4. Content

What do you mean by content? Content is the words, images, and sometimes videos that make up your website. It is the most critical part. Without content, your website is nothing.

Content should not be...

In the vast majority of cases, content should not be written by the client. While most of us write daily via email, text messages, and documents, writing content and copywriting are specialised skills! People who are writing content for websites regularly are naturally going to produce copy of much higher quality than someone who hasn't written before for a website. It's a factor of experience. Writing copy and content for websites requires a good degree of experience to get it right. As web designers in Aberdeen, we work with several experienced writers who get results by crafting every word.

There are different types of writing that need to be considered. Sales pages have a different objective from an industry article. The sales page would seek to understand the prospect deeper, focus on objections, and focus on a pain point and problem. The article page would be written in an informal way to gain readership and inform visitors.

Headlines

With headlines, it's said that 80% read the headline and only 20% read the full body of text that follows. Therefore, headlines are incredibly important to the success of any writing online. Headlines are also a big part of getting the most from search engine optimisation. The best way we know to do both effectively is to write two headlines. One, using curiosity, is there to grab attention, and the other for search engines. Then combine them into a single headline. This is the technique we use all the time to get the full benefit of writing for search engines and having an intriguing click-worthy headline.

In an ideal world, all the copy would be produced prior to any design taking place. The content is often a commonly overlooked part of a website. If there is one thing to stress here, it's that the copy and the writing are absolutely critical to the success of any website.

A successful website?

You can have an ugly website with the right words yet still be wildly profitable and a very successful website. You cannot, however, have a fabulous-looking website that has the wrong words. It just won't work. Your website will fail. Words and content are the most important parts of any website.

Think of it like this: if you had a website that was written in a foreign language, how well do you think it would do? People would have no confidence in what they were reading, and they would leave the site immediately; that's what people do if you have poor content that doesn't resonate with your audience.