What should I include on my website?
Or, in other words, what should be the content of the site?
When I wrote this article, way back in the year 2000, it began like this:
You only have 10 seconds to attract visitors to your website, and they are crucial to its success!
If you don’t give your visitors a solid reason to stay on your site in those few moments, they’ll just click the mouse and go … to your competitors …
However, in the year 2022, this statement is no longer true.
YOU DON’T HAVE 10 SECONDS ANYMORE! Today, the typical Internet user, staring intently at his phone and rushing to a business meeting, has already “viewed” three sites in 10 seconds!
In fact, you have no more than two or three seconds to grab the user’s attention. If you don’t do this, after 10 seconds your user will have already not only clicked away from your website but also forgotten about you!
A key role in this attraction is played by the content of your website,
or in other words – the texts included in it.
Why are the texts on a site so important?
The first rule that every Internet beginner encounters is the rule “Content is King“.
There are countless site owners who have come to us for help because the website they paid thousands of dollars for doesn’t actually fulfill its role. It registers visits, but the company receives neither orders nor even inquiries from the visitors.
Usually, even a cursory glance is enough to give an answer to the “enigma”: the site lacks even the minimum information that the visitor expects to find there.
Unfortunately, it is common when we ask our clients what source information they have for their site, and they answer us with “We have a lot of photos” … Believe us, photos, even as beautiful as they may be, are far from enough!
Think of your site like a magazine you want to publish.
No matter how beautiful and shiny your magazine may look, it would not be successful if it does not contain interesting and useful information on its pages.
Here we will offer you four simple but proven tips that will help you prepare the information for your website. If you follow them, the chances of your website becoming successful will increase manifold.
1. First and foremost, solve problems
It will probably sound rude or cynical to you, but no one cares about you and your company! Everyone is coming to your site with a problem he/she wants to be solved.
Don’t bother people with yourself and your company, but try to solve the problem that brought them to your site. This is the only way to succeed on the Internet.
2. Offer meaningful information that sets you apart from others
When writing a text, always ask yourself the question “what am I saying with this text, and does it make sense to say it?”
A typical example of redundant and meaningless text: “Our company employs competent and experienced specialists.” Why is it redundant you ask? And do you think that someone would write on their website “inexperienced and incompetent incompetents work in our company”?
Such texts not only do not help your visitors, but actually turn them away simply because they waste their time, and nobody likes that.
Another such nonsense is the text found on many sites – “We offer high-quality products at reasonable prices…” Can you imagine anyone claiming to offer expensive junk? 😉
Get rid of such unnecessary and meaningless talks on your site! They make your website pointless and boring, and as a result – ineffective!
If you want to convince your visitors that your product (or service) is of high quality, explain why this is so? By what criteria is it better and how exactly is it superior to that of your competitors?
Just saying that your product is good is not only not enough, but often has the opposite effect: it repels customers simply because they will inevitably ask “Why and how, the hell, is this product really good?”. So, answer their question.
3. Offer all the needed information
Before you even start preparing the texts, decide what will be the main purpose of your site. Then subordinate all the information to the goal you are pursuing.
Offer all the information your visitors need to lead you to that goal.
For example, if your goal is to sell a product, don’t fail to include ALL the information your customers will need to make their purchase decision. This means prices, technical specifications, characteristics, terms of delivery, terms of payment, return policies, guarantees, etc.
If you missed something, don’t expect visitors to pick up the phone and ask you. Most of them won’t, and you’ll have lost them as customers.
4. Offer useful free information
The Internet is a territory of useful and free information!
Google.com, which has long made billionaires of its owners, actually offers a … FREE SERVICE!
Offer your visitors something useful they could learn from your site, even if they don’t become your customers. Successful sites on the Internet are invariably those that offer useful information to their visitors. Include accessible and useful materials about your products or services on your site.
This will achieve at least three positive effects:
- You will reinforce the belief among your visitors that you are an expert in your field and that you really know what you are doing.
- Your visitors will leave your site enriched with something, and this will pay off sooner or later.
- In this way, you will also increase the chance that search engines will find your site and direct more visitors to it.
Let’s repeat again: the most successful site of all time, Google.com, which has long made billionaires of its owners, actually offers a free service! Think about it.
