5 Things Your Website Must Have to Drive Sales Home: Content

Is Content King? Maybe. But good content can help you become that Go-To Resource for your customers.

Your customers need information to make the best, informed decision they can make about your product/service before making the decision to buy.
 
Information you can provide your customers depends on your business, but here's a list of some practical items of topics for home builders, Realtors, suppliers, retail sales, etc: 
 

Home Builders / Realtors

  • Property Details
  • Mortgage Information
  • Tax Credit Information
  • Energy Efficiency Credits for Appliances
  • Home Maintenance Tips
  • Area Information for Relocation People
  • Home Warranty Information - links to 3rd party vendors for warranty information (warranty insurance companies, etc)
  • Resources - Utilities, Schools, etc
  • How-to Guides/Videos

  • Selling Your Current Home to Buy Your Next One


Suppliers / Retailers

  • Products / Services
  • Glossary of Terms
  • Product Comparisons
  • Financing
  • Installer Lists
  • How-To Guides
  • Warranty Information
  • Store Locations - Driving Directions

  • Partners


Content Layout

If you have a lot of content, it's important that you present the information clearly. Be sure to use these tips to make your content easy-to-read and easy-to-follow.

  1. HTML Text: Keep the text in HTML - not embedded into graphics.
    Why? It's harder to read and it's harder to change. Changing content in a graphic or even in FLASH will cost you more to change and will keep you "married" to your designer.
     
  2. Content Segmentation: Categorize your content to make the information easy to find... quickly.
    Why? People want to get to where they are going quickly. We are beyond the microwave society.
     
  3. Sound: Refrain from adding automatic music and "site pals" and "virtual sales reps" if your website targets consumers.
    Why? The sound will "bust" them while they are looking at work. It is best to allow people to opt to hear the music or watch the video sales person.
     
  4. No reverse type - white text on a black (or dark background) is very hard to read... especially if you are dealing with anyone over 40.
     
  5. Larger Font - 10 pt Arial and Verdana or 12 pt Times Roman are three traditional fonts.
     
  6. Use Heading Tags - headings help break up the text on the page into nice, easy-to-read segments. Plus the search engines LOVE it!

Are there more guidelines to content and web design? Absolutely!

But if you aren't doing at least these basics, you probably aren't happy with your web results. Try them out and let us know what happens with your Google Analytics!

Haven't heard of Google Analytics? Click here to learn more about this wonderful, FREE website statistics program.

 

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