When making their first website, everyone thinks they know exactly what needs to be on it. Obviously, it’s all the important stuff! This cool font looks great too! Of course we’re omitting these details, the reader won’t understand, right? But what you consider to be useful, readable, or interesting content may not ring true for those searching for it.
To make a great visitor experience on your website, remember this; your website is not for you. It is in the sense that it represents you and that it is meant to draw visitors to your business or cause, but the content itself should be made with your visitors in mind.
Who is the (target) audience?
To serve a website, you need an audience to serve it to. Many who are new to websites end up with a kind of personal archive. Do a little bit of research into your topic or business and find out who is most likely to be interested in what you offer. If you are selling water bottles, then your audience likely includes physically active individuals or those taking part in sports.
What are they looking for?
Create content that will be interesting or relevant to your audience. If your audience consists of sports fans, they may be interested in teams that are currently playing. Do not shy away from descriptiveness; if you are a sports fan and your audience are sports fans, then it is safe to assume that they understand sports related concepts and lingo.
Why are they looking for it?
If content is king, then context is queen. Going hand-in-hand with the previous point, make sure that you understand why someone may be looking for the content found on your website. In the case of selling water bottles; look into some of the search terms that visitors may be using. Are they looking for gifts for their sporty friend? Are they looking for team specific bottles to take to the upcoming game? Use this knowledge to create a website and content that is useful to your visitors.
Now that you have a better understanding of your audience and what they are looking for, you can begin to design and write your website to draw visitors to your site. Keep in mind that the more visitors must navigate to find what they need, the more likely they are to leave before doing so. Only include relevant pages with necessary information.
Are you looking to start up your first website? Do you need help writing content? Contact us to find out more about our website and content services!
