Rule #1: Your website has to be about the consumer’s needs first, not yours.

Sounds like a no-brainer, but I can’t tell you how many customers I’ve had to tell that the content they were planning on was going to be of no use to consumers. Or, that the flashing colors (widget, unrelated content, etc.) would be an annoyance to the consumer or hinder them from seeing the important stuff. Moving on …

What really makes good content?

I’ve heard many answers to this question, but we are going to approach it based on rule #1 above. We will go with the basics first. Your content needs to be:

• Brief - People will not sit there and read a novel about your company. People scan pages for words that clue them in to what might be interesting to them. If they don’t find it quickly, they will go someplace else. (That’s bad.)
• Relevant - Information must be relevant to their perspective and what their needs. Focus on making product/service information categorized and ‘findable’, as well as content that highlights why you (or your products) are unique (or better). No long, drawn-out explanations about anything! (No, you can’t talk about your grandkids, train models or weekend trips. Yes, those are examples from real customers.)
• Intuitive - Simply put, navigating your site needs to be easy. People should not have to search. Incorporate plenty of white space around content items. And, make sure menus are clearly visible and distinguishable from other content items.
• Interesting - Let’s face it, if it won’t hold their attention, they won’t stay. Make sure your content is well-written (and see Brief above). Incorporating services or gizmo’s that enhance the consumers experience (in relation to your companies services) is a really good thing. Again, highlight the uniqueness of what you do or how you do it.Note: One phrase commonly used in the industry is ’stickiness’. It refers to having content or tools on your site that keep people on the site longer and coming back for more. The ’stickier’ the site, the better.
• Fresh - This is where people fail the majority of the time. Your content needs to be updated on a regular basis, with a focus on consistently adding more. More doesn’t have to be added daily (although, search engines think that is yummy!), but it should happen often. At minimum, you need to add something every month. This will help you ensure that it is up-to-date for consumers AND keeps the search engines happy.

Common Pages

• Home - Just like it sounds, this is the entry page to the site. You want to make sure the most useful content to consumers (and most timely) is on this page. This would include links to product/service information, news, store hours, delivery area, etc. You want to make sure your prospective customers can find what they are looking for quickly and easily get to it. Secondary to that, you want to make sure the most important information you want them to see is here. Things like a link to online ordering, frequently asked questions (FAQs), special online services, newsletter sign-up, etc.
• Services/Products - These pages will highlight what you offer the consumer. The more interesting, the better.
• FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) - Want to cut down on having the same questions asked over and over, and relieve some frustration for your customers? A simple list of the questions and answers will go a long way.
• About - Briefly explaining who you are, what you do and why. Any credentials, specialty, etc. would go here as well.
• Contact - How they can contact you: Mailing address, phone number and a contact form.
• Location - Physical address and directions (with landmarks). Location maps are awesome.
• Privacy Policy and/or Terms of Use - Yes, it sounds like it doesn’t apply, but it does. If for nothing more than the user’s peace of mind you need to (at minimum) include a privacy policy. Besides, Google thinks privacy policies and terms of use lend credibility to your site. (Credibility = Good for you.)
• Other Pages - The more the better … as long as they are relevant to the site and of use to the consumer.

Services

The services you offer online for consumers can make or break their experience. Many times, people are looking for information (location, contact information, hours, etc.). Increasingly, consumers are looking to (or are willing to) interact with a company when they visit a site. Not only is adding services to your site a good way to increase stickiness, it is also a great way to increase sales and draw them in so you can get your message(s) across. Get creative with online services. Discuss different things you can offer to consumers with the people building your site. A few common services are:

• Shopping - Having a way for your customers to order from you online is good for everyone, if applicable to your type of business or organization. If applicable, you should at minimum highlight that they can call to place an order. A form to get a quote for services or products or a shopping cart where they can place an order online are great. All of these should be tied into your products and services pages!
• Email Newsletters - These puppies are great for keeping on open line of communication with your customers. They don’t have to be elaborate and, quite frankly, are cheap to for you. Use them to highlight special events, online or in-store specials, news or accomplishments … anything that will keep you on their radar.
• Sharing - Make it easy for people to spread the word about your site/services. Having “email this page”, social networking, bookmarking/social bookmarking links on applicable pages are invaluable.
• Tools - This is where you can get really creative. Interactive tools will keep people on your site and can be used to educate the consumer, increase awareness of your brand and can even help you gather information about the people visiting the site. Financial calculators, polls/quizzes, interactive animations are a few examples.Note: When I say, “get creative,” I mean the sky is the limit. Let’s say you are a dry cleaner and have one or two complaints that come up all the time. You could use an interactive animation or quiz to educate the consumer. Not only would you be able to alleviate a portion of those complaints in the future with the information, if it was built correctly, you could also learn something about people who may use your services.

If your focus stays on the consumer and you follow the guidelines above, you will stand out from your competition and improve consumer perception. You will also have taken great strides towards ensuring repeat business. As a bonus, you will find that your website will do better in the search engines, since you’ve made it relevant, fresh, usable and ’share-able’!

In the next segment we’ll be discussing more about content and how carefully creating it will make your site easier to use and increase the chances of it being found in search engines. I’ll also give you some juicy tidbits on how you can increase the number of people that see your site easily and FREE! (Well, maybe free and cheap options … we’ll see