Creating compelling content and keeping it fresh
Clear, streamlined, and fresh: these are the words that come to mind to describe successful Web sites. Content refers to all of the words and text styles, graphics, layout, and navigational elements that you create as a communicator and Web designer. Content shapes the message that your Web site communicates. If you create unclear or uninteresting content, or even worse—create good content but then neglect it—you send a message that speaks volumes about your business or organization. Instead, you should look at your Web site as a commitment you are making to your customers and potential customers: to keep them informed, to keep them interested, and to keep them coming back.
This article is about the importance of creating good content, and keeping your site interesting. It should inspire you to think of your site as a place for communication.
In this article
What's at stake
Online organizations compete aggressively for Web visitors. You've taken a strategic first step in teaming with Microsoft to get your organization on line. Revolutionary new Microsoft Office Live Small Business Web site design and reporting software does much of the hard work for you. But you play a critical role in your site's success. Your Web presence depends on you to create fresh content that motivates site visitors to buy your product, service, or point of view. Your site's value to your organization—and even your organization's survival in today's competitive culture—may depend on how well you implement this advice.
Getting online is only the first step
You've seen those TV ads that claim that once your business is online, you can sit back and watch the money roll in. For all organizations, business and otherwise, moving your site online is only the beginning. While it would be nice to think that visitors will magically find your site and flock to it in huge numbers, only by constantly improving, streamlining, and updating your site can you keep your visitors coming back.
You must keep tweaking your site to make it work. In the online world, sites are never finished for more than a short period of time; to use your site successfully, you must think of it as a work in progress.
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Create compelling content
Your site is up and running, an essential business tool that's going to show your customers that you mean business, that they should choose you over your competitors. How do you keep this tool sharp, and maintain that cutting edge?
Identify your audience and goals
Who are you trying to reach, and what do you want them to do? The answers to this question are key to your goals and online strategy. For example, your audience might be buyers of certain products or services, and your goal, to be the merchant they choose in buying these items.
Gather feedback
You can gather information in the following ways.
- Surveys If you have the necessary Web development expertise, you can survey your users for feedback. Otherwise, you can survey your users less formally. Surveys provide essential information about how visitors respond to your site. Such feedback is vital in targeting site content to their goals and expectations.
Give some thought about the specific questions you will ask, and then create a questionnaire to give to each visitor. Ask them what worked for them and what didn't. Ask them about all aspects of site design and content, for example the images on the site. Do the images support the goal of the site or distract from it? Were the words you used to explain your products or services descriptive? Was any information lacking? Were there ways customers could find out more information?
After you have completed your survey, distribute it. Ask family, friends, business associates, and particularly members of your target audience to visit your site and complete the survey. You can include your survey on your site and also distribute it through e-mail and regular mail or even phone your site visitors or meet with them. Compile visitors' comments, and compare answers. Similar answers to specific questions builds consensus, and you can be more confident that any changes you make to your site based on consensus will be effective.
- Site reports Office Live Small Business has some great reporting tools that give you feedback about which search engines are referring visitors to your site, which pages visitors look at the most, and several other site performance measurements. These statistics give you important feedback as you experiment with what is effective in reaching your audience.
You can look at Site reports by going to the Web Site feature in Office Live Small Business, and then clicking Site reports in the left navigation bar.
Look at other models
Look at some successful sites that have similar business models as yours. For example, if you are selling things online, look at popular auction or retail sites. Are there ways that these businesses describe products or use graphics that you can imitate to make your site more effective?
You can also look at your direct competitors' sites. It's always a good idea to keep an eye on the competition, but in this context you are looking for presentation and content ideas.
You can also look at your direct competitors' sites. It's always a good idea to keep an eye on the competition, but in this context you are looking for presentation and content ideas.
Create an action plan and stick to it
Your analysis of your feedback, combined with your analysis of other site models, provides you with all the information you need to create an action plan for creating and updating content. Create the plan by comparing your present site with what you believe to be effective from your research. Jot down what to delete, what to change, and what to add. Armed with this plan, open Web Designer from Web Site in the left navigation bar on your Office Live Small Business Home page, and get to work. Add, change, and delete as needed to conform to your plan.
Try new approaches, and keep what works
You may include content that you'll change, replace, or eliminate over time. See what attracts visitors and which pages are getting lots of hits. Your eventual success will result from the knowledge you gain about your customers.
Form vs. content
Two of the most important ways a site communicates is through pictures and writing; these are the true content of a site, and the styles, colors, themes, and navigation are the form. Concentrate on both the language you use and the visual design. Make an effort to gather images that support the site writing, instead of distracting from it.
A word about effective writing
More important than any other tool that you use to create your content are the words that describe your product or service and express who you are as a company; this is the essence of your content. The value of good writing cannot be overstated. You can do the writing yourself or ask or hire someone else to do it. But work at getting it right.
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Refresh your site
As mentioned earlier, creating your site content is only the first step toward maintaining a successful site.
Update your site with fresh content every day. Put the update on your calendar. Let it become a business habit. If you can't refresh content that often, do it as often as you can, so that your visitors know when to expect something new.
Stale Web sites discourage visitors, who lose interest if they see the same unchanged content each time they make the effort to visit your site. Let your site project your business personality and enthusiasm for the unique combination of products, services, people, and business acumen your organization offers. Keep it interesting; keep it fresh.
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