design is an important step for improving website, but content is what brings your audience there. How do you make it perfect?
Irregular content marketing schedule – that’s one of the most common content mistakes. You’re off to a decent start. You have plenty of stuff to cover at the beginning, so you manage to publish all the product descriptions at once. You even have content for your blog, so you post at least once per week.
And then it all stops.
Your old content can gain new visitors. People conduct online search all the time. But how do you plan to keep the old ones coming back? You have to produce something new. You should engage them in an email marketing campaign with great content that would trigger their curiosity to check your site again.
Internet users don’t have an impressive attention span. Do you know what they do when they land on a page with endless text that’s hard to read? They leave. They have the option to leave and search for easier text to read, so that’s what they do.
It’s easy to fix this issue. You just need to start writing shorter sentences and paragraphs. Hemingway App is a great tool that helps you simplify your content.
When wondering how to improve a website, making it more unique is the first thing you should focus on. Is the design too similar to other websites in the niche? You can fix that by changing the color scheme and page patterns.
But what happens with the content? If you cover the same topics as everyone else in your industry, you need a unique approach to them. Make sure to use a plagiarism detection tool before publishing anything! Google is good at recognizing plagiarism, and you won’t get visitors through organic search if you’re guilty of that crime.
We already talked about the importance of short sentences and paragraphs. You know that’s how you keep the reader’s attention. But if you break up the paragraphs with some visuals, you’ll make the text even more pleasant to the eye.
Figure 2. SourceUse call-to-action buttons, relevant images, screenshots, videos, and any other type of visual throughout the text. You don’t have to go too far with this, though. Use the visuals only if they are completely relevant and help you convey a point.
Stock photos are not your best option. Many other websites use them, and they look generic. Your visuals should be unique, too. After all, this is a small business website. You have original products and services, so it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with unique photos and videos for them. You can also add dynamic tables and charts with the help of a WordPress tables plugin. These are guaranteed wins to make your content look better.
Are you using subheadings, numbered lists and bullet points?
Subheadings help the visitors to understand what the next chunk of text is about. If you get their attention, they will keep reading. As for numbered and bulleted lists, they give out the impression that something highly relevant is about to follow.
Did you notice this article kept talking to you? That’s one of the main rules for successful content writing. The reader should get the impression that you’re directly addressing them. You should convince them how they are going to benefit from this particular product or service.
Remember: you’re not writing a research paper. You’re developing content for average readers, so stay casual. This doesn’t mean you should use slang or an offensive tone. You should still be polite, especially since the content represents a business. Casual, but non-offensive tone is the effect you want to achieve.
When you’re trying to find ways how to improve your website, content is the first thing to consider. Is the existing content at your site good enough? Can you add more visuals or make it clearer? Are you addressing the customers directly and telling them about all the benefits they gain from your products or services?
The first step is to improve your existing content from those aspects. From there on, you can start developing new pieces, and remember to do that as frequently as possible.
Great content demands great commitment. But you started a small business and you want it to be successful. So you’re ready to make the commitment.
Robert Everett is a freelance copywriter and academic editor. He also works on his own websites, experimenting with different SEO strategies that boost visits and conversions. Robert shares SEO tricks and academic writing tips on Twitter. You’re invited to follow.
