87% of shoppers begin looking for a product with online searches. If your website isn’t coming up as an option when customers search for relevant products and services in your area, you are missing out on valuable sales. In marketing terms, we’re talking about search engine optimization or “SEO,” but really, it’s all about making sure search engines select your website in response to user inquiries.
The processes that search engines use to catalog the 1.47 billion web pages on the internet are complex and constantly evolving. By far, most people choose to use Google as their search engine of choice–nearly 92.5%. Because of this, most web developers closely follow the algorithms Google uses to create responses to user inquiries. While specifics continue to change, the one element we know for certain is that Google puts a significant emphasis on quality content in its ranking system. That means it’s critical for websites to have substantial and valuable written material to achieve SEO.
For the past several years, marketers have emphasized the importance of blogs on websites to achieve better SEO. Originally, website blogs resembled online journals with top-of-mind material, but today blogs represent catalogs of relevant information published regularly by businesses. When Google detects that website visitors are reading blog articles (as measured by how long a visitor spends on a particular website page), Google makes the assumption the material is relevant, engaging, and essential.
At the same time, the written material must be original, not a near duplication of another website’s article. Like college professors, Google is sophisticated enough to check articles against the internet to determine if the content is original. If not, it penalizes the website with a lower ranking.
But did you know that quality content also builds trust with your customers?
Potential buyers bring their business to companies they feel they can trust. In fact, trust is more critical in achieving sales than a flashy name, a low price, the most features, or even the highest quality. Trust relays to the customer the company stands behind their word, they are honest in their communications, and will be readily available to fix any issues that may arise. Without trust, your product will never enter the customer’s selection set.
Since more customers rely on websites to build knowledge and make buying decisions, this is critical to establish and build trust with them. Whether or not they realize it, visitors evaluate your business from the moment they arrive at your website. Specifically, buyers are looking for these elements as they establish the level of trust they have in a business: customer orientation, sales philosophy, industry expertise, likability, and dependability. Your website’s content should illuminate all of these factors.
How can you improve the content on your business’ website?
First of all, content must be relevant. Website visitors must find the illustrations, articles, and videos meaningful. It’s not difficult to create relevant content. Simply take a step back and:
- consider what questions people have in mind when they come to your website,
- determine what problems consumers have that you can solve, and
- think about what differentiates your business from the competition.
Addressing these types of questions will form a good list of topics to be covered by the content on your website.
Next, content should not over-promote sales on your website. That seems counterintuitive since websites are meant to promote businesses, right? The issue is that Internet search engines are programmed to rank quality content over sales-based content. As a result, it’s essential to lead with engaging, relevant, and informative content that builds trust first and then follow up with your call-to-action.
One of the most important factors in developing trust is consistency. When customers have the same experience online as they do in person, they begin to feel that they see the most authentic version of the business, and trust will grow. Websites should be an online extension of the company’s brand–which means using the same tone, phrasing, and branding themes businesses use in-person on their websites.
Does this mean you need to become a writer to have a well-performing website?
No. At Paradux Media Group, our content writing team will work with you to create one-time or ongoing written material to keep your website filled with fresh, interesting, and original content. We will research your industry and publish content intended to answer the questions people ask online. Your company’s suggestions are helpful to ensure we’re hitting the hot topics for your company, but you can sit back and let Paradux Media do all the hard work for you.
We’ve built our business on knowing how to develop well-performing websites. Our team of video production, graphic design, and content development professionals at Paradux Media can help you build and publish content that builds trust with your customers. All you have to do is contact us, and we’ll show you how easy it is to get started.
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