In many ways, your business’ website is like a brochure for your brand. Other than a top notch design, what might make your brochure stand out  from the competition?

The contents of a brochure should convince people that your brand is trustworthy and your products have excellent value – your website is much the same. Great content not only helps you convey the quality of your services, but is also key to being found on search engines like Google and Bing.

Web Content is Marketing Material

For starters – what should you include on your website in the first place? Business name, logo, contact information and operating hours are a good start. Additionally, you should include pages detailing your service areas or product offerings and some background information on your company. You could also include staff profiles, events, customer resources, or a company blog.

But even if you’re covered all those points, your web content may still be holding you back. Numerous spelling errors, out of date information, or even – *gasp* – empty and “coming soon” pages, can send a negative message to site users.

Sparse content is another common problem. Ideally, most pages on your website should include at least a couple short paragraphs of information. Detailed, informative text is more likely to convert potential clients than a single sentence, and can also help you rise in the search rankings.

SEO and Content: Best Friends, Forever

While there are benefits to SEO even for a content-sparse website, SEO and content are better together. Search engines love text that includes relevant keywords, and it’s much easier to naturally keyword-optimize your site when you have a few paragraphs to work with. Sparse content, even if decently-optimized, can be a negative indicator for search rankings, so it’s certainly worth revamping light or empty pages on your website.

Other content missteps can hurt your web marketing efforts as well. Google’s SEO guidelines suggest that you optimize for your site users, rather than exclusively for search engines. Poor grammar, empty pages, awkward repetition of keywords, and missing information can all impact your site’s user experience, negatively affecting your rankings as well as your your reputation.

Consider a Content Overhaul

Did this article make you nervous about the state of your web content? It might be time to draft new text for your website. You can create new content on your own (or with the help of your staff), but if you would rather leave content writing to the search engine optimization and web experts, give us a call regarding our in-house content creation services.