Website Content Is Still King

So, you've developed a website for your small business. It has a clean design and uncluttered layout, accented by aesthetically pleasing graphics. Your web designer has ensured that it is accessible to all Internet users, no matter which browser or screen resolution they're employing. As you browse the final product, you realize how easy it will be for your potential clients and customers to navigate to all of your website's pages. You may think that you website is complete - but it's not. In fact, a website should never really be complete. It's a fact that search engines such as Google give sites that are frequently updated higher rankings in the search results. What is the best way to update your website on a regular basis? The answer is content!

Visitors don't come to your website to admire it, they come seeking information. It's content that gets them there, it's content that persuades visitors to bookmark your website, and it's content that entices them to return. Not only do human users like good content, but search engines do as well. In fact, they just can't index enough of your text - they love that stuff! So, why not give your visitors and search engines exactly what they want? The easiest way to accomplish this is by adding articles that are relevant to your website's theme on a regular basis.

Turn Prospects into Sales

If your website contains enough informative content, your potential clients / customers will deem you as an expert in your field, see your website as an excellent resource, and most likely choose your firm to conduct business with. Good content converts prospects into sales - it's that easy.

Attain Top Search Engine Placement

If you include lots of relevant content on your website, the search engines will also deem your website as an important resource, and in turn, give you a higher placement for all the keywords you are trying to target. If you were to add an article every week or month, the search engines will see that your website is updated frequently and index more of your content. After a few months, you should start to notice a steady increase in search engine traffic to all of your website's pages.

Receive Natural Links

If you really want the search engines to know that your website is important, you must get other websites to link to your business. If you offer high quality informative articles, other websites are naturally going to link to you because your content is of value to the other website's visitors. The best types of links to receive are one-way, not reciprocal. Without paying other websites, adding good content is about the only way to entice them to link to you.

Getting Good Content

Nobody knows more your industry than you. After all, you're the expert, right? So, it's probably best if you were to write a few articles yourself. Don't worry if you don't have the greatest writing skills because you can always get someone to revise your article for you. There are a ton of freelance writers available for hire over the Internet. You could also ask your office manager to review your article, or even hire a student from the local university on a contract basis.
If you don't have time, or don't feel comfortable writing your own content, there are hundreds of article syndication websites on the Internet that allow you to use their articles on your website. The articles are free for you to use, but there's a catch - you must provide a link back to the author's website. This link is usually included at the bottom of the article in the author's bio. To find some good sites, just do a search for "article directory" in Google.

There is a drawback to using another author's content, though. Google and the search engines generally give more weight to original written works. So, writing an original article is best, but adding someone else's article to your site will still add value in the eyes of both humans and search engines. If you want original articles, but don't want to write them, there are a ton of freelance writers available for hire across the Internet. Employing their service to write a decent sized article should run you about $50. Just do a Google search.

Conclusion

The key is to put yourself in the shoes of your website's visitors. If you were looking to do business with your company, what kind of information would interest and entice you? You have to consider your target audience and their demographic, and then determine what their needs are. Most people assume that a cool, flashy, attractive website will generate business. That is not totally correct - you need to give people what they want - information! Therefore, it's safe to assume that content is still king when it comes to web design.