Website Content – the Start of a Long and Happy Relationship?

Your website should be one of the ways that you are attracting new customers. When a potential customer visits your site it ought to be the first step in a long and happy relationship. But are you attracting the right visitors in the first place? And will what they find when they get there convince them to take the next step?

When I try to explain the role of website content in getting your business found by the right people and then convincing them to take the next step, I find it helpful to use internet dating as an example. After all, the objective is the same: forming lasting and happy relationships.

If you register with an on-line dating service and forget to include your age, where you live or your main interests, the chances of you getting found by a compatible date would be remote. The more relevant data you provide, the more likely you are to be found by people who would want to be with you.

Who’s trying to find you?

Now think about your website. How much effort did you put into considering who is likely to do business with you? How much research did you do into identifying the exact words or phrases they are most likely to type into Google when they are looking for your products or services? Did you have a clear plan for integrating these terms into your meta page titles and descriptions and into the content displayed on your web pages?

If you didn’t do all of the above, you have seriously undermined your chances of being found by the potential customers who could be searching for a business just like yours. The first step towards a happy customer relationship is getting the right sort of interest through your website.

And if they did find you, what then? Does your website content have a positive, neutral or negative impact on what happens next?

Coming back to on-line dating. In your personal profile you could talk all about yourself. You could go to great lengths to tell everyone how good looking, funny, intelligent and talented you are. You could tell them all about your qualifications and career in the hope that they will be so impressed that they’ll find you irresistible. But you might then come across as self-centred or even self-obsessed – not very attractive traits.

Website Content – It’s not all about you!

On the other hand you could give a small amount of information about yourself and then write something like:

‘Are you the sort of person who likes country walks, good food, and visiting interesting places? Do you like a good conversation and the occasional damn good laugh? If so, here are some fantastic things we could do together. If all this sounds like you I think we could have some great times together and make each other very happy.’

Do you think the second approach might have more chance of resulting in a date with a possibility of going somewhere? Do you think it would be more effective in convincing somebody to take the next step and saying they’d like to meet you? Or do you still think that going on and on about yourself is the way to find true love?

Now back to your website content. Do you talk about yourself, or the customers you would like to meet? Do you just describe yourself and what you do, or do you write as much as possible from your customers’ perspective, focusing on the things they want?

How you answer that question could be the difference between ‘having a website’ and having a website that plays a clear role in generating new business.

website content

 

 

Richard Hussey, RSH Copywriting, Devon

If you’d like an honest opinion of how well your website content works from the perspectives of SEO, engagement and persuasion, email me on richard@rshcopywriting.co.uk.gridhosted.co.uk

 

main image: Creative Commons License JLStricklin via Compfight

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