You’ve set up a shiny new website and now you’re faced with the daunting task of filling it with content. Where do you begin? How can you make a statement with your website? How do you get users to stay?
Users spend, on average, 45 seconds on a website before they decide what to do next. This can range from contacting your company, making a purchase, heading straight to your social media pages, or leaving. So, to stop the latter from happening, your website needs to have bucket loads of fresh, interesting content.
Not just that, you also need to be fresher than your competition. The website needs to make sense, have ease of use, and showcase why you’re the best option with the most skills. It all sounds intimidating, I know, but here are some tips to make it that little bit easier…
Our first stop is design. Did you know that 38% of users will leave your site if they find it unappealing? It doesn’t take long for a visitor to decide whether a website is worth staying on based on how it looks alone. A cluttered website isn’t good for anybody, so keeping graphics and text simple is the way forward.
Consistency is important when it comes to web content. You want users to know it’s your startup without having to include a flashing neon sign on each page (which will deter anyone from visiting your website). Let them know it’s you through your branding; colour and font choice are the easiest ways to convey this.
75% of consumers admit to judging a company’s credibility based on the website design – which means that your startup needs to show itself in a modern, updated form. It’s no use trying to fill your site with content from years ago, using 90s Word Art and outdated images as those will take away the attention you could have gotten. Allow your site and its content to mirror what your brand is about.
Another thing to keep in mind is pop-ups. We’ve all become acclimated with being asked about cookies and our advertising preferences, but anything more than those are a deterrent. If your web pages are full to the brim with clickbait adverts on why dentists hate this random person instead of having space to access your carefully created content, you will have lost visitors.
Navigation comes into play here, too. It needs to be smooth from start to finish, so users can find their way to your content without having to think too much about it. Consideration on what device is being used is of importance, along with if it works on both a computer and phone screen seamlessly. If your content looks good and is easy to get to, you’re more likely to capture lots of users and keep them coming back.
Next, we have SEO. At blazon, we analyse every word to make sure it fits with SEO, so you rank the highest on Google and perform well organically. There are thousands upon thousands of Google searches done each second and making sure your content is relevant means you’re more likely to be the top result and the only answer to users’ questions.
On average, users spend 5.59 seconds reading written content per web page. As a result of this, yours needs to make a high-impact first impression fast. SEO can help here, as it’s all about using concise, simple language to convey what makes your startup great.
More than this, the content needs to be innovative and of quality. This is where research comes in. What are your target audience looking for when it comes to web content? What are your competitors doing that you could do better? What makes your startup stand out and how can this be highlighted through your site? Take Snag Tights for example, their ethos is ‘clothes that fit’, so their content celebrates people and their differences.
Research into what your users are looking for can inform, and thus create, better content to catch their attention. If you can find out what makes them tick and let them know that you’re the solution, you’ve got a winner.
Once you’ve got your content ready to go, we come onto checking. When faced with a website that has mistakes littered throughout, your users are getting the message that you’re not a credible startup and they should go elsewhere. It takes 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion on your website. Imagine how much quicker that would take if there are glaring mistakes?
Regularly checking your content will make a difference once it has been published. As we’ve already stated, outdated content will turn everyone away. Keeping your site up-to-date, including how to contact you, products, blogs, and company information, means there’s always a reason for users to come back. Stagnant content is not good content.
If this still sounds like a daunting task to complete, we at blazon can provide you with an individual strategy and the attention-grabbing content needed for a successful website.
