The Elements of Good Web Content

Web content is the heart of any web site. Even the most well-designed site is not going to hold visitors' attention if the pages are filled with empty space, ads, or “adorable” animated graphics (they were cute once, but we've come a long way). So let's look at some tips that will help you create web content that will attract and keep visitors at your site.

For starters, be brief. People aren't surfing the Internet because they want to read 25,000 words about the history of a product. If that's what they wanted, they'd read a novel. What they want is short, concise, informative web content. That means short sentences. That means short paragraphs. And that definitely means eliminating all of that hype and sales talk from your web content – most visitors are turned off by obvious sales attempts.

Let's focus on informative web content for a moment. Informative means web content that is going to be useful to visitors. That means no pages which just list links to other sites, no “under construction pages,” no out-dated business news, etc. All of your web content should be written to meet the specific needs of your audience.

Next, you've got to make your web content highly scannable. That's because very few of your visitors are going to be reading every word of your web content. They are scanning the content for anything that catches their eye. To catch their eye, you should use meaningful subheadings, bold keywords, and a straight-to-the-point style.

Finally, you should beef up your site with plenty of strong content. Informative articles, blogs, white papers related to your industry, and other elements will help boost your search engine ranking, increase the likelihood that other sites are going to link to you, and give your site an image of being knowledgeable and useful. Good web content will keep people coming back – remember that.