Creating a solid website content strategy is key to driving traffic, engaging your audience, and ultimately growing your online business. With the vast amount of content available on the web today, it’s essential to have a plan in place to ensure your website stands out from your competition.
In this blog, we’ll share five valuable tips to help you develop an effective website content strategy that resonates with your target audience. From defining your goals to creating content pillars, these tips will set you on the right path towards creating compelling and engaging content that drives results.
What is a website content strategy and why is it important?
A website content strategy is a plan that outlines the creation, publication, and management of content on your website. It involves defining your target audience, determining the type of content you want to create, setting goals for your content, and establishing a schedule for publishing.
It allows you to keep your messages on brand and develop an identity that engages with users, conveys your message, and ultimately turns clicks into conversions. Having a clear content strategy is also crucial for guiding your website’s direction and ensuring your content is aligned with your business objectives.
By investing time in developing a thoughtful website content strategy, you can ensure that your site effectively communicates your brand message, attracts and engages visitors and improves search engine rankings.
5 tips for creating a website content strategy
Now that you have a better understanding of what a website content strategy is and why they’re important for any online business, here are five tips for creating a strategy for your brand.
1. Define your goals and objectives
Before you start creating any kind of digital content strategy, you should start by defining your goals and objectives. It’s important to understand what you want from your content strategy before writing down any ideas or brainstorming unique content approaches.
Ask yourself the below questions:
- Are you looking to grow your online presence?
- Are you wanting to boost your SEO efforts?
- Do you want to market yourself as an industry expert?
- Do you want to create some guides so you can answer questions you’ve heard from your customers?
Whatever your goals are, it’s imperative that you set out realistic targets before planning out your digital content strategy. Be sure to take a look at your digital marketing KPIs to get an understanding on where your content needs to improve to help you define your objectives.
2. Understand your audience
Once you have your own goals set, you then need to understand your target audience’s goals. Your users will visit your website for a variety of reasons – for example, they could be searching for answers for a particular query, or they might be looking to complete a quick purchase with next day delivery.
Most businesses will understand the different demographics of their users that visit their site and what their goals are. If this is something you’re not sure about, you should conduct a full digital marketing audit or analyse key metrics in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to help you identify your audience, what devices they use, where they come from, and what they’re looking for. This kind of information can help you shape and develop your website content strategy.
3. Analyse the content you already have
Before you create any new content, you should analyse the content you already have. According to Semrush, developing old content can help you save time, money and effort, so it could work in your favour to check and see if you already have content you could repurpose.
You should also study the way you speak to your audience by examining important content such as your landing pages and your blog content. This information will help you understand what your tone of voice is and how you can shape any new content to match your brand. You can also use this information to see what isn’t working and take a new approach that differs from the existing system.
4. Create content pillars
Creating content pillars will help define the overarching themes or styles you will use to develop your website content strategy. For example, if you’re a builders’ merchant you may find you have content pillars dedicated to products (for e-commerce), customer education (with blogs and guides), and brand content (special events and news relating to your industry).
If you’re an established brand, you’ll more than likely only need 25% of your content relating to your brand. A more e-commerce-focused approach would use around 60% of your content on product descriptions that drive sales. By creating content pillars, it will help you to understand this breakdown. The pillars will also give you a clear direction of the tone and reason for different types of content you create and allow you to see where you need to put more focus on your content.
5. Brainstorm content ideas
Brainstorming sessions with your team can help generate fresh and innovative ideas that resonate with your audience. Content creation can come in the form of almost anything including quizzes, articles and blogs, interviews, videos, social media content, the list is endless! Whatever you create and publish, remember to keep your content relevant, valuable and engaging in order to drive traffic and conversions on your website.
Let us help with your website content strategy
As ever, content marketing is key to long term growth for any online business. If you find you need an expert helping hand with your website content strategy, get in touch with us today. We have a dedicated digital team that can provide a complete content audit that highlights your strengths and areas to improve, and then provide content suggestions relevant to your industry. Find out more about how we can help your brand today!