This summer we’ll be running a series of guides to content. Over the next few weeks, we will be taking an in-depth look at different kinds of content and how to use each of them to get customers coming to your website again and again..

This first post in our series walks through what website content is and why it’s so important to get it right.

What do you mean by ‘website content’?

‘Website content’ really means anything that visitors to your site can see or read. It covers every word you write and every image you add and all of it needs to be crafted to achieve your intended purpose.

What’s so important about website content?

It’s great to have a website that looks impressive, but it’s better to have a website that performs well and brings in the customers you’re looking for.

Content is the lifeblood of your online presence. It is important that your website content is relevant to your intended audience and has been carefully thought out. Customers don’t want to have to search for the information they need, so they need to be able to find it easily and understand it quickly.

Content-led approach to design

Content is one of the foundations that need to be in place (even in draft or as ideas) before we begin work in earnest on a website. It may seem topsy-turvy, but having an idea of your new website’s content is crucial to creating a great site.

The design of your site will hang off the shape of your content. Once you know what content is going to be available you can start to consider how website visitors might best access it.

When we work on a new website, we consider which content is useful for what purpose and make the most important things stand out. Whenever we work with new clients, we make sure to have an initial discussion about the kinds of content they currently have, what they hope to have and what we might recommend for their unique business.

The alternative:

If you have ever tried to DIY a website you may know where I’m coming from with this, but you’ll choose a beautifully designed template, only to find that you are heavily modifying it to accommodate what you want to say.

You might even find that you are doing more work only to make your website uglier and less user-friendly.

Where to start with content planning

If you are just starting a business and don’t have any pictures or words written, it might be helpful for you to think about what you want to show and how much time you want to spend on creating the content.

For example, a landscaping business would benefit from photographs of previous work they have undertaken on behalf of clients, so making sure you’re taking the best photographs of completed jobs would be important.

If your business is less to do with aesthetics however, it’s best to use words, or ‘copy’, to describe the value your business is creating.

In both of these cases, we’ll be bringing you great ideas about generating that all-important content all summer long so that you can make sure your website content is sending out the right messages about your unique business.

If you’d prefer to discuss content that you might need to get a website started, just get in touch. We’ll gladly help you work out where to begin with your plan, whatever stage you’re at.